GameStop Turned Good Black Friday Deal Into My Private Hell

Considered one of my favourite Black Friday traditions is scrolling by means of GameStop on my telephone and getting a bunch of cool video games for affordable. Often it really works out simply positive. Final weekend it was a nightmare. It’s laborious to convey simply how horrible navigating the expertise of making an attempt to purchase one thing from GameStop has grow to be in 2023, however I’m going to attempt.

Procuring at GameStop was by no means nice, but amid meme inventory shenanigans, continued cuts, and a flailing c-suite, issues have by some means solely gotten worse. By all of it I’ve remained a subscriber to the corporate’s Professional rewards program as a result of I 1) purchase loads of video games and a couple of) like having a cause to stroll right into a retailer and chat with strangers who like video games IRL. It was a reasonably whole lot, too. Not a lot. The worth went up, the perks went down, and there are all types of latest restrictions aimed toward ripping you off. This has been clear in a basic sense for some time now, however one particular Black Friday ordeal cemented simply how dangerous issues actually are on the retailer.

Considered one of GameStop’s massive Black Friday promotions was “purchase 2 get 1 free” on pre-owned video games. My five-year-old not too long ago turned a capital G Gamer and informed me at breakfast over soggy Cheerios and orange juice that Santa was bringing him a brand new Zelda and Mario recreation for Christmas. Information to me. So in-between the warmed-up Thanksgiving leftovers and Bluey marathon I began scrolling by means of the GameStop app—which I’ve put in on my telephone as a result of I’m a loyal buyer.

I settled on shopping for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as a result of my child spends most of his time operating round The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom raiding the identical goblin camps over and over. I began filling up my cart with different prospects within the neighborhood of $35 to maximise my financial savings: Yoshi’s Crafted World, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, Donkey Kong Nation: Tropical Freeze. Sonic Frontiers was too low-cost. We already had Skyward Sword.

It was dinner by the point I settled on Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Hyperlink’s Awakening and began visualizing my child’s gleeful shock as they opened every successive current on Christmas day. I’d nab three good video games for simply $20 bucks. Like I stated, I benefit from the artwork of curating a terrific gaming deal. Then GameStop began to ratfuck me.

I seen the video games in my cart solely to see that, regardless of qualifying free of charge delivery, I used to be nonetheless being charged $10 for it. I searched shops inside 30 miles for one which had the whole lot in inventory at a single location and at last discovered one a half hour’s drive away the place I might choose the whole lot up in retailer as a substitute of paying the postage price Then I attempted to make use of my final month-to-month $5 off coupon however the app rejected it saying nothing in my cart certified, a mysterious however more and more frequent development and the explanation why I normally waste so lots of the coupons. I added a Hyperlink amiibo. An ideal stocking stuffer. That is good. That is positive. Then I attempted to redeem my 50,000 GameStop factors I’d saved up for years to pay the lionshare of the invoice. This was not good. This was not positive.

The corporate forces you to redeem your factors in small increments both for on-line or in-store purchases. However which one was my order thought of? A fast Google search of Reddit threads revealed it counted as a web-based buy, regardless of the half-hour drive forward of me. Sadly, when you can redeem factors for $25 off in-store purchases, the best quantity on-line is $15. No matter. Then I noticed the positive print: No duplicate coupons could be mixed in a single transaction. Should you by accident redeem all of your factors in $10 increments you’ll be shit out of luck. This additionally means the utmost you may low cost a single transaction on-line is $34. That’s one $15 coupon, one $10 coupon, one $5 coupon, and one $1 coupon. Lol. Lmao even.

If all of it sounds needlessly complicated and greater than a bit scummy the reply is sure. I redeemed the arbitrary quantities and tried to use them to my cart. Once more the GameStop app rejected them. It refunded the remainder of the Hyperlink amiibo ($11) after which claimed nothing I used to be ordering certified for my reward factors. Whether or not by means of easy malice or poor backend design, I discovered the coupons can’t be mixed with one other sale like retailer credit score or reward playing cards. Cool, cool, cool. I went to mattress and questioned if there was a non-zero likelihood GameStop may implement a totally new procuring expertise by the morning. It didn’t. I deleted the whole lot from my cart besides Age of Calamity and the Hyperlink Amiibo. Rip that transient daydream of my child shedding his thoughts sucking up ghosts in Luigi’s Mansion on Christmas day or me quietly reliving my childhood that night time taking part in Hyperlink’s Awakening.

I ended up spending $17.52. I do not know how or why. Age of Calamity was truly on sale “new” for simply $30, however all of these copies bought out instantly, so I used to be nonetheless caught with the costlier used copy. Make it make sense. Many of the GameStop coupons are nonetheless sitting in my account with an expiration date of January 31, 2024. I haven’t picked the sport up but but when the cartridge is in a plastic sandwich bag as a substitute of the unique case I’ll lose my shit.

I recounted these trials and tribulations intimately to my pal that night time as I sped down the freeway to the 7:10 p.m. displaying of Napoleon. He saved making an attempt to vary the topic and I saved forcefully interjecting to let him know the story wasn’t achieved but. He requested if I dropped acid earlier than I picked him up.

GameStop is hardly alone in being filled with annoying gross sales nonsense. Nearly the whole lot on-line sucks. However the one factor GameStop nonetheless has going for it’s that there are bodily shops you may go into the place you may cope with one other human being as a substitute of an algorithm or robotic. Sadly, these individuals are all overworked, paid like crap, and regularly chased out of the corporate. The satisfaction of a giant Black Friday gaming deal is feeling such as you pulled one over on one thing. Everybody else will get ripped off however not me! It seems I used to be a mark all alongside. Till subsequent 12 months.