I have shopped at Gamestop for many years. Don’t have many problems and anything that i did have was minor and they fixed it immediately. I just wanted to share this story because…well…tis the season.
My christmas budget is very tight this year. My 2 oldest boys each wanted a nintendo ds. I was bound and determined to get those for them. I looked for the best prices both online and in store for a little over a month. I was hoping for black friday deals but no such luck. As I was skimming the gamestop website i noticed the pre-owned ds lites that were $40 less than the price of a new one. On the website it stated “guaranteed to work” but it also said colors may vary.
I decided to go up to my local gamestop and check them out. This way i could choose the color. Let’s face it, my boys wouldn’t not be as excited if they ended up with a pink ds. I really debated, should I get a pre-owned or sacrifice and get the new one. I mulled it over and decided to give the pre-owned a shot. (my checking account would thank me and my boys are young so i didn’t think it would be a big deal). I got a black one and a white one since that was the only “boy” colors they had. I also paid $10 on each of them for a warranty that lasted for a year. They would fix or replace it if anything went wrong.
I got them home and my husband and I checked them out. When I opened the box I thought I would cry. The black one had sticker residue and scotch tape on it. We took it out and turned it on. It turned on just fine. While I was annoyed that they wouldn’t even clean their pre-owned merchandise I tried to brush it off and said “that’s ok i can clean it up no big deal”. Then I get to the white one. This one is filthier than the black one. There was dirty finger print smudges all over the outside, When i opened it up there was this nasty orange gritty residue all around the monitor. It made me think of someone playing it with cheeto fingers.
Then we went to turn it on and the screen just flashed. I was furious by now. Not just because of the physical appearance but now it didn’t work. My husband said “maybe it just needs charged” I said “oh yea you’re right, that’s what it is” So we plugged it in for about 20 minutes while we wrapped some other presents. We came back to it…the screen still only flashed and it would not turn on.
I packed them back in the box and told my husband “That’s it I”m taking these peices of junk back to Gamestop tomorrow and tell them exactly what i think of their pre-owned ds’s.” The next day I took the ds’s back,as I said, reciept and warranties in hand. I fully expected a fight to take them back since they were pre-owned. I intended to get my money back for everything and go buy them new somewhere else. I got to the register and as calmly as possible said to the cashier. “I just bought these pre-owned ds’s here yesterday. The white one won’t turn on at all and i am not happy with the condition of either one of them. By this point I was so mad I was actually hoping for a fight.
The girl was very nice and professional. Gave me no trouble about taking back the ds’s and even credited the warranties. She asked what I would like to do. I had to think for a minute. I didn’t expect the calm and friendly demeanor of the sales clerk. I looked at her for a minute and said 2 new nintendo ds lites and then I’ll pay the differnce. AND they had the blue ones which is the ones my boys wanted in the first place.
While I hope that Gamestop will take better care in their pre-owned merchandise that they are selling to customers I am happy with the service and will continue to be a repeat customer.
