I think I’m going to quit shopping at my local Gamestop in favor of another one. I’ve got one that takes less than 5 minutes to drive to, I could even walk if I wanted, but the last few times I’ve visited have not been nice. Or I may just stop shopping at Gamestop altogether seriously, I can order them online from Amazon and get it delivered to my door.
A couple weeks ago I go in to trade some games in, I don’t really care about the whole trade-in thing, I know it’s kind of a rip-off but it’s convenient for me. I take care of my stuff, I’m an adult not a child who just throws things around. My games are always in their cases and handled with care. Trading the games in they hit me with a $4 refurbish fee for what looks to be a defect in the disc itself, it was just a discoloration. It wasn’t a scratch or a scuff mark, I know that, I know the game works fine, I played it, I finished it. I tried to argue with the guy but he said he thinks it needs refinished so that’s that, take it or leave it. I wasn’t really arguing, I just said that’s not a scratch it’s just a discoloration in the disc itself, but he wasn’t having any of it.
My kids wanted to trade some of their games in, now we cleaned them before taking them in, yes they had a few small scratches but they played fine I can attest to that fact. My son ended up with $2.31 for three games after they hit him with refurb charges on all of his games. This is just BS surely.
My other son traded in four games and ended up with about $6 after they hit him with fees on all of his games.
They’re running this new program where you get an extra 20% on trade in, but it seems they’re getting around giving you this bonus by hitting you with refurb fees for every game, and the fee is more than what the extra % is. So you’re really losing money.
The other day I go in to grab a combo game, it was two game for $19.99. it’s Mirror’s Edge and Fracture. never played either one, but I always wanted to try Mirror’s Edge and for $10 I figured why not. The Gamestop site doesn’t say it’s an online only thing and I’ve seen other combo packs like this at my Gamestop so I figured I’d give it a try. I found out it’s an online only thing…
I figured while I was there I would grab DeathSmiles, the box is on the shelf, I take it to the counter and they don’t have it in stock. Then I watched the guy take it back and put it back on the shelf knowing full well that they don’t have it in stock?! WTF? Seriously you know it’s not in stock but you’re going to offer it for sale?!
Today I go to get Mafia II, a big game, with a lot of hype behind it. No I don’t pre-order games, I get a lot for review, so why pre-order when the game might show up on my doorstep, and if it doesn’t I just go buy it if I really want it. Gamestop has none at all unless you pre-ordered it.
How does that make any sense at all? A big game launch like Mafia II and you don’ t have any at all to sell to walk in customers?!?
I don’t understand how they stay in business, they lie and cheat customers by saying the game needs refurbed when it obviously doesn’t, and they don’t have the brand new games in stock, but yet they have promos everywhere in the store for the game, in their windows, and empty boxes on the shelves for said game. That’s false advertising if I ever did see it… They get you in the store with the ads, but then they don’t have it and expect you to buy something else I guess… It’s a bunch of BS..