GameStop — Local services in Pleasant Hill

“I didn’t realize I was walking into a federal courtroom instead of a GameStop.”

I walked into this GameStop on what I thought would be a peaceful Sunday morning, clutching a newly acquired game I was genuinely excited about. Silly me I thought I was entering a store dedicated to games and customers. Instead, I walked straight into a hostility vortex.

Before I could say "hi," I was greeted not with a smile, not with a “welcome,” but with what felt like a verbal tasing. The clerk let’s call her the Warden of Disc Approval immediately barked, “Get out or I’m calling the cops.”

Wait what? No hello? No context? Did I accidentally walk into a vault heist in progress? I blinked, stunned, wondering if I had unknowingly committed a felony by existing within five feet of the checkout counter.

All I asked was for her to take a quick look at a game I had purchased from someone else not even to trade it in, just to verify it looked okay. Apparently, that request was equivalent to asking her to solve world hunger.

Look, I get it. It’s Sunday. Maybe she’d rather be at brunch. But I didn’t come here to ruin her day I came for basic human interaction and maybe, just maybe, some customer service. Instead, I got treated like I had walked in wearing a ski mask holding a crowbar.

By the end of it, I half-expected the SWAT team to rappel down from the ceiling and demand I drop the disc and surrender.

Verdict: If you’re in the market for a side of trauma with your gaming needs, this is the place. If you like being threatened with law enforcement for speaking, you’ve found your sanctuary. But if you’re looking for decency, dignity, or dare I say customer service… maybe try literally...

I haven't shopped at a GameStop in years and after coming in to buy a "new" game I remembered why. This place always has a flea market shadiness feel to it and the employees are trained to make light of any concern you have of its shadiness.

I checked online to see if a game for my son was available at this location. It was, awesome. I headed on over and asked for it. They asked me "new or used?" I wanted a new one since it was on sale and cheaper than their advertised used one. The employee comes back with an opened game and tells me it is new. Two employees are involved now trying to reassure me it is new and the reason it was opened was they had to have a box on display and this was the last one. Of course neither of them realized there was another box on display. They then told me they could shrink wrap it up if I wanted. The booklet inside was a little roughed up and there were fingerprints on the disc. Where else can you go where they push un-boxed, opened media to you and sell it as new? Oh yeah, a flea market. The employees thought there was nothing wrong with this practice which lets me know this is a trained tactic.

Avoid this store and tactics like this, I would recommend going to a big box stores instead. A store with selling ethics like GameStop does not deserve our money. You can always go to a flea market, Craigslist or ebay...

1/2/15

For Christmas 2014 we welcomed home our brand new baby PS4. She joined her siblings in our living room: the Atari, NES, SNES, Xbox Kinect, and a couple less popular little ones. She fit right in! We started with two games, but grew weary of GTA, and beat The Last of Us in just over a week. Time for a new game!

My husband wanted Far Cry 4, so we first checked Phoenix games, wanting to support a local shop, but they didn't have it. We entered GameStop and they told us they had a used copy for $55. The employee searched the disorganized store but was never able to locate the used copy, so we bought it new for $60. Not much of a price difference anyhow.

My husband commented that their store was very unorganized but the employee just commented that it was the holiday time. All the more reason you'd want to keep it put together, you'd think - lots of shoppers right now... oh well. Got the game - and...