Not just poor customer service -- completely absent customer service.
Last night, I had a minor party emergency. Two hours before hosting friends for a Kinect party (playing games I had previously purchased at GameStop), my Xbox red-ringed. I ran around town trying to find a preowned console to replace it, since it was too late to cancel. I went to the Arborland GameStop, which had none in stock. Called Best Buy, likewise. I then called the Ypsilanti GameStop, was placed on hold... and waited. And waited, and waited. In fact, since I was already in the car, I started driving towards the store. The closer I got, the more I wondered if I was going to drive to the store before I got a response. I did.
In fact, I queued up and reached the front of the line, my call still on hold. I asked if there were any used consoles with HDMI available. Robert, the employee helping me, said that there was one. He said he'd have to run to the back to grab it. "I think you have a call waiting on hold," I said, pointing to the blinking red light on the phone next to his terminal. He said that he'd take care of it in a moment, and headed to the back. A few minutes later, he came back up with the console. I said no to the add-on requests, signed my receipt, and said, "Now, can you answer the call on hold?"
"Why, do you need to talk to her?" Robert said.
"No, I -am- her. I actually drove to this store before you took my call off hold. I've actually been holding for," I checked my phone, "over 25 minutes, now. That's just ridiculous, don't you think?"
"Huh, that's weird," was all he said.
Even more frustrated and racing against the clock, I took the console home, opened it up... and found that although I said that I needed an HDMI console, there was no cable in the box. Something he might have mentioned, given that I'd specifically asked about HDMI. I can fix it later, I thought, hooking everything up to find... nada. The sound came through, but the screen was so dark I could just barely see the Xbox logo against a "white" background. There was no Kinect party.
Today I took the console back. Robert handled my transaction again.
Did it not work, he asked? Nope, the screen was so dark it was illegible, I said. I tried my old game cable, as well as the new one. Also, I said, you could have told me it came without an HDMI cable. First, Robert said it should have come with one in the box. I told him the box was right in front of him, look for himself. Then, he changed the story and said that I "only asked for an HDMI-compatible Xbox. None of them come with HDMI." Whatever, I thought. Just handle my return. Robert said, "I'm trying my best to be nice to you, but if you're gonna be nasty I won't help you."
I'll be the first to say that I was angry. I'd say that being left on hold for as long as a television episode will do that, let alone the other issues with my purchase. He handed me the receipt for my return, and I saw that my address had been changed to "not aloowed [sic]". I asked if he was going to mention that he was banning me from the store. He said, "oh, I was going to because you were being nasty, but then you were nice at the end." Before leaving, I asked for the regional sales manager's information to complain about my bad experience.
Takeaway: wherever I spend my future gaming dollars, it won't be at GameStop. I'll be encouraging my friends to look at other options as well. read more
