Classic! It's funny how the staff varies from location to location. My old EB, on Broadway and 5th St. (I think) in NYC, was one of the best I've ever been to. All the guys there knew their stuff, and the store had a real "hangout" vibe - people would come in and shoot the shit all day, and I could always get great recommendations. (The Gamestop a few blocks up Broadway had good staffers as well, but I just don't like the store.) My current EB, on Court St. in Brooklyn, has a few staffers you would swear have never played a video game in their lives. I preordered the new Winning Eleven there a couple weeks ago and it was like I was speaking another language altogether.

Christ almighty that was a frustrating read. I'm so glad Taiwanese game shops are almost universally better than that - the only place I've been where they're utterly clueless is, ironically, Nintendo's Taiwan representatives. To the point that I went in just after the NSMB release date announcement to ask them when it was coming out, and they didn't even realize it was.

My favorite Gamestop memory revolves around the time that they wouldn't let me preorder a game that wasn't an "A List" or "B List" title. Seriously, they wouldn't let me _preorder_ Katamari Damacy and then they tried to explain to me about how it was a "C List" title. After a frustrating time of me trying to get them to let me preorder it, I wound up going home, preordering a few copies on ebgames.com (since they were a separate entity at the time), and calling in a complaint with gamestop's 800 number.

It'll forever blow my mind that Gamestop wouldn't let me preorder a game.

Another bit of fun: I wandered through a different local Gamestop the other day and saw some generic cases on the new shelf with the name of the game written on it, a new sticker, and a little "Missing Case + Manual / 10% off" sticker on it. How they can sell a disc only as new boggles my mind. There were a few other similar cases around the store (missing manual, missing case or both) still marked as new. God, I hope no one actually buys them.

I find most game store employees are pretty universally guys who have a casual desire to have a more serious job in the game industry but all their information and data is just passed along by word of mouth. So its like the telephone game where by the end of the chain something one dude read on Gamespot is completely different. Also the employees are definitely terrible(In so many ways) most of the time.

But as a previous game store employee I have to say that its so amazingly annoying getting some hot shot know it all customer who likes to interject in conversations(I mean in your case you actually ARE a game industry professional, but there are lots of Dave Halverson media fans who are just a fount of nerdy technical information and ready to spread it around).

Nowadays I just semi-boycott all game only stores(Game Stop, Game Crazy, etc). They always are more expensive, preorders are handled terribly and really the atmosphere just feels pretty depressing. I dont know the last time I went in one and made a spur of the moment purchase and ive never preordered anything in my life, and still dont think there is a need to with the exception of contemporary console launches.

I go to the gamestop on court street and i can truly say that they don't know anything at that store...but i did get my wii at launch there....

Broadway and 3rd, Jeff. Only been there once to trade in a game I reviewed, since the GameStop down the road wouldn't let me. (it had a hole punch in the bar code, EB guys didn't seem to mind)

Uptown (101 and Bway), there's a cool non-chain place called Cybergames -- local kids always hang out there to play new games and Wii. They sold me a Wiimote with the old wrist strap, but I'll forgive them because their storefront still advertises Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64.

You know, if that's the worst you've had it at an EB/GS then you're doing pretty good. That's only slightly worse than my average experience.

This is very funny. I would just like to say that the EBgames store closest to me has very competent employees and they are usually very happy to help anyone if they need anything. Apart from the 5$ price hikes on most games, the open box policy, and badgering you about purchasing warranties and discount cards, this ebgames store is the best you will get. Its located in Niagara Falls, NY on Niagara falls Blvd.

Note: If you are in my area avoid the gamestop in the wegmans plaza, they are hopeless and have horrible service, oh yeah and they knowingly sell counterfiet GBA games to unsuspecting customers.

I wonder if lying to the customer is some kind of new store policy? I had two employees give me the same kind of BS response when I walked into an EB in Western Canada a week ago asking for Cooking Mama.

"I'm looking for the DS game Cooking Mama. Do you have it in?"

EB Lackey #1 stares dumbly, like I had just asked him to recite pi to twenty places.

Lackey #2 looks over, hesitates a moment, then says, "Sorry, we just sold the last one less than an hour ago." (By the end of the experience I was pretty sure he just made this up to get rid of me.)

Me: "Do you know when you'd be getting more in?"

Lackey #1: "Maybe a month from now."

Me: "How much would it cost here, anyway?"

Lackey #1: "No idea." (He hasn't so much as glanced at the inventory database on the screen in front of him.)

At that point I just gave up and walked out. The other EB in town had much more useful and knowledgeable staff, but they *couldn't find the game* which their computer said they had in stock. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say maybe they'd been shoplifted, but the store was so disorganized to begin with I'm not really so sure.

During the week leading up to Christmas, I wandered into EB looking for Elite Beat Agents and the manager looked at me like I had three heads until he realized what I was talking about. While he went back to check, the cashier was getting bombarded with people buying stuff and asking questions, so I fielded questions regarding the PSP and DS, a few games (what was and wasn't released) and explained to a mom the differences between a dslite and a ds for her kid while I waited. The manager gave me the weirdest look when he got back.. Seriously, who the hell works at these stores?

the guys at my local EB are ok. They're not the cream of the crop, but they're not idiots, and they know (generally) who I am, so don't fuck around if I ask for/about a game. Sometimes if I'm in the store they'll even ask me questions if they don't know! So clearly they're not bricks. I've found that the customers are dumber than the employees though - in the situation above, that almost seemed like the case as well. I doubt that customer retained any of that information for longer than a minute.

You mean "know-nothing." Eesh, if I had my own comic, I'd lampoon game bloggers who can't spell.

Good catch, Kat. GSW = spare time project = slightly terrible proofreading, I'm afraid.

As for the guy looking over without typing anything into the computer:

Unless we're management, the system does not tell us stock.
However, we keep every game we have on shelves behind the counter, so he could have just glanced and saw that there were none there.

Just a slight possibility.

Also, we got an e-mail to all stores on Tues. SPECIFICALLY about Hotel Dusk, basically informing that most stores in the company have sold out, and to redirect folks over to gamestop.com or ebgames.com. Said clerks could have recalled the e-mail, perhaps.

It does suck that a lot of employees don't know more about their product (I'm correcting my coworkers constantly), but they aren't often hired upon their gaming knowledge. Shocking, I know, but most people aren't lining up for a retail job at a game store, they take what they can get. As long as you can organize things and have some basic sales skills, you're good to go, product knowledge be damned.

In the end though, it'll all vary by store.

Um, you're wrong about the Halo 3 Beta.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/758/758236p1.html

Then again, you could just stop being an elitist asshole. Who cares if you worked on video games. These people get paid $8 bucks an hour, with no commission.

I know more about computers than most Best Buy employees, but I work for GE getting paid 3 times what they do. I dont walk in there and act like I'm their God.

I agree with Wesley Gallagher, you really seem like an elitist asshole as well as a Sony hater. I work in the "industry" as well and I would never go into a EB store and start acting like I know everything. The whole story seems a little fabricated in certain parts.

Oh, so if I go to a store where the staff gets paid minimum wage I should expect less service than someplace else?

And who brags about getting paid $24 an hour, seriously? You're probably just the janitor.

Barring the fact that this story sounds fake, you sound like a complete jerk.

"Gamasutra, ever heard of it?"

I mean, who the hell says that about where they work, especially when it's just some niche video game site on the internet? Douchebags, that's who.

And if your story is real, that's even worse-- you interrupted the guy way too many times and it sounded like you jumped the gun and assumed the employee wasn't going to fill him in--namely on the HD-DVD thing.

You were also completely wrong about the Halo 3 Beta and Crackdown. Very smooth, guy who works at gamasutra.

Clearly Mames was the EB Manager who was the star of this story.

Chain stores are always going to be hit and miss. I have had quality experiences in EB Games (the one here in town is great) and terrible experiences. Hell, I have had good experiences in some McDonalds and crappy experiences in others.

I do think there is a disconnect when it comes to large corporations, their local stores and their customer service training. I can forgive a employee their lack of knowledge if they are willing to find the answer for me. Games are my hobby and for some of those employees games are just a job. That's cool, as long as they do their best to help me find information about a particular product.

http://cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126380

LOL! I agree 100% with these guys in the above thread.

I agree with Wesley and Nizzle...seems like you were acting the uber-dork in this situation. Give those poor souls wasting away in retail a break.

"Clearly Mames was the EB Manager who was the star of this story."

damn straight! I was just playing dumb to expose the pompousness of this ass.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play some Mario Kart on my Xbox 3.

ACTUALLY Mario kart is a Nintendo game. And there is no such thing as the Xbox 3, it's called the Xbox 360.

I work at a canadian EB games and we're not all that bad. although my store has a 5 girl (inc. me) to 2 guy ratio so we're not the average store. Although as mentioned in the article that's probably the caliber of our manager at one point there was a "don't hire hardcore gamers policy". As for the harassing people about edge cards and game warranties thats the only way we can make money cause they pay so badly.

Wesley, Nizzle and Mames-

You raise some valid criticisms. I was incorrect about the terms of the Halo 3 beta included in Crackdown. But I didn't interrupt the employee while he was speaking. Nor did I go out of my way to "correct" him. In fact, I acknowledged when he was conveying accurate information. Additionally, I did not fabricate the experience. Nor am I a Sony hater.

I don't hold the actions of this particular store manager up as an indictment of the entire specialist game retail channel. But the behavior of this individual just rubbed me the wrong way, and his subsequent rudeness did little to help my mood.

As I stated in the intro, this is atypical. To reiterate, most of my experiences with game store employees have been quite good. It stands to reason that the people who work in games retail must enjoy playing games. And most of them treat their customers well and are informed about the products they sell.

In context, I originally sent this email to a small circle of friends and acquaintances. It wasn't intended as some misguided attempt to publicly malign game store employees. I was just ranting to some friends. I know that most game store employees have a difficult job for thanklessly low pay. I am also aware that often, employees don't have control over store policies that might be alienating to customers.

In this case, I went to this particular location because I had good experiences with the previous round of employees there, and because I had a little time to kill. I didn't go in to pick a fight, or to show anyone up. Specifically, I simply went in to pick up a copy of Hotel Dusk.

And the solution to all of this is simple: I just won't shop at this particular store anymore.

Lackey-

The most attentive and knowledgeable game store managers and employees that I have met were women. All the more ironic when many self-professed hardcore gamers seem so willing to dismiss them simply because of their gender.

I wish your store was in my area.

i hate shopping at EB. i don't usually say a damn thing to the people who work there, and plenty of them are friendly, but plenty of them aren't.

mostly i don't like to be strongarmed into preordering games and scolded for not doing so.

Big Bad Bob,

Yes, you should expect less service from a minimum-wage worker. It might surprise you to know this, but happier employees tend to do a better job. And, in another startling turn of events, minimum-wage workers tend to be less happy than others.

Shocking, I know.

I'm sure there's an idealistic argument to be made. But it's sort of worthless. And there are exceptions that run both ways. But, surprise surprise, you were talking about expectations, and you really shouldn't expect the anomalous.

i run a gamestop. its hard work and not much pay. but i make it my buisness to at least pay attention to my inventory. And if i don't know something the customer knows, i'll ask him, im not too proud. im sorry to those who have had bad experiences at EB/Gamestop, but we're not all bad.
ps- i literally got asked for a "Nintendo box" today, cut me some slack

The thing of it all is -- who gives a shit. So what if the manager and "store lackey" don't know every bit of trivial piece of info about things as trivial as video games. Some people have a life and I think you should get one too, instead of making a big issue over video game knowlege like some ten year old. Things this trivial in life only matter to someone of that age.

I don't think I have ever met an EB employee that has been ALL of the following:

Professional
Friendly
knowledgeable

I live in Canada in the Toronto area, and I don't know if all EB stores are like they are around here.

"Do you have Guitar He..."
"No"

The only friendly employee I came across really did not know games. She didn't even know what the difference between a DS, DS Lite, and Gameboy Advance was.

I guess when you have a monopoly on the market you don't really need to impress anyone.

lol lovely read and some off the wall remarks..

ebgames, babbages, gamestop, etc are all stores, as is walmart kmart, target etc.
they are only as GOOD as the pple running them. ive been in targets electronics, had a kid salesman there that knew his electronics , go to walmart, they dont know jack. our ebgames and gamestop are great, if you can catch the right people behind the counter. 3 out of the 10 that ive seen know hard core gaming and are actual gamers and are very helpful. buying anything these days is about what you want and what they can sell. i recently purchased a ds from my gamestop and had been questioning various employees about its capabilities etc. the first 3 i talked to did not help me buy, they advised i get a psp. i asked if psp had touch screen. all three said yes.(psp as far i as i know does not have a touch screen) i asked if i could try one.
they said they didnt have any but if i bought one . ( yeah right) i stuck to my guns. the last time i went in i asked for my guy i go to for my games. he came out asked what i needed, etc. i asked him if i could try a ds. he pulled a used one out and then pulled a used ds lite out and let my try mario kart and some touch game. i was hooked. he then told me the general game time specs,etc. those other 3 sales pple didnt sell me a thing, my guy sold me a new ds and 6 new games, accessories etc. i had planned on buying all of it anyhow but he made me feel comfortable in my purchase. and i love my ds lite every since. i have gone to him for all my gaming needs. if hes not around i dont buy. so again good read.. but be knowledgeable b4 you buy anything. if your buying a car. would you just go and get one? no matter what the salesman says?? 'yes that neon can fly yes sir-ree' lol.. i bet there is some guy out there trying to get his car into hover mode.

this is exactly the type of treatment you would get in any EB or Game Stop. I shit you not, I worked at a Game Stop, and I was the guy that didn't know crap. To stick up for EB & Game Stop though, they don't train people, they don't pay enough for someone to care, they don't give enough IE (100 hours to split on a 7 man crew that has 2 managers) with that thought in mind let us do the math 2 managers during a week take 80 hours, so 100-80=20 so for the remaining crew of 5 they can each get 4 hours for that week.

During my time at Game Stop I have found that most of the workers are incompetent and couldn't even function at even the lowest jobs in society. Can not follow directives, can not be polite, can not handle rough customers, can not speak in a normal tone without sounding condescending.

I must also say that even the higher ups also suck ass. The regional manager really was a dick faced killer, lets call him Peter Parker. I must say that this man would send us after a catastrophic computer failure a used almost junked DELL to replace our register. Now after disassembling said original cash register and finding that the heat inside the box had toasted the south bridge I was fairly certain that the replacement machine was short lived.

I was right by the way, during the X-Mas rush the computer died again and we needed another replacement.

I should probably stop now as I could go on forever.

Wow that was really obnoxious. Sure those guys were clueless but did you really have to act like a know-it-all? If you started spouting off that crap to me I'd ignore you too.

If you are having problems with a manager, call their corporate office and lodge a complaint.

My fiance and myself had a problem with a manager and he got fired really really quick and then replaced with a very nice person :)

I worked at a Gamestop in southern California for 7 months.....that was about the most I would imagine most sane people could do before total head explosion.
I started out at 7.50 and got promoted a month later. Guess how much of a raise I got? 25 cents. I think the kicker was when my manager looked like that was the bloody holy grail or something; "That's a really great increase!" Perhaps if I were in a third world country. I was never at a loss for hours, but we were woefully understaffed; everyday I went home feeling more and more like pulling my hair out. There were some great customers, but the majority behaved as though they'd recently spent time at Bellvue. Very, Very glad to have washed my hands of that place. The stories you hear about people being strongarmed to reserve and made to feel like crap if they don't? All true.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but that's a wierd post by Nunnya up there...

"So what if the manager and store lackey don't know every bit of trivial piece of info about things as trivial as video games."

If your sole business is the business of selling games and games consoles, you ought to be damn sure you know at least a thing or two about most of them. The store's called EB GAMES, after all. If you walk into a car dealership you expect the mechanics to know summat about cars!

I have worked at an EB, and we were the finest damn EB store in the land and we made sure of it. Product knowledge was a point of pride, but sadly this seems to have faded away as retail has become a more hostile environment these last few years; 10 day no-fuss returns were the Best Thing Ever™ and now they're gone. Online shopping has rung the retail death toll for some time now, I'm afraid.

And to throw my hat into the ring, I'd like to quote my local EB (now GAME Stores) manager, who on requiring passage along a store aisle used the universally-recognised and exceptionally polite method or requesting passage: Shouting "MOVE!!!!!" and physically pushing my girlfriend out of his way, into a shelving unit. I nearly popped a vein when I heard. At least the staff underlings had some manners, but that manager guy was an ass from start to finish, and as clueless as yours - without even blinking, he sold me a copy of the Orange Box on PC with no serial number insert card - just a solitary disc. I'm lucky I checked just after leaving the store and went right back or I'd have been scuppered and given no refund because I'd broken the store-seal sticker.

We're in the UK, where GAME Stores (formerly EB Group) have just bought out their main competitor, GameStation. We now have no choices in our city, the indie retailers shut up shop two years ago after a big squeeze from the top two (now the top one, natch). :-/

However, customer service is alive and well south of here, where my former manager is still going strong heading up a GAME store in Ayr. Possibly the last of his kind...

Im geting sick and tired of hearing bad things about eb games they are not that bad and they only reason why i think that is because a few mouths back i bought a broke game and didnt now intell i got home and i tryed to play it but it would not work so i had to what till the next day to return it and i didnt have pruff that i bought it there and they where not going to it back intill the guy remember me he whent to see if it would for hem it didnt and they didnt have anymore copys so he whent grab a brand new copy not even open he opened it took the disk out and handed it right to me.the broke disk that i bought was used. I said thank you to him six times