GOB Retail — Attraction in Clawson

During the COVID-19 crisis, the storefront closed but the website advised a "Buy 1, Get 1 free - All games, system, accessories, mixed included" without limitations. I ordered two used Dreamcast controllers for $9.95 each, one Dreamcast Memory Card for $7.95, and one Dreamcast Jump Pack for $7.95. Under the terms of the advertised sale, I should have paid $17.90 (before tax) but I was charged $35.80 before tax ($37.95 after tax) representing the full price of the items. The items pictured on the website were first-party OEM items made by Sega.

When I picked up the items in the parking lot of the store, I was told that the sale advertised online was "in store only" and the difference would not be refunded to me but I was allowed to pick up to three free items to offset the four items I'd purchased. Inside the bag containing my order was one third-party Dreamcast controller bearing the checkered flag logo of Performance, a third-party Performance tremor pack bearing a "jump pak" price sticker, and a third-party memory card. When I inquired about the missing controller, the GOB employee advised that he would have to call the store's owner who was busy meeting with local officials "to lobby against the unconstitutionality of Governor Whitmer's orders." The employee later told me that, per the GOB owner, my money would not be refunded to me for the missing controller. Instead, I was to be given store credit because--as stated by the employee--"the owner said that doing a partial refund through PayPal is too difficult." When I asked to speak with the owner about the entire situation--including the items which did not match my order, the employee said that he would call the owner and provide my number.

After 45 minutes, I called the store again to determine what was happening and how I could return the items for a refund. The employee expressed surprise that the owner had not yet called me back and stated that he could not accept anything for a return because the store was not yet open to the general public.

I filed a PayPal dispute and provided a detailed description of the issue, containing screenshots of the products advertised on the GOB website along with the items I received (all bearing the store's price stickers) for comparison to show that I'd not received anything I had ordered.

PayPal ultimately refunded me the money but said that I had to pay to ship the items back to the store as it was still not yet open to the public. I did so (including the free items) and emailed the manager to determine how best to recover the shipping fees I incurred to fix his mistake. I sent the manager a PayPal invoice for the shipping amount along with a picture of the USPS receipt. The owner cancelled the PayPal invoice without explanation.

Attached are screenshots of the entire email conversation I had with the owner. Aside from my emails to the owner, the single PayPal invoice I sent him, and his response, there's been no other contact between us.

Ultimately, I'm utterly dismayed by this owner's business practices and general attitude. This could have been resolved with a simple phone call. In the end, I wasted money paying to ship items that I never ordered back to a business which expressed no interest in addressing the situation and only wanted to keep my money despite the glaring errors in the...

Hmm. How to describe this place? The gaming space is large. Harkening back to the dingy play spaces of my youth. It’s that sort of ‘lived in’ feeling of many gamers spending many hours there. Think Pandemonium games before their move to the new building, for instance. There are couches for RPG play and tables for miniatures and board games. Card area is also decently sized if one is into that sort of thing. Staff is nominally adequate to task, with the usual range of speciality knowledge one may find from minimum wage retail clerks in a game store. Friendly enough if they believe you are worth their time. Otherwise your mileage may vary.

Selection is pretty good. Large collection of board, card, and miniature games. Hobby supplies and also RPG books and some comics. As observed by others there is a definite ‘flgs tax’ at play and expect to pay top dollar for any purchases (between 100 and 110% of MSRP). Also of issue is their buy service. It operates on a standard GameStop model. Expect to be offered about 25% or less of what they intend to sell the item for.

Lastly their store SOPs. Hours on the weekend are a little odd with a surprisingly early close time on Saturday and Sunday. Their outside Food and Drink policies are also strictly draconian. Both are expressly verboten. Regardless of official reasons given I will always firmly be of the opinion that this is to attempt to force gamers to purchase their snacks and beverages at their markup as an additional revenue stream to take advantage of a captive audience.

All that adds up to meh. So an average rating. I’ve seen worse. Seen better too. Eat a meal and hydrate before you come to play, and support them with the occasional purchase, but understand that letting them take slight advantage of your wallet is the cost of maintaining a...

This store has a massive selection of board games, comics, tabletop necessities and large area for playing games. The staff are friendly and always willing to help you find something. But I think the positives stop there. They do not allow outside food or drink including water and when you offer a large area to play games where you can lose yourself playing for hours having such a policy in place is unacceptable; especially when the only food offered are small snack items. For my fellow MTG players stay far away from this store. Sealed product is overpriced but they justify this by offering credits for singles which is almost a scam because the little amount of singles this store carries. The selection is so minuscule that they have kiosks so you can find 1 card out of your 24 card list. But let's discuss prices. They charge 300% of SCG prices. You want to sell them a card? They will offer you $.07 for a card currently selling for $4 NM on TCGplayer. I may have this part wrong but I believe the rewards program they offer is 1 point for every dollar you spend. Each point equals $.01. So your charging well above MSRP and offering a rewards program that essentially 1% cash back. GOB if you see this please listen. You have the potential to be the biggest competitor for MTG, and other constructed games in the area. You need to relax on your no outside food/drink policy, come down on prices, and improve your rewards program. Nothing crazy but 1% returns isn't a rewards program especially when no matter how much you spend there you will always be ripped off. When I first went there I couldn't understand why a store with such a selection and friendly staff could be such a ghost town, but I see it now. I want to love this store. I want to blow paychecks on what this store has to offer. The prices are too high. And the greed is...