I've been a pretty loyal gamestop consumer for what I can say is roughly a decade now. They've supplied me with some of my favorite releases over the years and for the most part have been....well decent actually. I've never been exactly pleased with the how gamestop does it's business, and their practices leave much to be desired. For one thing I've had 2 accounts now for at least 3 years, and games get pre-ordered on whichever account a gamestop employee can figure out. And no one has ever been able to solve that issue for me. Secondly they have lost a pre-order of mine in the past. I can't remember the game, but luckily for them it was only a measly $5, and I actually never picked up the game. See I have this problem where I pre-order a game, then either never pick it up, or pick it up way past it's release date. This has never been part of the problem, well until now. 
 
Yesterday I went into Gamestop to check on some pre-orders, two of which are upcoming (Etrian Odyssey 3, and Civilization V), and one of which already came out (Metroid: Other M). When I went in I had one objective, and that was to somehow pre-order the Civilization V CE that will release this coming Tuesday. Needless to say I couldn't do that, but I was a bit confused when the store clerk told me that no Gamestop would have additional CE's to buy locally. And he went on to say that no one had pre-ordered the CE in my area. Fair enough I thought, Civilization V is Halo: Reach, but still I felt it odd that they would have no extras at all in my city (Albuquerque). So, committed to obtaining my CE, i instructed the clerk that i'd like to recover pre-order money in Civilization V and Metroid: Other M so I can buy the game from another store in the are that would have it (Best Buy would have it, and they would get 4 copies in).  This is where things began to bother me. Neither of my pre-orders for these games were in the system, and despite the insistence of the employee after checking both my accounts, and the pre-order list for my name on these games he turned up nothing. This was quickly becoming alarming because I am convinced I at least spent $40 on these pre-orders in the last month. Now I couldn't recollect exactly when I came in, or how much I put down, mostly due to the fact that I come in Gamestop maybe once or twice a month, but still in the back of my mind I knew that I put money down on these games. And especially right now after starting a new job, and balancing funds back and forth this sounded disastrous to me. Despite my rising confusion and ire I went ahead and remained patient with the clerk. So I chalked it up to bad luck, i'd have to go home to retrieve my receipts as proof of what happened, and a permanent mental note was filed that Gamestop's computer systems either aren't worth a shit, or they deliberately like losing your money. Now as a quick meta argument to those of you who are already coming up with arguments to the money loss issue, would you be so kind or forgiving to your bank if they lost $40 of your money? This is of course similar because you are pooling cash into an account that will be later used, but in this case the account is held by the store, and should be just as secure and well-guarded as that of a bank, at least in my opinion. Anyways onwards. 
 
There is something i've learned in customer service, and it has nothing to do with the customer is always right. That is a lie, and everyone in customer service knows its a lie. The truth is that you should always give quality customer service. No matter what. A fellow employee of mine put it in the best possible light. Imagine you go to the gas station and you pull into a pump to put gas. At this particular pump, before filling up, you have a hard time swiping your credit card. This makes it take longer than usual to pump gas. As you are pumping gas you notice that the pump seems to pump gas slower than usual also adding to the time spent. To make matters worse the controls on the screen don't feedback correctly when selecting to opt in or out of a receipt. And when your finally done, and think the gas pumping is finished instead it sends a stream gas all over your shoes. The likelihood is that you'll leave this gas station extremely fed up with what has happened, and are likely never to return again. Now here's the kicker. All the other pumps were operating normally except for this one, but incidentally all it took was the bad pump to cement the bad experience in your mind and make you certain that you'd not return to the gas station ever again. Substitute gas pumps for employees, and gas stations for any type of store, in this case Gamestop, and I think you get the picture. 
 
Admittedly this isn't the first time that I've run into this particular employee at Gamestop and felt that he really needed to rethink his choice of job in customer service, and his cohort did a good job in mirroring their general lack of customer service. Unfortunately during this entire episode these guys were mostly unhelpful, or secondly unwilling to help me. It seemed like I had to pull teeth just to get these asshats to see where my money went, and try to get a resolution. At the end of all this, I just wanted to get out of the store and not come back. So when I was fed up trying to find where my money went, and he was at his limit for pretending to try to give a damn about what his store did with my money, I just had one thing I wanted. I wanted my Etrian Odyssey 3 art book. I pre-ordered the game, and it was shwag I got before the game released, I checked the web site. I'd talked to him about the damn artbook before, and for some reason now he was acting like he had no idea that I got it before the release date. He made some backward comment about how 'I guess i'll give you the artbook before its released', and I could tell that either he had no clue what he was doing, or purposely trying to drive me over the edge. I really just wanted to tell him that it was my damn artbook whether or not the game was released, because I pre-ordered it, but I decided to be reserved. And after having my artbook I gave them both a fond farewell upon leaving the store, perfectly content with the fact that I was only coming back in to pick up Etrian Odyssey 3 on Tuesday, and no more.  
 
Now this has already been pretty long-winded up to now, and whoever is reading this is probably wondering, 'Well how are you so certain that you got jipped out of your money?' Well im certain because when I got home later I found my Civiliation V preorder receipt. And although I can't find the Metroid: Other M preorder receipt, im feeling pretty confident that I put money down, and secondly that im probably not gonna get it back. This is damn infuriating, and anyone who is content with merely giving their money away and can make excuses about this is just trying to make excuses for some really archaic and dangerous policies.
 
Now this account may not seem like that big of a deal, but again this has everything to do with how i've been treated by other store employees. I've had a good rapport with the manager for awhile, and when I go in we chat about our favorite games, whats coming out, and pc stuff. There's a girl that works there too and she's been very friendly, and has given me stuff that they've had extras for nearly every time i've seen her, and she's always given good customer service. But then there are these two that only know the blank stare of the abyss whenever the customer comes in, and is coincidentally the reaction they give to all customer inquiries. I have a good experience with some of the employees of that Gamestop, but it's come down to repeated issues with the way Gamestop does things, and then some really bad apples at these stores that makes me come to the conclusion that I no longer want to give them my business. I've decided to go with Best Buy for the time being. Now while I know there are many problems leveled at Best Buy I have to say several things for them. First, their customer service for me has always been good, and secondly, and most importantly, they will actually have copies of what I want to pick up and not order games based upon a fixed demand policy. And well this policy is how Gamestop makes the most of its reveneue, it makes it revenue by catering mainly to preorders, and then shoving used games down your throat. I'd like to know an actual percentage of used to new games in the store, because im absolutely positive its in favor of the used. And that really is just shit business practice. So thanks and good luck Gamestop. You've given me many years of games, but im tired of your bullshit. Your a fickle bitch, and your prostitution like practices are gonna make you get an STD.