Gamestop Staff.

The Aviator

From my experience the majority of Sales assistants working in Gamestop are completely unprofessional, non helpful, know absolutely nothing about consoles and gaming, and ultimately do not deserve a job working there! I am aware that there are some professional staff that work in Gamestop and im not stereotyping.

I have been in numerous situations where the the Sales assistant is always wrong when dealing with customers. For example. I return to a Gamestop where i have the devastating RROD, I inform him about the issue and remind him that the console is under Gamestops Year guarantee. He replies ''Your Hardrive is broken, and you should buy a new one'' This is completly a load of B.ollox! I just called for the manager to deal with my problem. I get a replacement, But imagine if someone who didnt know anything about gaming and actually purchased a new hardrive, which there is nothing wrong with and still walks out with a faulty console.

Secondly my friend purchases a bundle deal which was advertised ''120 Gig Bundle deal with MW2 and another Ea title free''. He buys the bundle the assistant gives him the console. But he asks '' where is his free Ea title'' the cashier had no idea of a free game , and he has to present him the poster which advertised the product. In the end the staff member feels like an idiot and does not even apologize to him.

Lastly i spot on another thread.. A sales assistant from Gamestop who informs the buyer that the ''250 Gig console elite only really has 120 Gigs and is not worth buying'' This is also a load of bollox!! as i have a 250 gig console and know how much memory there actually is on it! Also note that he had thrown a possible 300 euro sale away, what employer would want a person that repels possible customers away!

In conclusion i think most of the staff working there do not at all deserve to be getting paid over 10 euro an hour for goofing around not even knowing what they are doing! The are not trained well enough either. They dont even look like professional workers, ive spotted a significant number of fat emos with different sorts of weird hair colours just slacking around doing **** all! Gamestop recruitment teams need to really consider hiring more proficient workers!

If you have been in any situations like the above please share !

dreamers75

Told my wife resident evil 5 wasnt out on pc

so guess who got no fookin birthday present :mad:

grizzly

peanuts = monkeys

hellboy99

I went in to preorder the DJ Hero Renegade edition a few weeks before release, guy didn't have a clue and said there was no such thing coming out. Another occasion I went to preorder Batman AA for the PC, was told it wasn't coming out for it. There is one guy there that knows his stuff so I just go in now when he's there.

The Aviator

hellboy99 wrote: »

I went in to preorder the DJ Hero Renegade edition a few weeks before release, guy didn't have a clue and said there was no such thing coming out.

Thats exactly what i mean, Not only did he not know about a major product that was for sale in his own workplace but he contradicted you and said there ''was no such thing'' which is untrue.They don't deserve a job working there!

Nedved85

I would say that 50% of their floor staff at the moment are temporary staff for the christmas season and really wouldnt know much beyond the call of dutys' , Forzas and uncharteds which parents come in and look for..

Lands Leaving

I had an interview for a job in gamestop once, spent the whole thing getting on great with the manager, chatting about games, he clearly saw I knew my stuff.

Did I get the job.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Applied a few weeks ago for temporary christmas work

Did I even get an interview with my 2 years experience working in a library, which is like a shop, only you get paid well and do way more than serve customers. And before that working in a load of other stuff, more shops included. And my masters degree.

Course I didn't!

I hate gamestop.

True story.

CiDeRmAn

I used to work there, when it was Gamesworld, and I know the guys who own it, nice lads, and I still know some of the veteran staff that work there.
And seeing as this has been a dedicated rant thread so far, I guess you need some balance.
You're opinions are just that opinions, I have seen lots of people getting good advice there, I have seen plenty of staff in Smyths, Game and elsewhere talking nonsense to people who don't know any better.
It's not simply limited to GS stores.
As for Landsleaving, have you any idea how many people apply for seasonal work in Gamestop every year?
How arrogant to think that you "deserve" the job, simply because of your qualifications?
You seem to be slumming it just looking for a job application there, maybe they just had too many applicants, who knows, but if you are going to feel this way about every job offer you don't get, prepare to be disappointed, a lot!
Seasonal staff have their opinions on the games they like, only a handful of experienced gamers will give a recommendation on a game or game genre that they themselves don't like, so you will always, therefore be receiving subjective advice.

As for the business about the Xbox rrod, and being messed about, the simple truth is some staff, regardless of the line of work, are useless, lazy and ill-informed, it's not limited to Gamestop.
The rules about faulty consoles are well flagged in documents behind the counter, and all staff have to do to know the correct procedure is to follow them.

If you are still unhappy talk to the manager, he himself has an area manager, all the way to the top.
But if a console is out of warranty and all you have is word of mouth "advice" from friends about your entitlements due to, say, the rrod, then instead go online, find the appropriate manufacturers website and read the official policy, arm yourself with the facts before making a tit of yourself in the shop.

You also have the citizens advice bureau here to give you the definitive answer to any query where you feel you are being shortchanged.

Often the only information the staff have, beyond there own personal console, is the various anonymous release lists that are circulated.
Just because the staff member isn't as well informed as you are about some special edition or some PC game then get over it, and as said, find a staff member that shares your obsession and talk to him/her.

Most of all, get over it!
If you don't like shopping in a particular store, then don't shop there, go to Smyths, Xtravision or HMV, use your heads people!

And for gods sake, stop taking to so personally everytime you get poor service, just say something to the manager, it's the best way to improve the service for everyone.

RedXIV

I too would like the chance to defend them. I work with plenty of gamestops and I've found the vast majority of the staff polite, understanding, patient and knowledgeable in the necessary areas.

It's true that the Xmas staff can be hit and miss, but in my experience, Game are far worse for this. I was in the Game in Dundrum last Xmas and some of the guys there....it was just embarrassing.

OP, don't mean to burst you're bubble but i reckon i work with more of the staff than you, so I call shenanigans!

Lands Leaving

I don't think it's particularly arrogant to think I should get an interview, I'm not expecting to get the job automatically and i know they probably got loads of applications, but still, not even an interview!
And I wouldn't call it slumming it, I was looking for some part time work to keep me in sandwiches while I'm in college.
I get your point aboit coming across as arrogant though, I'm just frsutrated at not getting an interview ANYWHERE at the moment and then seeing everyone (before you and the last poster) came along saying the staff were terrible! And since I'd gotten an interview before I had any experience or qulaifications a few years back it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to not get one with them!

In sum: bloody recession.

bubonicus

The Aviator wrote: »

From my experience the majority of Sales assistants working in Gamestop are completely unprofessional, non helpful, know absolutely nothing about consoles and gaming,

Lastly i spot on another thread.. A sales assistant from Gamestop who informs the buyer that the ''250 Gig console elite only really has 120 Gigs and is not worth buying'' This is also a load of bollox!! as i have a 250 gig console and know how much memory there actually is on it! Also note that he had thrown a possible 300 euro sale away, what employer would want a person that repels possible customers away!

You are right though, the staff could be more knowledgable about the products they sell.

Tea_Bag

my friends' sister got hired in a gamestop.

She knows absolutely NOTHING (as in she doesnt know the difference between an xbox and a xb360) about games or consoles. she also has no previous experience in the retail field.





but thats ok, because she flirted her way through the interview.


now shes just eye candy for the manager.

reason it pisses me the feck off is because i applied for the job and heard nothing back, even though i was talking to the manager and he said he needed to hire someone.

consultech

Gamestop staff are by-and-large "gamers". Pre-dominantly World of Warcraft/COD fiends with little to no social skills.

In my experience anyway.

dazftw

Tea_Bag wrote: »

my friends' sister got hired in a gamestop.

She knows absolutely NOTHING (as in she doesnt know the difference between an xbox and a xb360) about games or consoles. she also has no previous experience in the retail field.





but thats ok, because she flirted her way through the interview.


now shes just eye candy for the manager.

reason it pisses me the feck off is because i applied for the job and heard nothing back, even though i was talking to the manager and he said he needed to hire someone.

Thats the same in alot of places id say, they hire the good looking girls :rolleyes: Even though the girls ive talked to down here do know there stuff most of the time.

One guy though, I was waiting in the queue to buy a game and he was behind the counter testing an xbox that was being traded in. He plugged in the ethernet cable and then picked up the other end trying to figure out where it went. The boss came over and goes what are you doing? You dont need to use that.

I also applied for there and got no interview :rolleyes:

Overature

iv bought most of my game stuff from gamestop and never had anything but good advice and people that know what there doing, that's not to say that half of them properly don't know what there doing

CiDeRmAn

Well, if I had a choice and I wasn't to be questioned on my reasons for hiring, and I had a choice between a bloke who knows all about PC games, DjHero and the in's and out's of XBLA and PSN or a very pretty girl who I might/might not get off with, assuming I was single of course, i would probably pick the girl, being merely human and less than that, a male....

Regarding poor shop staff, games selling minions have always fallen into two categories, people like me, who knew all about the subject of games because we love them and play lots of them and love talking about them, and those who know nothing beyond FIFA and Need For Speed and will sell you whatever the Sony/MS/EA rep told them to sell, regardless of the games actual quality.

And that's a rule right there, time has not changed this, I have been buying games since the mid-80's for my humble Spectrum and I have either been served by staff who knew all or staff who wanted to sell you whatever they were told to sell.

If you are lucky you get the former, but often we get the latter.

Anyhow, release dates are variable, not everyone in a shop knows about every game, and if he/she/it is too lazy to read the release schedule he/she/it will be sure to give the laziest answer when asked, a simple shrug and I don't know, or we're not getting it in, so you just talk to the manager whose job it is to know these things, as he is ordering the stocks into the shop itself.

Problem solved.


Oh, and you never need to bring an eejit with you when shopping, you'll invariably find one in almost every shop you go into.

consultech

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Well, if I had a choice and I wasn't to be questioned on my reasons for hiring, and I had a choice between a bloke who knows all about PC games, DjHero and the in's and out's of XBLA and PSN or a very pretty girl who I might/might not get off with, assuming I was single of course, i would probably pick the girl, being merely human and less than that, a male...

Factor-in your "computer" types whose female contact is ordinarily limited to customer support telephone staff, and you're in for a disaster.

Sleipnir

The Aviator wrote: »

This is also a load of bollox!! as i have a 250 gig console and know how much memory there actually is on it!

Ah, some of them even refer to disk space as 'memory' when clearly, memory is something else entirely! :pac:

projectmayhem

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Well, if I had a choice and I wasn't to be questioned on my reasons for hiring, and I had a choice between a bloke who knows all about PC games, DjHero and the in's and out's of XBLA and PSN or a very pretty girl who I might/might not get off with, assuming I was single of course, i would probably pick the girl, being merely human and less than that, a male....

But if you're in a position to hire someone, you should also have some business sense about you as in this kind of case, the pretty girl isn't going to sell as much swag to customers as the helpful but possibly unattractive guy who knows his stuff.

Gamestop's hiring patterns fall into the category of "hire your mates". Can often be a good idea because it can create a great atmosphere in a store, but most stores I've been in have been dead, and very creepily so.

I've never wanted to walk out of a shop for fear of being lynched like the branch they have in Omni in Santry. Very eery, quiet store with no banter or atmosphere even being attempted by the staff. I've also never seen anyone walking around the store, cleaning or merchandising while the branch up in Charlestown is consistently quiet, both audibly and in terms of customers mulling around, but there's always someone behind the counter and someone else wander around the store doing something.

I have a history in retail, managing a large number of staff in techie-orientated fields. I applied for a job in Gamestop (granted, I wasn't gunning for it and just wanted to see if I could get a job closer to my house) and didn't get it in the end despite my experience out-gunning any Gamestop employee. The problem was probably that my salary was too high at the time, however, I know who got the job - and you've never met someone less likely to be helpful to a gamer.

On the other side of things, I've never found Game, Xtra-Vision or whatever other rival store staff to be particularly inspired either. Especially in Xtra-Vision who seem to have staff who cater to the games section only in larger stores. If you have a dedicated member of staff for gaming, why not teach him something? I asked a guy if they had copies of Mario a few days after release and he had no idea what I was on about. Picked up a second hand copy of the previous Mario title on the Wii, instead of the new blockbuster one. Y'know, the one that sold 2 million in America? Yeah, this XV staffer never heard of it.

Gaeldor68

projectmayhem wrote: »

I've never wanted to walk out of a shop for fear of being lynched like the branch they have in Omni in Santry. Very eery, quiet store with no banter or atmosphere even being attempted by the staff. I've also never seen anyone walking around the store, cleaning or merchandising

This is so true I used to go there but when I realised how weird it was I went to another one from then on. There are a few stores where the people have absolutely no idea what's going on. Town I find to be terrible in general except for one or two staff in video game stores in general but there are some stores where the majority of staff know their stuff and fair play to them.

I too applied and didn't get it but I assume that was because I already had a job at the time. I too know some peeps, girls, who have gotten jobs in Gamestop and the like and the extent of their video gaming knowledge was I like it if it's pink. Not saying that all girls are bad coz there is a store where the manger is female and she knows her stuff and won't feed you the load of hype bull.

thebman

I was trading in my Xbox in game for an elite and the girl behind the counter had to show me the cable and ask if it was the Xbox Live cable.

Very annoying but I could tell by her she hadn't a clue as she looked scared when I walked up with the console.

I'm sure there are good people but most of them are crap from my experience not that I need them. Its more annoying see them trying to fook over moms and dads buying kids items.

CiDeRmAn

Be careful not to make this rant thread into a sexist one.
Perhaps, historically, those who made themselves available for the rather fluid nature of retail sales assistant were people like those described above, perhaps this matter is replicated throughout the retail world, I know folk I have dealt with in other tech type stores are often just as ignorant.
Heck, I work in a large Dublin hospital and an awful lot of people I know come in, do as little as possible and collect a paycheck, nothing extra done for people, no personal touch.
So perhaps this is a societal malady?

Either way, no one is making you tolerate this behaviour, if you are so aggrieved then take your business elsewhere, informing the manager why.

I always shopped in Gamestop Santry because it reminded me of Gamesworld of old, now I find myself in Gamestop in Clarehall, that's an excellent little shop and the staff are very helpful and friendly.
Please try it and comment.

Gaeldor68

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I always shopped in Gamestop Santry because it reminded me of Gamesworld of old, now I find myself in Gamestop in Clarehall, that's an excellent little shop and the staff are very helpful and friendly.

Thats the one I'm talking about. Clare Hall is great the people know what they are talking about more then any other store I've been in.

tbh

I use gamestop in swords, really like it. the dude in there with the mad haircut is really sound, it's probably one of the only shops of any kind I go to where I always end up having a chat with the staff.

Bob the Seducer

In general the standard of staff is down to the manager or whoever conducts the interviews. By the end of an interview they should have a fairly good idea of the level of games knowledge an interviewee possesses. It's up to them to make the right or wrong decision after that.

That said, I wonder what criteria some posters set for someone to 'deserve' a minimum wage job... do you complain about staff in fast food restaurants when they cant tell you where the chicken is sourced from or what type of oil the chips are cooked in?

I wouldn't be surprised about a lack of knowledge of PC games, they make up a tiny percentage of overall sales in shops like Gamestop. Football Manager is one of the few that shifts anywhere near a sizeable number of units, outside of that I wouldn't expect too much in the way of knowledge unless there's a PC gamer on the store staff (which there rarely is).

Lands Leaving

Bob the Seducer wrote: »

That said, I wonder what criteria some posters set for someone to 'deserve' a minimum wage job... do you complain about staff in fast food restaurants when they cant tell you where the chicken is sourced from or what type of oil the chips are cooked in?

Well if the option exists to have staff who can answer that type of question, then why hire people who can't? The more knowledge your staff have about the product you're selling the better chance they have of making a sale (although people may not want to know where their fast food comes from )

Burning Eclipse

I've always found the staff the 3 Gamestops in Limerick great. Their prices are almost universally terrible in comparison to HMV or Smyths though.

Anyway, bought Fahrenheit a few years back, pre-owned. The disc was scratched, got a few hours in and it didn't work. I brought it back and they didn't have another pre-owned copy. I explained where I was at and the guy behind the counter went into the storeroom and got me a new copy of the game, and gave it to me, saying "it's a great game, it'd be wrong for you not to finish it". That one example of customer service will stick with me for a long time I think.

Oh, oh... I've thought of something they did that annoyed me. In the Crescent, one of the staff was playing The Beatles: Rock Band for all to see 3 days before it was released. Dick!

CiDeRmAn

I'm a Clinical Nurse Manager myself and certainly in my line of work the personality and work ethic of the manager is accurately reflected in the behaviour of the staff in his/her employ.
That's a rule right there, so if there is a store with consistently ignorant and unhelpful staff, it's generally down to the manager not doing their job, unless it's simply a one off which can happen to anyone, or your place of business is seen as dumping ground for poor staff by the managers own line managers, then you have little in the say of who you get posted to your place of work, and you have to make do.
Often, with a lot of work, you can whip an unproductive staff member into some sort of shape, but equally, the effort can go unrewarded and unrecognised, so the manager can simply say "feck it" and not bother.

Anyway, Gamestop in the Pavilion does seem to have a pleasant vibe in it, the manager there seems like a pleasant chap and much of the staff are always willing to have a chat, time permitting, about games in general, and are often interested in my own retrogaming habits.

seclachi

In general I find the staff alright in gamestop, to be fair I`ve had a chat with a few of them while getting a game and they know what there on about. That being said, I dont really need good service, I`m the kind of person who just picks my game up and buys it, I know if its good or not. Likewise, if my console breaks I know what I`m entitled to.

My biggest bone with gamestop was when they did vouchers with consoles a while back (like a 100 euro of vouchers with an xbox). They were obviously 5 quid off a new game, going down from there. Thats ok,can`t expect 100 euro back straight up, and it keeps them in your custom, but the first time around it lasted about 6 months, I aint going to buy that many games in 6 month so they were a waste. Second time I got an elite, and they expired in a week ! I know I should have complained, but to be honest at that point GAME were trouncing them pricewise.

In the end its retail, sometimes they can somebody whos knowledgeable about games for the min wage, sometimes they can`t, thems the breaks. I can also understand why people who think they could easily handle it get turned down, there overqualified. I`m sure they`ve seen plenty of people who are only in the job to get through the summer etc and quickly think its below them and perform poorly.

superfly

steve_

I applied for a position for a certain new branch that opened recently, having worked in Game for a year and studying games design in college i can honestly say its a passion of mine. Out of curiosity i visited this new store to see what the staff where like.....i was let down ha. A few pretty faces behind the tills lacking any knowledge what so ever of the biggest industry in the world.