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Denver, 11:42 PM
Sun Nov 22
16 posts in the last 24 hours
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04/11/09
Two, Feds will slap wrist of Gamestop (someone will resign with golden chute) with fine, and class action suit will result in settling for "vouchers" toward purchase of used or (hehe) New titles (at retail price, ofcourse).
Three, idiot gamers (flame away) will continue to give their "undervalued" games to Gamestop for ridiculous trade-ins at a loss.
Gamestop wins. Economy sucks. You have a job?
04/10/09
We tried reproduced covers in Funco YEARS ago ... didn't work ... Gamestop tried a few years back ... didn't work.
Listen, if you go into a GS and you don't like the condition of the game they hand to you, just don't buy it.
There are tons of examples of retail situations where things aren't 100% untouched by man. Shoes have been tried on before, cars have been driven, magazines and books have been looked through -- I can go on and on.
People are also confusing the difference between gutting games to put display boxes out (legal) and selling games played by employees as new (murky legality).
As always, you have the option to shop anywhere you want, plenty of places sell games now -- Amazon, FYE, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, hell, even my 7-11 has them now.
Read through these threads - they are whiny as hell, like GS is some ultimate evil. Gaming would not be as huge as it is now if it weren't for companies like that -- having a dedicated game story is the ONLY way the hardcore game culture will survive.
If you don't like a policy, fine, send GS feedback, but the level of hysterical griping in here further perpetuates a gamer stereotype that I'm sick of ...
Oh, and another thing, it's the frelling Internet! You're already online! Educate your damn ass before you post ... it isn't hard!
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04/10/09
Look, if I say, "no thanks--I don't want the game cuz it's not new, its opened," don't give me that line of bullshit saying otherwise.
04/10/09
04/10/09
Yep...Funcoland was a subsidiary of Gamestop...in fact, if I remember correctly, it was when Gamestop purchased the Funcoland chain that they also got Game Informer magazine, which was a Funco publication up till that point. I was a Gamestop manager for years and years until I literally couldn't take harassing customers for pre-orders and beating up my own employees for not getting all of their precious "numbers" of pre-orders and magazine subscriptions.
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04/10/09
I know of many people who have worked there and I have seen the employee handbook myself and everything they are being blamed for is the 100% absolute truth so help me god. (if you believe in that sort of being). It's just like the employee's in the Memphis TN area who where arrested for taking stolen merchandise as trade.
I have seen emails (of which I may still have copies of including names of a RVP over the southest area from District manager and Regional managers saying "do not refuse trades from anyone w/o a district manager approval. So trust me when I say this isn't the only thing they do that has raised legal questions.
04/10/09
04/10/09
Just the appearance of bias in that can lead to a civil rights suit ... even if it's dismissed early as groundless. There are usually multiple reason for policies, even if they are stupid policies that seem to go against common sense.
04/10/09
However, a story could say they refused to accept that "black kid's" trade because of suspicious behavior. Maybe he was acting nervous or in a rush to trade, get the cash and run. It would take some effort to prove but I'm sure it could be done if that was truely the case. You could always ask some probing questions like why the trade-in to see how they respond. If they start pushing back or get abusive, you have every right to refuse for that alone.
I know someone who worked retail and served a customer that was acting, for lack of a better word, jumpy. Turns out they paid with a counterfeit bill and ran out right after getting the change. That person lost their job because of it. Granted they could have checked the bill before giving change or come up with an excuse to walk to the back of the store (I did it all the time when I worked retail and people paid with 50s or 100s).
Point is, if you really believe something is out of place, you can refuse service. Just be prepared to back it up or find another job.
I'll stop since I've stretched this out enough and am close to running off topic.
04/10/09
If you were a company, which headline would you rather see:
Thieves sell their goods at local game store
Local game store racist, youth claims in lawsuit
04/10/09
04/10/09
04/10/09
I work for GameStop, and oddly enough, I am doing a mock proposal for a class right now of this very same idea. Believe me, we hate it as much as you, because 90% of the time customers are not happy being sold an opened game as new.
"Of course, it would also do away with one of the biggest fringe benefits that GameStop employees get: Free game rentals."
This however, is not that big of a deal. At my store atleast, employees very rarely ever check out new games, and we aren't allowed to check out new games of big titles, only used ones. Also, GameStop doesn't give two ****s about its employees, and I wholly expect them to send us e-mails very soon telling us we aren't allowed to check out any new games anymore. They aren't keeping the practice around to appease us, they could care less.
And just for your information, the last game I checked out was a used copy of Shadow of the Colossus like 3 years ago. I own way too many games to be bothered with renting of any sort >_>
04/10/09
The problem with the proposal of just reproducing cover art is the expense of doing it for EVERY copy we have out on the floor for a new game. Paper for the printing costs more money, the ink to print that paper costs more money, the extra cases to display those games costs more money. It also takes alot more time and effort than just gutting a copy when you could be doing other things. Look at that through the eyes of Gamestop corporate. Then look at your paycheck, which if like mine, is minimum wage or just about minimum wage. Gamestop doesn't like spending money.
My idea? Expensive in the long run, but once done means fewer expenses. When I used to shop regularly at Hastings, they put all their games in glass cases which contains hand/arm holes. This ment the customer could still look at a game, but the game was secured and didn't have to be gutted. I imagine they're expensive to begin with, but would handle the gutting bussiness and over time would be less expensive than reprinting out EVERY cover of every game ever released.
One thing I will say in the defense of checking out games at gamestop - most people complain about Gamestop employees knowing next to nothing about games. That's what this is (idealy) for. You're supposed to check out games that customers show interest in but you're unfamilar with so you can be better aquanted with the game and give customers ACCURATE feedback. It's a double edged sword - people complain about how stupid gamestop employees are, but in the same breath, want to cut off the best means they possess of knowing anything about a game first hand outside of buying it, which I definetly can't do on my paycheck. I dunno, I'm in a middle ground here, but will say that sometimes people are taking this out of proportion.
For the record: My store doesn't allow checking games out at the moment and when it did I checked out a total of 2 games, both of which were terrible....well one was very mediocre and deserved it's rating and the other way absolutely abysmal.
04/10/09
In any case, it's certainly cheaper than lawsuits and unhappy customers whose business they've lost due to the practice of selling opened games as new.
04/10/09
The idea of centralized shipping is great, except for one thing. What happens when I get an RSB that doesn't go from said central shipping station but rather a store out in Litlenowheretown, Wyoming. Resort up to what was just said.
"have a set of blank cases"
You.....don't understand how coporate works, do you? Blank cases are used for alot of used games and if you add them in addition to new games, stores would run out quick. Here's a hint: We asked for a new shipment of cases about a month ago and still have yet to receive them. I realize you guys think these things cost pennies (and they do for generic dvd cases) but there's two things you're not considering. There are ALOT of stores and ALOT of games released all the time. Each of those would require a case, and sometimes those have to be specialized cases. Unless ofcourse Gamestop switched EVERY case over to generic dvd cases, which I doubt. The cost is still there and it would be a growing cost with every week of new releases. Now I realize that yes some of these are reusable, but I can garuntee that the rate of reuse will not match the rate inwhich new cases are neccesary.
"The cost of doing this is going to be less than what they'll have to pay a lawyer justifying this in court and a lot less than if they get fined for selling used games as new."
We'll see. If Gamestop folds and changes its policy to what you guys are saying or what I suggesting, then yes. Otherwise? No. Though I'm curious, do you know this for sure? It's abit presumptious to think that.
04/10/09
04/10/09
Unfortunately, and I don't know if this is true everywhere, our GameStop doesn't check used discs. So more often than not, they look like somebody decided to see if they could run the games on a Brillo pad. If they tried to pass one of those abominations off as "new", then damn right they should be fined.
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04/10/09
A sale of a used game is almost pure profit for them, and they charge almost as much as new games!
Than they SELL you a shitty membership card for a menial discount on their used products. And on top of that, the magazine you get is just shitty video game propaganda to help them sell you on more crappy games that are probably no good.
/rant
04/10/09
Why?
Get this!
You trade in Assassin's Creed for about 5 dollars cash right now.
So do 50 other people. (-$250)
What's the chances we will sell all 50?
Let's say we sell 10 before MORE get traded in for 25 each.
That would be zero net gain.
And that's for a game that MIGHT sell, not to mention Maddens, Vampire Rains, etc people trade in.
04/11/09
Base trade-in values on current stock levels (as well as popularity/demand) of said used game.
Problem solved.
04/10/09
04/12/09
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04/10/09
Open games are used.
Closed games are new.
The selling open games as new bs is the main reason I avoid GS/EB like the plague. Second reason is that they just give you used games in their crappy GS boxes with no manuals or covers nowadays when EB used to have a policy of "Always original packaging for used games"
I sure hope they get sued for this.
04/10/09
Exactly, and as people pointed out on yesterdays post, this policy is 100% consistent with the retailers own return policy.
Opened games = used and not return-able for a full refund.
Still sealed games = new...eligible for refund (depending on the retailer of course)
04/13/09
This is obviously criminal, and should have huge penalties put into effect. Also, this is revenge for me after selling my freaking Resident Evil 0, for the Gamecube, because I miss it dearly!
04/10/09
04/10/09
@Samantha Duckins: GAME stores here in France use fake display cases with the cover art on the front but a completely different layout on the back (usually a short description with a couple of screenshots and the age rating, but none of the usual logos or, obviously, the authenticity seals).
Micromania, our other main retail chain, does the same thing. And guess who owns Micromania? GameStop.
Really, it shouldn't take too much brain power for GameStop to devise boxes that cannot be confused with the actual product.
I'm actually surprised to learn that they put real boxes on the shelves. It sounds incredibly dumb: more work (open box, remove and store disc and manual, put box on shelf - as opposed to just: put fake box on shelf) for an inferior result - great job!
04/10/09
How many stores do you know will open a product, and sell it to you as new? Not many, right? With most electronics, furniture, and appliance stores... you usually get a discount for taking the floor model.
If GameStop is so worried about theft (and is tired about the complaints on the opened games)... here's an alternate idea:
Instead of placing a gutted box on display, place a photo of the game's boxart on shelves. That way, they don't need to gut any games, and they can still have an easily viewable list of the inventory. It's what Toys "R" Us used to do back in the day.