Gamestop: Friendly Employees, Unfriendly Customer Strategy

Over the last year, I’ve been drooling over the new GTA and with less than a week before the launch, I’m starting to really get fired up. I’ve been playing GTA since it was a PC download only and with every new release the game gets better and better. When Rockstar ran their first trailer for the game, I immediately went to their site to reserve a copy. When I saw that overnight shipping was an extra $20 (!) I canceled the order and decided to go the retail route instead.

I don’t buy a ton of games, but when I do it’s almost exclusively from Gamestop (GME). Normally, I care more about price than brand recognition, but over the years certain brands have won my loyalty and Gamestop is one of them. Whenever I visit their stores, the employees are always really friendly and give great advice on which games to buy. Gamestop is one of those rare places where an employee will actually try to talk you out of a sale, if you try to buy a game that blows.

Since getting to Gamestop can be a bit of a hassle for me, I wanted to reserve a copy over the internet and then pick it up at a local store on the street date. Unfortunately, when I visited the Gamestop website, they were happy to let me pre-order the game, but only if I wanted it shipped to me. When I called my local Gamestop, they told me that I had to physically visit the store if I wanted to reserve a local copy.

Given that Gamestop’s core demographic is hyper connected to the web, I’m surprised that they would be so technologically backwards. It could be that they sell more games when they make people visit the store twice, but it’s not a very customer friendly strategy, especially with gas prices being what they are. Since I’m not willing to take two trips to a store (even for a brand I like), I ended up going to Best Buy’s (BBY) website instead. From there I was not only able to pre-order the game, but I was also able to find a store near my home where I can pick it up. All without having to unplug from the internet.

Shopping at Best Buy always makes me feel scuzzy because they treat me like a shoplifter when I try to buy video games there, but in this digital age, I’m willing to give up brand loyalty for the convenience of the web. Losing my transaction won’t hurt GameStop, but I can’t help but wonder how many other people choose a competitor over a separate trip to Gamespot.

Gamestop told me that they have their in-store pre-order policy in place for “security reasons,” but that doesn’t really make any sense. They allow you to purchase things with a credit card off of the internet, but they won’t allow you to put down a $5 deposit for pre-orders? If Best Buy can offer this type of convenience, then GameStop should be able to come up with a better solution too. I still plan on stopping into GameStop when I’m itching for a new game, but they’ll miss out on the games that I know I’m going to buy, long before they even come out.

Comments

[gamerboy:]

gamestop is adding the feature to website of being able to reserve a game and pick it up at a selected store.this upgrade should be in place very soon.

2008 Apr 28 10:20 AM

[INSIDER2008:]

Having worked for Gamestop last year,I can tell you that they want you to come in the store ut down 5.00 or more and hope you never return!Yes, When i was there I can go back maybe 2 years to older games that were hyped to preorder, Madden 07 and Wow etc.

Looking thru the preorders I see 5.00+10.00 etc on different games that were never picked up. This is just one store and over 1000.00+ or more sits in GAMESTOPS ACCOUNT WAITING TO BE CLAIMED!

That is just one store times that by 5000+ stores and wow , no wonder There stock is nice all that money in the bank colecting interest and they wont call anyone and say"Hey this is Gs you never picked up your reserver of HALO3 please come in and get your money back or have it applied to another product! I questioned this and was told its ours until a customer wants it back. Very sad..


So the pre order does not only benifits you it helps GS bottom line.
So if you ever reserved a game and forgot about it, GO THERE and ask them to look you up and see how much you have forgotton!

2008 Apr 28 01:51 PM

[Zimnick:]

Like gamerboy said, its an interesting time to write this article given the fact that Gamestop announced the ability to order games online and have them shipped to retail outlets. Go to www.gamestop.com/gs/la.../ to read the features.

2008 Apr 28 02:41 PM

[Holywhippet:]

It would cost money to contact all of those people. Even if the phone call was free, you'd need to pay someone to ring all those people up. That's assuming they are still at the same addres.

2008 Apr 28 07:05 PM

[newthog:]

I also wanted to preorder online and pickup at the Gamestop I frequent, but was unable to. I forget what game it was, but I made the trip to the store twice...I frequent a Gamestop that is probably only about the 10th closest in terms of driving distance, but the employees at that store (Tuttle Crossing, Columbus, Ohio) have impressed me so much that it's worth the drive to cast my economic vote (where I spend my money) with them to show support of that store.

2008 Apr 28 07:06 PM

[tccc08:]

Why would you GameStop only want your $5 if they could sell you GTA 4 for $59.99. As far as the calls go for about a year GameStop as had an automated phone call go out about 48 hours in advance, Plus my local GameStop does personal calls also. I got the automated call saturday and the personal one on sunday.

2008 Apr 28 11:16 PM

[sleeper:]

When I was looking to pre-order a Wii Fit, I first checked the Gamestop site. It was easy to pre-order, but I was turned off by the $20 shipping fee. I pre-ordered on Amazon where the price was the same but the shipping was free. This bothers me because I am a Gamestop shareholder and I wonder how much business they will lose because of their customer-unfriendly policies.

2008 Apr 29 08:10 AM

[Eagledare:]

Every time I've pre-ordered a title or Console from Gamestop they sold my copy to someone (keep in mind I am talking about the same day the game comes in). Also the staff members are generally uneducated about good games or upcoming release dates and treat you like a bloody criminal if you haven't pre-ordered the title you're looking for. Personally I avoid the place at all costs.

2008 Apr 29 12:25 PM

[thewizard:]

I work for a GameStop location as well, and we have always tried to contact the people that have these unclaimed "fortunes" in reserved games. If nothing else we try to see if we can roll it over onto another reserve. Most of the time, we incounter the problem of the phone being disconnected or the person no longer lives at that address. So its not that we are hording money from people, its just very difficult to track them down.

2008 Apr 29 12:30 PM

[x19067x:]

Sleeper says..."and I wonder how much business they will lose because of their customer-unfriendly policies. " I guess he doesn't understand business. The object is to make money something that GME does much better than Amazon.

2008 Apr 29 04:04 PM

[INSIDER2008:]

I agree that if its a current and they can roll over the 5.00 to a new title thats fine But I took over a store that had over 500 reserves varying from 5.00-10.00 never picked up. Old titles from 2004-2007 etc.
I asked dont we ever call them back and let them know that you ahve money deposited for a game you never pciked up?
I was told by my DM dont worry about it "we draw interest off of it.

Again multiply that by 5000.00 stores say each store has 3000.00 in money that forgotton and wow you have over a million bucks drawing interest. So no wonder they like you to forget it and reap the windfall.! very shady thats why I left!

2008 May 02 02:27 PM

[x19067x:]

People need to take responsibilty for themselves and their actions.

2008 May 06 10:06 AM

[wengem:]

To a company that has more than $7 BILLION of revenue annually, one million dollars of unclaimed deposits drawing interest is pretty meaningless to the bottom line.

2008 May 07 10:51 AM

[Freeze:]

Why not walk to Gamestop? Get some exercise.
"All without having to unplug from the internet."
If this doesn't show you spend to much time on the computer then nothing will. Get some exercise and get off the computer. Or get a bike.

2008 Jun 02 11:14 PM