JRock3x8's Life Musings

Monday, December 26, 2005

Adventures in Video Game Shopping

I admit it. I'm a picky customer. I get miffed anytime someone does not say please and thank you at every turn. I like it when people dote on the customer. I also understand that is NOT the current state of video game shopping in America.

That being said, I braved it - I went out on the day after Christmas armed with two gift cards to EB Games in Bolingbrook, IL. My conquest? Project Gotham Rading 3, which I had already told my buddy I would be racing with him today.

First of all, it was impossible to find the store. I drove past it no less than 3 times trying to find it, and no, the irony of driving around to buy a driving game is not lost on me.

I got there and the place is fairly packed (duh!). The register guy is calling the home office about something, but I'm not paying too much attention until he says "The system is down - we can't take gift cards. There's nothing we or they can do." I threw up my arms, put the game back on the shelf and walked out.

I also had a gift card to Best Buy which is very close by so I drove there. Best Buy was crazy busy, even for a normal Best Buy, and I'm already a little pissed. I find my way over to the 360 games, and OF COURSE, PGR3 is SOLD OUT. There just happens to be a blue shirt standing right there talking to his buddy, and so I say, "Hey do you guys have any more of these?" He turns to his buddy and says "Did you find everything you need?" and WALKS AWAY... Now I'm hot...so I call after him "Hey, I had a question!" The guy is less than 5 feet from me and just keeps walking away. I'm standing there for about 30 seconds looking REALLY pissed, when another blue shirt shows up - this guy's name was Kevin. He asked me if I could be helped, I told him why I was pissed and he apologized, checked the stockroom and told me there were no copies in the store. He then walked me to the exit and wished me a good day. (Deep sigh) My faith in Best Buy had been restored even though that jackass ignored me. Oh well.

So I get back in my car and head back to EB. I thought, "I can convince them to take my gift card." Yah, not so much...but here's the funny part! The guy (no name tag, not even an EB logo on his shirt) says "Yah, we can't take gift cards", which I expected. I shot back "Well what's your policy when your system goes down. It's not my fault that your system went down on THE busiest gift card shopping day of the year". And he said, "Well it's not my fault either". I says, "You represent your company - you are an agent of EB Games". He goes...wait for it..."Yah, I don't like my company." Then the guy in line next to me starts defending EB Games! "Well they just had this merger so their systems are not quite integrated." I said, "That's bogus - the purchase happened 8 months ago and even if that's the reason, you don't go changing your systems around during the holidays." He agreed.

Now! To his credit, the guy at EB said I could bring the opened game back, claim it was defective, credit it back to my credit card, and then re-purchase it with the gift cards. I said, "Okay! That sounds like a solution!" Just for one last piece of humour... The guy picks the game up to put it in the bag, drops it on the counter (he looked a little rattled at my questions), then shakes it by his ear, says "yah, it's still good", puts it in the bag and hands it to me with the receipt!

God bless Capitalism! I am playing PGR3 even if it cost me $50 when it should have cost me $5.

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