Gamestop trying to camouflage their disc protection charge?

Picked up a game from Ye Olde Gamestop for the first time in a while this afternoon. Rather than being greeted with the standard disc warranty sales pitch, I found that they had just automatically added it to my total instead. "Your total today including our disc protection guarantee comes to $____" they say. They removed the charge upon my request.

Did the teller just mess up? Assumed I wanted it? Or is this an actual Gamestop thing now? Sounds like a good way to sneak some $3.50's past people who don't know any better.

I'm assuming this was a brain fart on the cashier's part.

Probably not an actual company policy, but perhaps an accepted but unapproved practice by cashiers as a response to company policy rewarding them for selling those kinds of useless doodads. Or a rogue asshole cashier.

I occasionally work at gamestop (2nd job, mainly for the discount)

may have accidentally hit the button. after scanning the barcode the POS throws a bunch of probts up, things like: Of age to buy M rated games? Purchase Warranty? and a few others I can't think of at the moment. So it is possible he just hit the wrong button and added it. Hell, most of the time I don't even ask people if they want the warranty, 99% of people don't want it.

If he accidentally hit the button he wouldn't have said "including our disc protection guarantee." I worked for Gamestop for 2 years in a managerial role and this very much sounds like something a scummy store manager might try. Those guarantees are very difficult to sell and corporate once or twice a year gets a bug up its ass about it and district managers start pressuring store managers to make it a priority.

It's Gamestop, you guys. If they do something shady it probably wasn't an accident.

EDIT: To be clear, this is almost certainly not any kind of official practice. It's probably just an 'unintended' product of the company culture.

When I picked up The Last of Us the other day they asked me if I wanted the disc protection (I obviously said no), so I assume it was an error on the part of your cashier.

Use to work at Gamestop. I doubt it's become a company policy. Most likely it's something the district or store manager is pushing. During the PS4/XB1 launch holiday season we were told to make displays that included the console, a game, extra controller and a year of live/ps+ that we called a "Soft Bundle". If a customer inquired about a new system we were told to only mention the bundle(no savings btw, same price as buying everything separate). We were not allowed to tell customers they could buy a console on it's own unless they specifically asked if they could. This pseudo-forced disc guarantee seems like the same principle. Don't shit on the cashiers though. They don't get rewarded for selling it, they just don't get yelled at.

While I won't compare the two industries directly, I used to work at a McDonald's (during Uni) and I was instructed to only ask "Is that Large?" and never ask if it was medium or large. But some days I was instructed to put in Large meals whether they specified or not. Most people did't even notice. I can see how their manager could have told them to do that to meet targets but it's likely not condoned or endorsed by upper management.

I personally would´ve fliped out and asked for a refund .... I dont care if the cashiers are being forced to do it but that is still a scummy way to do things >:(

You broke the number one rule about shopping at GameStop.

Rule #1: Never shop a GameStop.

@oblique_: That's the thing, he made clear to mention that the charge was being included in my total, and there was no "oh, oops, sorry" type response when I brought it up. Just a straight "Okay I'll go ahead and remove that for you." Maybe as long as they state that the charge is being included as subtly as possible they can get away with it.

@tycobb: Best Buy, unsurprisingly, did not have what I was looking for.

They're trying to take advantage of harried moms just trying to get out of the store with the DS game their screaming kid wants. It's not illegal or anything but it's definitely unethical to try to slip extra charges in like that.

That warranty is 3.50 in the states? Hot damn. It's 1 euro out here in Finland, translating to less than two dollars.

I work in sales, that sounds exactly like "assuming the sale", a very common practice, and basically sales 101. May not be company policy, but I bet a higher up suggested doing exactly that.