Return that immediately. I worked for gamestop for about 6 years from 11-16. It was a horribly run company that should be a relic of the past like circuit city and blockbuster. Executive management would rather make tiny profits than make pro-consumer changes that would draw in gamers (things like tournaments were actively discouraged).
I really hated that gamestop became a meme stock. It meant executive made a lot of money from no effort on their own. I would have much rather seen their shares go to zero and then get bought for pennies on the dollar, leaving the top brass on their ass.
Yeah, people forget that Gamestop basically ran all of their favorite local game and card shops out of business. They should not be celebrated.
Fuck now I want to invent a game hangout space that has indie game tournaments, sells games, cards and comics and regularly holds tournaments. Online gambling is legal now, right as long as its base off a skilled game? Stream that shit and take bets…
As a casual yugioh enjoyer that went to Barnes and noble every few Saturdays to play and trade, I never saw GameStop even try to compete. I can’t imagine it had any impact on running game/card shops out of business.
I may be older than you. But there used to be a lot of those combo game stores when I was a kid I used to call them “the fun shop” as a child. Only the stores that had enough card volume survived, everyone else lost their business to Gamestop or another store that Gamestop ended up buying. So yeah, there are a few card places that do tourneys, Gamestop never really got into that business so if your sales were heavily card/comic based you had a chance to survive.
I try to patronize my local game shops as much as I can. I’m not into card or board games which limits where I go but I’m lucky enough to have a few local game stores that sell a lot of retro games for fair prices.
Of course with new games (I still like to buy physical quite often) I generally have to buy from the big stores but I make it a point to avoid gamestop.
Management have been replaced, they are not the same company they once were. Ryan Cohen has taken the reigns and is currently driving the company with a focus on the customer. The guy from Chewy
They raised the cost of their Pro membership from $15 to $25. They fill most of their stores up with collectibles, have very little stock of anything. Have absolutely abysmal phone support for any problems (hour+ hold times, no call back options, needing faceless escalations you just have to trust will be resolved in weeks). Have misleading pricing online including advertising prices incorrectly by subtracting available $5 rewards or percentage off deals on certain but not all pages. Oversell products online, wait 6 weeks to cancel and actual refund people.
They treat their employees like commission based sales people but pay them terribly with no commission. Managers often have to manage two stores.
They’ve tried changing the terms of their pro membership mid-subscription.
GameStop exists to swindle WSB and crypto bros out of their investments. It’s not a real game retailer anymore or at least that portion of the business is still as shitty as it ever has been
Disclaimer: own stonks, so not exactly unbiased opinion here
From what I know they’re overhauling customer service to A) prevent stuff like with OP and B) make sure the customer isn’t disgruntled even if it happens. Not sure how successful they’ve been in that regard but at least it’s what managament claims they’re focusing on with seemingly at least some improvement. Aside from that there’s a couple experimental stores in Italy aiming for a more netcafe style service than the current store model as well as inventory/logistics slimming. They also announced a web3 game marketplace but last I checked there were no games but only loads of NFT vomit on there so not sure if that’s panning out as they intended it. Company is managing to become profitable though, last two quarters they beat estimates by a landslide and this quarter was almost profitable (iirc q2 hasn’t been profitable for them in ages).
I think key will be regaining customer trust, I see a lot of bad blood around with GameStop and I think if the company wants any chance at survival they need to work on clearing their image. They could offer the best service in the world but if people don’t trust their Customer Service that won’t matter.
Thanks for your input. I posted elsewhere in a comment about treating customers well that this hasn’t been the case imo. Nor do they treat employees well. Most of their stores are filled with collectibles, poor quantities of titles anyone wants, and absolutely abysmal support of anything goes wrong. It took me 9 weeks to get a gift card refunded after they oversold a product and left it as “pending” for a month. Each time I had to phone in was 60 mins on hold with just hold music and no indication there was anyone there to help me. Everyone I spoke to was friendly, but they couldn’t do anything about it, and those that could were not customer raving, gave no communication what so ever, and wouldn’t communicate back to anyone that I could talk to. It taught me to never use a GameStop gift card, and never buy online.
My own experience with Starfield wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either, they seemingly forgot to put my apt number on the box so it got stuck at FedEx, I called as soon as I saw the tracking say it couldn’t be delivered, got it resolved within 30 min call, they said it’s be 2-5 days so I was happy when it showed up the next morning instead :p
So… Not too bad but it was a bit annoying I had to call in to correct their mistake and missed out on basically half a day of Starfield “early access”
Return that immediately. I worked for gamestop for about 6 years from 11-16. It was a horribly run company that should be a relic of the past like circuit city and blockbuster. Executive management would rather make tiny profits than make pro-consumer changes that would draw in gamers (things like tournaments were actively discouraged).
I really hated that gamestop became a meme stock. It meant executive made a lot of money from no effort on their own. I would have much rather seen their shares go to zero and then get bought for pennies on the dollar, leaving the top brass on their ass.
Yeah, people forget that Gamestop basically ran all of their favorite local game and card shops out of business. They should not be celebrated.
Fuck now I want to invent a game hangout space that has indie game tournaments, sells games, cards and comics and regularly holds tournaments. Online gambling is legal now, right as long as its base off a skilled game? Stream that shit and take bets…
As a casual yugioh enjoyer that went to Barnes and noble every few Saturdays to play and trade, I never saw GameStop even try to compete. I can’t imagine it had any impact on running game/card shops out of business.
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I may be older than you. But there used to be a lot of those combo game stores when I was a kid I used to call them “the fun shop” as a child. Only the stores that had enough card volume survived, everyone else lost their business to Gamestop or another store that Gamestop ended up buying. So yeah, there are a few card places that do tourneys, Gamestop never really got into that business so if your sales were heavily card/comic based you had a chance to survive.
I try to patronize my local game shops as much as I can. I’m not into card or board games which limits where I go but I’m lucky enough to have a few local game stores that sell a lot of retro games for fair prices.
Of course with new games (I still like to buy physical quite often) I generally have to buy from the big stores but I make it a point to avoid gamestop.
Management have been replaced, they are not the same company they once were. Ryan Cohen has taken the reigns and is currently driving the company with a focus on the customer. The guy from Chewy
They raised the cost of their Pro membership from $15 to $25. They fill most of their stores up with collectibles, have very little stock of anything. Have absolutely abysmal phone support for any problems (hour+ hold times, no call back options, needing faceless escalations you just have to trust will be resolved in weeks). Have misleading pricing online including advertising prices incorrectly by subtracting available $5 rewards or percentage off deals on certain but not all pages. Oversell products online, wait 6 weeks to cancel and actual refund people.
They treat their employees like commission based sales people but pay them terribly with no commission. Managers often have to manage two stores.
They’ve tried changing the terms of their pro membership mid-subscription.
They are Blockbuster circa 2004.
But their CEO posts funny things on twitter that gets reposted to reddit, that must mean they’re a good company!
GameStop exists to swindle WSB and crypto bros out of their investments. It’s not a real game retailer anymore or at least that portion of the business is still as shitty as it ever has been
I’m glad you said this. I was really confused by the meme stock phase.
As a consumer, they never felt like a great company to deal with. They were just convenient being located nearby. Trade-ins always felt like cons.
Tbf part of it was that a lot of senior management was let go and fresh blood was brought in to revitalize the company.
What are they doing to keep themselves relevant exactly?
Disclaimer: own stonks, so not exactly unbiased opinion here
From what I know they’re overhauling customer service to A) prevent stuff like with OP and B) make sure the customer isn’t disgruntled even if it happens. Not sure how successful they’ve been in that regard but at least it’s what managament claims they’re focusing on with seemingly at least some improvement. Aside from that there’s a couple experimental stores in Italy aiming for a more netcafe style service than the current store model as well as inventory/logistics slimming. They also announced a web3 game marketplace but last I checked there were no games but only loads of NFT vomit on there so not sure if that’s panning out as they intended it. Company is managing to become profitable though, last two quarters they beat estimates by a landslide and this quarter was almost profitable (iirc q2 hasn’t been profitable for them in ages).
I think key will be regaining customer trust, I see a lot of bad blood around with GameStop and I think if the company wants any chance at survival they need to work on clearing their image. They could offer the best service in the world but if people don’t trust their Customer Service that won’t matter.
Thanks for your input. I posted elsewhere in a comment about treating customers well that this hasn’t been the case imo. Nor do they treat employees well. Most of their stores are filled with collectibles, poor quantities of titles anyone wants, and absolutely abysmal support of anything goes wrong. It took me 9 weeks to get a gift card refunded after they oversold a product and left it as “pending” for a month. Each time I had to phone in was 60 mins on hold with just hold music and no indication there was anyone there to help me. Everyone I spoke to was friendly, but they couldn’t do anything about it, and those that could were not customer raving, gave no communication what so ever, and wouldn’t communicate back to anyone that I could talk to. It taught me to never use a GameStop gift card, and never buy online.
My own experience with Starfield wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either, they seemingly forgot to put my apt number on the box so it got stuck at FedEx, I called as soon as I saw the tracking say it couldn’t be delivered, got it resolved within 30 min call, they said it’s be 2-5 days so I was happy when it showed up the next morning instead :p
So… Not too bad but it was a bit annoying I had to call in to correct their mistake and missed out on basically half a day of Starfield “early access”
in the same way that rich guy replaces his blood with his teenage sons blood, i’m sure.