EB Games, the Canadian subsidiary of US retail chain GameStop, has reportedly merged its used and new game sections, with minimal distinction between which is which and new copies of games hidden behind pre-owned ones.
An employee informed Kotaku that staff have been told to put the same, white price stickers on both new and used games; in the past, pre-owned games have carried yellow price tags. Although one employee got in touch with Kotaku to dispute the claim, scores more have verified it, and the retailer is yet to comment.
"I can confirm this 100 per cent," one employee wrote. "We were told that we were to merge all used games with the new games and have them sectioned off by one of four very specific genres they gave us.
"They told us the new copy must be on the very bottom of the pile, and the used ones stacked on top...they also instructed us to discard all materials advertising used games."
The source admits that the stickers do have the words "new" or "used" on them, "but no-one looks at that....There are also many games where the new copy is as cheap as $19.99 but the used copies stacked on top of it are $34.99."
It's not a surprising move given the margins retailers enjoy on pre-owned games compared to sales of new ones, but it's cynical and deceptive. As Kotaku's source points out, the increasing prevalence of online passes in games means customers may be in for a nasty surprise when they are asked for a further fee when trying to play online.
It's just the latest sign of bricks and mortar retailers' struggle to survive in the face of competition from online retailers, supermarkets and the rise of digital distribution. In August, GameStop admitted removing codes from copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that gave customers a free copy of the title on cloud gaming service OnLive. And as we reported yesterday, UK retailer Game Group - which includes high street chains Game and Gamestation - has seen its share price fall 57 per cent in the past week alone, and its stock is now worth less than a tenth of its value at the start of 2011.
Source: Kotaku
Comments
7Brick and mortar game stores are not struggling to survive. They are just trying to fleece more money out of their customers because they are dishonest and greedy. Why anyone would shop at EB Games or Gamestop on a regular basis is totally beyond me. I went there the other day and there was a line out the door and down the hall to get at the one person working there. The stupid fucking clerk was standing there like an idiot doing their 4 upsells per customer while people stood in line for an hour to get their game. It was the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen.
"The stupid fucking clerk was standing there like an idiot doing their 4 upsells per customer while people stood in line for an hour to get their game. It was the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen."
Leave the staff out of it. I work in a corporate video game store as well. Its the companies fault, not the sales staff. That staff member will have been told that they MUST say this to every customer, or there will be serious repercussion. We get it in our store too.. This story is another example of corporate greed. Nothing to do with bottom of the pile workers. If there was anything ludicrous about your story, it was that people were queuing for that long.
Well said. Ultimately the clerk would have been "fucking stupid" to go against the wishes of the guy paying the wages.
Could not care less if their boss makes them, if they do it voluntarily or if someone is standing behind them with a gun to their head forcing them to do it. The fact it is done at all is what infuriates me. Deliberately spending an extra 45-60 seconds per customer when there's 30 people in line is totally unacceptable and the entire thing was a hideous experience. I will not ever buy a game from that chain again.
One of the things I've always been taught about providing good customer service - and having had bad experiences from people who don't follow it I must say it holds true - is that you should always treat the customer in front of you as if they are the only ones in the shop. There are parts of the transaction that can be sped up, getting stock from off the shop floor for example, but making sure the customer has everything they need isn't a part you cut out.
For example, when someone is buying a 360, I suppose offering a HDMI cable, extra control pad, Live membership and MS points would be considered 'upselling'. But if the customer has a HD TV, and wants to play Halo online with their housemate, they're all relevant offers that will directly improve the customers experience with the product. The fact there are a load of people stood behind him isn't a reason not to offer them - if you don't you're doing the customer a disservice.
There is a massive gap between selling something someone needs over a $3 "scratch protection" and an overpriced subscription to a shitty magazine. If someone is buying a game, they don't need to be upsold.
Sadly this is a growing case of buyer beware. Even walking into a big box store like Best Buy, that also sells used games, it is getting harder to distinguish between the new and used games. I am actually surprised it has taken a retailer this long to make this kind of move.
What is obvious to me is the timing of such a move. This is the peak time of year where gamers don't buy their games for themselves. With Christmas just weeks away, all of the gamers relatives are out en-mass with wish lists in tow. These are the poor unsuspecting souls who will not know that there is a difference between new and used within a gaming retailer and will just see the game their loved one wants and will pick it up without truly looking at the price or any words written on said price tag. Retailers usually put their name on the price tags, who would think that the new or used tag would be used there instead.
While this might have an immediate positive effect to the bottom line during the Christmas rush; when the gifts are opened and the truth comes out about the tactics used to sell an item you are only going to truly be hurting your bottom line in the long run. The fastest way to lose customers is to upset them or a relative. Imagine when the game is opened on Christmas day and the gamer goes to play the game only to realize that the game is used and that the features they expect are unavailable or they have to pay extra to get them. Are they going to go to the retailer first? No, they are going to go to the person who bought the game and enquirer why a used game was bought in the first place. Who would want a used game for Christmas? You now have two unhappy people; the gamer for getting a used game and the person who bought the game for feeling duped or even worse, ripped off. A customer who feels they have been cheated or ripped off is a retailer's nightmare. Because they usually have no qualm about going back to the store and complain or the other thing that usually happens is that no one involved in the situation goes back to the store again and they seek out alternatives to fill their loved one's requests in the future.
Case in point, my mother, who is in her late sixty's has opened a Steam account just so that she can play Pop-cap games and to take advantage of their quarterly sales when I (her son) or one of her grandchildren want a game for Christmas or for a Birthday. No fuss and we usually get the best version of the game and on top of that with Steam's wish list feature she doesn't even have to ask us what we want; she looks it up and just picks something off the list.
Want to fight the system on this one... don't go to the clerk behind the counter (they don't get paid enough to take crap from their bosses and from cheesed off customers) talk to the manager and ask for the regional manager/director's phone number. Complain up the chain to as close to the companies head office as you can get. If you get that far, they know that there are at least ten to twenty other customers who are upset and are not saying anything.
Better yet use the tried and true method of showing a retailer you are upset with them. Stop buying from them in the first place.