GameStop Adventures

I don't really like GameStop. At least not the one at the Bayshore Mall in Eureka, California. The staff is comprised mainly of idiots with a few beacons of hope. I was in there today, though, sick as hell and looking for a game for my daughter. Here is the fun stuff I experienced.

First was a guy trying to buy a strategy guide for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The young man appeared to be mentally challenged because when they asked his age he said, "I don't know. I was born in 1990." The store refused to sell him the book because it was for a mature-rated game. The manager, who takes every other opportunity to upsell, stated it was company policy. I can see not selling the game (not that I agree with it), but the strategy guide? Wow.

Next up was a guy trying to buy a PSP game for his daughter. He was told the game wasn't in the box, but there was in its place a code so that he could download the game from the PSN store. His response? "Download it on the computer?" The manager quickly corrected him. It only took about four more times before he got a better grasp of the conversation.

Then came the real winners. A mom and son. They were looking for the lastest Super Mario Brothers game for the PS2. Yeah, you read that correctly. When they were told that the franchise never made an appearance on the PlayStation, they got a little testy, but no worries. They were also picking up cheap PC games.

The manager made a point of asking what OS they were using. The lady said it was XP. The manager pressed to make sure because the games wouldn't work on Vista of 7. "No, it's XP," the woman replied. "It's brand new. I got it yesterday at Wal-Mart."

"It might be using 7," the manager said.

"No. It's XP. It's brand new."

I wasn't going to wait around to see how pissed they would be when they brought back the games because the manager told them it would work on their system and it doesn't (and you know how that is how that conversation would go). I would have loved to have heard it, though.

It's always a thrill at GameStop. If it isn't the employees, it's the customers. When will they ever learn?