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You are strolling down the walkway when you see a gleam in the distance... "What is that?", you begin to wonder. You quicken your pace, and the thing comes into view: a store front. Jogging now, you begin to hear a courus of Angels Singing "Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!". An aura encompasses the place! You are crying because you haven't seen the place in many years!! FUNCOLAND! Ahh... The memories. You fling the door open... And... You wake up. It is raining outside, and the clock reads 10:04 in the morning. You look outside, and see what was once holy ground, FuncoLand. Now there, is an evil, desolate place. GameStop!  AHHAHAHA! Okay! So! Story telling aside, as you may have noticed, I have had some really bad experiences at GameStop. A few (not many...) have been great, but these 'good times' are overpowered by the 'bad' to even 'horrid' times. So even though the title says "Good Game Stores", GameStop may or may not be such. Let's see why... - Selection: Meh. They have all the new games, and some of the older ones as well. Also, they usually have lots of used games too. They don't always get their games on time though... 3.5/5
- Organization/Product Quality: I have NEVER seen a GameStop in which the games were alphabetized, or even remotely organized (ex facing the same way, etc). And their used product quality is horrid. Out of every 5 games that I get there, 1 will freeze and or NOT EVEN WORK. Can't they check to see if a game works? I give this section a 1.5/5, and I think that is VERY generous.
- Prices: Good to Great actually... They have some great sale deals that happen every once in a while, as well as just normal prices that make up for the abysmal customer service and crappy game conditions/playability.4.5/5
- Customer Service: Blarg... (Yes I said Blarg...) Not the WORST, but far from the best. I ask them if I can check the disks (visually) before I buy them. What do they say? "They are FINE man... Just trust me." Trust you? I think NOT!!! I trusted them, and I got a copy of Guitar Hero 2 THAT DID NOT WORK!!!!2.5/5, because I can always trade their faulty games back without much hassle.
GameStop manages to scrape a 12/20, or 60%. All in all, I will continue to shop there, but there are MANY alternatives that I usually try before I patronize them. Have any of you guys (or gals) ever had a success story with them? Probably a horrendous one?? Leave a comment, post a blog, PM me! Thanks!!! And keep it on channel 3!!!! 
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The average GameStop is good during the end of a console's lifetime when they're trying to get rid of the old stuff. Other than that, I stay away, far away.
And the one I go to the most has their games in alphabetical order. Even the bins are somewhat organized.
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I tend to avoid them if only for the stickers. I tried to buy a new copy of a game, and they tried to sell me their last copy, the opened floor model with a sticker. I'm sorry, but that ain't new. And when I mentioned the sticker on this "new" copy being another reason I wasn't interested, they had the gall to try to sell me their sticker removal product too. That's like throwing a brick through a window with a note attatched advertising your window repair service.
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They should be alphabetized. If not, their district manager doesn't drop by long enough. Our assistant manager is pretty obssessive/compulsive about it so the store here is generally in order.
As for testing games - no. They expect you to do that work. If they deny people trade ins for games, they won't have as many to sell. If you buy a damaged game, they just say "bring it back" because that just means you're gonna be coming back to be in the store again. You have to go to Gamestop. Etc, etc. I'm sure you've heard the argument many times before.
RE: Customer Service - aside from trying to get you to get subs/reservations so we can keep our jobs, we really aren't given much incentive to be nice. We can't be assholes, naturally, but when it comes down to it, making a sale or not making a sale doesn't affect anything. I get paid minimum wage regardless. Also - keep in mind. We get ALOT of morons. Gamestop is probably the most recognized gamestore currently, so we get alot of people. Alot of people. This also means that for every good customer I enjoy talking to, I get about 10 meth heads who want to sell me games, guys who think games are awesome because MAN THEY LOOK SO GOOD, and well you get the idea.
I could type more, but I think I'll just leave it there.
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@Wolfman Walt: The guys are never assholes to me (almost never, actually). I have met tons of nice GS employees, I'm just making a point on how they don't have good customer service.
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We don't have any GameStops in this part of the country (All of them are EB Games) but we still feel the effects. At one time EB games was independent of the US one, but when GameStop bought out EB everything changed and the chain has suffered for it ever since. I've seen more scuzzed-up, hand-cheesed, dirty, loose, ripped games than any one person should see. No more strategy guides and very few still sealed new games. It's usually the last place I'd go to buy games, just below overpriced gas stations and airport shops.
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@logical123: Well customer service in what way? You can pretty much get whatever you want if you complain long enough, so in that way GS is pretty good in customer service. Interms of telling you wether a game works - well, even if we did somehow test games out, we couldn't test every game for ALL potential flaws, but I think that's an issue of "quality control" rather than customer service.
Another way to think about it. There have been times when someone has traded in to me 50 or 60 games. How will I test ALL those games before closing and, more importantly, in a timely matter so the customer can get his money? That's the problem with accepting used merchandise.
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@logical123:Haha, cool intro logical!
@c2917:Lol @ the "Overpriced gas stations and airport shops" 
On topic: Since I live in Europe there aren't any GameStops here but from the looks of it I'm glad about that. 
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I can't remember who said it, but I heard another critic recently call GameStop an "upscale pawn shop". Sadly, my in-town used game purchases are split pretty evenly between GameStop and the actual upscale pawn shop in town. On occasion the pawn shop actually has marginally better prices and more rarities than the game store.
@Rajaat the Warbringer:
Wow, I'll have to try that. My new job involves making window sashes.
JK about the bricks... but yeah, the windows part is real.
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As for new games, I don't have a lot of choice here, and GameStop is indeed one of very few options for me. The thing I actually liked about GameStop is that for the last few month my local GS had a XBOX 360 games bargain bin, reasonably priced. The thing I hate the most about GS would probably be the "default" case inserts, when the game is missing its actual case. I got a couple of those cases, and they look terrible next to the rest of my games.
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Cool place, only gripe I really have is the "new" games. My best friend worked there and they got to 'test' new games. In other words bring home new games and play them then return them. It's why a lot of the new games aren't shrink wrapped.
But I don't go there to buy new games so whatever.
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@Shimra: Not true, exactly. The reason why alot of games aren't shrink wrapped is because they go out on the floor. When a new game is released, there's generally atleast 3 copies that are gutted and put out on the floor. If not then ussually it's only 1 or so. The problem eventually becomes that gamestop only sends out 1 or 2 copies plus whatever they have reserved.
Checking out games, atleast in my store, ussually means you get the unshrinked copies, though I have admittantly gotten shrinked copies to open and try out.
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I hear a lot of collectors that complain about GS. And of course there's things I don't like. I don't like the fucking stickers. I don't like the scratched up discs. I HATE paying full used price for a GC game with no godamn box or manual.
But at the same time, a lot of their used prices are very good. And I can check ONLINE to see if a store location has an item in stock. And there's one near my work and one near my house. So this makes it easy to hunt out games I'm looking for rather quickly.
So although I love finding a gem at a yard sale, etc, and often seek them out. I probably get more than 50% of my games at GS. No matter what my opinion of them is.
of course all of this will change if they really do stop selling GBA and GC product.
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GameStop is what it is. I try to shop elsewhere but for a while I still shopped there.
Now though I never do even if I find something I like because I CANNOT stand the stickers they put on the covers that don't come out....
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Oh man, where to start...
-They've completed my transaction before telling me that I'm getting the as-stickered-as-possible last copy. This was before I got smart and started asking first.
-They refused to return the aforementioned game even though it never made it to my hand. Only offered me a store credit. I had to go to a manager at another store to process the return.
-They've told my friend that they were shorted and didn't get any preorder bonuses, then 2 days later a sales rep told me he sold 3 of them on ebay for $20 a piece. (This was long ago, I honestly don't remember what it was).
-I've heard them tell a customer buying Eternal Sonata "This game is gay and anyone who buys this game is gay." Right to his face and as serious as can be.
-Gutted one of my preorders (that I picked up 5 hours after receiving the call) because it was the only copy they received and the manager required that they put one of every game on the floor. Both the employee and said manager refused a shop worn discount.
-Never once has a DM or RM responded to a complaint.
Whether I'm being nitpicky or not, I've ended up putting Gamestop on my last resort list. There is one Gamestop location where I don't mind stopping by for Gamestop exclusives because they have a few decent employees, but as a whole their customer service is the worst I've seen from any retail store. Gamecrazy by far gets the majority of my business.
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Like NostalGeek said, GameStop is what it is. I will mention that the managers of the local shops around here are great. When I am looking for a CIB game, they will spend the time to check the other stores and hook me up with a great copy when they can. As far as the ungodly "box" they use when they don't have the original, I simply just won't buy.
The stickers are horrible, and they should be forced to remove them for you at point of sale.
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