GameStop Selling Games Played By Employees As New 243
Kotaku reports on a practice by GameStop which allows employees to "check out" new copies of video games, play them, then return them to be sold as new. Quoting:
"When a shipment of video games initially arrives at a store, managers are told to 'gut' several copies of the game, removing the disc or cartridge from the packaging so it can be displayed on the shelf without concern of theft, according to our sources. The games are then placed in protective sleeves or cases under the counter. If a customer asks why the game is not sealed they are typically told the the game is a display copy. The game is still sold as new. When check-out games are returned, we were told, they are placed with the gutted display copies. If a customer asks about these, they are typically told they are display copies, not that they have been played before. Since the copies are often placed with display copies, even managers and employees typically don't know which of these games have been played and which haven't."
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Does it matter??? (Score:1, Informative)
It is because it is a used (pre-played) copy being sold as new.
New price > used price
In the case of a used copy, I want to look at it to make sure it seems like the disc is in a playable condition before I buy it. (Scratch? I've gotten used discs that looked fine, but didn't quite play (Playstation one era))
If it is new, I expect it to be a new, unplayed copy, that will work in my system without problems.
Not a "new" problem.. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm quite surprised that the rest of the world is just now being made aware of this practice. I worked for two competing shopping-mall chain video game stores in the mid-to-late 90's, and both of them had policies almost identical to this. The shrink-wrap machine in the back room made the fact that an item was "checked out" very simple to conceal from the customers.
To be completely honest, I really don't care, as long as:
- The materials are sold to me in a "new" condition
- If it requires any sort of registration key, I better not ever find out it's already been registered
Without this policy in place, I'm fairly certain a lot of video game stores would simply stop having employees; it's one of the best perks of working at one. Discounts are nice, but playing for free? That's even better.
Re:How about DRM? (Score:4, Informative)
That's new to me. Most PC games I bought so far have their activation code or license key on a sticker inside the DVD case, on the disc sleeve or on the manual.
Re:Does it matter??? (Score:1, Informative)
In some ways, it's probably better to be played. At least you know there are no immediate catastrophic errors on the disk.
Unless that employee accidently damaged it while he was playing it, and put it back quietly to avoid having to pay for it out of his own paycheck. Just saying.
Besides which, I'd prefer it to remain sealed until I get it home to my own machine. If it fucks up when I play it, I can at least rule out the store as the source of the damage. When it's already unwrapped, I immediately assume all damage caused is by the store. (And end up getting venomously pissed at them and start taking my business elsewhere.)
Re:This is just now news? (Score:5, Informative)
This policy has been around longer than that. I was an employee exercising the checkout policy back in the floppy / cartridge days, at several of the stores which would eventualy merge to become Gamestop (c. 1993-1997) This is old news, the lawsuits about it have come and gone. The policy has been disbanded, then re-instated several times. There's no use getting your panties twisted about it now.
Look: If you're reading this article, it's safe to assume you've been in a Gamestop (or EB, or Babbage's, or Software Etc., or Funcoland, or whatever your local store was before being devoured by ConGlomCo). So it is because of your undoubted nightmare customer experience in such places that when I tell you the following, you will know that it is true: working there was a fucking horrorshow. The hours were terrible, the customers obnoxious, the colleagues irritating, the stink from the shrinkwrap machine quite literally poisonous, and management incompetent, malicious, or both. Mind you, I'm talking about how bad it was 15 years ago when the stores were competing with each other. I can only imagine that it's gotten worse for employees since the industry consolidated completely, and you can no longer just walk up to the other side of the mall and get a job with the competition.
These stores pay minimum wage, offer employees almost no discount on the products they sell (and indeed often restrict employees' access to hot items like new-release consoles), and employees are forbidden to hang out mucking about with the in-store demo kiosks during downtime or off-duty hours. Yet at the same time, the customers and management demand that the employees somehow be knowledgable about all the product in the store. These products have consistently sold for $50 - $80 apiece for years. As an employee, you're supposed to have played everything, yet as an employee, you're subject to the same "you broke the shrink, you own it" return policy on $140 a week for the average part-timer. It's an impossible situation for a 19-year-old trying to make rent, groceries, and tuition, much less a sad-sack 30-something manager with kids, pulling in $25k a year on a 70-hour work week if they're lucky.
Gamestop didn't post record profits by paying their line employees well. Everyone's a disposable cog, and they'd just as soon fire you as look at you. Don't think as an employee you aren't constantly reminded by management about the eager stream of salivating 16-year-olds who think working in a game store would be SO COOL, dreaming of replacing you.
Given all this, do you think anyone in their right mind would work at that store if they didn't offer employees what amounts to a free lending library of the newest titles? What other incentive could there possibly be to irritate people with membership clubs, pushy pre-orders and used game pitches, and the soul-crushing pain of listening to the loop of that piped in tv network all day?
If it really bothers you, shop elsewhere. I certainly do, those fucking vultures won't ever get my money again. If you do decide to shop there, use some common sense and check your disks for scratches before you leave the store. It's not that hard.
But seriously, quit the whining about the "used sold as new" crap. The checkout policy is the price you pay for having specialty knowledge behind the register at minimum wage prices.
In the UK... (Score:5, Informative)
In game they dont have any kind of check out procedure which I ever had the power to use - sometimes we got promo copies of games which would be handed out as prizes to staff and then the staff would share them, but they were mostly shit games and no one gave a crap (I got sega superstars tennis hahaha).
From my friends, gamestation (which game now owns) DOES allow employees to check out disks, paying for them if they break it etc. But now all GAME and gamestation stores have a disk cleaning machine which will remove like 75% of scratches leaving the disk looking "as new".
Both stores "gut" games and put real boxes onto the shop floor, along with inserts sent from H/O. Some inserts are crap/unreadable/wrong and so you sometimes need the real box for the customer to be able to see what they are really buying.
However, even if we didn't gut games, i'd still say that about 5% are scratched IN the box, due to them falling loose during shipping etc. Luckly we can just disk clean them for free in that case and the customer is happy 99% of the time. If they kick off we might swap the disk for them for a brand new copy, but note it and if they return that too then we will refuse to return it again generally - all this is at managers disgression.
I no longer work for game, but this is how it was up until about 2 months ago.
Re:How about DRM? (Score:5, Informative)
Stamped CDs and DVDs have no dye to fade (Score:3, Informative)
No scratching or anything, just your run of the mill dye fade.
Stamped CDs and DVDs have no "dye" to fade. Was the plastic still clear? (Use a bright light to see through the dark-purple PS1 disc plastic.) Did the laser in the console still read other discs? Was there rot or other damage close to around the edge?
Re:How about DRM? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Does it matter??? (Score:4, Informative)
For a little extra, GM will actually let you take personal delivery of a new Corvette at the factory, after personally supervising its construction: http://www.corvettemuseum.com/ncm_delivery/index.shtml [corvettemuseum.com]
Re:How about DRM? (Score:3, Informative)
Incorrect!
Then changed it right after launch.
You can request a new code for free.
Shocking! (Score:2, Informative)