Hey Gamestop! Stop Opening My New Games!

Submitted by James Munn on January 31, 2007 – 2:18 pm210 Comments

I waltz up the the counter, gift card in hand, “Pirates PSP, please.”

“New or Used?” The clerk asks, timidly. I pause for just a moment and happily reply,

“For twenty bucks? New!” I also had an unclaimed $5 pre-order credit from Lost Planet to apply, but he didn’t know that yet. I stood there and watched the clerk open the cabinet and lift out a Sid Meier’s Pirates designed users manual. I see him pop open an empty PSP case and slide it in.

“I said NEW.” I replied angrily, having seen this before and knew what he would say,

*voice shaking* “This is new,” I was furious at this point. It was cold and late and I didn’t have time for his crap.

“So if I walk out the door right now with that unsealed case then walk back in here next week with it in the same condition, you’ll give me full return credit as a new game? I mean, it IS new after all right!?”

*blank stare*

This has happened to me prior to yesterday and each time, I walked out without my game. Previous arguments started very similar to this one, with the rep trying to sneak the game into a bag and leave it out of sight until I walked away with it. As soon as I walk out that door, my game is now devalued 80%.

It’s a pretty underhanded practice and even though I did end up buying Pirates yesterday, it was only because the game cost me $15 of a gift card. At that price, the game has more value as a coaster than as a trade-in or listing on Ebay. Nevertheless, It’s pretty scummy for them to repeatedly pull this crap on unsuspecting buyers. I was waiting for it and called them on it, but I’m sick and tired of having to do it every time.

If you’re wondering what happened after the blank stare I mentioned earlier, well his manager instantly took over.

*Mr. Roboto voice* “You have seven days to exchange it for an identical item.” I laughed at the response because again, I had heard it before. Then, like clockwork, the manager offered to seal it in shrink wrap with his trusty heat gun, effectively discrediting the value of any sealed game in the entire store. It was meaningless for this particular sale and I couldn’t stay and play, so I let it go. I know it’s not their individual policy but more of a corporate decision. I thought I’d be better off venting my anger here instead.

Have any of you experience something like this or possibly got home with your “new” game only to find that it was already opened?

james Blish

Hey,

I got burned by Wal-mart and Best Buy when I tried to return a defective disc. I swore it wouldn’t happen again so I purchased a Friggin shrink wrap machine on Ebay for $38.99 and now I re-shrink any defective game and return as NEW. I don’t purchase then return when I’m done thats’ evil. BTTP, I can re-shrink any game and peel any super sticky label in a couple of mins by heating it with the 800 Degree Heat Gun and spraying glue back on the label. I shouldn’t have to do this SH#t just to return a game that hangs due to a cab3 file on the DVD! Also, anyone notice every year the CDs & DVD’s are getting thinner and easier to break? Anyone notice that it’s almost aloays cheaper to re-purchase a game than return a broken or cracked disc for a replacement? I now use CD Patches so my ultra thin game discs don’t get cracks near the center hole.
Jimmy Dean

Wow, as an employee of GameStop I am amazed by some of the GameStop customers. Listen, GameStop HAS to gut these games because idiots tend to steal merchandise. We may get 5 copies, and we only have to unwrap one, but if you get the last one then oh well. What I don’t understand is that you are just going to open the damn game 5 minutes later. We don’t lick the games, we don’t key them, hell when I have to gut I have to make sure I don’t even touch the other side or risk having to pay for it. Don’t be a dick to the employees, we are just doing our job. If you don’t like it, shop somewhere else.

We don’t care.
Bourbon Legend

“”I said NEW.” I replied angrily, having seen this before and knew what he would say, *voice shaking* “This is new,” I was furious at this point. It was cold and late and I didn’t have time for his crap.”

Wow, I can’t believe how big of a prick you are. Why not “Do you have any sealed copies?”. Obviously, that would be too much for you to handle.

qq
Chris

What the hell, people?

I worked at a Game store (GAME in the UK) for a little over a year, left to go to uni.

Games are removed from the boxes to be kept in drawers behind the counter. Disk in manual, filed alphabetically. This is so the games are on hand and the customer gets the game nice and quickly, without use trekking up to the storeroom and hunting for ten minutes per game. Also allows us to have empty boxes on display so you assholes can look at the games and see what they’re like! (Blurb on the box, anybody?)

Do you know how many games you can store in one of those drawers in their boxes? About 50, maybe. I never counted.

How many can you store if they’re just the manual with a disk inside?

Going on five hundred, EASILY. I’ve had drawers break with the sheer ammount of game inside them.

If you’d rather sit and wait for half an hour every time you want a game, then fine. petition the head office and get thousand upon thousands of like-minded assholes who want to hold everything up because they’re too anal retentive and uptight to allow an employee to do unwrap a game to save space – something you’d do about five minutes later, I may add.

NEWSFLASH – SHRINK WRAPPING MEANS JACK SHIT TO EVERYBODY EXCEPT DIE-HARD COLLECTORS!

All the stores I’ve shopped at will only care if I have the game and a way of proving I bought it within the return period. GAME now wants them unopened, which is a bit harsh IMHO, but hey. That’s life.

New is not sold before, not played by anybody else, not used or scratched. New is new. Shrinkwrapped is anal-retentive. Fucking get over it, jackasses.
http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

I find it interesting that almost no one can express themselves in this topic without resorting to expletives.
james_blish

Solution to ALL your software problems!
Shrink Wrap Kit for $36, sheets of thin plastic to print labels and spray adhesive. The Game will be NEW again.
Steve

It’s great to see other people who have worked at a place like Gamestop responding to this, especially after seeing how many people responded in agreement to the original post. I could never believe it when customers would actually storm out of the store because they got the gut copy. Of course, I also couldn’t believe the number of people who couldn’t understand simple things like how a buy 2 get 1 free deal works. After working at a Gamestop for 3 years I’m pretty sure illiteracy is a rampant problem in America, good thing I’m out of there now.

Anyways, along with being partially illiterate, it seems like some customers just don’t understand that people do this thing called stealing. If you think video games are expensive now I bet you’d love to see the prices at games stores if they put live games out on the shelves. I suppose that Gamestop could go the Target/Wal Mart route and put glass cases all over the store, but then since it’s a small store I can guarantee the store would constantly smell like class cleaner. Not to mention that part time employees aren’t allowed to have keys so you’d be stuck waiting for a manager to get your game, and then you’d complain anyways. ($10 says a lot of people would suggest we just gut the games. Especially during the holidays.) Not to mention that if a game was behind a case you wouldn’t get to look at the back of the case or anything. I’ll agree it would be nice if the companies sent out empty boxes for display but, seriously, if one of them was lost corporate would have a fit and I could easily see people constantly getting fired over that. If you think up a better and more cost effective idea then I suggest you apply at corporate. They might actually listen to you. I once had a DM suggest putting live copies of hit new games out on a sidewalk sale. She then wanted me to walk each customer in to the counter and leave the games unattended. Needless to say she got fired and was replaced by some 23 year old chick who got the job because she was boning the guy who hired her. They caught that pretty fast at the manager’s conference.

Actually, if you don’t believe they’d be stolen, good story about how leaving a live game out on the shelves complicates everything. At my store I couldn’t even put a live copy of Turok Evolution out on the counter and turn my back without having it stolen. That’s right, I seriously had some guy try to steal Turok Evolution on me. Imagine if he had access to a good game!

To solve the returns problem my store always used to write “gut” on the receipt. Seemed to work pretty well. But if you really have such a problem with it then please, all of you, I implore you to not go to the store. I can guarantee you won’t be missed

No, seriously, I really do mean it. Please go shop somewhere else.
Mike O

Hello. Im from PA. Once I started noticing them doing that I just asked them to give me a Sealed copy. For the most part they never gave me any problems if i asked as long as they had them in stock. But sometimes they dont have the “sealed” copys in stock so your stuck with buying one of those stupid opened one. The Main thing ticks me off is that Im paying Full price for an item that was opened. And how do i know they arnt sneaking a Used copy in there. Keep them sealed GAMEstop/EB if you want my hard earned cash!!!!
Arnold

Alright, if you’re a customer at Gamestop – then this is what you need to do. Just go to their store and when they sell you the preopened copy, make sure that the seal that used to reseal the package is sitting completley on top of the original seal that has been cut by Gamestop or EB Games. That way you can take the game home, then carefully remove the top seal without disturbing the rest of the package. Then you write down the CD Key without forgetting to Burn an ISO image of the CD to your harddrive. Then put everything back to the way it was and return the game for a full refund.

Presto – Instant “Free Game” for you.

There are other ways for Gamestop to secure their stock without having to open Boxes. “Target” and “Best Buy” do it all the time, but for some reason Gamestop is too cheap to take these measures… until of course, we give them reason to.
FlapJackMcHoogles

ok heres the thing F%$# YOU GAMESTOP, yall are going to love this, it all started out when i went to go get my NEW copy of FarCry: instinct, when i got home i opened it up,but it opened up pretty easy, so i was like hmm…wtf? so htis prompted me to look at the cd,, it had some scatches on it,, nice gamestop. i fergot about it. THEN i went to go get a NEW hard drive for the 360 i got home and it already had information on it, like movie trailers,songs,and some saved data on it???????now the last straw, i went to go get a gamecube( thought i would try it out),eveything is used, but the memory card(even thougth the system crahes everytime i try and play a game NEW memory huh? it already had info on it. So what does this mean about gamestop, it means im not going to shop there anymore unless i need a used collectible, besides that F%$#@ gamestop.
theThinker

Couple of things to consider here:

Why is live product removed from the floor? By live product, we of course mean entirely intact items, games with discs and booklets, etc..
Why would a Fortune 500 company waste valuable time and payroll across 5200+ stores to remove this product? Theft. Bottom line, as much as this chaps your butt, they are losing large amounts of money due to rampant thievery, from their CONSUMER BASE, and it is this behavior on the CUSTOMERS part that has caused this policy. Gamestop is protecting its assets. Beyond this, we as customers always have the option of not buying a copy that’s opened. This may mean that in some cases we don’t get the game we want.. That’s life. We have the choice where to spend our cash. This does not necessarily give us liberty to take it out on “Joe Minimum Wage” as some bigot labeled our friendly neighborhood clerk. Its not his call anyway. Move on and buy it elsewhere, and think about how much you bitch. If you owned a business, would you trust “Joe Random-Ass Consumer” to not lift your product? How very charitable and saintly of you.

THINK. THINK. THINK.
Rick

For those of you who don’t think it’s a big deal, think about this: would you buy a can of opened food? Or an opened toothbrush? And pay full price? If it’s ok for EB to do so, I guess supermarkets could start selling opened food products for full price and major clothing retailers could sell used clothing as new as well. EB give the word “new” a whole different meaning. With that aside, they have awful service.
joe-random-ass-consumer

re:theThinker

Sounds like you have a vested interest in this company so I won’t slam the company or its current practices or even you “thethinker” its not about “joe-random-ass-consumer” stealing your “live” product.Its selling opened product as-new with no open box discount.If you think all of your customers are thieves you should be in another business.
Doesn’t matter

I used to work for that company for a few years. Every bit of what you’re saying is true, and it pissed me off every time I saw it. I know I was close to being fired a few times for telling my Store manager (me as an assistant store manager) in front of the customer not to sell them that crap that wasn’t even wrapped. It’s rediculous to open NEW copies of games when that multi-billion dollar company can afford some pieces of cardboard w/ the game name on them to put up on the walls, rather than opening up the game and having some random GA(entry level employee) take it out of it’s original case, probably drop it..put his nasty a$$ fingers on it, and shove it into a crappy case that will most likely do more damage than protection. This type of thing especially pissed me off when I saw some of my employees trying to do that shit w/ RESERVED games. RESERVED GAMES for god’s sake…Those aren’t even supposed to be TOUCHED aside from the unpacker of the box..and the consumer…that’s it!
Well hopefully websites like these will open up some peoples eyes…not necessarily saying “Don’t sshop at GameStop,” but just pay attention to these things and be aware of exactly what those policies are of theirs and to take FULL advantage of every single one of them.
Akahige

I’m admittedly a little late to the party, but I just ran across this while looking for solace for the crap I recently had to deal with.

Prior to today I had no issues with GS’s policy of opening games for display. I’m not particularly anal, so it’s not a big deal. Now, after trying to return one of these “NEW” games I can see a little bit of the rationale of those whom I previously deemed obsessive compulsive. You would think that if you buy, say, a $50 PC game for someone as a gift and would like to return it, you would get your money back the next day (or even $50 store credit as the worst scenario). You wouldn’t expect to be told that you’re shit out of luck and the only way to get a refund for a “NEW” product, that you didn’t touch, would be to contact the game’s publisher and beg for one.

I argued up and down for what felt like half an hour, and by the end I felt like I had argued with Nigel Tufnel over whether or not his amp actually went to eleven.

By the end I was placated, just for being such a hassle, but from now on I’ll buy online or just go to Target.

(It’s also curious that if this makes so many people unhappy, which it clearly does, why the company does not bother with inserts strictly for display copies. Even my local video store does that).
Jeff

My issue is not so much with the shrink-wrap, but the stickers that gamestop/eb plasters all over the cases.

Being a collector, i refuse to buy platinum/greatest hits, and i expect my cases and artwork to not have sticker residue all over the damn thing.

find another way to mark the price without destroying the products im spending my money on
pinecone2654

Soon enough they’ll probably just use a CD burner and make copies in the back…
ckwasi92

Hey, I realize this is an old topic, but I just wanted to make one last comment for anyone who might possibly in a million years read them.

I feel your pain, man. The New game return policy at Gamestop and EB is ridiculous, I agree. They used to be cool about it, but then they got sued for selling used games as new. Now it almost seems they just don’t trade back new but still use the used ones as new as they have. It’s complete bullshit and false advertising. But….

Thats why you just NEED to BUY USED!!
I LOVE their used policy. I like to get a little scamming of my own back at them by basically using them as a FREE RENTAL service by buying used, and returning for cash on the seventh day ^_^ Try it!
laura

hay, its just to protect the game from being stolen, so YOU WILL HAVE A GAME!!!! many people have been taking the cases even though they are empty.its not like its messed up or any thing.and the $5 isn’t seperated from the price its put tword the game. so your not losing any money! so you should talk smack untell you know every thing!!!! heres the ? DO YOU WANT A GAME OR NOT WANT A GAME???? if you have a problem STOP GOING TO THE STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
http://www.tiffanyonsale.info penny

FINALLY someone is bringing this issue to the foreground. Tiffany & Co 1837 LOCK necklace
http://www.myspace.com/adeafninja Evan

Okay…as I’m sure there are plenty of these already on here….I’m going to give a current Gamestop Employee’s view. It’s really up to the Manager if you return a new game or not. If you are nice and plead your case…show some respect…we can return it as “Other” and everyone goes home happy. If you are a dick…we’ll say nothing can be done. That’s most of the time. It’s true…we take the games out of the cases to prevent theft. Oh and ckwasi92…if the employee’s are smart at all…you’ll get blacklisted from returning stuff. Yes we can do that. I’ve done it several times to people who thought they were slick stuff…like you. You’ll see.
Krystal

A lot of the games are only gutted to be put out on the sales floor for customers to see what’s in stock. We won’t leave the actual game in the case since a lot of people are scums and like to steal. Since they don’t believe in working and rather steal to make money out of it. So the reason why they’re open is for show. An all the games that were gutted, are in sleeves with their manual. It’s not like we’re aloud to rent new games its only used games. Why complain, you’re still going to go home and open the damn game so get over it. It’s what the company does, if you don’t like it just go somewhere else. “Plain and Simple!!!!!!”
Wes

I had a similar situation the other day. I picked up a copy of Fallout 3 as a gift for a friend. I bought it “new.” I got in the car, drove home, pulled it out of the bag, and then realized that they had slipped me a “new” unwrapped copy of the game. I opened the case (And here's something normally ignored by many people who support gamestop's practice), and found that the game was scratched! Gee, you mean that little paper envelope didn't protect it from the dozens of hands that dig around it every day?

So, the next day, I go back to gamestop, complete game and receipt in hand with the intention of exchanging it for a sealed copy or getting a refund. The employee looked at the game, checked the disc, told me I had scratched it, and that there was nothing she could do for me. Now I'm stuck with this game and had to buy a sealed copy from Best Buy.
Jordan_Snyder

Is Resident Evil 5 racist!?!?!?! Let's stop digging up old posts!!! ARGH!
Marik736

Sorry, but…suck it up, buttercup. Would you rather all of our games be in glass cases where you can't look at any of them or touch them and force employees to follow people around the store with a key? Yeah it sucks when an employee forgets to put a game in the case, but it happens even for veterans from time to time and in all honosty we aren't purposely trying to jip you. If we have a game new in its original shrink wrap we will give it to you instead of the gutted version.

So why do our games out on the wall not have any games in them? So stupid people who try to steal them (which happens a lot) just end up with an empty case, so all the store it out is a case for a game instead of an entire $50-$100 product. Walmart uses the glass case method, try to go there on a busy day and get one of the attendants to get a game out of the case for you, guarenteed you're going to be waiting 5-10 minutes just to get your game. Where as at EB Games/Gamestop yes, sometimes we have to give you product thats been gutted already, but at the same time all you have to do is bring the case up to the front and boom, we get your game ready, no waiting around for us to open some glass case with a key to get your game and potentially taking long periods of time doing so on busier days.

So next time you buy a new game, ask if we have a factory sealed copy of that game cause I don't know about other stores but the EB Games I work at we always check for factory sealed first, just saves time and besides, as you said, its a lot nicer to get something that's in its original factory sealed package. If we don't, ask to see the condition of the disc, even if its new. 99% of the time the game will still be in mint condition, however the odd time we get stupid employees who don't put away games properly and end up scuffing them a little or getting crap on them or what not (in which case common sense would dictate to not sell it to the customer).

In the end though dude, your new game is still new, we just had to remove it from the package so stupid people don't walk off with a $50+ game, cause as I said, people walking off with empty cases (aka stealing them) happens more than you'd think, even in a smaller town like mine. :3 But in the end, ask for a factory sealed copy. If we don't have one, no point in getting angry at the guy behind the counter, we just work there. In our store if you really badly wanted a factory sealed one we would tell you politely to see if Walmart has one. We're all about customer service and helping people out at my EB Games. :3