I went to GameStop to buy Yakuza 0 when it came out but they didn’t have any copies. Asked if they had any hidden, the 2 guys give each other a look then one goes “my shithead manager has the business edition hidden back here half paid off, want it?” Mans was quitting tomorrow and sold me this dudes copy for like 40 bucks. Only good GameStop experience and it was cause the dude couldn’t care less
I remember for my birthday back in like 2014-ish, I got a new copy of Hyrule Warriors from the local Gamestop, but when I went home to play it, it had a bigass scratch that made it unplayable. I was pretty bummed abt it. But my dad was a big Zelda fan as well, and he was interested in the game. So he went to the Gamestop like a week later and bought another copy of Hyrule Warriors. Afterwards he went to his car, swapped our disks, and returned to the store saying that they sold him the scratched disk, and they gave him a replacement for free. I used to feel a little guilty that he got the game for himself and for me by tricking the cashier, but when I hear these Gamestop stories I don't feel so bad anymore. It wasn't a scam it was a hustle fr
One of the reasons why I still maintain physical is because my local electronics store, who also shelves games, always gets them a day early (obviously, so they can have it all ready on the actual release date) but they work so quickly that they have it all set up the same day So whenever a new game comes out I can just walk there a day early, walk in and grab it and just buy it, and there is no downsides or strings attached, no funny Gamestop business or anything
@@Michael-bn1oi They very clearly do not care and never have, I also dont think that anyone really cares if they sell some games at 8pm rather than at 7am the next morning
I feel you, mine buys a few copies of limited run games everytime they do a new thing so it's always cool to walk through and see what they got. Wouldn't have my collectors editions of nmh1&2 with my local game store.
It more just depends on the place. Like Pat said "What's more convenient" and if you can actually get the game then yeah, go with that. Just depends. It's also just nice to have something to get the game as Pat says again that Nintendo proved why just only digital is bad to because they can artificially make something rare by just turning off your ability TO BUY IT FROM THERE STORE! Complete control over the product as well besides that they also can just patch it without your consent.
@@Michael-bn1oi our local game stop did the same exact thing, they couldn't stay open for a proper 'Midnight Release' so they would wait until the last hours of closing time and set up a line for pre-orders where you can just line up to get your game and leave before they closed at like 9 pm. Though you think this would be a cool thing, oh no no no, for you see Gamestop managed to fuck me over THREE TIMES that same night! I had pre-ordered a copy of the special edition DMC5 a couple days prior, however the person ringing up my order had marked me down for the normal edition of the game by accident ( At least I like to believe he did, don't know how the fuck you do that when specifically told which version ), only for me to check in the day leading up to the release and find that out to which they said "Sorry, but if there is a spare copy we can give that to you during the Midnight release." meaning I had to wait in line to make sure I got the game I paid the preorder for was actually given to me before the store ran out of copies, then once I finally got the damn thing after waiting a couple hours and having the store staff play literal fucking 20 questions with us ( The answer was Banana by the way, no one got it but then again half of us weren't playing ) I went home to enjoy my game.... only to find out that I wasn't given ANY of the preorder stuff that actually comes with the special edition, not on the receipt, not in the box, nothing! I was basically handed a normal copy of the game and lied to three times over in the same day! And after that they basically threw up their hands and said there was nothing they could do about it, and that was the last time I went to that Gamestop or pre-ordered a game... okay that's a lie, I pre-ordered Elden Ring only for Bandai Namco to cancel my pre-order with out telling me a day before all of the collector editions sold out along with most of the normal copies of the game... silver lining though, my friends got me Bloodbowl 2 to cheer me up instead and I honestly had way more fun playing that then I did eventually playing Elden Ring.
I’ll never forget when I bought Twilight Princess for the Wii, with the little money I had, and the disc was scratched to the point I couldn’t play it. Breaks my heart.
Hi, I’m currently working as a manager at a GameStop in Indiana and I just want to say it sucks around here. We have been unable to take inventory for the past 5 weeks because they won’t fix their system blackout, meaning our systems won’t update whether we have or don’t have something. Much less the daily problems caused by higher ups terrible decisions. I’ll talk about some stories in the comments when I get a moment to type them out.
You mean being massively overvalued making out like bandits when they were about to go out of business because of memes? They're doing just fine for now lol
Yeah, I saw a lot of dirty stuff while working at Gamestop. Like selling games days earlier to special customers, or letting us, "rent", new games. This kid wanted to return his new opened game, we usually don't do that, but my manager let him do it only if he used 20 dollars of his 60 dollar refund to purchase a membership. Totally swindled the little dude.
Urgh, one of the reasons I had to leave GS back in the day was the stupid pressure you were under to sell those memberships. It doesn’t shock me **** like that could happen
@@LargeInCharge77 We literally never did that except for the one gutted copy we needed to put a case out for display. One new game was opened, disc and extra content was placed in a sleeve, put in the drawer with all the new sealed copies. If that was our last one, it would be put back in the display case with all other items and sealed again. That's it, at least at my store.
Not too long ago, I bought Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl from Gamestop. It said new but the employee brought out an open copy and the box was ripped along the edges. I returned it later that day and bought a cheaper sealed copy from Amazon.
Bought a used Street fighter V championship edition from GameStop they didn't tell me only 6 characters would be free but everyone else was behind a pay wall. In other words I bought vanilla with a different packaging luckily the dude was gonna quit and gave me a voucher for all the characters for $10.
@@HoChiMints2007 In the words of SsethTzeentach: "Yes I know! Everyone and their mother is scared of CD key resellers. I bought about a 100 keys online. Every single one worked. Then I bought a box copy of Falout Tactics from the store. Which uh, just had an empty case with a code inside. That code, DIDN'T, work. So, from my experience, putting my trust in a random Polish stranger gives me better results." - SsethTzeentach - Company of Heroes 2 Review, May 2022.
That's why I don't feel about about digital and Amazon killing GameStop. If they had a good service, people would have still used it, but it was terrible and nobody liked it.
I feel this for GAME in the UK, same deal. Whenever I was out with my friends we'd stop there, usually talk to the staff about new releases and they'd be really cool and chill about it, actually making us excited about the games. Almost everyone would pick something up. Then at some point, the store became more and more random tacky merch, with only enough staff to man the checkout, and they push "required" loyalty memberships for even just getting a "free" Pokémon code. It doesn't feel like a good place to be anymore, or even about games. No reason to go in nowadays.
@@soupysoup9340 yup. If I remember correctly, one of the last Blockbusters in the USA was still up a few years ago (I don't know if it's still up) because the same reason you said. The staff recomended movies to you and it actually made it a good experience to go their store.
@@TalkingVidya I've gone to the last one over on the west coast and it's a pretty chill experience. Nice selection, good staff. Helps it's in a big beer town too, in my humble opinion.
@@soupysoup9340 for me GAME was consistently the worst of the UK stores that sold new games, but that wasn't an issue when we had alternatives like Grainger games and Gamestation. And then both of those died leaving us with just GAME and it started to just go down hill so fast it was like free falling.
Reminds me of the time I went to my local Gamestop and bought a used copy of No More Heroes, thinking I'd finally try it out. I took it home and opened it up and it just didn't have the game inside. When I went back to ask if they had the game somewhere else, they didn't, so I just returned it and left. It was weird as shit.
@@ChrisMerkelStudios Yeah, in retrospect it was pretty trusting of them to take my word for it. I suppose it could have been much worse. In reality, it's probably because I got it for 10 bucks and they were willing to eat the cost in the possibility they were at fault.
One Christmas I asked my Dad for the PS2 DVD remote, he accidentally got me a regular PS2 controller. I went to my local Gamestop to return it, you didn't need a receipt at the time, and they said they would give me $10 because it was used. Despite IT NEVER BEING OPENED. So instead I took it to Best Buy and they gave me the full $50 for it, no questions asked.
I remember back in 2012 when I accidentally got 2 copies of pokemon white 2 for Christmas. I went to gamestop with my receipt and returned it for I believe $25. I returned home and picked up the copy I kept and saw a second cartridge next to it. I believe I returned an empty game case to gamestop and swindled them out of $25.
I worked at a GameStop for 3 months. They would send their Demonic regional managers after us to threaten firing us because we failed to sell those fucking rewards cards to kids who only brought enough cash to buy the smallest amount of Robux. Fucking hellhole. I hope the people I worked with got out okay.
i will never forget the day i finally found the courage to buy senran kagura shinovi versus and watching with horror as the guy opened the drawer under the register, pulled out a booklet with big anime tits on the front, visibly judged me, and put it in the box. i would have never bought it in store if i knew it had physical bonuses.
I remember going to Gamestop to buy Metroid Prime Hunters when it came out, I gave them the 50 dollars, they gave me the cart, I walked out and then I looked at it and it said "First Hunt" aka the sold me the DEMO of the game for full price, I went back and was like "Excuse me, what is this?" and they went "Oh, we don't actually have the full game here" THEN WHY'D YOU PUT IT ON THE SHELF?
There are a couple close by, but I've never set foot in a gamestop. The closest I've been was when Hollywood Video was still alive and the local one had a GameCrazy attached to it. That store was nothing but a blessing at the time. I was far behind in gaming, people were about to move to the xbox 360 and I was still on my N64. I'd go into that store, they'd sell me an old cartridge for cheap and made sure it worked before I went out the door. Even after I upgraded and started buying disks, they would always check them first. I pulled two games that ended up having scratched disks when I bought them. Guy made the sale and then I stood to the side while he popped them in this auto cleaner to polish them up. I don't know if that was a unique experience, but it was a marvelous one.
My first Gba game came from my local Hollywood video/gamecrazy so this brings back the memories for sure. Moms bought me The Legend of Zelda (nes port) on her own personal instance. She set me up for life with that move🙏
This is just the Digital Doesn't Scoff at you clip again. Shenmue damaged disc and being hustled at the rental place, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin on release with a clear save on it, "We have plastic thing if you want me to reseal it", Razor phone with numbers in it. All of it. That episode is like a year old.
I remember way back when, I bought Naruto Ninja Council 3 and when I put it into my DS, it was inexplicably the Japanese version of the game which baffles me to this very day. Why did an American store have a Japanese copy of a game? I dont remember Gamestop doing imports, but the game was in the English language box so clearly someone there had to have swapped out the cartridges. So where did that cart go? Did an employee snag it? I’ve stayed awake thinking about this, its baffling to me.
11:40 I had that happen with Game Fly. I called them up and told them the disc was scratched beyond playable. The guy told me, You can pay for the copy of No More Heroes 2, or we can just charge your card from your account for it. I pulled my card from the records as I was on the phone with that guy. I said, No I will not pay for something I did not break. Then said, Guess I'll be pulling my sub to you guys cause this is some bullS*** you are pulling on me. Hung up and canceled the sub. Never looked back.
Reminds me of when I went to GameStop to pickup a copy of Persona 5 Strikers, which when I called they said it had the launch edition code stuff, but when I got there the box was not only open but the digital content code was just sitting there inside!! I made sure to put in the code on PSN from my phone before I left because someone could have totally just stolen it if they wanted to.
I think everybody who ever rented a multi disc game has that same story Mine was FF8, and apparently the kid in front of me DIPPED IT IN MAPLE SYRUP. No, this isn't a Canadian joke. It fucking should be, but it isn't!
Current gamestop employee here. I can't speak for anyone else but at our store we only take the disc or cartridge out so we can put the case out on the floor and I'm sorry people did you guys dirty like that. I remember Woolie's story about getting the game and it also had a save file on it and it's just so completely messed up.
As a former GS employee, the policy of making the final copy of a game a display box is still garbage (unless you are going to discount the game to the person who buys that sleeved disc).
@@TheJadedJames I respectfully disagree man. My personal belief is that it is New because it hasn't been used and you are just going to open it anyhow. My issue is the sticker. Those can really mess up a case.
@@Deadwolf27 The store breaks the seal AND physically handles those discs to sleeve them. I don’t care that they’ve never been placed inside a console, they are should be discounted at that point. There are other ways GS could make display boxes
I've been lucky to not deal with Gamestop BS so far. Hell, I've had good experience at my local one. For Christmas I got an XBox 360 (original version) and with my christmas money, I bought Smackdown vs. Raw 2007. Now my naive young mind thought you were supposed to keep your Xbox standing up straight, and for a day or so, the game worked fine, than all of a sudden I hear a screeching sound and the game stopped. The disc was scratched up beyond repair, not cracked, but unplayable. We go to Gamestop, which was still packed, and the awesome employee understood what had happened, told us to simply keep that inevitable paper weight laying down and gave me a new copy of the game. He told us he wasn't supposed to do this, but seeing that it was an honest to god accident, he straight up grabbed another copy of the game and gave it to me and said "Enjoy little man".
Back in the day my dad pre-ordered Halo Wars 1. He got the special edition. The day we went to go pick it up it turns out they already gave out our copy (guy obviously stahsed it for himself or a friend).
I remember I went with a friend to pick up their sealed copy of Tekken 6 just for us to walk out the store go in his car and open the case to see it was empty we went back in and they said we were out of luck
@@iamnuff1992 we argued for about 10 minutes and it devolved down to them saying "you could have just taken the disc out and trying to snag a second copy"
@@gettingannoyedquick I mean, tecnically they're right. You could just take the disc out and put it in your car and come get a second copy for your friend... but you can generally tell if someone's full of shit. You should have fought those dudes.
You know, I surprisingly never got fucked over by Gamestop on pre-orders. Mainly the collectors editions I ordered through them. All of them came in perfect condition and everything. When I bought both versions of Fire Emblem Fates (A mistake on my part) they even game me the key chains you were supposed to get with the collectors edition even thought I didn't order that. Just "Oh, you're buying both so take these key chains too, no extra charge".
I have to tell you all about the 2012 Xenoblade Chronicles fiasco at GameStop. The game had just come out in the Spring of that year and by the end of summer, all new copies of the game were removed from the inventory company wide and changed to used copies. Brand new Wii games retailed at $50, and since it was Nintendo published, it would never go down in price unless it were used. Except the price never went down. GameStop had every copy of the game sent to their central warehouse in TX, where they waited until Black Friday to re-debut the games as rare for $99.99. Since GameStop was the exclusive distributor of the game in NA, there was no other way to get it and they had 100% control of the price, demand, and quantities.
I remember a GameStop employee telling a Parent who was searching for a good game for their kid that Sonic 06 is a game that they would love. I told her that it isn’t good but I’m unsure if she listened.
This is so wild to hear. Living in Nunavut, our new games are always put in locked cases that you have to ask the workers to open for you. Pair that with the fact that we usually got games 2 weeks to a month late, they couldn't risk doing this sort of stuff.
I've seen Gamestop employees upsell people who didn't speak english and couldn't say no to warranties. Also they're like "you wanna get a warranty for your new game? Sometimes theyre defective and its good to get a warranty!" And i'm like ok so your store sells defective products?
That's disgusting. A couple months ago, I had a guy apply the warranty costs without asking me or mentioning it. I saw the price on the podium and knew it was too much, and then the guy tries to explain the warranty. I worked at GameStop for 4 years and never saw anything like that before.
I had to buy jak 3 for ps2 from either eh games or GameStop like freaking 4 times when I was a kid because the first 3 times the disk was scratched to hell and would only load the opening cutscene then just crash
I will buy a bottle of an expensive liquor to celebrate the day, the literal day of, GameStop completely collapses inside itself and declares bankruptcy. Edit: This is also why I bought No More Heroes 3 for Xbox from Best Buy.
This is why I American Psycho my game transactions. Earphones on, music blaring, dead look to the face, stare a fucking hole through the cashier as they move their mouths. I'm banned from one GameStop in my town.
I worked at a mall GameStop for a summer before college in 2015, around when those stores were becoming funko pop shops. One of the last things I remember was my manager having to re-arrange the store and get more shelf space for toys and accessories. The only time I ever got in trouble was the time a 15 year old kid wanted to buy Dragon Age: Inquisition for his birthday. Had to turn him down because it was an M rated game, so he went and got his older sister to buy it and I sold it to her. After they left my manager went off on me for it when he found, but that was all that ever came of it.
I guess I was really lucky. Worked at a mall Gamestop for about a year, and the worst thing we ever did was not have enough PS5s to sell, and we could only sell them in $700-$800 bundles. Never stopped a single person from buying it though. It's mostly because my bosses (SL and ASL) were fucking awesome, and also helped get me my new job with them. They didn't tow the corporate line, they didn't do anything which would screw over a customer, and they did everything they could to actually make people happy. Needless to say, corporate didn't like that, but I sure did. I don't know, we mainly sold Funko pops and collectibles anyway, games were secondary.
That story about the games being damaged by the store hits home for me. I bought Red Dead 2 from a different store, won't name a name, but the game was playing somewhat but not running properly at times when it should. A day later, checked the disc, big scratch. Returned it. Got home with a new copy, same deal. Another big scratch. Returned this one. Finally got one that worked properly. Played through the story, took about a week, was satisfied but not interested in playing anymore. Went to trade it back in. They wouldn't take it, because of a tiny hairline, not even as long as the tip of my pinky finger scratch. Mind you, this was maybe the fourth or fifth time this given store had denied me a trade-in because of these scratches that weren't even perceivable unless you manipulated the light specifically to see them and even then I could barely notice them at times. No testing, nothing, just denied sales left and right. So this RDR2 situation was the boiling point. I haven't gone back to that store, or really any game store for years now. And mind you, I take good care of my games, especially disk based media, so the scratch likely already existed when I bought it and I just got lucky. Hate second hand game stores now, except for this one I went to once in Michigan. That place was awesome.
In the UK they take the discs out to stop people from shoplifting, presumably. It's like how at an old VCR rental place, the shelves would be full of empty boxes. Although that said, I think some shops you just brought the empty case to the counter and they handed you a brand new, sealed full case in return. I dunno, I havn't bought a game in store in years.
So leave the sealed copies behind the counter and bring them out on request. Never justify corporate fuckery for them. Never repeat their lies. They are not your friend.
@@The5lacker Yeah, just put a single empty box out on the floor, and take it back if you don't have any more copies. Keep that shit sealed and under the counter or in the back, there's no need to open every single stupid box.
@@KotoRyu That's exactly what they do though. Every instance of someone putting a disc from a sleeve into a new game is when it's their last copy. You end up getting the display copy.
@@The5lacker That's what GameStop does. I worked there for 4 years and that is precisely how it works. If we had 10 copies of a new game, 9 are sealed under the counter and 1 is open on the floor. You sell the sealed copies first, until you run out.
@@nyrisj Unless, in some cases, they feel like opening the box to get what comes with it and sell it separately. Or play it before it's supposed to be out. Neither of which they're supposed to do, and did anyway. Or at least used to do.
They're not sealed in plastic when they get there. The discs are usually not in the disc tray whe nthey arrive but in that sleeve. You are supposed to add them manuall like that and keep them in the back cause of theft.
I had a friend that back in the early days of Xbox Live a lot of Xbox games would come with a free month of Xbox live. Since they would take games out of display cases half the time the manual and other things would still be in them on the floor. My friend I think ended up getting years of Xbox Live for free from this.
At this point I strictly use GameStop for looking for old DS games for cheap and the odd used game. I want to go back in time and strangle younger, dumber me for selling all of my good shit for pocket change. I'm paying fucking premiums to build my collection back up to respectable levels.
I'm in Australia so it's already hard af to get physical game. GameStop is rebranded to EBGames here and it's in shambles rn. It was always the place that was so covered in SALE stickers and banners that you couldn't see the rest of the damn store. Place was a downright meme. Then it just...reduced down to nothing. There are games on the walls, yeah, but 60% of that wallspace is also taken up by mugs, cases, keyboards, videogame branded boardgames and Funkopops. The floor space of the shop is practically empty but for a few shelves of pokemon merch with space enough between them to make them look like displays instead of for-sale items. This is the same place that, a couple of years ago, had a lifesized Spiderman made out of sales banners hanging from the door and giant bins of cheap trade-ins and Amiibos/Skylanders/wtf-ever taking up 2/3 of the floor.
Starbucks does this with the super scarce, also heavily scalped cups. Employees almost always either buy them up immediately before they go on the shelf or they sit in the back for a week.
I was part of GameStop third party customer service contract. At first they sold us the idea that the company was trying to turn things around and be more customer service oriented. Maybe some of the guys in charge meant it but things went bad quickly. They ended up terminating our companys contract without proper notice when they started bleeding money over their farce of a NFT market place
I remember when I pre-ordered Blazblue Central Fiction on PS3 at GameStop on the Thursday before release. Come release day, the clerk said "it's sold out" and told me I would be refunded. I showed the pre-order receipt and then they said "The game doesn't release today, it came out last Thursday" which was a blatant lie. I told him that I ordered it on that Thursday so why wasn't I given a copy on that day? Clerk just stopped making excuses and processed the refund anyway without my consent. I had to buy a digital copy since there wasn't any physical PS3 copies anywhere without pre-order.
I used to go to a GS so often I became cool enough with 2 employees to bribe them with Chewy Chips Ahoy's (Solid trade) to hold stuff for me. Including a SNES Classic, which they were specifically told not to do. He went "Ill go check... oh look I found one!" In front of 3 ppl. Lol.
As someone who will just rell customers "i dont know" at my work, the with that is that for a significant portion of people they are just not prepared to accept that answer. The worst customer experiences ive had are me trying to explain to someone that i do not know something, nome of my coworkers know, there is no System we can use to find the information. A lot of people just do not want to hear
I had something similar with GameCrazy/Hollywood Video back in the day, they had a copy of Valkyrie Profile hidden because one of the employees was trying to get it themselves. I had seen someone trade it in the day before and asked if they still had it. The guy looked me in my face and said they had already sold it. So I thought okay, I'll get something else and began to look around then I found the copy. They didn't even have it behind the counter though just hidden behind a bunch of other games on a shelf. I walk up to buy it and say something like "already sold it huh?" The guy tried to ask me to not buy it, then said it wouldn't ring up, but finally sold it when the manager got involved
Thankfully I always had good luck when buying my games. Even when I bought Symphony of the Night from the shadiest store I ever seen, it wasnt used and worked perfectly.
I only get my games from Gamestop on release date, probably pre-ordered, and still in shrink wrap. Though the shrink wrap and be faked, we did that in Toys "r" Us on occasion.
Used to work in a UK version called gamestation between 03 and 2010. we didnt get any display sleeves in for anything so had to gut the games and keep the new ones in one set of drawers and the pre owned ones in another set, was very rare we would have any new ones sealed unless it was a big release. its how everyone i worked with became addicted to the smell of a fresh game manual. The only time we ever had any damaged new discs was for halo 3 and the stupid metal tin the collectors edition came in, everything else was pulled out the box and stuffed into the manuals then sleaved up to stop them getting any scratched on them. it sounds like gamestop is just a crapfest over there
I bought a copy of Final Fantasy X for PS2 way back in the day, and the disc was so scratched that it just wouldn’t play. It’d load the main menu and stop there. It was ridiculous.
I called up a Gamestop the day Splatoon 3 was supposed to come out, asking if they were doing a midnight launch. To my delight the guy on the phone stated "oh just come by at 10PM" Oh cool I thought, I show up at 10PM, there's a pretty big line of people in this smelly, UN-airconditioned store. Each person at the register took an ungodly amount of time to get their shit together. I get to the front and tell them I want the game. I wait. cashier waits. I wait. The cashier says "Whats your prerorder code" Preorder? I called earlier and nobody told me that was a requirement This is a midnight event only for preorders she explained. There were to be no exceptions. I leave the smelly store empty handed, went home and just ordered the game digitally. Fuck Gamestop now and forever.
Way back when human revolution came out i saved up some money for a couple months to get it and when i get into the store the guy waves me off saying they dont have it as i litteraly see two dudes crowding around it in the back im a fucking idiot teenager so i assume they were just play testing or something so i leave and come back in a week ask again and hey they say they had 1 copy i watch the guy get the box and go to the back then comes back with it wrapped in plastic and im like wait "why did he have to reseal it when he couldve just gave it to me normally" so i ask him about he says they got a new shipment in the back but i think about it alil more and just say no to him and opened the packaging infront of him when he sets it down on the counter and theres just a ring scratched into the fucking thing and someone used the fucking top as a coaster for there pop or coffee and the guys screaming at me that im breaking laws and he will call the cops if i dont leave so i left and only bought gift cards for xbox live and psn at my gas station from that day forward
ps2 marvel 2 was the only version of that game i played besides an arcade cabinet at my local mall, i was like 5 so i couldn't really tell the difference it was just fun to me playing wolverine, spider man, ryu, and mega man
While I never experienced a horror story with GameStop, I did have an interesting exchange. Gamestop had a sale on Nintendo Switch games. I bought Mario Odyssey off their website (I also used a $5 gift card I had sitting around). After a month the game never showed up and the tracking never went beyond its initial pending. I called customer service and the staff asked if I wanted a refund or if I still wanted the game. I asked for the game and received it no problems. Surprisingly, I got a giftcard in the mail from GameStop. I thought that was weird, and wondered if it was some kind of "sorry for the trouble" thing. Then I checked my bank account and found that my purchase was refunded. I basically got Mario Odyssey for free. It pays to be nice to customer service I guess lol
Recently I purchased a copy of Xenoblade 3 at target and wanted to return it for store credit or something but the lady said "because you opened it, I cannot give you store credit, *you can only return it for the same copy*." And I was so confused so I literally asked "if I can't return a copy because its opened and you're gonna trade me a sealed copy anyway, can't I just go ahead and return that to get my money back?" And she just got silent and said the same thing. I played along, went to a different target to do the trade but then this lady was like "what? I'll just give you your money back"
I dont think digital stores was the reason why gamestop did the package opening, because i had the broken seal purchases with Gamecube games, which does not have digital downloads.
No but digital downloads were still a thing around then for other games right (like PC)? When a store sets a policy, it's unlikely that it would say "Break the seal, oh except for these kinds of items." They would usually set it for all the products, which leads to the abuse of the policy.
I've gone almost entirely digital since near the end of the PS3 era. I even had that digital only PSPGo thing for a good 6-7 years. The only games I've bought physically since then are a few Switch games for various reasons. Now if only Pokemon would stop doing those goddamned event distributions only at Gamestop, I would never have to think about that place again.
this reminds me of the crap Tim Rogers went through to get his new copy of FFVI hehe. i returned to Gamestop a busted DS lite (switched serial # sticker), and traded a dying 360- so at least they got back some of what they dish out. buttholes.
@@ShyRanger well they should test everything again before selling it. also- screw those people! they should've learned what i learned before i did- and stopped shopping at Gamestop!
Many moons ago, I decided I wanted to see what the Kingdom Hearts franchise was all about. This was right around the time that the sequel released. Went to the local Gamestop to pick up a copy of the first game, and they did that thing where they pulled the disc out of a sleeve. Never really liked it when that happened, but since the game was so (relatively) old at the time, I wasn't too worked up over it. Get back to my place, open up the case: Turns out the guy had given me a copy of Kingdom Hearts II for $20🤣
I have two Gamestop stories: Story 1. I wanted to buy Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero Risky Beats Edition for the ps4. I go to a store and they tell me they don't have it but "other" store has a new copy. I drive 30 minutes to the other store and when I get there and go "Hey we called you earlier about game" and he pulls out the disc in a sleeve and I go. "Wait, it's a box set. It's supposed to come with a soundtrack, book, etc." and he just stares at me and goes "Yeah sometimes people steal those." Like, I wanted to buy a new limited edition game and you're going to just sell me the disc in a sleeve? Are you fucking kidding me? I went back to the first store and just asked them if they could just order it for me to pickup and they did. Story 2: I ordered a used XBOX 360 Elite console about 6 or 7 years ago because I wanted to play some older 360 games again and I made sure to order the one that had the 80GB harddrive. Paid around $120 for it. I bought chargers, wires and controllers in anticipation and when it finally comes in the mail stupid me just chucked it in the closet thinking I'll get to it later. Fast forward two months and I finally open it up to play and I notice it's missing the hard drive and all it has instead is a flash drive hooked up to it. I was PISSED both at myself and Gamestop for my mistake in assuming Gamestop wouldn't pull a fast one on me, angry at Gamestop themselves and also angry at myself again for not opening the goddamn box sooner and not after the return window had closed. This one has a bit of a happy ending though because a bunch of Gamestops around me got liquidated 1or 2 years ago and I got a bunch of hard drives for pennies on the dollar.
I remember reserving a copy of Guilty Gear Xrd- Revelator, and it took me 3 days to get it. GRANTED, that seemed to be more of an issue on Aksys Games's part, as I heard other retailers didn't get their copy on release day, but it was still an inconvenience (especially as I had a crappy that week anyways)
When I was a kid I use to rent games from block buster and the one by my house there copy of kingdom hearts one would black screen after you beat the first boss I took it back told them it was broken it was off the shelf’s for like 3 weeks and then it came back I thought o cool they fixed it and rented it again and it was still broken they literally just put the same disk back on the shelf so long story short I didn’t play kh1 till way later when I found a used copy at game crazy
Target did this to me with my Switch , it was brand new on the shelf controllers and all still sealed yet had someone's profile on it that said "F**K YOU.
Pat calling someone and asking who is calling you right now is so fucking funny if someone called me asnd asked whos calling me rightnow id be like you 🤣
I bought Bayonetta 2 (and a Wii U) at least 3 different times at EB games, not only because I love the game, but the because the employees always found a way profit off various trades I wanted to make. Mind you, I was naive and broke with money back then @ University, hence the reselling and rebuying of the Wii U's I had. It is no wonder that GameStop (and EB games) are (somehow still?) against digital games.
I worked a seasonal at a gamestop 3 years ago and it was one of the worst jobs I've ever had the amount of red tape and data stealing they want you to do is insane and meanwhile I just wanna talk about video games with people
The saddest part is when the "new" Gamestop game was already unsealed and they didn't have anymore sealed versions and it was a game you really wanted on launch day and even after pressing to make sure it was really the only one left. So then you were forced to get it because you preordered and really wanted to play this "new" game. You have no idea how many new PS3 and Wii games I bought on launch day for full price new and unsealed because Gamestop said they were the only copies left. Once I bought a cracked and already opened case of Dead Rising 3 for "new" price outrageous but I needed it to play it.
Just started working at Gamestop, and now suddenly every single social media platform I'm on somehow knows. Half my TikTok feed is just other Gamestop employees dicking around on their down time, now.
Do you take any device logged out to any of your accounts to work? If yes, welcome you are now inside the colossal stack of other peoples information being sold so other companies can max out their ads
Problem with that is, that's still lying and it could be even more aggravating to customers. It's still lying cause in many cases you DO know why, but can't say it cause of the stupid policies set, and most people won't take "I don't know why" either reading through it as you hiding something or "Okay I'll ask another employee, maybe they know."
My local eb games was pretty good never had problem with opened new games but you could always tell when the Manger was there even when you didn't see him cause if he wasn't you would just go in and buy the game while if the Manger was there you had to spend 5 minutes saying no to everything from membership to pre orders to peripherals. But one time I don't remember the game it was some niche jrpg my brother wanted and we called our local store to see if we had it and the said they didn't but another store across town did so we went there and his brand "new" game was takin out of a sleeve from a box and and put in the game box which we thought was weird cause the other store didn't do that bur thought nothing of it cause the game worked fine and we never went there again
I have a very good Gamestop with Employees that care and actually play videogames. They've broken policy in secret for their customers and I will always go back. They legit held a collectors edition of Metroid dread for me and let me know information that actually legit for when Preorders are going to start, They said they let the info and do these things for people they believe aren't going to scalp. If I ever buy a physical game, I buy it from that gamestop. But I have had horrible experiences with other gamestops.
I tried to sell my Xbox One at a local game store and the guy at the counter looked me straight in the eye and told me that he would give me $30 USD for the system, 2 controllers, and the physical copies of Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 I didnt even try to haggle, I just walked out
The moment they started selling things that weren't just games it was going downhill. I don't care if this is the only place within 100 miles you can buy figurines of Harley Quinn in person, i don't care if they sell mousepads (though admittedly I'm typing this on a mousepad i bought at GameStop so I'm a part of that problem), their main market is games, so them focusing on things that aren't games led to people just buying it from somewhere that was cheaper, return policy be damned. Also they sold me, a copy of Skyward Sword, which was pre-owned and had been out for like 5 years by that point, for $47 USD. A price that only went down when the switch port came out.
Opening 1 single copy of a new game is exclusively for display purposes. If a customer complained about it, we would give 5% off to the customer. However, GameStop on some sleazeball shit did have employees gut the games to remove OnLive subscription vouchers and hilariously had to remove Senran Kagura booklets from the display cases for being softcore porn on display. GameStop allows their employees to take games home for the purpose of being able to know more about games, but not with new games, if that store had employees who weren't shitty people that is. I can honestly say that at my store, we did our best to do right by our customers, but I am very aware of the other stores who didn't and what we could do to exploit customers and the company.
It juat ovvured to me that the whole "i want a new game not the one in the draw" is just completely alien to me because as a kid i was buying 99% used games because kids dont have momey for new games. Even when i was buying new games it was just noemal to get the disc reom the draw because it was like any other game. I didn't know they were opening sealwd games to do that
Will never forget the "Please forgive me, they made me do it" face of the cashier when I took an empty shelf case of a game specifically labelled "New" to the counter, thinking it would be replaced with a sealed copy, but instead was filled with a disc in a plastic sleeve from a drawer.
Are people kinda stupid back then they dont open the disc or game on the store to check with the cashier if its broken or not? Like if you buy double burger, do you go home and realize its the wrong order rather than checking it at the store first at least
I went to GameStop to buy Yakuza 0 when it came out but they didn’t have any copies. Asked if they had any hidden, the 2 guys give each other a look then one goes “my shithead manager has the business edition hidden back here half paid off, want it?” Mans was quitting tomorrow and sold me this dudes copy for like 40 bucks. Only good GameStop experience and it was cause the dude couldn’t care less
Yo that guy’s a hero.
THERE GOES MY HEROOOOO
I remember for my birthday back in like 2014-ish, I got a new copy of Hyrule Warriors from the local Gamestop, but when I went home to play it, it had a bigass scratch that made it unplayable. I was pretty bummed abt it.
But my dad was a big Zelda fan as well, and he was interested in the game.
So he went to the Gamestop like a week later and bought another copy of Hyrule Warriors. Afterwards he went to his car, swapped our disks, and returned to the store saying that they sold him the scratched disk, and they gave him a replacement for free.
I used to feel a little guilty that he got the game for himself and for me by tricking the cashier, but when I hear these Gamestop stories I don't feel so bad anymore. It wasn't a scam it was a hustle fr
Don't feel bad, corporations will swindle you in an instant and not feel a damn thing.
One of the reasons why I still maintain physical is because my local electronics store, who also shelves games, always gets them a day early (obviously, so they can have it all ready on the actual release date) but they work so quickly that they have it all set up the same day
So whenever a new game comes out I can just walk there a day early, walk in and grab it and just buy it, and there is no downsides or strings attached, no funny Gamestop business or anything
Except that this breaks embargo and would get the store shut down. Or at the least no new copies of games.
@@Michael-bn1oi They very clearly do not care and never have, I also dont think that anyone really cares if they sell some games at 8pm rather than at 7am the next morning
I feel you, mine buys a few copies of limited run games everytime they do a new thing so it's always cool to walk through and see what they got.
Wouldn't have my collectors editions of nmh1&2 with my local game store.
It more just depends on the place. Like Pat said "What's more convenient" and if you can actually get the game then yeah, go with that.
Just depends. It's also just nice to have something to get the game as Pat says again that Nintendo proved why just only digital is bad to because they can artificially make something rare by just turning off your ability TO BUY IT FROM THERE STORE!
Complete control over the product as well besides that they also can just patch it without your consent.
@@Michael-bn1oi our local game stop did the same exact thing, they couldn't stay open for a proper 'Midnight Release' so they would wait until the last hours of closing time and set up a line for pre-orders where you can just line up to get your game and leave before they closed at like 9 pm.
Though you think this would be a cool thing, oh no no no, for you see Gamestop managed to fuck me over THREE TIMES that same night! I had pre-ordered a copy of the special edition DMC5 a couple days prior, however the person ringing up my order had marked me down for the normal edition of the game by accident ( At least I like to believe he did, don't know how the fuck you do that when specifically told which version ), only for me to check in the day leading up to the release and find that out to which they said "Sorry, but if there is a spare copy we can give that to you during the Midnight release." meaning I had to wait in line to make sure I got the game I paid the preorder for was actually given to me before the store ran out of copies, then once I finally got the damn thing after waiting a couple hours and having the store staff play literal fucking 20 questions with us ( The answer was Banana by the way, no one got it but then again half of us weren't playing ) I went home to enjoy my game.... only to find out that I wasn't given ANY of the preorder stuff that actually comes with the special edition, not on the receipt, not in the box, nothing! I was basically handed a normal copy of the game and lied to three times over in the same day!
And after that they basically threw up their hands and said there was nothing they could do about it, and that was the last time I went to that Gamestop or pre-ordered a game... okay that's a lie, I pre-ordered Elden Ring only for Bandai Namco to cancel my pre-order with out telling me a day before all of the collector editions sold out along with most of the normal copies of the game... silver lining though, my friends got me Bloodbowl 2 to cheer me up instead and I honestly had way more fun playing that then I did eventually playing Elden Ring.
I’ll never forget when I bought Twilight Princess for the Wii, with the little money I had, and the disc was scratched to the point I couldn’t play it.
Breaks my heart.
Hi, I’m currently working as a manager at a GameStop in Indiana and I just want to say it sucks around here. We have been unable to take inventory for the past 5 weeks because they won’t fix their system blackout, meaning our systems won’t update whether we have or don’t have something. Much less the daily problems caused by higher ups terrible decisions. I’ll talk about some stories in the comments when I get a moment to type them out.
What part of Indiana? I worked outside of Chicago and sometimes I would venture out to Hammond if another store needed coverage.
@@nyrisj southern, won't say which store or anything for obvious reasons.
Me 1 years later, still waiting for my tea to arrive
Woolie tells that 4 Disc story line every year lol
And everytime it reminds me why society is doomed to fail
That's some scumy shit, man...
But did you know... he once met a secret Korean IRL while in a visit to Japan?
@@jackson3475 Just like our lord and savior, Kiryu. XD
First time I'm hearing it.
GameStop has basically become a funko pop store, they deserved everything that has happened
You mean being massively overvalued making out like bandits when they were about to go out of business because of memes? They're doing just fine for now lol
@@patrickmcpartland1398 Yeah, but they're clearly gonna go bankrupt soon if they keep this shit up.
Super ironic given in my region Game Stop bought out/replaced a game store called "FuncoLand"
@@NotKelloggsCornflakes i remember them. man, it's been like 17 years since that i think. time sucks.
@@patrickmcpartland1398 you shall that. But nearly every gamestop in my state has closed, or are essentially empty pawn shops
Yeah, I saw a lot of dirty stuff while working at Gamestop. Like selling games days earlier to special customers, or letting us, "rent", new games. This kid wanted to return his new opened game, we usually don't do that, but my manager let him do it only if he used 20 dollars of his 60 dollar refund to purchase a membership. Totally swindled the little dude.
Urgh, one of the reasons I had to leave GS back in the day was the stupid pressure you were under to sell those memberships. It doesn’t shock me **** like that could happen
Damn we never did anything that crazy when I worked at gamestop. Now some shenanigans did go down 100% but never fucked with pre order stuff.
You guys sold opened products as "new". That alone is insane.
Which means that the ones that did fuck with preorder stuff did it behind your back because they knew you'd snitch.
@@lemeres2478 or maybe this one particular gamestop wasn't full of delinquents?
@@LargeInCharge77 We literally never did that except for the one gutted copy we needed to put a case out for display.
One new game was opened, disc and extra content was placed in a sleeve, put in the drawer with all the new sealed copies. If that was our last one, it would be put back in the display case with all other items and sealed again. That's it, at least at my store.
@@miguelnewmexico8641 Retail manufactures delinquents. Just look at Pat.
Pat "Please don't tell anyone how I live" Boivin
He lives in the candy closet, his streaming room is just for show.
"Men live in apartments like this and they think it's okay."
@@ButtSolution all I need is a tv PC and plastic chair and I’m set for life
You are aware he moved across the Canada and has just moved in to a new house.
Dude people made me and my brother seem like crazy people for wanting a sealed copy of my new game! I feel better now.
My favorite part about Gamestop is how they murdered Thinkgeek.
Now I know why they vanished I guess. Never forget.
Same, but unironically.
the fuck is thinkgeek
@@WTFisTingispingis I don't know either. But it sounds disappointing 😞
Not too long ago, I bought Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl from Gamestop. It said new but the employee brought out an open copy and the box was ripped along the edges. I returned it later that day and bought a cheaper sealed copy from Amazon.
I bought All Star Battle R from a local game shop, Day one. DLC code doesn't work. "The code has already been used". FFFFUUUUUUUUUU
Bought a used Street fighter V championship edition from GameStop they didn't tell me only 6 characters would be free but everyone else was behind a pay wall. In other words I bought vanilla with a different packaging luckily the dude was gonna quit and gave me a voucher for all the characters for $10.
@@HoChiMints2007
In the words of SsethTzeentach: "Yes I know! Everyone and their mother is scared of CD key resellers. I bought about a 100 keys online. Every single one worked. Then I bought a box copy of Falout Tactics from the store. Which uh, just had an empty case with a code inside. That code, DIDN'T, work. So, from my experience, putting my trust in a random Polish stranger gives me better results." - SsethTzeentach - Company of Heroes 2 Review, May 2022.
That's why I don't feel about about digital and Amazon killing GameStop.
If they had a good service, people would have still used it, but it was terrible and nobody liked it.
I feel this for GAME in the UK, same deal. Whenever I was out with my friends we'd stop there, usually talk to the staff about new releases and they'd be really cool and chill about it, actually making us excited about the games. Almost everyone would pick something up.
Then at some point, the store became more and more random tacky merch, with only enough staff to man the checkout, and they push "required" loyalty memberships for even just getting a "free" Pokémon code. It doesn't feel like a good place to be anymore, or even about games. No reason to go in nowadays.
@@soupysoup9340 yup. If I remember correctly, one of the last Blockbusters in the USA was still up a few years ago (I don't know if it's still up) because the same reason you said. The staff recomended movies to you and it actually made it a good experience to go their store.
@@TalkingVidya I've gone to the last one over on the west coast and it's a pretty chill experience. Nice selection, good staff. Helps it's in a big beer town too, in my humble opinion.
@@soupysoup9340 for me GAME was consistently the worst of the UK stores that sold new games, but that wasn't an issue when we had alternatives like Grainger games and Gamestation. And then both of those died leaving us with just GAME and it started to just go down hill so fast it was like free falling.
Reminds me of the time I went to my local Gamestop and bought a used copy of No More Heroes, thinking I'd finally try it out. I took it home and opened it up and it just didn't have the game inside. When I went back to ask if they had the game somewhere else, they didn't, so I just returned it and left. It was weird as shit.
Wait, did they actually give you a refund for the empty case?
@@ChrisMerkelStudios Yeah, in retrospect it was pretty trusting of them to take my word for it. I suppose it could have been much worse. In reality, it's probably because I got it for 10 bucks and they were willing to eat the cost in the possibility they were at fault.
Did you know: GameStop is absolutely eligible for multiple war crimes by The United Nations
Really? Which ones?
@@music79075 the video game related ones.
@@music79075 killing enemy combatants by lying about surrender terms.
@@k.-flynn wait how?
@@music79075 410 billion cops killed
One Christmas I asked my Dad for the PS2 DVD remote, he accidentally got me a regular PS2 controller. I went to my local Gamestop to return it, you didn't need a receipt at the time, and they said they would give me $10 because it was used. Despite IT NEVER BEING OPENED. So instead I took it to Best Buy and they gave me the full $50 for it, no questions asked.
The best part is that he inconvenienced so many people to trick out his sick 2000 honda civic.
How else is he going to lure in those 14 year old girls?
@@p1ssedoffchristof48 I figured that he'd lure them in with free video games or something. Or would that be how they lure in 14 year old boys?
@@grahamcarpenter5135 video games for the boys; getting mercilessly jack hammered in the back seat for the girls
I remember back in 2012 when I accidentally got 2 copies of pokemon white 2 for Christmas. I went to gamestop with my receipt and returned it for I believe $25. I returned home and picked up the copy I kept and saw a second cartridge next to it. I believe I returned an empty game case to gamestop and swindled them out of $25.
I worked at a GameStop for 3 months. They would send their Demonic regional managers after us to threaten firing us because we failed to sell those fucking rewards cards to kids who only brought enough cash to buy the smallest amount of Robux. Fucking hellhole. I hope the people I worked with got out okay.
i will never forget the day i finally found the courage to buy senran kagura shinovi versus and watching with horror as the guy opened the drawer under the register, pulled out a booklet with big anime tits on the front, visibly judged me, and put it in the box. i would have never bought it in store if i knew it had physical bonuses.
😂 We judged the shit out of every creepy weeb at my store who even knew how to pronounce the name of that game.
That's when you need to be confident and demand your copy with your chest
you just had to challenge his masculinity at his fear of anime baps. insinuate they may be a homosexual and they'll back right off.
@@nyrisj Well atleast they didn't work at gamestop.
@@Zangelin don't reply to my comments, transphobe
I remember going to Gamestop to buy Metroid Prime Hunters when it came out, I gave them the 50 dollars, they gave me the cart, I walked out and then I looked at it and it said "First Hunt" aka the sold me the DEMO of the game for full price, I went back and was like "Excuse me, what is this?" and they went "Oh, we don't actually have the full game here" THEN WHY'D YOU PUT IT ON THE SHELF?
There are a couple close by, but I've never set foot in a gamestop. The closest I've been was when Hollywood Video was still alive and the local one had a GameCrazy attached to it. That store was nothing but a blessing at the time. I was far behind in gaming, people were about to move to the xbox 360 and I was still on my N64. I'd go into that store, they'd sell me an old cartridge for cheap and made sure it worked before I went out the door.
Even after I upgraded and started buying disks, they would always check them first. I pulled two games that ended up having scratched disks when I bought them. Guy made the sale and then I stood to the side while he popped them in this auto cleaner to polish them up. I don't know if that was a unique experience, but it was a marvelous one.
GameCrazy falling victim to the recession instead of Gamestop is all the proof I need to know there is no god.
My first Gba game came from my local Hollywood video/gamecrazy so this brings back the memories for sure. Moms bought me The Legend of Zelda (nes port) on her own personal instance. She set me up for life with that move🙏
This is just the Digital Doesn't Scoff at you clip again. Shenmue damaged disc and being hustled at the rental place, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin on release with a clear save on it, "We have plastic thing if you want me to reseal it", Razor phone with numbers in it. All of it. That episode is like a year old.
And they still don't understand why the discs dont sit in the box.
I remember way back when, I bought Naruto Ninja Council 3 and when I put it into my DS, it was inexplicably the Japanese version of the game which baffles me to this very day. Why did an American store have a Japanese copy of a game? I dont remember Gamestop doing imports, but the game was in the English language box so clearly someone there had to have swapped out the cartridges. So where did that cart go? Did an employee snag it? I’ve stayed awake thinking about this, its baffling to me.
11:40 I had that happen with Game Fly. I called them up and told them the disc was scratched beyond playable. The guy told me, You can pay for the copy of No More Heroes 2, or we can just charge your card from your account for it. I pulled my card from the records as I was on the phone with that guy. I said, No I will not pay for something I did not break. Then said, Guess I'll be pulling my sub to you guys cause this is some bullS*** you are pulling on me. Hung up and canceled the sub. Never looked back.
Reminds me of when I went to GameStop to pickup a copy of Persona 5 Strikers, which when I called they said it had the launch edition code stuff, but when I got there the box was not only open but the digital content code was just sitting there inside!! I made sure to put in the code on PSN from my phone before I left because someone could have totally just stolen it if they wanted to.
I think everybody who ever rented a multi disc game has that same story
Mine was FF8, and apparently the kid in front of me DIPPED IT IN MAPLE SYRUP. No, this isn't a Canadian joke. It fucking should be, but it isn't!
Current gamestop employee here. I can't speak for anyone else but at our store we only take the disc or cartridge out so we can put the case out on the floor and I'm sorry people did you guys dirty like that. I remember Woolie's story about getting the game and it also had a save file on it and it's just so completely messed up.
As a former GS employee, the policy of making the final copy of a game a display box is still garbage (unless you are going to discount the game to the person who buys that sleeved disc).
@@TheJadedJames We would only discount the game if the customer made an issue of it.
@@nyrisj And they shouldn’t have to. If it was opened, it should be sold as a used game or at that price
@@TheJadedJames I respectfully disagree man. My personal belief is that it is New because it hasn't been used and you are just going to open it anyhow. My issue is the sticker. Those can really mess up a case.
@@Deadwolf27 The store breaks the seal AND physically handles those discs to sleeve them. I don’t care that they’ve never been placed inside a console, they are should be discounted at that point. There are other ways GS could make display boxes
I've been lucky to not deal with Gamestop BS so far. Hell, I've had good experience at my local one. For Christmas I got an XBox 360 (original version) and with my christmas money, I bought Smackdown vs. Raw 2007. Now my naive young mind thought you were supposed to keep your Xbox standing up straight, and for a day or so, the game worked fine, than all of a sudden I hear a screeching sound and the game stopped. The disc was scratched up beyond repair, not cracked, but unplayable.
We go to Gamestop, which was still packed, and the awesome employee understood what had happened, told us to simply keep that inevitable paper weight laying down and gave me a new copy of the game. He told us he wasn't supposed to do this, but seeing that it was an honest to god accident, he straight up grabbed another copy of the game and gave it to me and said "Enjoy little man".
Back in the day my dad pre-ordered Halo Wars 1. He got the special edition. The day we went to go pick it up it turns out they already gave out our copy (guy obviously stahsed it for himself or a friend).
I remember I went with a friend to pick up their sealed copy of Tekken 6 just for us to walk out the store go in his car and open the case to see it was empty we went back in and they said we were out of luck
You fought those dudes in the street, right?
Cos that's just fuckin robbery.
@@iamnuff1992 we argued for about 10 minutes and it devolved down to them saying "you could have just taken the disc out and trying to snag a second copy"
@@gettingannoyedquick you should firebomb them lol
@@gettingannoyedquick I mean, tecnically they're right. You could just take the disc out and put it in your car and come get a second copy for your friend... but you can generally tell if someone's full of shit.
You should have fought those dudes.
You know, I surprisingly never got fucked over by Gamestop on pre-orders. Mainly the collectors editions I ordered through them. All of them came in perfect condition and everything. When I bought both versions of Fire Emblem Fates (A mistake on my part) they even game me the key chains you were supposed to get with the collectors edition even thought I didn't order that. Just "Oh, you're buying both so take these key chains too, no extra charge".
I have to tell you all about the 2012 Xenoblade Chronicles fiasco at GameStop. The game had just come out in the Spring of that year and by the end of summer, all new copies of the game were removed from the inventory company wide and changed to used copies. Brand new Wii games retailed at $50, and since it was Nintendo published, it would never go down in price unless it were used. Except the price never went down. GameStop had every copy of the game sent to their central warehouse in TX, where they waited until Black Friday to re-debut the games as rare for $99.99. Since GameStop was the exclusive distributor of the game in NA, there was no other way to get it and they had 100% control of the price, demand, and quantities.
I had gamestop ship me a unplayable game and they didn't do anything about it.
I barely go to GS as is, never went back ever again
I remember a GameStop employee telling a Parent who was searching for a good game for their kid that Sonic 06 is a game that they would love. I told her that it isn’t good but I’m unsure if she listened.
This is so wild to hear. Living in Nunavut, our new games are always put in locked cases that you have to ask the workers to open for you. Pair that with the fact that we usually got games 2 weeks to a month late, they couldn't risk doing this sort of stuff.
I've seen Gamestop employees upsell people who didn't speak english and couldn't say no to warranties. Also they're like "you wanna get a warranty for your new game? Sometimes theyre defective and its good to get a warranty!" And i'm like ok so your store sells defective products?
That's disgusting. A couple months ago, I had a guy apply the warranty costs without asking me or mentioning it. I saw the price on the podium and knew it was too much, and then the guy tries to explain the warranty. I worked at GameStop for 4 years and never saw anything like that before.
One, and one reason only that _digital distribution_ became widely accepted in America: Gabe_N
I had to buy jak 3 for ps2 from either eh games or GameStop like freaking 4 times when I was a kid because the first 3 times the disk was scratched to hell and would only load the opening cutscene then just crash
I will buy a bottle of an expensive liquor to celebrate the day, the literal day of, GameStop completely collapses inside itself and declares bankruptcy.
Edit: This is also why I bought No More Heroes 3 for Xbox from Best Buy.
This is why I American Psycho my game transactions. Earphones on, music blaring, dead look to the face, stare a fucking hole through the cashier as they move their mouths.
I'm banned from one GameStop in my town.
I worked at a mall GameStop for a summer before college in 2015, around when those stores were becoming funko pop shops. One of the last things I remember was my manager having to re-arrange the store and get more shelf space for toys and accessories.
The only time I ever got in trouble was the time a 15 year old kid wanted to buy Dragon Age: Inquisition for his birthday. Had to turn him down because it was an M rated game, so he went and got his older sister to buy it and I sold it to her. After they left my manager went off on me for it when he found, but that was all that ever came of it.
Wait, why was he angry at you? If the older sister brought it, then what's the problem?
The ps5 took so long to become available in the slightest that I just decided to get a pc built by my friend instead
I guess I was really lucky. Worked at a mall Gamestop for about a year, and the worst thing we ever did was not have enough PS5s to sell, and we could only sell them in $700-$800 bundles. Never stopped a single person from buying it though.
It's mostly because my bosses (SL and ASL) were fucking awesome, and also helped get me my new job with them. They didn't tow the corporate line, they didn't do anything which would screw over a customer, and they did everything they could to actually make people happy. Needless to say, corporate didn't like that, but I sure did.
I don't know, we mainly sold Funko pops and collectibles anyway, games were secondary.
That story about the games being damaged by the store hits home for me. I bought Red Dead 2 from a different store, won't name a name, but the game was playing somewhat but not running properly at times when it should. A day later, checked the disc, big scratch. Returned it.
Got home with a new copy, same deal. Another big scratch. Returned this one.
Finally got one that worked properly. Played through the story, took about a week, was satisfied but not interested in playing anymore. Went to trade it back in. They wouldn't take it, because of a tiny hairline, not even as long as the tip of my pinky finger scratch. Mind you, this was maybe the fourth or fifth time this given store had denied me a trade-in because of these scratches that weren't even perceivable unless you manipulated the light specifically to see them and even then I could barely notice them at times. No testing, nothing, just denied sales left and right. So this RDR2 situation was the boiling point. I haven't gone back to that store, or really any game store for years now. And mind you, I take good care of my games, especially disk based media, so the scratch likely already existed when I bought it and I just got lucky.
Hate second hand game stores now, except for this one I went to once in Michigan. That place was awesome.
In the UK they take the discs out to stop people from shoplifting, presumably.
It's like how at an old VCR rental place, the shelves would be full of empty boxes.
Although that said, I think some shops you just brought the empty case to the counter and they handed you a brand new, sealed full case in return.
I dunno, I havn't bought a game in store in years.
So leave the sealed copies behind the counter and bring them out on request. Never justify corporate fuckery for them. Never repeat their lies. They are not your friend.
@@The5lacker Yeah, just put a single empty box out on the floor, and take it back if you don't have any more copies. Keep that shit sealed and under the counter or in the back, there's no need to open every single stupid box.
@@KotoRyu That's exactly what they do though. Every instance of someone putting a disc from a sleeve into a new game is when it's their last copy. You end up getting the display copy.
@@The5lacker That's what GameStop does. I worked there for 4 years and that is precisely how it works. If we had 10 copies of a new game, 9 are sealed under the counter and 1 is open on the floor. You sell the sealed copies first, until you run out.
@@nyrisj Unless, in some cases, they feel like opening the box to get what comes with it and sell it separately. Or play it before it's supposed to be out. Neither of which they're supposed to do, and did anyway. Or at least used to do.
They're not sealed in plastic when they get there. The discs are usually not in the disc tray whe nthey arrive but in that sleeve. You are supposed to add them manuall like that and keep them in the back cause of theft.
None of the half dozen or so Gamestops in my area gutted more than the few needed for display copies out on the floor.
I had a friend that back in the early days of Xbox Live a lot of Xbox games would come with a free month of Xbox live. Since they would take games out of display cases half the time the manual and other things would still be in them on the floor. My friend I think ended up getting years of Xbox Live for free from this.
At this point I strictly use GameStop for looking for old DS games for cheap and the odd used game. I want to go back in time and strangle younger, dumber me for selling all of my good shit for pocket change. I'm paying fucking premiums to build my collection back up to respectable levels.
I'm in Australia so it's already hard af to get physical game. GameStop is rebranded to EBGames here and it's in shambles rn. It was always the place that was so covered in SALE stickers and banners that you couldn't see the rest of the damn store. Place was a downright meme.
Then it just...reduced down to nothing. There are games on the walls, yeah, but 60% of that wallspace is also taken up by mugs, cases, keyboards, videogame branded boardgames and Funkopops. The floor space of the shop is practically empty but for a few shelves of pokemon merch with space enough between them to make them look like displays instead of for-sale items.
This is the same place that, a couple of years ago, had a lifesized Spiderman made out of sales banners hanging from the door and giant bins of cheap trade-ins and Amiibos/Skylanders/wtf-ever taking up 2/3 of the floor.
Starbucks does this with the super scarce, also heavily scalped cups. Employees almost always either buy them up immediately before they go on the shelf or they sit in the back for a week.
I was part of GameStop third party customer service contract. At first they sold us the idea that the company was trying to turn things around and be more customer service oriented. Maybe some of the guys in charge meant it but things went bad quickly. They ended up terminating our companys contract without proper notice when they started bleeding money over their farce of a NFT market place
I remember when I pre-ordered Blazblue Central Fiction on PS3 at GameStop on the Thursday before release. Come release day, the clerk said "it's sold out" and told me I would be refunded. I showed the pre-order receipt and then they said "The game doesn't release today, it came out last Thursday" which was a blatant lie. I told him that I ordered it on that Thursday so why wasn't I given a copy on that day? Clerk just stopped making excuses and processed the refund anyway without my consent. I had to buy a digital copy since there wasn't any physical PS3 copies anywhere without pre-order.
I used to go to a GS so often I became cool enough with 2 employees to bribe them with Chewy Chips Ahoy's (Solid trade) to hold stuff for me. Including a SNES Classic, which they were specifically told not to do. He went "Ill go check... oh look I found one!" In front of 3 ppl. Lol.
As someone who will just rell customers "i dont know" at my work, the with that is that for a significant portion of people they are just not prepared to accept that answer. The worst customer experiences ive had are me trying to explain to someone that i do not know something, nome of my coworkers know, there is no System we can use to find the information. A lot of people just do not want to hear
I had something similar with GameCrazy/Hollywood Video back in the day, they had a copy of Valkyrie Profile hidden because one of the employees was trying to get it themselves. I had seen someone trade it in the day before and asked if they still had it. The guy looked me in my face and said they had already sold it. So I thought okay, I'll get something else and began to look around then I found the copy. They didn't even have it behind the counter though just hidden behind a bunch of other games on a shelf. I walk up to buy it and say something like "already sold it huh?" The guy tried to ask me to not buy it, then said it wouldn't ring up, but finally sold it when the manager got involved
Thankfully I always had good luck when buying my games. Even when I bought Symphony of the Night from the shadiest store I ever seen, it wasnt used and worked perfectly.
I only get my games from Gamestop on release date, probably pre-ordered, and still in shrink wrap. Though the shrink wrap and be faked, we did that in Toys "r" Us on occasion.
Used to work in a UK version called gamestation between 03 and 2010. we didnt get any display sleeves in for anything so had to gut the games and keep the new ones in one set of drawers and the pre owned ones in another set, was very rare we would have any new ones sealed unless it was a big release. its how everyone i worked with became addicted to the smell of a fresh game manual. The only time we ever had any damaged new discs was for halo 3 and the stupid metal tin the collectors edition came in, everything else was pulled out the box and stuffed into the manuals then sleaved up to stop them getting any scratched on them. it sounds like gamestop is just a crapfest over there
I bought a copy of Final Fantasy X for PS2 way back in the day, and the disc was so scratched that it just wouldn’t play. It’d load the main menu and stop there. It was ridiculous.
I called up a Gamestop the day Splatoon 3 was supposed to come out, asking if they were doing a midnight launch.
To my delight the guy on the phone stated "oh just come by at 10PM"
Oh cool I thought, I show up at 10PM, there's a pretty big line of people in this smelly, UN-airconditioned store.
Each person at the register took an ungodly amount of time to get their shit together.
I get to the front and tell them I want the game.
I wait.
cashier waits.
I wait.
The cashier says "Whats your prerorder code"
Preorder? I called earlier and nobody told me that was a requirement
This is a midnight event only for preorders she explained.
There were to be no exceptions.
I leave the smelly store empty handed, went home and just ordered the game digitally.
Fuck Gamestop now and forever.
Way back when human revolution came out i saved up some money for a couple months to get it and when i get into the store the guy waves me off saying they dont have it as i litteraly see two dudes crowding around it in the back im a fucking idiot teenager so i assume they were just play testing or something so i leave and come back in a week ask again and hey they say they had 1 copy i watch the guy get the box and go to the back then comes back with it wrapped in plastic and im like wait "why did he have to reseal it when he couldve just gave it to me normally" so i ask him about he says they got a new shipment in the back but i think about it alil more and just say no to him and opened the packaging infront of him when he sets it down on the counter and theres just a ring scratched into the fucking thing and someone used the fucking top as a coaster for there pop or coffee and the guys screaming at me that im breaking laws and he will call the cops if i dont leave so i left and only bought gift cards for xbox live and psn at my gas station from that day forward
ps2 marvel 2 was the only version of that game i played besides an arcade cabinet at my local mall, i was like 5 so i couldn't really tell the difference it was just fun to me playing wolverine, spider man, ryu, and mega man
While I never experienced a horror story with GameStop, I did have an interesting exchange. Gamestop had a sale on Nintendo Switch games. I bought Mario Odyssey off their website (I also used a $5 gift card I had sitting around). After a month the game never showed up and the tracking never went beyond its initial pending. I called customer service and the staff asked if I wanted a refund or if I still wanted the game. I asked for the game and received it no problems. Surprisingly, I got a giftcard in the mail from GameStop. I thought that was weird, and wondered if it was some kind of "sorry for the trouble" thing. Then I checked my bank account and found that my purchase was refunded. I basically got Mario Odyssey for free. It pays to be nice to customer service I guess lol
Recently I purchased a copy of Xenoblade 3 at target and wanted to return it for store credit or something but the lady said "because you opened it, I cannot give you store credit, *you can only return it for the same copy*." And I was so confused so I literally asked "if I can't return a copy because its opened and you're gonna trade me a sealed copy anyway, can't I just go ahead and return that to get my money back?"
And she just got silent and said the same thing. I played along, went to a different target to do the trade but then this lady was like "what? I'll just give you your money back"
I dont think digital stores was the reason why gamestop did the package opening, because i had the broken seal purchases with Gamecube games, which does not have digital downloads.
No but digital downloads were still a thing around then for other games right (like PC)? When a store sets a policy, it's unlikely that it would say "Break the seal, oh except for these kinds of items." They would usually set it for all the products, which leads to the abuse of the policy.
It's like at one point gamestop just thought "how can we ruin video games?"
I've gone almost entirely digital since near the end of the PS3 era. I even had that digital only PSPGo thing for a good 6-7 years. The only games I've bought physically since then are a few Switch games for various reasons. Now if only Pokemon would stop doing those goddamned event distributions only at Gamestop, I would never have to think about that place again.
this reminds me of the crap Tim Rogers went through to get his new copy of FFVI hehe.
i returned to Gamestop a busted DS lite (switched serial # sticker), and traded a dying 360- so at least they got back some of what they dish out. buttholes.
Unless they traded it to someone ELSE.
@@ShyRanger well they should test everything again before selling it. also- screw those people! they should've learned what i learned before i did- and stopped shopping at Gamestop!
Many moons ago, I decided I wanted to see what the Kingdom Hearts franchise was all about. This was right around the time that the sequel released. Went to the local Gamestop to pick up a copy of the first game, and they did that thing where they pulled the disc out of a sleeve. Never really liked it when that happened, but since the game was so (relatively) old at the time, I wasn't too worked up over it. Get back to my place, open up the case: Turns out the guy had given me a copy of Kingdom Hearts II for $20🤣
I have two Gamestop stories: Story 1. I wanted to buy Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero Risky Beats Edition for the ps4. I go to a store and they tell me they don't have it but "other" store has a new copy. I drive 30 minutes to the other store and when I get there and go "Hey we called you earlier about game" and he pulls out the disc in a sleeve and I go. "Wait, it's a box set. It's supposed to come with a soundtrack, book, etc." and he just stares at me and goes "Yeah sometimes people steal those." Like, I wanted to buy a new limited edition game and you're going to just sell me the disc in a sleeve? Are you fucking kidding me? I went back to the first store and just asked them if they could just order it for me to pickup and they did. Story 2: I ordered a used XBOX 360 Elite console about 6 or 7 years ago because I wanted to play some older 360 games again and I made sure to order the one that had the 80GB harddrive. Paid around $120 for it. I bought chargers, wires and controllers in anticipation and when it finally comes in the mail stupid me just chucked it in the closet thinking I'll get to it later. Fast forward two months and I finally open it up to play and I notice it's missing the hard drive and all it has instead is a flash drive hooked up to it. I was PISSED both at myself and Gamestop for my mistake in assuming Gamestop wouldn't pull a fast one on me, angry at Gamestop themselves and also angry at myself again for not opening the goddamn box sooner and not after the return window had closed. This one has a bit of a happy ending though because a bunch of Gamestops around me got liquidated 1or 2 years ago and I got a bunch of hard drives for pennies on the dollar.
I remember reserving a copy of Guilty Gear Xrd- Revelator, and it took me 3 days to get it. GRANTED, that seemed to be more of an issue on Aksys Games's part, as I heard other retailers didn't get their copy on release day, but it was still an inconvenience (especially as I had a crappy that week anyways)
When I was a kid I use to rent games from block buster and the one by my house there copy of kingdom hearts one would black screen after you beat the first boss I took it back told them it was broken it was off the shelf’s for like 3 weeks and then it came back I thought o cool they fixed it and rented it again and it was still broken they literally just put the same disk back on the shelf so long story short I didn’t play kh1 till way later when I found a used copy at game crazy
Target did this to me with my Switch , it was brand new on the shelf controllers and all still sealed yet had someone's profile on it that said "F**K YOU.
Pat calling someone and asking who is calling you right now is so fucking funny if someone called me asnd asked whos calling me rightnow id be like you 🤣
I'm almost certain my local London Drugs was resealing used games and selling them as new.
I bought Bayonetta 2 (and a Wii U) at least 3 different times at EB games, not only because I love the game, but the because the employees always found a way profit off various trades I wanted to make. Mind you, I was naive and broke with money back then @ University, hence the reselling and rebuying of the Wii U's I had.
It is no wonder that GameStop (and EB games) are (somehow still?) against digital games.
I worked a seasonal at a gamestop 3 years ago and it was one of the worst jobs I've ever had the amount of red tape and data stealing they want you to do is insane and meanwhile I just wanna talk about video games with people
The saddest part is when the "new" Gamestop game was already unsealed and they didn't have anymore sealed versions and it was a game you really wanted on launch day and even after pressing to make sure it was really the only one left. So then you were forced to get it because you preordered and really wanted to play this "new" game. You have no idea how many new PS3 and Wii games I bought on launch day for full price new and unsealed because Gamestop said they were the only copies left. Once I bought a cracked and already opened case of Dead Rising 3 for "new" price outrageous but I needed it to play it.
My gamestop must have really been the outlier. I never had any of those horror stories.
I feel the pain of the guy who says 'next thursday'. That's company policy screwing someone over by the sounds of it, with a script from experience.
Did we have this problem when you could turn around and go to Babbages or EB Games? I remember it only getting bad after Gamestop became a monopoly.
Just started working at Gamestop, and now suddenly every single social media platform I'm on somehow knows.
Half my TikTok feed is just other Gamestop employees dicking around on their down time, now.
Do you take any device logged out to any of your accounts to work? If yes, welcome you are now inside the colossal stack of other peoples information being sold so other companies can max out their ads
the only people who are associated with Gamestop that **aren't** considered "the Product" themselves... is Citadel Capital equity
One day after work I dropped in to pick up Nier Replicant and this dude left a big ass thumb print on the disc. It’s still there and I’m still pissed.
Remember Folks, support your local gamestore. Fuck GameStop.
My ears perked up there, however that was a different Raven.
The KOFXI story is always so frustrating. XD Just say that you don't know, why have the customer keep coming back to ask...
Problem with that is, that's still lying and it could be even more aggravating to customers. It's still lying cause in many cases you DO know why, but can't say it cause of the stupid policies set, and most people won't take "I don't know why" either reading through it as you hiding something or "Okay I'll ask another employee, maybe they know."
My local eb games was pretty good never had problem with opened new games but you could always tell when the Manger was there even when you didn't see him cause if he wasn't you would just go in and buy the game while if the Manger was there you had to spend 5 minutes saying no to everything from membership to pre orders to peripherals. But one time I don't remember the game it was some niche jrpg my brother wanted and we called our local store to see if we had it and the said they didn't but another store across town did so we went there and his brand "new" game was takin out of a sleeve from a box and and put in the game box which we thought was weird cause the other store didn't do that bur thought nothing of it cause the game worked fine and we never went there again
It was white knight chronicles 2
I have a very good Gamestop with Employees that care and actually play videogames. They've broken policy in secret for their customers and I will always go back. They legit held a collectors edition of Metroid dread for me and let me know information that actually legit for when Preorders are going to start, They said they let the info and do these things for people they believe aren't going to scalp. If I ever buy a physical game, I buy it from that gamestop. But I have had horrible experiences with other gamestops.
It sounds like for a GS to be good, all you need is for the employees to break all the normal GS rules. That’s a pretty bad sign
The answer and punchline to any Gamestop story is to simply say FUCKING GAMESTOP
Unless you're a caveman, then it's FUCKING ROCKSTOP
WHENS MAHVEL
"uh..........reserved?"
I tried to sell my Xbox One at a local game store and the guy at the counter looked me straight in the eye and told me that he would give me $30 USD for the system, 2 controllers, and the physical copies of Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo 5
I didnt even try to haggle, I just walked out
The moment they started selling things that weren't just games it was going downhill. I don't care if this is the only place within 100 miles you can buy figurines of Harley Quinn in person, i don't care if they sell mousepads (though admittedly I'm typing this on a mousepad i bought at GameStop so I'm a part of that problem), their main market is games, so them focusing on things that aren't games led to people just buying it from somewhere that was cheaper, return policy be damned.
Also they sold me, a copy of Skyward Sword, which was pre-owned and had been out for like 5 years by that point, for $47 USD. A price that only went down when the switch port came out.
Opening 1 single copy of a new game is exclusively for display purposes. If a customer complained about it, we would give 5% off to the customer. However, GameStop on some sleazeball shit did have employees gut the games to remove OnLive subscription vouchers and hilariously had to remove Senran Kagura booklets from the display cases for being softcore porn on display.
GameStop allows their employees to take games home for the purpose of being able to know more about games, but not with new games, if that store had employees who weren't shitty people that is. I can honestly say that at my store, we did our best to do right by our customers, but I am very aware of the other stores who didn't and what we could do to exploit customers and the company.
I was one of the assholes that payed $80 for a copy of marvel 2 at a gamestop several months to a year before the PSN port dropped for $15.
It juat ovvured to me that the whole "i want a new game not the one in the draw" is just completely alien to me because as a kid i was buying 99% used games because kids dont have momey for new games. Even when i was buying new games it was just noemal to get the disc reom the draw because it was like any other game. I didn't know they were opening sealwd games to do that
Will never forget the "Please forgive me, they made me do it" face of the cashier when I took an empty shelf case of a game specifically labelled "New" to the counter, thinking it would be replaced with a sealed copy, but instead was filled with a disc in a plastic sleeve from a drawer.
Are people kinda stupid back then they dont open the disc or game on the store to check with the cashier if its broken or not?
Like if you buy double burger, do you go home and realize its the wrong order rather than checking it at the store first at least