Rant: GameStop Didn’t Honor Their Own Promotion
Recently, we posted a story about a big sale that GameStop is offering to their customers. In the article we mentioned how Guitar Hero Aerosmith (just the game) was selling for only $9.99, and the retailer was also giving away a free Xplorer Guitar with the purchase of the game, a $40 value. Generally when a company has a promo for an item, they for the most part, don’t allow it to be combined with another deal. I’m assuming most of you already know that, but if you don’t, you surely have seen it in advertisements. When the fine print says; “not combined with any other offer,” this is what it means. However, for now, Gamestop has failed to mention that stipulation with the Guitar Hero Aerosmith deal. In fact, I talked to a manager over the phone this morning and he confirmed that it does indeed work.
After the jump, continue reading how GameStop didn’t honor their own promotion.
Since I wanted to buy the Aerosmith game for a while now, and coincidently my Rock Band guitar broke a few weeks back, I decided this was too good of a deal to pass up on. I headed down to my local GameStop store on Powell Street in San Francisco. When I got to the store, I found Guitar Hero packed in a box with the other titles that are on sale, went up to the counter and asked if they still had a Guitar. After discussing with the employee about the awesome deal, he proceed to get the manager. The manager, not the one I spoke with earlier, said something along the lines of “I can’t stack offers.” Basically what he was telling me was that the free guitar cannot be “combined with any other offer.” Of course, I told him that I spoke with a manager and he confirmed otherwise. He then told me his district manager emailed him and wrote that the promotion was no longer valid with Guitar Hero Aerosmith because of the sale. At that point I ended the conversation with him and called another manager. I was told over the phone that the promo is still active and he had yet received any email or phone call that said differently. I should let you know, that both managers I talked to were in a different district than the store I was in — so maybe the company let the D.M.’s decide what they want to do. Although, I find that highly unlikely.
Now I don’t like to ‘pick fights’ with retail employees, and I hate to be the customer who is annoying because I understand their job is really frustrating. However, I just had to this time. I had my reasons, for one I wanted a new Guitar — and for cheap; but I also saw the sign that clearly stated that when you buy just the game of Guitar Hero Aerosmith you get a free Xplorer Guitar, and the Guitar Hero Aerosmith game had a price tag on it that said “$9.99“. Sadly, I was rushing to take the picture with my iPhone, it came out a little blurry but if you click on it you can read it. The sign reads:
“Free Xbox 360 Guitar Hero Wired Xplorer Guitar
Receive a free Xbox 360 wired guitar when you buy any new Xbox 360 game below:
*Guitar Hero Aerosmith Bundle
*Guitar Hero Aerosmith Game Only
*Guitar Hero: World Tour Complete Band Bundle
Offer valid while supplies last. See store associate for details.”
Notice how the sign failed to have the famous “not combined with any other offer” slogan? Because of this sign, I needed to confront the manager one more time. At the time, he was in the back room, so I asked the employee who I spoke with first and asked if I could see the manager one more time. He politely said “no problem,” went to the back and found him. He came out and said that he is only do what his boss said and to contact customer service, which at that point, was already closed for the day. Meaning my trip down to the store was worthless.
I want to reiterate that I totally understand when a promotion isn’t valid because of a current offer. However when a company has an advertisement scattered around its stores and a customer decides to take advantage of that particular promo, the company must honor it. Again, if the sign read “not combined with any other offer” or something similar, I would have left. But, take look at the photo above — I followed the guidelines and should have received my free guitar. For some reason, either a manager or D.M. thought otherwise, and both are wrong.
This shows another example of GameStop screwing a customer. Sure, I can’t blame the company for a mistaken decision a manager/D.M. made, but I can blame the company for poor communication. If they didn’t want the promotion to work, simply tell the employees to take down advertisements throughout the store. If the promotion is still indeed valid, than send a quick email confirming that it still is in effect. They should stop having managers, employees and D.M.’s playing a guessing game, because it just makes it confusing for the customer in the end.
If any of you have been able to buy the promotion successfully or unsuccessfully, email me at slashgamer@gmail.com or just leave a comment below. Or if you have had a similar experience with the giant gaming retailer, just leave a comment below.
“This kid is happy because he HAS a working Guitar“
April 7th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I have had several incidences with Gamestop in the past involving the “free” bonus items with reservations. Sometimes I would be the only person to reserve a game in the town that I lived in: I.E. Silent Hill Homecoming.
Silent Hill Homecoming was to come with a free copy of the movie when you reserve it. When the game came out I received no movie! I asked the manager about it and he said that it was “while supplies last” and they did not receive any promo’s for that game. I can understand “while supplies last” but don’t you have to have “supplies” before they can run out? He also told me since I was the only one to have reserved the game, they may have not “fulfilled their reserve quota” for the add on. There was no mention of a reserve quota when I reserved it! Needless to say, I never received my free copy of Silent Hill.
This happened to quite a few of the “lesser” title reservations. I found another Gamestop near by (next town over) and they were kind enough to just give me free stuff from other games if my reserve freebie didn’t come in. I guess my issue was a store specific issue. Some Gamestops suck. Others are not so bad. There just doesn’t seem to be any consistency with any of them.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Why didn’t you just go to another Game Stop with a less-douchey manager?
April 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Poor or little communication is the norm with this communication. As sad as it may seem,DMs make many final decisions on stuff like this,and policies will vary WIDELY betwwen districts. Heres a hint tho…next time you have a complaint…ask to get DMs phone number….the company is so customer-service -obsessed now that they cave in to customer complaints all the time..my DM gives out gift cards like they were candy to irate customers.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I bought a used PS2 game from gamestop and the very next day they came out with the weekend coupon that said “$5 off used PS2 game.” Of course the coupon came out the day after I bought the game. So I called up that gamestop and asked them if I could come in with the coupon and receive a $5 coupon.
The employee asked the manager and he said yes. So I stopped by gamestop to get my discount and the stupid employee said that I could use the coupon for the game that I had already bought. I told him the manager told me that I could. And he said that he was the manager. The same guy that said yes on the phone!
I was so annoyed I wanted to return the game right there and then say oh actually I want to purchase that same game with this $5 coupon.
It wouldn’t have been so frustrating if they would have said no on the phone then I would have been fine. But like the article says, its annoying when somebody says yes then no and nobody knows the real answer.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
take it to the Consumerist(.com) – if they pick up the complaint, the right people usually see it very quickly, and problems get resolved. Good luck.
And yes, Gamestop is the worst.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:15 am
I got the deal to work on three separate occasions for a total of four guitars and games. On the final occasion, two stores combined to make it work. One store had the games but was out of guitars. The other had exactly the opposite problem. Since they are in the same mall, the one with the guitars suggested buying the games at the other store and then returning to them for the guitars. I got two of them in that manner. Another local store has at least two more guitars in stock. So I might get them as well.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:54 am
I was in last Friday and was able to pick up both the game and the promotional guitar at the Game Days price. Poor management at the one you visited.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
gamestop as far as im concerned doesnt know that they are getting themselves into most of the time. for example, remember the free kick pedal for guitar hero metallica? i was the first one to pick it up when i knew for a fact that many other people were going to pick it up before me (the fact that there were about 30 guitar hero metallica games for the wii behind the clerk) the first thing i asked was, wheres my kick pedal. the first thing that the manager and the clerk both said to me was “we got an email from HQ that the kick pedal doesnt work with the wii. so i called activision who sent me an email pretty much saying “whoever spoke to you was a complete lier.” called gamestop they said “well no one here knew about the kick pedal not working for the wii here but we are all out of kick pedals… O.O. i spoke to about 10 people who all said that they didnt get the kick pedal (different systems) who all said “gamestop at the mall? yeah they didnt have any” i ranted and raved and gamestop finally said “well when we get some kick pedals we will contact you”. of course they didn’t. i waited about 2 weeks before calling them again. apparently they had it for about a week and decided not to call. i picked it up and what was funny is the guy on the phone asked do you still have a receipt and if you do bring it in but the clerk on the day i picked it up didnt even ask. in fact i asked for him and he said its ok you dont really need it we know you want it. (different clerk than anyone ive ever met or talked to before.)
there was also a time where gamestop kinda helped when i got guitar hero aerosmith. the bundle was 100 dollars and they told me i had to pay 50 dollars. so i got a free guitar.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
As a Gamestop manager, I can tell you that the promotion was not a “stakced” offer.The manager you spoke with was an idiot. If you run into that problem again just ask them to ring up the items. the promo
function in the computer will automatically give you this discount and the employees cannot override it. You are right, there was a great deal of miscommunication…but a good manager will try the transaction to see if it works. I sold all copies of the game & guitar for $9.99.
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Sorry sir, but your entire story is false and I will go even further to call you a liar with nothing better to do than to make up a completely false story. Were you bored? That offer was valid while supplies last you dimwit and all the stores wanted to get rid of those guitars because no one buys the wired guitars anymore. There is no secret button that employees push to make that deal go through. If you rang up both those items it would have automatically discounted the guitar to zero. There is nothing an employee can do to stop something that is completely automatic within the POS system. Again, false story and you are a liar.
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@DD:
WTF does while supplies last and the auto discount have to do with anything? The issue was that the manager had the guitars in stock and refused to even attempt to ring the sale. You have provided nothing that would lead anyone to believe that /gamer has made up this story.