GameStop Rage Quit!

Another tale of the worst customer service ever!

By: Jaskot (JazzEFiddle)

You call yourself a specialty store?

This story is not my own but that of someone very close to me: my sister. What might have been just a slightly bad experience for the general consumer will be told through the eyes of her brother, an active member in the gaming community; I can unveil that what really happened here was more than just an isolated incident.

My sister was never the hardcore gamer that I was growing up. Sure, she dabbled in some games that were geared more toward everyone, like your basic Mario and Sonic games, along with Guitar Hero and games of that nature. So when she called me up to ask me what she should purchase as a gift for her gamer boyfriend, I was not surprised. Her boyfriend has been playing Destiny since day one and even spent the time and money to switch over from the XBOX One to the PS4 so that he could play with me. Thus, the suggestions that I made to my sister were all geared around advancing and making his Destiny gaming experience  more enjoyable.

She stopped by the GameStop store on her way home from school and was able to pick up all the items that I had recommended. She was so excited that when she got home she took a picture of all the items and sent them to me, asking if she did a good job picking out the gifts. This is when the story takes a turn for the worse.

Everything she sent me in the picture was great, except for the the gaming add-on card they sold her: Rise of Iron, the latest expansion to Destiny which her boyfriend already owned. I let her know that they sold her the wrong thing and that she would have to take it back and exchange it for a gift card that has Destiny's in-game currency on it so that he could buy additional things for his character. Her response at this point blew me out of the water.

She told me she asked the lady at GameStop on four separate occasions if the card that she was selling her would allow her boyfriend to buy addition armor and gear and stuff in the game of Destiny. She expressed how she didn't know exactly what she was looking for looked like and was in need of help to find her gift. The sales representative insisted that she was selling her what she needed and pointed out the fact that the pre-sale card said add-on right on the front. Never the less my sister drove back up to the local GameStop by her house and was told that she would have to return to the store she purchased it from, 10 miles away, and that pre-order cards are normally not refundable but maybe since she had only purchased the card a few hours ago they might take it back. My sister took the 20 minute drive in rush hour traffic to get back to the store she purchased the card from and told them that I had told her the item she was sold was incorrect, along with the information that the other GameStop employee nearest her house had told her. The employee that had just sold her the card less than 2 hours ago then tells my sister that she would have to get a manager and continued to hint that what she had sold her was the right thing. Once the manager came over they instantly told her that the card is not refundable, the reason being that the game code is printed on the receipt and that it could have been used or sold already. Did they just accuse her of fraud? 

Needless to say my sister was upset and left the store, only to call me immediately to tell me what happened. I told her that I would take the card off her hands so that she wouldn't lose out on the money she spent on her boyfriend and could purchase the card she intended on getting him in the first place. This is where I lost it and went into my rage moment........ you call yourself a specialty store???

Activate Rage

I will conclude this story with bullet points as to all the reasons why I was so angry and upset at this situation......

1. You are a specialty store! You do not sell anything except video games and video game products. Why in the world do your employees not understand the simple basics of video games? Destiny is a huge game that should be understood by anyone working in a store specializing in video games!

2. Its $30! Not only have I returned a card like this in the past, had them deactivate the code, and printed a new one, but for a company that has basically made a name for being a leader in the video game sales industry, $30 is not going to make you go bankrupt. You are much better off taking the $30 hit than pissing off your paying customers and causing them to no longer shop at your store. Not only will my sister never purchase anything from a GameStop ever again, but I will also not be spending my hard-earned cash there either. And I have spent over a $1000 at that store in the past 6 months alone. So the hit you are going to take is going to be much larger than $30.

3. It's not good customer service! Money or loss of product aside, the employees at GameStop were rude and accused my sister of being a fraud. This is not okay in an industry where the people you encounter on a day to day basis are the ones signing your paycheck. There is no reason that she should have had to drive back to the store of purchase for something that was printed through your computer system. Not only should you take care of the person that is giving you their money but you should just be a decent human being towards another human being. 

Needless to say this game company will no longer be getting any money from my family and as a word of caution to anyone that reads this...... Do your research and know what you want to get before you ever go into one of these stores. If you have a story like this or similar with GameStop or any store that you purchased your favorite video games from, please feel free to comment in the section below.

Let's discuss video game rage quit moments together.