I've been to several GameStop in my day and from time to time, I still do. I've read and listened to many horror stories about GameStop practices, but I never experienced this myself. Every GameStop I shopped at, the clerks have always helped me out if I needed it.
As annoying as it is, they tried pushing a preorder or whatever the hot item is at the time. What do you do, it's their job to sell things or offer you deals.
So the day the Xbox One was announced at E3, I went over the GameStop to preorder a console and two games. As everyone knows, people were all up in arms with Microsoft's DRM policy, which I was okay with. A week later, as everyone knows, MS changed their policy. Since installing the game from disc to hard drive was not an option anymore, I went back to GameStop and wanted to cancel the two games I ordered.
The clerk that was there told me that it was required to preorder one Xbox One game to be able to pre-order the Xbox One console. I thought to myself "this kind of bullshit policy never existed!" So I went ahead and cancelled one game and kept one game on order just to please the employee. Seriously, in all the years I purchased games and a console, requiring a game to be preordered to preorder a console was never a requirement.
That same day I emailed GS corporate and told them the story. A few days later, I received a call from the district manager and I explained the situation. After our conversation, he made it clear that there's no policy that a game is required to pre-order an Xbox One console. Currently, I still have the Xbox One game on preorder but I plan on cancelling it before launch.
For the ones asking why I want to cancel the games, it's because I want to go all digital on the next-gen console. Since the DRM policy was changed, playing diskless is no longer possible if you buy the game at a retail store.
So my one bad experience at this particular location is a warning to everyone else. Don't believe or rely on the employee's opinion or knowledge. They are not your friend. They are there to make money for the company.
There's also one older salt/pepper haired chunky guy that works there that rubbed me the wrong way. One day I traded some games in and I asked for the credit to be placed on my card for a later purchase. For some reason, this request really bothered the shit out of him because he rolled his eyes directly at me as if I personally insulted him.
Since then, I try to avoid this douchebag. If I knew his name, I would call him out on it here, but you'll know who he is when you see him. read more