Gamestop sucks and makes no sense…
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..
Did you find this information helpful? If you did, consider donating.

August 24th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I pretty much use Gamestop for buying all my games. Usually I get the used games, get $ off for having the edge card. I preorder sometimes if I’m getting a upgraded version. My son wants Halo Reach, he wanted legendary but he’s getting elite or whatever the next one down is. I haven’t had any problems really with walking in day of and getting a game. I hit Century III, which has 2 stores in it and then Southland has one.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Well apparently I’m just destined to not play it at all… I bought it off of Steam for PC almost 2 hours ago and it won’t download. I get errors saying the servers are too busy, and I get an error saying the servers don’t have this content on them?!?! Somebody just doesn’t want me to play it at all..
September 20th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Ya game stop sucks there’s a store in Eugene Oregon called gamer HQ so I do my buissness there one thing I hate about GS employes is they think they know everything about game systems I over heard the guy at my local GS say the ps3 has a lower resolution than the xbox 360 and ps3 has a crappy proccesor and needs replacment yearly so I but in stating the real facts and he said I was wrong lol I was amazed I think gamestop should educate there employes if they don’t actually know what they are talking about
September 20th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Well, I have to say Gamestop and the EB Games franchise has been known for stepping on the smaller folk who just want to buy something and get out of there while being enchantingly expensive.
Mafia II like you stated above may have been a pre-order game. But it was Gamestops and the Game Companies idea of experimenting marketing techniques. Some or most people are stupid enough to buy anything without arguing to let them make all the rules, while putting us honest customers through a hard time with these new “Rules”.
(Except for their one-of-a-kind-rare-to-find employee that’s nice, has better knowledge than most employees with gaming experience, and is happy to help with any problem regarding exchange rather than the most usual who say “Sorry we can’t help you.”)
I suggest you shop in places online that deal gaming software and actually have real approval by many consumers, and check for possible fraud.
I suggest never to shop on Ebay, Amazon, and Gamestop.com for gaming merchandise, as Ebay is gambling, Amazon is royally expensive, and Gamestop is just a virtual copy of the store itself, but without those rare kind employees.
March 3rd, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Gamestop is just so… bad :\
If you want to trade in games, Amazon has a nice program. You can go to the trade-in section of their website, select the games you have, print out a shipping label (free) and send it via UPS. They pay more than Gamestop (and the credit is good on everything on Amazon, not just games), and they don’t nail you with refurbish fee. I got more than $45 for a few old games last time I used it.
August 24th, 2011 at 8:19 am
Heh, you guys are lucky. I wanted to go see if it would be more profitable to go hit either Ebay or Gamestop, so I sat down at the computer, got on Ebay, and found out that the 20 games that I wanted to sell (two zero, remember that, 20!), all of which were in mint condition, five of which were never opened, would be approximately 200 bucks. Yes, 200. And that’s assuming minimum price. I have a couple limited editions of games. So, with that price in mind, I run over to Gamestop and ask them for an estimate. I don’t know, maybe it was because I was 13 when I ran over there or what, but the guy looks through them and says: “Ehh, taking cleaning fees and stuff, I’ll give you $20.”
………… See ya Gamestop! =D
Btw, I did end up making $250 off the games when I hit Ebay.
August 28th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
THATS TRUE GAME STOP TRADE SUCKS IF U TRADE 60 GAMES YOU GET 20 BUCKS AND GAMESTOP PAY THERE EMPLOYESD 7 BUCKS A HOUR
September 30th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
There return policy is completely retarded. I bought a new game.There supposed to be closed when there new,but NO not gamestop. So I decided to return this game, due to the fact I really needed to save my money(one of those:why did I buy this?Situations), they wont allow you to return it if the seals been broken,which is completely backwards,the games were opened before!I saw it with my own eyes…WHY?What purpouse does that serve?That just makes it harder for us to be able to return games.Screw you guys!I’m buying from amazon from now on.
September 30th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
These guys are what would be considered:In real life trolls…I still feel there evi prescence lingering on me…*shudders*