Some Gamestop / EBGames Scams : General Discussion

Well I decided based on my last experience with gamestop that angered me to create a little thread based on my top scams gamestop / ebgames has done to trick customers into giving their money and getting screwed over. Don’t worry I'm not going into the whole system pre order thing as that is not 100% their fault.

- Reserve the game today and get it on the release date -

This one can include a lot of things but the main ones is when ebgames will claim that if you put money down you will get it on its release date. Keep in mind games normally have a release date on a Monday and come out the following Tuesday. Employees lie constantly (most likely told to) telling you that it will be in your hands on that Monday.

- Special in Game Content Only With Pre Order -

I know they do posters and junk which is fine but what angers me the most is when they lie saying you can ONLY GET IN GAME CONTENT WITH A PRE ORDER. Great example is the game Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The store employees, and the fliers stated that you can only play the silver surfer character if you pre order the game from them. So most people thought they where getting a special limited edition or something along those lines. That was in fact a lie when they game came out they handed customers a simple piece of paper with a code you insert that unlocks him for you. Anyone could have done that and to make it even better the store I was at didn’t have the little fliers with the code on it. They just wrote it down real fast and gave it out.

- Gaming Credit Database Fiasco -

So not sure if anyone is aware of this but ebgames used to do a little scheme where they would only give you store credit if you had the original receipt. Now most stores carry gift cards but in the past they forced you to hold onto a receipt and they would not give you a gift card. Best of all when you use your receipt for credit they give you a brand new one that you have to keep. I know they have gone to credit cards at both gamestops and ebgames, but this is how their little system used to work. It makes you wonder even if they have millions of customer’s cant they just keep you in a system like bestbuy would and that tracks your credit? Only reasoning is so they can count on customers loosing their cards so they don’t have to give credit.

- The 5 dollars down deposit -

If you are like most people that want to be sure you get a game you put down a few dollars for a down payment. That is fine but what employees have been doing recently is telling people it’s a non refundable 5 dollar purchase fee. That is complete BS as you can purchase the game and return it for 5 dollars back. I believe you can even ask for your 5 dollars back at any time but I have never tried this.

- 5 dollar down deposit number 2 -

A lot of the time a customer will pre order a game but find it a day earlier at bestbuy and get it there instead. Well gamestop has this move where after a few weeks they will keep your 5 dollar down deposit and not allow you to ever get it back or even get it in a 5 dollar gift card format. Once again you would of thought they would track when customers pre order items and allow you 5 dollars credit towards anything but instead they want to 100% screw over customers.

- Repacking used games as new -

It has been posted multiple times that if a customer returns a game within a few days after buying it and the game is new and in perfect condition they will shrink wraps the game. Now everyone knows this is not posted anywhere by gamestop as something they condone, but it does make you wonder. It has been seen to happen more and more to customers. There has even been a report of a customer buying a brand new 360 only to find it has a gamer tag created inside of it proving it is in fact used.

- Gamestop and EBgames are the same company -

Why in every game mall is there 2 stores. Their is always an ebgames and a gamestop. The only reasoning can be to trick customers that done like one store to think they can support the other one. However they both go to the same corporation. Look at ebgames.com and gamestop.com. This also wasn’t because they merged so late in the game that both stores had a large front. They are still releasing 2 stores in every mall with 2 different names instead of just being like starbucks with one name.

- System Bundles -

When a system is sold out or becomes somewhat popular Gamestop / EBGames instantly make bundles. Instead of making a good bundle where they might have all the controllers, the system, and the most popular game (Most places make money on accesories and games). They instead force to you buy 5-10 games and the system for one giant price. Even better is the majority of the time they have it so you can only buy the really crappy games that no normal person would want. I dont know about you but the choice to select 10 disney games from a selection of 50 disney games doesnt excite me to much.


On a better note it has been shown that Bestbuy is going to allow trade ins very soon which will destroy the monster called ebgames.

Feel free to share your wonderful experiences with them attempting to scam you.

so tired of the ebgames/gamestop story's everywhere

Let me straighted this out for you. you always get the game on release day. not the ship date but the release day. get them straight.


the in game content with pre order is exactly that. its what the game manufacturer decides. so dont shoot the messenger. and yes its usually obtained via a password on a card. just because people dish them out on the internet doesnt reduce any initial value on the part of gamestop or the game manuf. they cant control what people do on the internet after the fact.

Next, the 5 dollar deposit is completely refundable. at any time... it is posted in the stores.


The repacking of used games sold as new is just stupid. first of all a new game can only be returned once opened for the exact same title. this is not a gamestop rule but a law based on copywrite protection acts. the only way to return a game thats new is to ring it up as defecting....which means it must be sent back to the vendor, hence it cant be resold. the only time a new game is resealed is when the game was opened for display purposes. these games are still brand new and never played. just have the discs removed to prevent shoplifting... by the way, that lowered shoplifting is positively reflected to the customer by the lower prices.

now why is there a gamestop and eb in a mall? your conspiracy theory is just plain stupid. Hows this for an idea..... maybe they werent always one company and after recently aquiring EB and switching over the systems they havent gotten around to swapping all signage for 2000 stores? hmm pretty reasonable? that and havent two gamestops in a mall can get very confusing for customers and product shipments alike.


system bundles??? haha, they arent physically bundled. you can ask for the bundle or for the system. if its in stock, its in stock. doesnt matter. yea really, how dare they offer your more stuff and a discounted price when buying a console. thats terrible.

now for your big ending..... bestbuy tried taking trade ins about 4 years ago. they are down to less than 20 stores doing it because it sucks.
besides, gamestop is 4700 strong and bestbuy has yet to crack the 800 mark for stores. what is your deal??? all of your gripes are reasonably explained in a very short amount of time. why would you hate gamestop/eb?? theyre the best thing for gamers. you think bestbuy gives a rats !@#$%^&* about the horrible profit margin known as video games? they dont offer any discount programs, they dont reserve anything, they dont do a single thing for gamers. i know that by now you have probably assumed that im an employee of gamestop but im not. im somebody who loves gaming and got sick of big box retailers not caring about our industry. i love gamestop, they have tons of stuff in stock and can offer me the games i want at a lower cost. used is the only way to go, even if its only a couple of bucks difference. 5 bucks is still too much to pay for the plastic wrapper of a game because thats the only difference. they also offer me something to do with all of my old games as well as good conversations whenever im in. i think that you should evaluate what you want from a retailer before you crucify a great company. believe me, best buy doesnt care about you at all..... i worked there... trust me

I dont know if it has to do with where you livve or whatnot but my experience with EB games has always been good. The employees at my location our really friendly and helpful. There hasnt been an issue with money or any problems with game promises or release dates or stuff like that. They even gave me a new gift card with a full amount after mine was stolen, and they shutdown the stolen one and red flagged as being stolen, which I thought they went above expectations for that kind of store.

As for bundles, yea the games suck, but hey its smart buisness, and like specb said im pretty sure its not required to get a bundle. And I dont really understand why any one would have an issue with eb and gamestop being the same company. I think for most people its pretty clear that they are the same company. And again its all in the name of buisness, sometimes in order to compete a merger is required, in fact mergers happen alot.

There is 2 in some areas...because they weren't always the same company... wtf was the point of this post lol.

It was a rant by a member xerel before he just started doing nothing but gaming news

The letter I recently sent Gamestop and EB.-

A few months ago, I bought a refurbished XBox from Gamestop. It did not work so I had to return it. Then the controller didn't work for the second one I got to replace the first. Infuriated, I went to EB to buy another one, rather than going back to Gamestop again.

The other day I got a PSP that freezes ocassionally and has also been dropped, as the wifi no longer works.

At this point have traveled an extra 42 miles, all because EB and Gamestop's "refurbished" hardware apparently was not tested by an employee.
I shopped at EB and Gamestop because, being an avid gamer, I want to support the industry. Kind of hard to do that when you get ripped off three times in a row. I originally did not want to write this letter so as to give you the benefit of the doubt, but this is ridiculous. I have a hard time seeing myself shopping at an EB or Gamestop ever again. I have had better luck with Amazon. Christmas will suck this year because I dont have a PSP, and I have no idea how many weeks will slowly trudge by before all the stores have them in stock again. One thing is for certain, I highly doubt I'll be buying one from your stores. I've already wasted enough time, money and gasoline.

Thanks for nothing

"now why is there a gamestop and eb in a mall? your conspiracy theory is just plain stupid. Hows this for an idea..... maybe they werent always one company and after recently aquiring EB and switching over the systems they havent gotten around to swapping all signage for 2000 stores? hmm pretty reasonable? that and havent two gamestops in a mall can get very confusing for customers and product shipments alike."


Good one. You arent too familiar with the practices of large corporations, are you? Big companies have been doing this for years, buying competitors and keeping the same name, look, etc, of the original store. To say it's a conspiracy theory is utterly laughable. Business as usual is what it is. And how many more years before theyre "done switching the store signage"?

"At one point in my town shortly before the EB games merger I was a ASM at a Game Stop and made pretty good money every two weeks. I was hourly and not salary. I have been gone from them for almost 4 years now and I would say I do shop there but I have the inside scoop.
I was told by the district manager that the reasoning behind the whole trade in value being very low and not giving the customer a good deal was based part in the system that counts all the inventory of that particular game in each and every store.
I can't verify that though however but my manager at the time stated something to that effect to a angry customer. When I worked there Halo 2 was coming out and I remember around two weeks later that we ended up with around 20 copies traded back in by customers but as the numbers increased this trade in value went from 40 to around 15. Although Gamestop doesn't adjust this accordingly either. Still selling used copies for 45 dollars used.
I disagree with that of course, Fable was also like this. The manager at the time too of course allowed his employees to rent games per their policy but he would label and number that game on his own accord not something Gamestop would normally do and he would not allow it to be sold. That was a bonus. Recently I purchased a new copy of Clive Barker's Jericho...(love the game!) and the employee had taken out of the sleeve the game on 360 of course and began to put it into the game box and was grabbing a clear "new game" round sticker to put on it.
I asked the person to give me an unopened copy and he said that the game has been out awhile and they couldn't do this.
I asked then for the used price since it was opened, and come to find out rented at one time per him admitting that. He sold me the game at 7.99 although the game was technically new. But in mint condition. Gamestop sucks only because its basically who you talk to , some employees are !@#$%^&* idiots and don't know nor should work there while other are generally cool.
The only thing I truly hate is the fact that employees there will try to stop you from buying games that they themselves don't like. Fine I will go elsewhere.

Now I'm a big supporter of Gamestop/EB Games. I'm constantly buying new and used games and spend a couple hundred a month on games. I've never had a problem getting my money back on a preorder. I've also never had a problem bringing back a used game before the 7 day return period is up. The staff is usually fellow gamers but occasionally I get some one who can't tell a 360 from a Wii.My biggest gripe is and will always be there joke of a trade in system. Games they sell for $18 usually get me $5 credit if I'm unlucky enough 2 beat them before the return period is up. The used games I get are usually in bad condition. I recently went 2 buy a 360 and they had none in stock, but in an effort 2 make a buck they told me the person before me had just traded one in. They then plugged it I to the socket in front of me(not even into the TV they had up) and threw it in a box. I was back 2 hours later returning a sytem that wouldn't play games and had a controlle that moved on it's own. The fact that they sell "refurbished" games that are just thrown in a disc cleaner and booted up 2 the start screen is atrocious. I've bought games back and gotten money taken off my trade for "scratches" that were scuffs at best and there when I bought the game a 10 days before. This would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that they actually take money off of your trade-ins for refurbishing fees(it's they're check your receipt) As good as it is for us Gamers 2 have a place that actually caters 2 us instead of lookin for games at WalMart or Best Buy if they're were other choices besides Gamestop or EB we wouldn't shop there as much. They've got a monopol on gaming, and we as the consumers suffer no matte what anyone says

Gamestop is still an awesome store. End of story.

Im not so much a fan of gamestop just because i think they have a monopoly and exploit that factor.

i agree i dont care for gamestop eather thou some times tehy have good deals. all depends on what ur looking for

Gamestop has good deals at times but its evil why they do them. What they do is when anew competitor comes out for example walmart then gamestop makes crazy deals on trading in things. This way no one goes to walmart til it fails then they remove the deals. Gamestop is pure evil.