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Gamestop; the root of all evil

4:10 AM on 02.16.2007   |   Nex

Gamestop; the root of all evil photo

Opposable Thumbs, Ars Technica's gaming personality, has a story up today that I'm sure is going to piss a lot of people off. Apparently, Ben, the author, purchased Twilight Princess right around the launch of the Wii, from Gamestop. He played it a bit, probably thought it wasn't the next coming of Christ, and placed it on his shelf to be forgotten next to his copies of The Lost Boys and Hard to Kill. Recently, though, he was phoned by Gamestop's automated phone service (cleverly named Aeris), with the following message;

"We hope you're enjoying your copy of Twiliight Princess, but if you're finished with it, why don't you bring it to the store and trade it in? We're willing to give you $35 in trade for your copy of Twilight Princess...."

That's the point at which he hung up. Of course, if he had stayed on the phone, I'm sure Gamestop would have offered him oral for a twenty or their entire New Jersey division for a fifty.

Telemarketing is the sixth ring of Hell, according to Dante, right between the fifth ring (where you have to stuff your eye sockets full of scorpions) and the seventh (Kentucky), but stooping to the point where you are hounding your own customers to resell you games that you sold them in the first place is a brand new low. This is the retail equivalent of a man trying desperately to jam his two month old child back into his wife's uterus, because she wasn't full of the delicious candy that his wife had promised him.

The moral of the story, kids, is that babies are not fun, and Gamestop is some how even less fun. 








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25 comments | showing # 1 to 25
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Rainbowblack's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 03:10
Rainbowblack
Thank goodness im on the do-not-call registry.

I wonder if you'd get the same call if you bought a used game lol.
bluexy's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 03:13
bluexy
Best $20 bucks I ever spent.

Oh ya.
Darren Nakamura's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 03:31
Darren Nakamura
They've called me before, but not to try to sell me more stuff. I guess I might be expecting some soon...
Rainbowblack's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 03:52
Rainbowblack
yeah, Iv'e gotten calls whenever i pre-ordered something from them

Come to think of it, they can call me, those fuckers have my phone number.
iRaf 's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 06:16
iRaf
that's why with digital phone, you can see whos calling on your tv.

only good thing about it.
hoi1ma's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 06:32
hoi1ma
reselling new coming preplayed makes them 10 dollar profit, compare to their 2-7 dollar new retail game profit.
They got a funcoland(which is now gamestop) at a ghetto in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The idea of people robbing their neighbor to unload those stolen games at funcoland(now gamestop) cross their mind.
Nick Chester's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 07:10
Nick Chester
I got the same call. I wondered, at first, who was calling me from Texas. Then I listened to the odd robotic female talk. Then I laughed and hung up.
subnet6's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 07:30
subnet6
$35 seems pretty good to me. I would probably do it.
Snaileb 's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 07:35
Snaileb
I did it.
christpunchermpls's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 07:38
christpunchermpls
That s-hit is f-ucke up.

DOES ANYONE ELSE have the creepiest people working at their gamestop?

maybe its cause the touring freak show broke down near me.
Damn game stop workers are fucking weird..
Crackhippo's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 08:14
Crackhippo
Used games, that's all they're good for
BluDesign's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 09:03
BluDesign
It sucks because 817 is the area code for Gamestop's dialing program and I know people in 817 (Eastern Dallas/Fort Worth). So, like a sucker, I answer those calls almost all the time.

For the record, their phone number is:817-251-1016.

If you see that one in your caller ID, skip answering it. And it's an autodialer, so no one answers when you call it back.
BahamutZero's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 09:36
BahamutZero
yay corporate conglomeration yay
deanhatescoffee's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 09:44
deanhatescoffee
I got this call as well. I wasn't too annoyed by it, but I certainly would've preferred to not've received it at all.
LostCrichton's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 10:17
LostCrichton
I got a similar call once before when Saint's Row came out. Parasites.
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 10:32
Aaron Mxy Yost
Baby sex? Is this a new fetish I was unaware of?
mistofRed's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 12:07
mistofRed
I got the same call about ZeldaTP the other day. But I've gotten a similar call before for Kingdom Hearts 2.
GatsuTheBerserker's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 13:36
GatsuTheBerserker
Thank god I haven't bought anything from Gamestop for like 2 years then, lol
ironfroggy's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 13:43
ironfroggy
I have no problem with this at all. I think you should be able to opt-out. By which I mean, that you can opt-out, so just do that instead of complaining so much. If I have a game around that I am not playing, I don't pay attention to it. It would be nice to be reminded that I can still get a good trade in value for it! I look forward to these reminders. Be nice if they could e-mail and/or RSS me the updates, too.
Namelessted's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 14:26
Namelessted
Yes, Gamestop is getting fucking ridiculous. The funny part is that my older brother got the very same call for Twilight Princess. He had reserved teh game for the Wii but still hasn't been able to find a Wii to buy so he never picked up the game. And still he gets a phone call to trade in a game that he never even bought. Gamestop/EB Games used to be cool but now it sucks. It used to be for people who play games and aren't retarded, now it has just turned into corporate bullshit.
ChrisFurniss's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 17:00
ChrisFurniss
I wrote an article earlier this week about how Gamestop sucks... prophetic? Yes.

http://www.weeklygeekshow.com/2007/02/gamestop_is_broken_heres_how_t.php
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 18:58
Aaron Mxy Yost
@ ChrisFurniss:

Liked the article! Personally I avoid dedicated game stores as much as I can, and never buy used or trade-in anymore. I'd rather give an older game to a friend or relative rather than get a small amount of credit, and knowing that the publishers and developers are getting nothing for the sale of a used game made me stop buying pre-owned long ago.
dawimp523's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/16/2007 19:32
dawimp523
Kentucky is not hell!! Those riduculously small, mountain redneck towns in KY are hell! Anyway, that call was pretty low. I mean, they didn't have to call him, he could've just gone to the store or the website and taken it back if he wanted to. And also, all robots are evil anyway, except for D-Toid, they're the angel of gaming goodness!
crimson diabolik's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/17/2007 12:19
crimson diabolik
I've had this happen to me before. Last year I preordered and bought Kingdom Hearts 2 from Gamestop. A month later after I got off from work one night my mom had said that they had called and asked if I wanted to trade it in.
rebelcan's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/18/2007 04:21
rebelcan
Well that's the problem when your entire business model is centered on trade in games. That's why EB/Gamestop push pre-played so much, because that's where all their money comes from. They make next to nothing on new stuff, so they're damned well going to make sure that they can get their greedy paws on as much pre-played stuff as possible.

Just a quick example: when I worked at EB Games, a new Gamecube: $109.99. How much EB made from said new Gamecube: ~$10. Pre-played/refurbished Gamecube: $90. How much EB made from said pre-played Gamecube: $90 ( give or take the price to fix/re-box it ).
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