Is that for the PS2?

Store: GameStop
Location: Orlando, FL
Employee Description: Dumb hot chick they hired who knows nothing about games
Submitted By: Chris L

So I got a 360 for Christmas of 2006. I finally was able to jump on the bandwagon that was Halo 2 multiplayer.

I visit a GameStop, in a plaza in a poor section of Orlando, and this little girl is behind the counter.

Me: Can I please get a used copy of Halo 2?
Girl: Sure you can! Be right back.

(A few minutes go by of her looking up and down the shelves for Halo 2)
(She comes back)

Girl: I’m sorry, did you want that for Playstation 2?
Me: [LOL]
Girl: ?
Me: Uh, no, Xbox.

(Me and my friend look at each other, laugh, then look at the store manager watching her, and we all chuckle)
(Girl comes back)

Girl: Here you go
(Girl takes out the disc of the unmarked GameStop-brand box)
(Girl notices something wrong)
Manager: Uh, that’s the Map Pack for Halo 2. Sir gimme one sec.

(Me and my friend are laughing so hard on the inside now…)

Girl: Sorry about that..
Me: …[LOL]

Girl: You’re all rung up
Me: Oh wait, let me use my GameStop card
Girl: …

(Girl takes literally 10 minutes to figure out how to give me my crappy discount; eventually the manager comes and does it for her)

Girl: Ok, you’re all set
Me: Thanks…
Girl: Hey, have you pre-ordered Halo 3? The game is going to rock!

Such is the Way of “Customer Service”

Store: GameStop
Location: Crossroads Mall, Oklahoma City, OK
Employee Description: Manager was a goatee wearing *sshole in his mid to late 30’s, the clerk was balding and a few years older and was probably the manager’s brother-in-law.
Submitted By: Twist

Sometime in the summer of 2005 I went into the GameStop location where I had done most of my game related purchasing for many, many years (I used to buy SNES games there when it was a Babbage’s). I had finally decided to reserve an Xbox 360 and I wanted to pick up Far Cry: Instincts for the Xbox and as usual browse through the used games to see if there were any gems.

When I walked into the store I was disappointed to see that the only people working were the manager and this older *sshole. Usually I avoided both of them as much as possible because besides being rude as hell neither of them seemed to know shit about games other than the preprogrammed BS that GameStop feeds them. The manager was “helping” a couple with some questions about the Xbox 360 which they wanted to get their son for Christmas. I had to stop myself from giving these people better information because half of what he was saying was complete lies. For example he told them that you had to have a Play & Charge Kit for every single wireless controller, period, and that games and accessories were going to be as hard to find as the consoles.

After looking around a bit I went up to the other employee who was just standing around behind the counter looking like he had forgotten to bring his brain to work with him that day. I told him that I wanted a copy of Far Cry: Instincts and that I wanted to reserve a 360. At this point he tells me that they are no longer reserving 360’s and he then wastes about 5 minutes of my time trying to get me to reserve games and accessories for the 360. Once I finally convince him that I am not going to reserve anything for a system that I might not be able to get he just zones out on me and starts staring at the counter.

While this is going on the manager has duped the couple into reserving a wireless controller, two play & charge kits, a couple of games and their strategy guides, a prepaid things of MS Points, a year of Xbox Live Gold (with the extra headset), and a couple of memory units (even though the couple was interested in the premium model of 360) all for a console that they probably wouldn’t be able to get until January. The manager had successfully convinced them that accessories and games were going to be as hard to find as the systems. I bet this guy used to be a used car sales man.

Cut back to the clerk pulling the lost-in-la-la-land routine: about two minutes goes by like this (if I wasn’t patient I probably would have stopped doing business with GameStop way sooner than this) when another customer walks into the store (it was dead that day, besides the couple and me this is the only other customer who had been in the store since I got there) and this one is something special. She is a super MILF (not just a regular MILF, a SUPER MILF). So the clerk wakes up and immediately asks her if he can help her. She starts asking something about something for the GBA for her son and I interrupt her. I say “Excuse me, do you not want to sell me the game I asked for?” and the clerk says “Oh I will be with you in just a minute.” and I said “No you were helping me first so you will be with her in just a minute.” At this point the manager asks us what is going on and I tell him and he says “Oh well we are really busy he will be right with you.”

I was being calm up to this point but this just pissed me off. This was probably going on 10 minutes since I told the clerk what I wanted and about 9 minutes after I should have left the store with the game I wanted. So I told them both that if this is what passed for customer service around here then I don’t need to do business with them anymore. The manager made some snide remark that I didn’t fully catch as I was leaving and him and the clerk had a good laugh.

I took my money across the street to Best Buy and I have only been in that GameStop once since then and I have been avoiding the chain as much as possible.

Sony To Purchase Microsoft!

Store: EB Games
Location: Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester, CT
Employee Description: Too much turnover to remember
Submitted By: Nick Utter

This was right about the time that GTA was finally announced for the Xbox. I was browsing the store looking for God knows what and a mother and her small child entered the store. The boy couldn’t have been more than 10. Anyhow, mom noted that she wanted a videogame system for her boy and that he wanted two games. She looked down at him and he noted that he wanted Grand Theft Auto and Halo.

After the parent of the year ceremony ended, the clerk let her know that she’d want a PS2 for her boy. He noted that GTA was a Sony franchise and that those games weren’t going anywhere. As for Halo? Microsoft was going under and Sony was already in position to buy the rights to the Halo franchise…

A Tale of Redundancy

Store: EB Games
Location: Fredericton, NB, Regent Mall
Employee Description: Mr. WhyBiOneWhenUBiToo
Submitted By: Koloth

Several years ago, while I was browsing the shelves at my local EB, an older woman who was also shopping approached the counter with a question. She had two games in her hand: a copy NHL ’06 for the PS2 and a copy of NHL ’06 for the Xbox. She told the clerk that her son owned both a PS2 and an XBox and liked hockey games, and asked which of the two versions was better and which he would suggest that she purchase. He promptly replied: “I would buy both of them. That way, he can play it on whichever system he wants.” Had I a bit more of a social conscience and a bit less SAD, I might have interjected at this point, but instead I watched in stunned silence and she purchased both games and left the store.

Rebuttal to “Surretard”

Original Post: Surretard
Submitted By: Anonymous

Hello Nathan, I stumbled across your website and was more than a little
surprised to find this post;

https://preorderpushers.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/surretard/

Because yeah, that was me. My names not Joe Moron, either. I was that
employee and I totally remember that entire incident. Look man, I’m just
trying to do my job. It sucks working where I work. They make you force game
insurance, second-hand software and pre-ordering onto every customer with
absolutely no incentives. If I can lie my way into some John Anybody buying
a set of speakers, then they consider that a job well done.

This isn’t a rebuttal so much as a suggestion. Remember that the employees
at major gaming chains are, for the most part, good people who have sold or
are in the process of selling their souls to the corporate giants that hand
out their paychecks. Yeah, there’s some real _ssholes that work for stores
like mine, I know quite a few. But I also know heaps of nice people who
unfortunately are in the employ of a evil retail corporation.

Thankfully, I’m not working there much longer. I’ve handed in my notice and
am leaving within a month to pursue other work. Honestly, I won’t miss
working there at all.

Anonymous

PS – Trading is such a rip off it boggles my mind. I’ve seen games traded in
for $5 that were then on the shelf for $94.95. That’s close to a two
thousand percent markup in price. GameStop sales hit $5.3 billion US dollars
last year, because people like me make minimum wage and sell games that are
95% profit. I hate this company.

Socom 2 for the PS2 for your Xbox

Store: GameStop
Location: Burton, MI at the Burton Mall
Employee Description: Some guy
Submitted By: Chris Ritsen

I rarely go to video game stores, so I was shocked to actually see this happen. Some woman came in and started a conversation with the clerk, saying she liked to play socom 2 online. The guy then told her she could play it (ps2 disc and all) on an xbox. I would have said something had I not been laughing under my breath.

Surretard

Store: EB Games
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Employee: Joe Moron
Submitted By: Nix

I foolishly asked if any of their Logitech 5.1 speaker sets had optical input, because I was looking at something for surround sound gaming and the XBox supports dolby digital via optical… I got a lecture on how I didn’t need optical for 5.1.

“That’s just it you see, they have lots of RCA ports in the back… you don’t need 5.1, just go down to Dick Smith and get these things called “splitters.” Plug the cables from the PS2 into those and you turn your two RCA leads into four! And plug in another set, and you get 6, and that’s enough for 5.1 sound. I have this setup at home and it sounds awesome! It makes such a difference!”

Rebuttal: https://preorderpushers.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/rebuttal-to-surretard/

Pre-Order Stunt

Store: Best Buy
Location: Toledo, OH
Employee: The Man with the Photographic Memory
Submitted By: Kid Chameleon

Ok, this hasn’t actually finished playing out yet, but I went to Best Buy the other night to pre-order a Limited Edition copy of Jade Empire for Xbox cause I guess the limited edition has an extra playable character and some other extras and you can only get it from Pre-Order (at least that’s what i heard). So anyways, I had looked on Best Buy’s website and saw they had the regular, but not the limited edition available for preorder (I had to order at Best Buy cause I have a games giftcard). So I get over there, and ask about the limited edition, and the guy there told me that he’d remember me, and put one aside so when I come in to get it there will be a limited edition waiting there for me instead of the regular game. I don’t see how this is going to happen considering I don’t even know if BB is getting the limited edition, this guy didn’t take down any of my information, I bought a pre-order for the regular version, and who knows if he’s even going to be working when I go to pick it up. Normally, I would’ve just gone somewhere else cause I thought that claim sounded pretty ridiculous, but like I said I have a giftcard and the only reason I’m even buying the game is because of that.