This is a post responding to our dear friend the Gamestop Employee. You can read his post here, and I’m not sure where the hell he is going to find sympothy but I do want to make sure that he feels that hassle he gets from Gamestop is nothing. I’m just going to go through his post point by point.
Pre-Orders
Everyone and their frickin mother knows how pre-orders works, just because we hate the employees harassing us about pre-ordering shitty game #533 all the freaking time doesn’t mean we don’t know about the game and we don’t know about the pos pre-order “gift” they are throwing out. I mean seriously, Spider-Man 3 preorders? Do you really think anyone “doesn’t know what they are missing”? We are missing a shitty game, and we know it. You know what happens when there is a game we want? WE FUCKING CALL IN AND PRE-ORDER IT YA NEWB! How many people do you actually think are like “you know I thought spider-man 3 would be a crappy game, but now that you are giving me a poster, I think I’ll buy it because hell a poster for $50 is a deal!” Not a one person will ever come to this logic. It’s kind of ironic isn’t it, we complain about being harrassed about pre-ordering games we don’t want; you complain about being called all day about games we do want. Go figure. You know despite what you may think, we know what games we want, we know when they come out, we are full well aware we can pre-order and get a gift, and more importantly we don’t need you constantly telling us what we already know. Because well, we already know what we already know. Which brings us to….
Phone Calls
You are complaining basically here about doing your job. Did you honestly not realize when you worked at a game store that, surprise surprise people will actually call in to see if you have something in stock, and surprise surprise, usually when is least convenient for you (anything that can go wrong, will get used to it). In fact, I’m quite sure that most people who call have a webcam in your specific store and sit there and watch and wait until the very minute that you have 50 customers in store but only 1 employee. Sorry, it’s just what we do. Is it really a surprise that people call to see if you have a game in stock? Gamestop isn’t exactly a target here, they don’t have a ton of games and many gamers prefer to go to Gamestop, not because they have slightly more expensive titles or less games in stock than the competition, it’s more because we realize the shit we will be in if there are no more game specialty stores and Best Buy and Target become completely in control of distribution of games.
And guess, what people wanna know how much they can get for their used games without taking a trip. I mean seriously, do you really think that we want to drive all the way to your fricking store just to find out that you know what, you won’t even buy my copy of Spider Man 3 because you have 20 in stock now because guess what it’s a shitty game and you forced it onto a ton of people through pre-orders who now realize it to be a shitty game. It is your freaking job to answer the phone, do it, and be happy you have one cause many people don’t even get 7.15 an hour. Let alone that you get a freaking discount on games which as you know is the main reason anyone even works at Gamestop, so get over it. I worked at McDonald’s for 3 years, got paid I think at the most $5.65/hour and they don’t even give you a free $1 burger in a 12 hour shift, GET OVER YOURSELF. You think you are really drawing sympothy? Everyone has worked these jobs, and most have worked worse jobs than you… compared to McDonald’s you have a freaking dream job.
For the record, that person asking for the Wii Game, was likely asking for Wii Play. The fact that you don’t know this leads to a common problem that we have with gamestop and it’s employees in that you don’t know shit. I can tell you what game that person was talking about, I don’t need to harass them about wanting it, and I don’t even work there where I get about 50 calls a day asking for that Wii Game. You know why they are asking for it? You know how hard it is to find a Wiimote? Seriously they pay you too much.
Injustice
Boo hoo, you don’t have shrink wrap machine or a TV. Why should I care? You realize that in every single job the corp won’t chip in for equipment that is vital to the job. My roommate is currently in a job that they won’t pay for pens, pencils, paper, or even a break room (at least you had a microwave at one time). And she works a desk job, so who cares about your “oh no my meal is cold” problem? You know how to fix that problem? Bring a sandwich! Your the idjut bringing hot meals even though you full well know that microwave don’t work!
You are whining that someone thought to open the UMD case of a PSP? How times do you actually see cases that aren’t supposed to come of a disc in the real world? Do DVD’s have a case? No. Do CD’s have a case? No. Do Games have a case? No. So why should this game have a case? <shrug> It was stupid of Sony to do, surely, but ya must see it coming from someone who had never heard of such a thing before. And about the difficulty in opening said UMD case? I’m sure it was difficult, but have ya not opened any commercial product in the last 10 years? I am sure the woman was sitting there complaining about how difficult they make things to open these days the entire time. I once had a CompUSA clerk complain to me that customers usually mangle the packaging… really what are they supposed to do? The things are freaking so glued together that I’ve broken scissors before trying to open the damn packages! How can you be so surprised that it if someone thinks it is a package that they might not be amazed or surprised that it is difficult to open? It is standard in this day and age!
Solution?
I didn’t notice a solution, I’m sure corporate gets plenty of phone calls too, and wouldn’t ya hate to have that person’s job as they are likely making only slightly more than you and all they do all day is deal with pissed off customers. Throughout the article, you imply that your job depends on those pre-orders, yet you never really say how or why? Do they fire you if you don’t meet a pre-order quota? Do you think gamestop will close your store if they don’t fill a quota? In both these cases, why would you even care? There are plenty of $7 an hour jobs in the sea, go find a different one! (BTW, since you seem so shocked by this job’s crappiness, let me share with you that they are all quite crappy just so you won’t be as disappointed with your next job). Or is it that you get a commission for the pre-order and the only way you can pay rent is by getting those commissions? (I doubt this is the case as you would have likely said it, it certainly could help sympothy out here!)
I’m not entirely sure what the point of your post even was. You think that people who are asking the stupid questions and hate the corp don’t know how shitty a clerk job is? Most of us work there at some point, it is a way of rights of sorts that everyone has to do the shitty jobs in order to get good ones. Your solution to make someone else’s job even worse isn’t helping because seriously how does that solve anything? What makes YOU more different than the guy answering the phone? That you are you? Am I supposed to be impressed with that? I actually feel more sorry for that guy than you because he probably feels more stuck because he is making slightly more and the slightly more jobs are more difficult to come by even if they are just as shitty. I do find it interesting that you leave out the discount on games entirely, as you surely are a gamer, and most gamers realize that is why you even work there so we realize this is the true perk of that job which really sets it apart from a job that would pay $8.50/an hour. Because we realize, you take full advantage by not only getting games before everyone else (and we fully realize it happens despite corporate policy), but by getting friends this discount too. Hell I worked at Nike for 2 yeras at $7.50/hour (a price I actually thought was really high for a clerk job and actually was the highest salary of any standard clerk in the entire mall, and the only discount I got was on sports shoes which I wouldn’t be caught dead in). Heck someone like me who doesn’t like the Corp will tell you that you are to blame for people complaining to you. You may not give a shit anymore about the company than me, but you chose to work there, and ethics should dictate your choices, which means on some level you do like company and you are every bit a part of it as those rule makers. If employees wouldn’t work there, then they wouldn’t have a business to run, and they may be forced to change not only how they treat customers, but how they treat employees and then everyone would win wouldn’t they?
But no, instead you write a pointless post which notes that you don’t know anything about games so I really think that you have a junior high education and probably should quit your job because someone who actually plays games deserves your job more than you. And yes it also makes me think that those execs who do nothing are just deserved their millions in salaries if a moron like you earns $7.50 an hour and doesn’t even understand the concepts of your own job.