I'm not going to defend the company - it really has gone downhill since Gamestop, Software Etc. bought out EB. However, I think some of you guys are putting too much blame on the employees. I worked as an Assistant Manager for 2 years and a Store Manager for 1 before going actually using my college degree and getting certified to teach. This was in 1999 to 2001, so it was before the EB takeover, but I still have friends in the company so I have a good sense of current events. The employee manuals going around are mostly true. They don't come out and say lie to a customer, that would be grounds for a lawsuit. But, they do imply it. Most of the District Managers and some of the Store Managers are game-illiterate a$$holes, but that's because the company wants it that way. People who actual know and play games might develop a conscious when being feed obvious misleading info to get sales/ prepurchases. But, the sales people get a bad rep for just doing their job. The example before about an employee asking for the 100th time despite the customer not buying an extended warranty is a good example. My best friend manages one of the local stores and he asks me every time if I want to pre-purchase this or that and offers the warranties, etc. al. He knows I have no interest in them. It's become a kind of joke to us. But, he has not choice. If a secret shopper observes him not following procedure, it can lead to a write-up or other disciplinary action. Hell, the company also encourages employees to backstap each other so that's also a possibility. I am sure there are plenty of crap formalities we all have to go through to keep our jobs. Is it our fault? My friend has been moved from store to store over the last 3 years due to actually being honest - he will tell a customer if a game is a piece of crap - doesn't matter if it's a huge advertiser or not. The only reason he hasn't been fired is he has a huge customer "fan" base if you will and makes the company money. Point being, the company and it's policies are to blame. Gamestop bought out EB to eliminate competition, but doing so hurt them financially. This also pissed off Wal-Mart and Best Buy who deliberately offer big new games cheaper to bring people in. If Wal-Mart gets a title in first in an area, a manager can expect dozens of canceled pre-purchases. That usually leads to reprimands or write-ups despite the fact that he had no control over the situation.
As a side note, they have recently changed the pre-purchase policies as well for employees. It used to be that if a person pre-purchased a game, it counted as a +1 to that salesman's count and the stores numbers for the week. If the person canceled it before the game was released it was a -1 since the store lost a pre-sale. But, if the customer waited til after the game was released to cancel it (bad review, sh#tty demo, etc.), it didn't hurt the store. Well, now, ANY canceled pre-purchase counts against the store. We live beside Fort Bragg so many of the purchases are military based. Recently, a soldier returned from the Middle East after being deployed for close to a year. He was a big gamer and had over 10 games pre-purchased. Well, most of these had already been released - and he had had friends pick them up elsewhere and ship them to his unit, so he came in and canceled all the pre-purchases. He only asked for store credit, even though he could have demanded cash back, so it's not like the store even lost money. District Manager still called to bi#ch at the end of the week because he had 17 cancellations that Wed. (13 from that one soldier). How the hell is a manager suppose to survive in those conditions? You are pretty much damned either way - left to Fates whims. I stopped pre-purchasing too, but mainly because I am very finicky and didn't want to take a chance of hurting him my friend's numbers I changed my mind. A lot of people have done the same, so, once again, a stupid policy designed to improve pre-purchases has bitten them on the arse because the bureaucrats who run the company don't understand the gaming culture .... sigh ...
