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Would Gamestop be in a better state if they respected customers?
- Thread starter fireflame
- Start date
I want your GameStops.
It's not that they just ask you to buy a protection plan. They ask you a whole list of various thing and try to talk you into it.
Do you have a PowerUp Card?
Do you want to upgrade it to Elite (or whatever that was called)?
You sure? You get this, this and this.
Do you want to renew?
Are you sure? Wait, let me look and see how much bonus money you'll get if you bump it up or renew.
**looks at watch**
Do you want to preorder any games?
You sure? So and so is releasing soon.
Well here's a release list. Take a look and see if anything interests you. You sure nothing catches your eye?
Would you like a protection plan?
You sure? If you break it we'll replace it!
The list goes on. It's ALWAYS like this at the GameStops in my area. I don't get mad at them since they're simply doing their job, but having to deny 10 things to finally get out the door is annoying. This isn't some entitled gamer thing.
I've had a bunch of shitty order experiences with Gamestop, but I'd never describe my personal experiences with the company as "disrespectful." Whenever there's a problem the people who work at my local stores always take care of it quickly and super politely.
My biggest problem with Gamestop is the inconsistent quality of their online orders. A few examples:
My local store didn't have any VITAs in stock. I wanted one of the slim VITAs, because the screens look similar enough and they can be charged with USB. Ordered one online, and I received a scratched-to-shit phat model. Fortunately when I went to my local store they'd had another slim system traded in since I ordered it online, and the dude very politely took care of the exchange in minutes. Constantly muttering about how shitty the other store's employee must have been, because he'd just made up a number instead of simply scanning its UPS code in, which would have been much easier.
On the other end of the scale, about 1/3 of every used game I order from Gamestop online comes in a crushed, flimsy Gamestop replacement case, with the disc laying scratched, half-way out of a sleeve, jammed roughly into the case. I've had a 100% success rate ordering used games from Amazon and Ebay, but at least 1/3 of every game I order used from Gamestop is unreadable in my systems. But the people at my local store are always very nice about fixing the order.
Basically I think Gamestop's problem isn't that they don't respect customers, it's that a small percentage of their employees don't respect Gamestop.
My biggest problem with Gamestop is the inconsistent quality of their online orders. A few examples:
My local store didn't have any VITAs in stock. I wanted one of the slim VITAs, because the screens look similar enough and they can be charged with USB. Ordered one online, and I received a scratched-to-shit phat model. Fortunately when I went to my local store they'd had another slim system traded in since I ordered it online, and the dude very politely took care of the exchange in minutes. Constantly muttering about how shitty the other store's employee must have been, because he'd just made up a number instead of simply scanning its UPS code in, which would have been much easier.
On the other end of the scale, about 1/3 of every used game I order from Gamestop online comes in a crushed, flimsy Gamestop replacement case, with the disc laying scratched, half-way out of a sleeve, jammed roughly into the case. I've had a 100% success rate ordering used games from Amazon and Ebay, but at least 1/3 of every game I order used from Gamestop is unreadable in my systems. But the people at my local store are always very nice about fixing the order.
Basically I think Gamestop's problem isn't that they don't respect customers, it's that a small percentage of their employees don't respect Gamestop.
Never had an issue going to gamestop. Employee's asking me if I want any membership or anything doesn't bother me that much. They are just doing their jobs. Same way if you go to a super market they ask you the same thing or any other retail store.
I don't know what to tell you. I've lived in six different states in various parts of the country and I never get the third degree like that. They ask for my phone number (which is on file with them), they ask if I want a protection plan, I go "no thanks", and that's about it.
The funny part is that I actually ASM'd a GameStop for a year when I lived in Boston ten or so years ago and I had the highest customer service marks in the district despite mostly reading the room and only asking customers who actually seemed interested in other games if they wanted to preorder shit. The way people in this thread are talking you'd think I would've been thrown into a volcano by my district manager because I didn't follow the script.
It's really weird to me too. Over the years I've gone to SO many GameStops and the one time someone got a bit pushy I told him "Nah, I only want the game, nothing else" and that was the end of it. 99% of my experiences at GameStop consist of "Hi, I want this game" and end about 30 seconds later with "Have a good day."
Maybe I've just got an apathetic, "I don't want your extended warranty or a pre-order for Borderlands 3" kind of face.
They're waiting for us to respect them first and not crash their site whenever there's a pricing error.
It's not happening.
They offered me $15 for Destiny 2 on release day that I got for my birthday, it was still wrapped and unopened. The same copy on their display was selling for $60 so yeah they're pretty shitty most of the time. Mind you, obviously they can't buy it from me for $60, but you're telling me that an unopened game, on release day suddenly looses almost all of it's value?
Maybe it's a district thing in Ohio? I have no idea. That whole list I just posted is the exact conversation I had a few weeks ago when I traded some old games in and preordered Link's Awakening. I was 100% friendly and just said no thanks to everything, but this kinda stuff makes me want to shop elsewhere, especially when I get a significantly better experience at Best Buy.
Funny thing is, one of the states I used to live in WAS Ohio, hah. I lived in the Columbus area and the GameStops I went to in Newark and Easton never hassled me. Maybe I was just so frequent a customer that they figured out pretty quickly that I either already knew what I wanted when I walked in the door or I was just gonna browse until I got bored.
It absolutely depends on the store.
I've posted here that as someone with social anxiety, I feel very uncomfortable at Gamestop and I've had multiple experiences where:
Yet, I've posted this here before and I've had people say they've had absolutely zero issues and in fact the employees are nice to them. I wish I had those kinds of experiences, but in the years I went to Gamestop, they were exceedingly rare.
I've posted here that as someone with social anxiety, I feel very uncomfortable at Gamestop and I've had multiple experiences where:
- The employees are just watching me the whole time
- I've been berated for not having a rewards card ("Are you kidding me? You obviously love games! How do you not have this yet!?")
- I played on a demo kiosk for 5-10 minutes and an employee said "You know if you go into a store you're supposed to buy something, right?"
Yet, I've posted this here before and I've had people say they've had absolutely zero issues and in fact the employees are nice to them. I wish I had those kinds of experiences, but in the years I went to Gamestop, they were exceedingly rare.
i never have had this issue. one guy i have known for 5 years now and seems excited when i pop in and we chat abiut the game i am trading in as well as the new one i am picking up. always have felt respected. sire they ask for insurance, i kindly say no, and they kindly finish the transaction. no different than when i buy a laptop
I buy mostly digital and what few physical games I do buy, I generally buy from Amazon. I had no idea that "video game insurance" was even a thing. Stopped in a EB Games to buy Pokemon LGE because it was right there while I was in the mall anyway and was actually confused when they asked. Involuntary laugh.
Clerk: Would you like to buy insurance?
Me: ...*laughs* what? Why?
Clerk: For the game.
Me: ...I'm good, thanks.
I mean they were just doing their job so I feel kinda bad for laughing, but what a ridiculous concept. What am I gonna do with a Switch game cart to require insurance, accidentally swallow it?
But as for "disrespecting" customers, they aren't doing that. Poor customer service isn't the problem. And no, it's not poor customer service when the employee is unfamiliar with your weird anime waifu game or only plays FIFA/Madden.
Clerk: Would you like to buy insurance?
Me: ...*laughs* what? Why?
Clerk: For the game.
Me: ...I'm good, thanks.
I mean they were just doing their job so I feel kinda bad for laughing, but what a ridiculous concept. What am I gonna do with a Switch game cart to require insurance, accidentally swallow it?
But as for "disrespecting" customers, they aren't doing that. Poor customer service isn't the problem. And no, it's not poor customer service when the employee is unfamiliar with your weird anime waifu game or only plays FIFA/Madden.
there is a follow up "are you sure? it's only $3" every time for employees. there's a script and everything. and that's just one of the things mandatory during every transaction. they also toyed with the idea of adding GPGs to the transaction first, and "explaining the value" to the customer when they eventually noticed.
honestly, from your description of your sales culture behavior, your DL probably would throw you into a volcano today. i don't see why you're riding so hard for a company that clearly doesn't respect its customers or employees.
I struggle to think of a worse retail store than GameStop.
I mean, sure, like check cashing places, pay day loans, exploitative used car dealerships, of course those are all worse. But when it comes to how customers are treated, how employees are treated, and their overall business model of buying used games from poor people at discount and then selling them for $5 beneath the retail price, I struggle to think of another major retail store that has a worse business model and has nothing redeemable about them.
That isn't to say that they didn't once serve a purpose, just like check cashing and pay day loan places serve a purpose, but I don't think there's anything redeemable about the stores. I think it's entirely appropriate that the corporate company is incapable of transitioning from their shitty business practices that worked 10 years ago and aren't working anymore.
Maybe like GNC or those national snake oil health supplement chains are worse because they could actually make people sick, but I've never shopped at them so I don't have first hand experience.
I liked my Gamestop when I would shop there, I stopped because I'm all digital though. My 14 year old son still gets gift cards from there though so he rides his bike to the store and buys stuff
Last game I ever bought there was Ocarina of Time 3d on launch day where the manager lied to me saying the only copies they had were pre orders and I should've pre ordered.
As I turned to go across the street to Wal-Mart, he suddenly found one and continued to teach me a lesson about pre ordering with him in the future.
I knew that was my last time in an environment like that.
As I turned to go across the street to Wal-Mart, he suddenly found one and continued to teach me a lesson about pre ordering with him in the future.
I knew that was my last time in an environment like that.
Gamestop would be in a better position if they didn't:
I honestly think real estate is what's truly bringing them down though. They have something like 5,000 stores world wide, and in the US, sometimes they have multiple stores that have overlapping customer bases. Our town is ~60K people and at one point we had three Gamestop stores, plus one 20 minutes outside of town. They also have tons of stores in Malls, and malls are INSANELY expensive for real estate.
They've just made a lot of missteps, and the customer "harassment" (it's not quite that, but people don't like it), in addition to the explosion of digital markets, has only added to their struggles.
- Sink enormous capital into awful throw away garbage
- Sold used games at a respectable price
- Didn't hound customers for Pre-orders
- Didn't aggressively push memberships / warranties
- Didn't sell opened display copies as "new"
- Didn't have so many damn stores within short distances of each other
I honestly think real estate is what's truly bringing them down though. They have something like 5,000 stores world wide, and in the US, sometimes they have multiple stores that have overlapping customer bases. Our town is ~60K people and at one point we had three Gamestop stores, plus one 20 minutes outside of town. They also have tons of stores in Malls, and malls are INSANELY expensive for real estate.
They've just made a lot of missteps, and the customer "harassment" (it's not quite that, but people don't like it), in addition to the explosion of digital markets, has only added to their struggles.
I'm not riding hard, I'm just saying that when I worked there I was TAUGHT the script and then disregarded it 99.9% of the time, including when the district manager was in the store, but still got commended by corporate.
And despite having not worked for the company in a decade, I just never get hassled by employees. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm just so quick to shut people down that they don't bother following up with any extra questions, I don't know. I just don't see this typhoon of hassling that people constantly talk about.
Thread title is peak resetera. No, it has nothing to do with policy.
GS needs to transition to be a tabletop chain.
GS needs to transition to be a tabletop chain.
Do you exclusively visit gamestops on Call of Duty launch days? At any given time there's only 3-4 people on average in a gamestop.
The EB's here in Ontario (owned by Gamestop) that i've been to have all had okay staff experiences - though one did have a guy who was blatantly running through the motions of what corporate wanted him to ask, he was almost deadpan about it.
No, my issue is the prices and lack of games that aren't huge name franchises. seeing a wall lined with 30 copies of whatever year of FIFA and Madden doesn't make me want to look further. I'd prefer to go to the smaller retro/used stores here and get as good an experience with the staff if not better and be able to find games from any generation at good prices. Mind you finding old pc titles from pre-digital distribution is nigh on impossible anywhere and EB only carrier Blizzard and EA titles now in a small corner rack. If EB still carried what were considered retro titles and less tshirts, funko, and all the non-game stuff id be more interested in shopping there
Of course dealing with digital isn't going to be easy. Once games became codes in a box and that caught on, theyd need to convince publishers and us the players to keep going back
No, my issue is the prices and lack of games that aren't huge name franchises. seeing a wall lined with 30 copies of whatever year of FIFA and Madden doesn't make me want to look further. I'd prefer to go to the smaller retro/used stores here and get as good an experience with the staff if not better and be able to find games from any generation at good prices. Mind you finding old pc titles from pre-digital distribution is nigh on impossible anywhere and EB only carrier Blizzard and EA titles now in a small corner rack. If EB still carried what were considered retro titles and less tshirts, funko, and all the non-game stuff id be more interested in shopping there
Of course dealing with digital isn't going to be easy. Once games became codes in a box and that caught on, theyd need to convince publishers and us the players to keep going back
Again, used means played not opened.
I dont think many retail places "respect" its customers. Some places just hide their shilling better.
A lot of these problems would be fixed by having better upper management. The staff of every store suffers with minimal payroll to do their jobs, even during the busiest seasons. CEOs walk off with gigantic bonuses and bounce before trouble, all while store employees clean up the mess face-to-face. Combine this with the forceful and aggressive selling tactics leads to a disdain for the store itself. A bad taste left in the mouth for everyone involved.
I worked for the company for 7+ years and saw so much swept under the rug that would have directly helped the staff and overall the stores themselves, but directives from the top always prevented the bettering of the environment as a whole. Everything was left up to out-of-touch Business Majors and marketing budgets. HR was worthless, even when reporting harassment and abuse (obviously far from isolated). The entire structure of how Gamestop works is flawed, if that isn't clear at this point. The company has been on the path to failure for a long time.
I worked for the company for 7+ years and saw so much swept under the rug that would have directly helped the staff and overall the stores themselves, but directives from the top always prevented the bettering of the environment as a whole. Everything was left up to out-of-touch Business Majors and marketing budgets. HR was worthless, even when reporting harassment and abuse (obviously far from isolated). The entire structure of how Gamestop works is flawed, if that isn't clear at this point. The company has been on the path to failure for a long time.
The thing with the game insurance and shitty practices like that, it's not *just* that they're annoying you with annoying stupid questions and that some clerks are more annoying than others, it's that some people get conned into buying the game insurance, and the people who are conned into buying it are the people these stores are taking advantage of.
Like, nobody wants to have a GameStop clerk give them a hard time for not buying game insurance... "Are you sure?" "It's only $3." "It protects you against ... scratches ..." Or whatever they say, and of course it's annoying when some clerk rolls his/her eyes at you because you're not buying the game insurance, or pre-ordering some other stupid shit, or whatever. Sure, that's annoying, but whatver, it's not that big a deal. But, what's bad about the game insurance con is that some people are successfully conned by it and they're just giving away money for nothing, and along with underpaying poor people for used games that's GameStop's business model. When your business model is conning people to spend more money for something than the "manufacturers suggested retail price," That's a shitty model that deserves criticism.
Like, nobody wants to have a GameStop clerk give them a hard time for not buying game insurance... "Are you sure?" "It's only $3." "It protects you against ... scratches ..." Or whatever they say, and of course it's annoying when some clerk rolls his/her eyes at you because you're not buying the game insurance, or pre-ordering some other stupid shit, or whatever. Sure, that's annoying, but whatver, it's not that big a deal. But, what's bad about the game insurance con is that some people are successfully conned by it and they're just giving away money for nothing, and along with underpaying poor people for used games that's GameStop's business model. When your business model is conning people to spend more money for something than the "manufacturers suggested retail price," That's a shitty model that deserves criticism.
It was a hit and miss for me depending on the store. Some I return often knew me and actually told me of upcoming games they know I would be interested in, not for pre-order, just general talking about the game which indeed made me pre-order more than them telling me to do so. In other (which I never again visited cause of it) I was buying Phoenix Wright and they try to get me to pre-order 3 kids game for some odd reason, to the point I had to tell them to piss off as I felt I was being insulted at that point (nothing wrong with Kids game by the way, it was just the way they push them to me and 3 different types at that).
I do believe costumer service could had been way better, which would indeed make people return. You don't have an exclusive product that can't be found anywhere after all, so to do better it has all to with service.
I do believe costumer service could had been way better, which would indeed make people return. You don't have an exclusive product that can't be found anywhere after all, so to do better it has all to with service.
The stores are tacky and filled with sub-Hot Topic plastic crap, used games are often in poor or actively gross condition, and employees are bored. I avoid shopping there.
The primary issue is an increase in digital sales.
GameStops suffers greatly from this:
1) Digital copies take away from retail sales (duh)
2) Less retail copies sold is also a decrease in the potential trade-ins. Do not forget that GameStop's revenue was primarily driven by pre-owned copies. The worse 1 is, the worse 2 becomes.
Consider how impactful this is to cash flow.
On top of that, you have to factor in:
3) Fixed costs. Having stores means paying for them. That also goes for the very people inside of them. Salaries need to be payed.
I think GameStop Corp. needs to realize that going digital is the only possibility they have left. This isn't some doomsday prophecy. The time for retailing in that market is over. They're value proposal is ridiculous. As if some nerd is going to make me want to pay 20-40 % more for a game. They're products don't need a store. Betting on a "culture of gaming" or some social initiative is all fun and games, but nobody is going to go hang out in GameStop, when they can go home and play their games.
I have worked the floor at GameStop in 2014. There's a couple of loners that enter the shop, and they're nice and all, but they didn't exactly keep the business running.
The problem isn't "bad service", albeit that can definitely drive away customers.
The problem is bad management; top-level management is out of their minds and stubborn to no point, whilst low-level management doesn't know how to communicate effectively with their employees, ultimately controlling them through desperate measurement methods making the whole ordeal unfair and unpleasent.
Don't get me started on their strategy to overhaul the business to what it is today... That anyone thought that was a neat idea is beyond me.
GameStops suffers greatly from this:
1) Digital copies take away from retail sales (duh)
2) Less retail copies sold is also a decrease in the potential trade-ins. Do not forget that GameStop's revenue was primarily driven by pre-owned copies. The worse 1 is, the worse 2 becomes.
Consider how impactful this is to cash flow.
On top of that, you have to factor in:
3) Fixed costs. Having stores means paying for them. That also goes for the very people inside of them. Salaries need to be payed.
I think GameStop Corp. needs to realize that going digital is the only possibility they have left. This isn't some doomsday prophecy. The time for retailing in that market is over. They're value proposal is ridiculous. As if some nerd is going to make me want to pay 20-40 % more for a game. They're products don't need a store. Betting on a "culture of gaming" or some social initiative is all fun and games, but nobody is going to go hang out in GameStop, when they can go home and play their games.
I have worked the floor at GameStop in 2014. There's a couple of loners that enter the shop, and they're nice and all, but they didn't exactly keep the business running.
The problem isn't "bad service", albeit that can definitely drive away customers.
The problem is bad management; top-level management is out of their minds and stubborn to no point, whilst low-level management doesn't know how to communicate effectively with their employees, ultimately controlling them through desperate measurement methods making the whole ordeal unfair and unpleasent.
Don't get me started on their strategy to overhaul the business to what it is today... That anyone thought that was a neat idea is beyond me.
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I don't go to Gamestop (well, EBGames here in Canada) all that often but I've never had a bad experience, really. I politely decline whatever stuff they are trying to push and then that part of the interaction is over. I don't even care about gutted copies anymore because the opened/unopened distinction doesn't hold any value for me now that 1) blu-rays are very resilient and 2) all games install to a drive anyway so the disc much less important. The resale value remains the same, so what do I care?
My only complaint is how long transactions tend to take. I'm buying one thing, why is the process taking more than 30 seconds?
My only complaint is how long transactions tend to take. I'm buying one thing, why is the process taking more than 30 seconds?
Well, I don't know how well EBGames is doing in Canada, but I don't think anything could've stopped them getting slammed by people shifting to digital. The most obvious evidence was with WoW. When Burning Crusade came out there were 300+ people lined up at 6AM at the store in the middle of a Canadian winter. When the second expansion came out I walked in and grabbed a copy with no line, because everyone else got it digitally.
The EB in my hometown always had great people and I enjoyed going there and talking with them. They had a dude there who I'm pretty sure played literally every PS2 game in existence and he gave honest opinions on them to people who'd normally just buy random shovelware for their grandkids. They knew I only wanted games in complete condition and I never got the warranties so they didn't hassle me about it.
I liked going there, but getting places in Northern Ontario can be a real hassle and buying games online was easier and cheaper due to preorder discounts. Nowadays games are so expensive that buying anything at full retail with sales tax is crazy. I don't really buy used games anymore but every time I go to an EB I search through their used PS4 section and leave disappointed. Nothing like the PS2 era when I could walk away with a handful of decent budget or older titles for under 10-20 bucks each.
I won't say I was never bothered by them gutting new copies of games or pushing Game Informer on people but it wasn't at all why I stopped going there. There were just cheaper places to get games for a while, that also happened to be far more convenient. But even now that Canadian E3 preorder deals have gone to shit and games cost $80 plus taxes it's not like I suddenly started going back there. I just buy less games. Or I buy them on PSN which has no tax, or on PC where I can get steep discounts.
The EB in my hometown always had great people and I enjoyed going there and talking with them. They had a dude there who I'm pretty sure played literally every PS2 game in existence and he gave honest opinions on them to people who'd normally just buy random shovelware for their grandkids. They knew I only wanted games in complete condition and I never got the warranties so they didn't hassle me about it.
I liked going there, but getting places in Northern Ontario can be a real hassle and buying games online was easier and cheaper due to preorder discounts. Nowadays games are so expensive that buying anything at full retail with sales tax is crazy. I don't really buy used games anymore but every time I go to an EB I search through their used PS4 section and leave disappointed. Nothing like the PS2 era when I could walk away with a handful of decent budget or older titles for under 10-20 bucks each.
I won't say I was never bothered by them gutting new copies of games or pushing Game Informer on people but it wasn't at all why I stopped going there. There were just cheaper places to get games for a while, that also happened to be far more convenient. But even now that Canadian E3 preorder deals have gone to shit and games cost $80 plus taxes it's not like I suddenly started going back there. I just buy less games. Or I buy them on PSN which has no tax, or on PC where I can get steep discounts.
GameStop also can't go digital. It was just a couple years ago that their website and their stores were treated as two different companies for customers. It's probably still that case. They're not just stuck in the past, they're like 10 or 15 years in the past. They don't have enough cash to become a digital-first company. They barely have enough cash on hand to pay a liquidation company to take over their failing stores.
They should just transition to selling CBD, cashing checks, and giving Pay Day loans. They're only a couple steps removed from that as it is.
In my case, I was sold New Super Mario Bros for 3DS when the 3DS XL came out, for full retail price (whatever it was then), and when I plugged the game into the 3DS, it had someone else's save file on it.
I'd consider that used.
They should just transition to selling CBD, cashing checks, and giving Pay Day loans. They're only a couple steps removed from that as it is.
In my case, I was sold New Super Mario Bros for 3DS when the 3DS XL came out, for full retail price (whatever it was then), and when I plugged the game into the 3DS, it had someone else's save file on it.
I'd consider that used.
GS understood that their main customers were folks who had limited income and accessibility. Accessibility is important in the old B&M world because their primary customers did not have easy access to transportation. So having lots of stores in highly populated areas was imperative. Their customers were also underbanked and would often be forced to trade in their old games to afford new releases. They relied on the used game business to help them grow exponentially. It also helped that there were virtually no competitors (EBGames and GameCrazy were good or great but lacked the footprint). Last gen things changed with the introduction of online digital stores and digital currency. Also, bigger retailers (BestBuy and Amazon) took notice and began to actively target the used game market. In conjunction with the shift to digital, accessibility increased significantly as online stores/forums/eBay/craigslist made it easier to buy and trade games.
At the start of this gen you have BestBuy, Walmart, Amazon and eBay as competitors to GS in the used market. BB and Amazon also offered discounts on new games which stole market share/foot traffic from GS. Additionally the rapid drop in new game prices disrupted the used game market, making it more difficult to turn a profit. So between the rise of digital (no used games), more competition and games seeing discounts within weeks of release their old business model is no longer viable. IMO, there is nothing that GS can do to return its business to its glory days (in a financial sense) but they can continue as a much smaller speciality boutique catering to avid gamers as you mentioned but this version of GS is very different.
yes, they are so so stupid with their endless harassment about pre-orders or warranties or charity donations. they are relentless, even when you call them they have 40 second spiel greeting about pre ordering and buying used games. It is just such an ancient and shitty sales practice.
Yeah I've been saying for years that if they made the store not a pain in the dick to go to, or even enjoyable, they'd be in better shape.
Buying a game at Target or Best Buy is better simply by dint of getting hassled for 2w things at the register instead of 4.
Buying a game at Target or Best Buy is better simply by dint of getting hassled for 2w things at the register instead of 4.
Was GameStop the 'biggest videogame store' in the world? Legitimately asking.
Before the rise of digital and online retailers, I would have assumed that WalMart would have far outsold GameStop, and since the rise of digital and online retailers, I'd assume that Steam, Xbox, PSN, Best Buy, Amazon, and WalMart all do more videogame revenue than GameStop.
Unless we mean 'exclusive' videogame store (e.g., not selling anything else). GameStop got that way by merging with Electronics Boutique (EB Games), which had bought Software Etc from Daltons, which merged with Babbages. GameStop didn't become "the one videogame store to buy them all" because of good service or being the best to market, or something, but because their parent company -- Barnes & Noble -- had the money in the 2000s to buy Funco/FuncoLand, rebrand it as GameStop, and buy/acquire/merge Software Etc, Babbages, Electronics Boutique, etc.
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I know I would still shop there now and then if I hadn't been treated so poorly. I understand that some people have good Gamestops with decent employees, but that's not everyone's experience. I've caught Gamestop employees lying to me and witnessed them lying to less informed customers in order to get a pre-order.
Getting hassled over time was enough to never want to go back, but the real deal breaker for me was trying to get a new game and seeing the guy put a disc from a sleeve in to a case and try and sell it to me at full price. Never went back after that. I don't care if it was never used. You break the seal, it's a used product. If it can work that way when you try and return something, the same goes for me.
Edit: so the answer is yes. They'd be in a healthier position if they treated their customers better and weren't okay with shady shit (like selling something used as new).
Edit: so the answer is yes. They'd be in a healthier position if they treated their customers better and weren't okay with shady shit (like selling something used as new).
This is interesting. I'm assuming you're female? Any other women feel similarly?
I know my wife hates going in there, but mainly because it's hard to get help if the clerk is talking games with someone.
Anecdotally, my more pleasant GameStop experiences have been when there's a female employee running the store. I'm male, but in my personal experience they've seemed more polite and not as awkward. In general just more relaxed and at ease.
I feel like the employees are fine to me. I do get asked if I'm looking for anything but that's common courtesy to me since it's their job, plus it's awkward if they don't acknowledge me since the store is not large. Otherwise they ask about my membership when it's about to expire but other than that they don't push anything on me. I really hope mine doesn't close.
Yep. IIRC, it still has a bigger marketshare in the US then even Walmart.
Honestly, I used to go to Gamestop/Funcoland a lot when I was younger and the staff was decent. Over the last 15 years or so, I've ONLY had not great to downright awful experiences with the various GameStops around me and I'd never go back or buy online from them again. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I bought a new PSVR from them online, only to find that it had been opened and rifled through before they boxed it up and shipped it to me. Complaints led to nothing because they still considered it "new" even though all the seals were broken and it was obviously fiddled around with. I gave up because it worked and it was out of stock everywhere around me at the time.
TL;DR: I believe they would be in a better state because I personally won't shop with them anymore because I've been treated like crap too many times by them both online and by employees at multiple stores. I can't be the only person that feels this way.
The only upside to GameStop for me at this point is I first met my wife when she was employed at my local store...
TL;DR: I believe they would be in a better state because I personally won't shop with them anymore because I've been treated like crap too many times by them both online and by employees at multiple stores. I can't be the only person that feels this way.
The only upside to GameStop for me at this point is I first met my wife when she was employed at my local store...
I just went into my local GS yesterday to trade in some Switch games and the employee couldn't have been nicer and more helpful.
I also got a really good return on my trade-ins due to some promos.
I get why people dislike GS but I also think that hate gets a bit overblown.
I also got a really good return on my trade-ins due to some promos.
I get why people dislike GS but I also think that hate gets a bit overblown.
I never had a problem with GS employees, they've been always nice. That said though I barely go to their stores since they charge more for some games than the store right across the street of them.
No it doesn't. Hence why they're struggling now. These complaints are what separate them from the other means of buying games.