EB Games from the inside

Submitted by Kat on February 7, 2007 – 10:00 am10 Comments

Since a lot of you seem to be so down on EBGamestop, perhaps you’ll enjoy The Mad Gamer’s post on what really goes on behind the counter.

“First, I would like to let everyone know that EB employees are not properly compensated for all the crap they have to go through. In short, they get paid slave-like wages. EB Corporate makes things no easier for these employees and definitely not for you, the customers. Thanks to EB Corporate, the employees have a list of bullshit they are supposed to tell you the second you walk in the door. Basically, EB Corporate Headquarters wants its employees to harass the hell out of you until you buy something. Believe me when I say that most EB employees don’t want to bug you while you’re shopping around. Me personally, I preferred that you buy whatever you want and ask if you need help. But according to the big wigs at Corporate, that isn’t good enough. And to combat this way of thinking, the corporate scumbags actually pay people to spy on their employees. They call these spies “secret shoppers”. If an employee is witnessed not completing the long list of crap to force a sell down someone’s throat then they will face disciplinary action. Yeah EB Corporate, all of that harassing and lying to customers is really worth the minimum wage that most employees get. My soul felt so cleansed after a night of work at EB (rolls eyes).”

Continue reading at The Mad Gamer’s blog

So here’s another chance, current and ex-employees. Tell us your stories, positive or negative.

Subnet6

This story is almost 2 years old. Most of it is typical of any retail and the rest is, I believe, exaggerated. Clearly this person is a pissed employee with an axe to grind which makes the entire story suspect. Roaches and pissing on the consoles? C’mon.
James

I hate hearing disgruntled employees bashing a former employer.
http://www.infendo.com Jack

Waited in a line for 30 minutes just to ask if they had a Final Fantasy Advance title in stock. The cashier couldn’t work the register, but continued to sell up the clueless customer on a used GameCube she was purchasing. She got this woman to buy worthless crap that had nothing to do with Nintendo, let alone the GC.

The “manager” was on the phone with a friend talking about weekend plans in plain view, and never stopped to help anyone. She was an utterly disgusting individual and knew less about games than the clueless cashier. I left before I got to the counter and I’ve never shopped in an EB/GameStop since.
Sammael

All retail jobs have the secret shoppers and horrible crap to “attach” to a sale. They want you to ask everyone if they want X,Y and Z because they’ve done studies that show that .01% say yes, and that adds up!

Whatever. I am more concerned with the ILEGALL and shady business practices they take part in.

1) reselling opened product as new.
2) selling protection on new games… this is some kind of mafia shit…
3) not selling to non preorder customers even when they have more than necesarry.
4)used games for $5 less than new
5) selling of damaged merchandise
6) calls to pre-order customers BEFORE product reaches the store. ( this has caused a few pretty bad screwups.)
robby1051

I happen to think the GameStop near me has to have the most unhelpful and possibly evil employees ever.
I have seen rudeness, total disregard and absolute blatantly ignoring customers, lines that stretch the entire tiny store while one cashier (out of the 5 or 6 other employees around him talking chatting even with the cashier!) works.
I am sure that the service gets worse during the evening when I am usually there because theres a day manager who trys to make the store seem like it cares for customers.
I honestly dont know why I keep going back there…
oh wait i remember, silly family who dont know what to get the gamer buy gift cards to Gamestop!
DRINKxREDxBULL

I want to know how roaches can get inside game consoles (they must be really tiny) and what EB store is so small it has to store merchidise next to a toilet.
Stephen

Roaches inside electronic devices is very, very common. Ask any tech who has to repair TVs. It’s warm and dry and there’s room for the wife and 2.3 million. Roaches are pretty flat and flexible. And then there’s the whole status element. “Hey, how come you get to live in that Xbox 360 and I’m stuck in this old PSOne?” “What?! Can’t hear you over the exhaust fan!!”
http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

As someone who repairs computers, I can tell you, bugs can get in. The vents on game consoles aren’t that much smaller than the vents on a PC.
http://www.burtonposey.com Burton

Just boycott it if you don’t like it… It seems like some of their practices have become a bit more insulting to their hardcore repeat demographic. I worked at a Software Etc. a while back and was not a big fan of the push mentality to get all of these extra sales…

I would prefer if the company was structured around selling things people wanted then trying to slide things in here and there that they did not ask for. This is coming from a guy who does buy extended warranties on things on a regular basis. I just don’t want to join a club so that I can pay a discounted rip off price for a used game that should not cost that much.

I don’t give them any of my business unless it is something that is a very hard find. Let’s just resolve to boycott them altogether. I can commit to that myself,
Kevin

I used to work at an EB w/ a rogue manager. We operated much more like a “local” store and pretty much ignored a lot of the corporate crap. We had a high sales volume and decent numbers so no one messed with us. I got transfered to another store after about a year and this was much more “corporate”.

It wasn’t so bad, I still tried to let people know the consensus on a game from reviews that I saw (this sucks or this rocks). I left right before the merger, because I know it was going to suck.

And it did.