Topic: EDITORIALS: At GameStop, Freedom Has a Price

[greybrick]

My Babbage's used to sell awesome action figures... they're not dolls!

[Kytim89]

A few years back I went into a gamestop and bought a used copy of StarFox Command. There was a seven day return policy on the game and I ended up bringing it back after two days. I went into the store and returned the game and the cashier claimed that I bought the game new and that I could not return the game. He then went on to give me a lecture about how when you buy a new game, take it out of the package and play it becomes used. I told him that I bought the game used and the reciept said so. He ended up giving me my money back in store credit because I was a minor at the time. I bought a new copy of New Super Mario Brothers DS and since that time, I have never went back to that gamestop.
 
I actually drive about six miles to a gamestop store where I am treated with respect. Although this particular store does not give out pre-order bonises when they are available, the service is pretty good. I actually pre-ordered MH3 with the controller bundle. If I do not recieve my 500 Nintendo points, I am going to raise hell with the manager.

[ShyGuy]

Lindy should have knocked over a magazine rack. Remember when Amazon tried to stiff him? Good times.

[Stratos]

Best Buy was a not a good example to use there, Lindy. Go to any consumer warning type site like Consumerist and everyone bashes Best Buy worse than we all bash Gamestop.

[MegaByte]

Indeed.  The only place I avoid more than GameStop is Best Buy.  I have my own set of horror stories regarding that place.

[that Baby guy]

Best Buy was a not a good example to use there, Lindy. Go to any consumer warning type site like Consumerist and everyone bashes Best Buy worse than we all bash Gamestop.

Indeed.  The only place I avoid more than GameStop is Best Buy.  I have my own set of horror stories regarding that place.

The sad thing?  At least with Best Buy, you can walk in, grab the game you want, say "No Thank You" to the warranty plan they offer, pay for the game, and leave.  Best Buy actually orders large volumes of their games, and a few copies of obscure games, so there's no "We only have enough for the people who preordered it." stuff going on with things like Halo 3 or Brawl.  So yeah, even though everyone hates Best Buy, I've found they're leagues ahead of my personal experiences with nearly every GameStop I've been to.

[MegaByte]

If I need a large-volume game immediately, I'll just go to Target where I don't have to put up with any of that crap.  Or, I know it's not an option for most people, but I can go to Fry's and get the game at a discount, even new.  If I need an obscure game, I'll use Amazon or eBay (I've never been able to find any obscure games at Best Buy).

One example regarding Best Buy: My roommate tried to get a laptop during a Black Friday sale.  After waiting for hours in line, they try to give him a laptop with a bunch of extra software he didn't want preloaded.  And he would have to pay for all of it.  The alternative was to wait for several more hours for them to uninstall it.  On top of that, the return policy wasn't standard because they had opened the computer to install the software.  Bait-and-switch bullshit.

[Halbred]

I've had problems with Best Buy too, mostly in regards to sales and getting games in on time. I actually don't like Target at all. They have an extremely limited selection (at least, mine does), worse than Wal-Mart, and the stuff I actually go there in search of is never, and I mean NEVER on sale for more than like $5 off.

[Bboy]

All three Gamestops in my area tried to gave me this crap, but I happened to be going to trade in some games anyway, and just took a demo while the guy wasn't looking, so problem solved. I've never had any personal problems with Gamestop before this, but I've found a lot of it depends on the employee you get, sometimes you get someone that seems like they probably troll IGN in their free time, sometimes you get genuinely nice people, it just depends.

[Stratos]

If I need a large-volume game immediately, I'll just go to Target where I don't have to put up with any of that crap.  Or, I know it's not an option for most people, but I can go to Fry's and get the game at a discount, even new.  If I need an obscure game, I'll use Amazon or eBay (I've never been able to find any obscure games at Best Buy).

One example regarding Best Buy: My roommate tried to get a laptop during a Black Friday sale.  After waiting for hours in line, they try to give him a laptop with a bunch of extra software he didn't want preloaded.  And he would have to pay for all of it.  The alternative was to wait for several more hours for them to uninstall it.  On top of that, the return policy wasn't standard because they had opened the computer to install the software.  Bait-and-switch bullshit.

That's a fairly common occurrence, Megabyte. I've read a number of articles regarding those 'optimized' units. The open a large number of them and 'optimize' them and so you can only buy the opened ones at the higher price. It's quite sad really. They charge you $40 to install anti-virus software, delete the icons for pre-installed stuff (they don't uninstall the trial-ware either), run windows update and a few other things. It's not even consistent what they do to the systems. Some have reportedly been turned on and discovered to have been shut off part way through the windows update process. The kicker? Independent performance tests show that a majority of these 'optimized' computers, who are marketed at increasing performance and speed by 200%, run at the same speed or in some cases slower than the factory sealed models! It's a sham.

[MegaByte]

I've had problems with Best Buy too, mostly in regards to sales and getting games in on time. I actually don't like Target at all. They have an extremely limited selection (at least, mine does), worse than Wal-Mart, and the stuff I actually go there in search of is never, and I mean NEVER on sale for more than like $5 off.

Yeah, I'm a CAG, so I very rarely actually go to Target, I was just saying if you're going to pay full price, it's an option where they don't treat you like ****.  I buy the large majority of my games online, where better deals are usually found.

[NWR_Lindy]

The demo disc is free, period.  If you pre-order you get 500 free Wii points.

I'm going to be writing up my impressions of the demo over the next day or so.

[Ian Sane]

If Nintendos "DEMO" service was worth any thing or at least somewhat mirrored PS3/XBOX 360's service, would Lindy ever had to go into Gamestop?? We can only wonder

Good point.  I actually didn't know about the free demo until now and at first thought "why are they giving a disc away?"  There really is no good reason why we can't download this.  I wasn't interested in this but with a demo I'm thinking of trying it out.  But I don't want to go to Gamestop just for that.  So, yeah, see the problem here, Nintendo?  If I could download it I could just get the demo on a whim, but here you're asking me to jump through hoops to try a demo I'm not that interested in.  I think having something in the store is a good idea since it'll get in the hands of people just walking by.  But it shouldn't be the only option.
 
Gamestop does occasionally press me for strategy guides and pre-ordering and ****.  I don't mind them asking once.  It's when I say "naw, that's fine.  I'll just check out Gamefaqs if I need help." and then they go all "well who has their PC near their TV" as if walking to the PC and back is worth $20 for a guide.  My response is that I DO have my PC near my TV.  Same with pre-ordering.  "If you guys don't have it I'll just go to Best Buy where they'll have a million copies or Willow Video (local chain, kills Gamestop in every category, they HATE when I mention them)".  Stating the little bullshit is company policy so I get it.  It's the hounding after I tell them "no" that drives me nuts.  When the McDonald's cashier asks me if I want to supersize and I say "no thanks" they don't say "are you sure?  Because you get SO much more fries and pop if you do."  They just complete the order.  I understand that they have to push this company BS and they understand I can say "**** no" and that's the end of it.
 
What really blows my mind is that Gamestop gets away at all with this crap.  I understand the used sales since there isn't much variety.  But new games are sold EVERYWHERE and you don't get this pre-order hounding stuff.  Why do dumb jackasses put up with this **** if Wal-Mart or Best Buy is right there and will have the game?  I get it for like an Atlus game but like Mario?  Why?  For those customers it's like the bit on the Simpsons where Apu thinks to himself "If he discovers the discount supermarket next door, all is lost."
 
I agree with whoever said that there shouldn't be good and bad Gamestops because with most big chains the bad stores are rare.  With chain stores it's like I encounter hardly any bad stores ever or I frequently encounter them and the whole chain has this negative stigma like Gamestop has.  If I was the head of Gamestop and I knew that my store has the image it has I would FREAK... unless the bad stores are doing what I want them to do.

[MegaByte]

I bet Capcom could have put out a demo as a Free item in the Wii Shop.  But it would have been way too big for the Wii's memory.

[Olimar77]

I had the same issue at my local Gamestop (Moreland Ave. in Atlanta). They insisted that I had to pre-order so I left the $90 worth of merchandise I had on the counter, left the store, and walked over to Best Buy. I was tempted to go in yesterday to pick up The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, but decided to order from Amazon. As far as buying and selling used games, my experience with Glyde has been positive. In any case, I look forward to hearing your impressions of the demo, Jon--I want to get hyped for this game again.

[Halbred]

You know, I hear people say nice things about Goozex, but I don't know what it is.

[greybrick]

Goozex is a points based trading system, and games are valued in points based mostly on supply and demand with 1000 points being the maximum points a game can cost. If you send someone a game, your account is credited with these points and you can use them to request games from others. So, right now Twilight Princess is worth 600 points. Keeping in mind this is a game I bought quite some time ago and have played twice through already, I may want to trade it in. This 600 points will probably be used to get myself Brutal Legend for the 360 and Daxter for my PSP. I am also tempted to get MadWorld, New Play Control Pikmin, and Daxter...

Overall Goozex is great, because games are valued based off of how much demand their is, so your old games don't always lose value as quickly as you might think.

[Kytim89]

Funcoland is what turned into Gamestop. I remember those days.

Actually, GameStop ate all of the other game retailers: Funcoland, Babbage's, Software Etc., EB Games, Rhino Video Games (and several other international retailers).  Those other stores used to be a lot more interesting before GameStop took over the entire market.

It would seem that this would violate anti-trust laws because Gamestop has a monopoly on selling games. Or would Wal-mart and Target be competitors to gamestop.

[Stratos]

Funcoland is what turned into Gamestop. I remember those days.

Actually, GameStop ate all of the other game retailers: Funcoland, Babbage's, Software Etc., EB Games, Rhino Video Games (and several other international retailers).  Those other stores used to be a lot more interesting before GameStop took over the entire market.

It would seem that this would violate anti-trust laws because Gamestop has a monopoly on selling games. Or would Wal-mart and Target be competitors to gamestop.

Don't forget Game Crazy. Game Crazy is the closest thing in the States to a direct competitor for Game Stop. Unfortunately they are starting to follow similar practices to GS from what I hear.

[Kytim89]

Here in Louisville, KY we have a second hand game store called Bokk and Music Exchange.

[UncleBob]

Funcoland is what turned into Gamestop. I remember those days.

Actually, GameStop ate all of the other game retailers: Funcoland, Babbage's, Software Etc., EB Games, Rhino Video Games (and several other international retailers).  Those other stores used to be a lot more interesting before GameStop took over the entire market.

It would seem that this would violate anti-trust laws because Gamestop has a monopoly on selling games. Or would Wal-mart and Target be competitors to gamestop.

I think, all things considered, Walmart has like 35% of all new game/hardware sales.  I seem to remember reading that a few years ago when GameStop was buying EBGames.

Here in Louisville, KY we have a second hand game store called Bokk and Music Exchange.

I don't know about Bokk and Music Exchange, but there's two Book and Music Exchange stores in Evansville, IN.  Great places, but they tend to overprice their crap.  Love their tent sales though.

[Kytim89]

Funcoland is what turned into Gamestop. I remember those days.

Actually, GameStop ate all of the other game retailers: Funcoland, Babbage's, Software Etc., EB Games, Rhino Video Games (and several other international retailers).  Those other stores used to be a lot more interesting before GameStop took over the entire market.

It would seem that this would violate anti-trust laws because Gamestop has a monopoly on selling games. Or would Wal-mart and Target be competitors to gamestop.

I think, all things considered, Walmart has like 35% of all new game/hardware sales.  I seem to remember reading that a few years ago when GameStop was buying EBGames.

Here in Louisville, KY we have a second hand game store called Bokk and Music Exchange.

I don't know about Bokk and Music Exchange, but there's two Book and Music Exchange stores in Evansville, IN.  Great places, but they tend to overprice their crap.  Love their tent sales though.

That was a typo. I meant to say book but I messed up. There are three in Louisville, one in New Albany, Indiana and the two in Evansville, IN. I have only been to the ones in Louisville and yes they are over priced and possibly worse than gamestop.

[BeautifulShy]

Well I haven't picked up the demo yet so I can't comment on this situation from first hand experiance but if you got the demo without any hassles or if you did have some problems check out this link.

http://Http://nintendogal.com/2010/03/16/dubious-gamestop-practices-or-monster-hunter-mix-up/

In the comments section post the store and address of it and the phone number of the store and if you had a problem or not with that piticular store.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Well I haven't picked up the demo yet so I can't comment on this situation from first hand experiance but if you got the demo without any hassles or if you did have some problems check out this link.

Http://nintendogal.com/2010/03/16/dubious-gamestop-practices-or-monster-hunter-mix-up/

In the comments section post the store and address of it and the phone number of the store and if you had a problem or not with that piticular store.

already linked in the OP

  However, according to an informal poll taken by NintendoGal, this "mistake" is happening at Gamestops all over the country.

[Stratos]

Figures the GS I used to frequent is on the list of DENIED. They've lied to me before about stuff. And been snarky about pre-ordering. I'll try the one in Edgewood tomorrow since they are giving it out for free.