I knew Gamestop was a ripoff

[drobvice]

Just saw this (http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=9107372&nav=menu59_2) on the news. Apparently, only 2 of 18 Gamestops turned away games that were suggested to be stolen.

[Re3x]

How do they know if they were stolen or not?

[total]

How do they know if they were stolen or not?

Seriously? Did you even look at the article?

"Shelby County Sheriff's Detective Dee Bowling said during the investigation, undercover deputies entered local Gamestop stores asking employees if they would purchase video games implied to be stolen. The deputies then sold the items implied to be stolen to the employees."

[Drayven]

I just wonder what "implied" means. Did they chuckle and say "oh yeah, these fell off the back of a truck, ha ha"? Although employees offering advice on how to not get flagged, it's kinda hard to argue with that :P

[KingGorilla]

The way this is generally done is with packaged merchandise, not opened contents. Or in the case of media, a disc with no sleeve. Cops generally do this at the behest of large retailers who see a lot of this theft.

[Deadend]

Gamestop acts as the pawn shop for stolen games, as they have no rules about verifying if merchandise is stolen. As when I worked at Toys R Us... people stole games that were still good trade in at gamestop, so I'd have to guess they were stealing games to sell there... for $20.

See, Gamestop is more than just a blight on gaming, it's a blight on retail stores.

[Fubl]

The problem is how do you track a game if its stolen or not. Same with large amounts of media. It isnt just theres no serial numbers but most people dont keep an upto date list of every peice of media that they own.

[Deadend]

The problem is how do you track a game if its stolen or not. Same with large amounts of media. It isnt just theres no serial numbers but most people dont keep an upto date list of every peice of media that they own.

Regular pawn shops have to attempt to do so.

[Evewalker]

I can attest to Gamestop ending up with games of dubious origin, and doing little to rectify the situation if they find out they took in stolen items.

Believe it or not, while we standing in line for my 360 on the rather cold launch night, our house was broken into, and, amongst other things, my original Xbox game collection was lifted. Let me tell you, that kinda took the high of coming home with a shiny new pro system away pretty quickly. :)

Anyway, my girl and I filed a police report of the extensive list of missing items, and within a few months, while in a local Gamestop picking up some stuff for the 360, I noticed a few of my titles in the used section based on damage to the cases. I talked to the manager, who said that even with a police report filed, he couldn't do anything about it, nor could he release the information of the person who traded in those games to me. To make a long story short, we talked to the cops, who couldn't/wouldn't contact Gamestop as they were not listed officially as a pawn shop.

While frustrating, I understand their standpoint to some extent, as identifying games by a small crack in Halo's case or a scuff in Otogi's packaging is not exactly an ironclad claim of ownership. It's still pretty frustrating, however.

[pseudopseudo]

Working at Gamestop, here's what I can testify to.

If something is reported as stolen from the authorities, or if we get a report through the GS e-mail system, we will check EVERY damn system that comes in.

At my store, if a customer even JOKES about the stuff they're trying to trade being stolen - we won't accept it. My manager has a no tolerance policy about that shit - I wish more stores would do the same.

[Evewalker]

Working at Gamestop, here's what I can testify to.


This has been my experience with Gamestop as a whole. While I've had some pretty terrible experiences with some stores, others have been completely awesome. It all depends on the staff and management, really.

I know for a fact that a lot of good stores (and staff) are out there.

[Iron Past]

I think it's more of the management than the whole system, like Evewalker said. I like to find a store with a good staff and stick with it.

[drobvice]

Judging by the looks of some of the dudes that were arrested, I don't necessarily think that Gamestop is solely to blame. I do imagine that they constantly harass their employees to bring in used games (and probably provide incentive) and that combined with a lack of moral character ends in a news story.

And Eve, that sucks. That would kill me seeing something of mine for sale and not being able to do anything about it. I can relate though, I went through an identity theft situation a couple of years ago and the police can be absolutely no help. But sometimes you will be surprised how helpful they are. One Detective sent me a copy of the fake ID the guy used so now I have a picture of him at least.

[KingGorilla]

Tracking is easy. If it is packaged goods there are serail numbers, RFID tags, also the contents as more and more places get exclusive tchotkies. Look at the different bonus items for stores on the Ironman DVD.

If it is unpackaged, and a new game, only a moron is not suspecting it was boosted.

[Inspector Fowler]

Colorado state law says that every store that buys and resells things of value needs to record all serial numbers, if the item has one. I know that pawn shops go a step further and compare this to the state database of stolen property, but I don't think Gamestop goes this far.

[rein]

Something I experienced when I was a GS (after the 'merge') manager.

I had a guy bring in some DVD's to sell for cash at work one day. He had a couple of duplicates and I told him I could not take the merchandise because of the duplicates. He told me he had been selling them at one of our stores in a neighboring town but he had relocated. I said great but I can't take them. After he left an employee told me he was in a few days prior with the same situation. I called the manager at the other store and found the guy had been bringing them stuff for months and they continued to take the items because they didn't have 'proof' that they were stolen. I found out the guy had been going to several stores in our district and also found out through another local game store (friend of mine) that the guy was in fact stealing the merchandise from Walmart. I (without accusing other stores) let my DM know about the situation in my store and that the guy was visiting other stores in the district. He flat out told me that it was ok. I flat out told him I would not take the merchandise. This went on for a few months with me getting more aggressive in my complaints because of how much merchandise was being traded in from this guy and how unfair it was for stores who refused to take the merchandise when competing in rankings with stores that were taking it (I'm talking a few hundred bucks in trades a couple of times a week). Eventually, (maybe he thought I was going to call LP) the DM finally told the other stores to stop taking the merchandise from the guy.

All of this merchandise was taken in because of one thing. The pressure to compete with trade-in goals. It will make supposedly good people do questionable things and make DM's look the other way. I've seem a few people I really respected do something stupid because of the pressure put on them and their staff to meet goals.

The worst part about all of this is I notified the Walmart manager once I found out where and how the guy was stealing from them to let them know how the product was being stolen. He basically told me he couldn't do anything about it because they didn't have sensors at the Garden Exit at that store. To him, $400-500 a week in merchandise wasn't really enough to affect his shrink percentage.

I want to add.... ....this is the only situation I experienced while working for EB/GS where a DM was made aware of questionable trades and looked the other way. Prior to this DM, I was always told to err on the side of caution. The GS (I assume most retail locations) experience really comes down to the staff including DMs in that area. The main reason I left GS was because of this DM. We really had a different philosophy when it came to dealing with personnel and moral issues.

[Commissar Rob]

Wow, Rein, you'd really think that would have a lot of potential to come back and bite your DM in the arse. I guess he felt the risk was worth the boost on trade-in stats. Sill, I wonder if this story - and the associates being hit with court supervision - will result in some changes company-wide. I sure hope so.

Way to show some cahones dealing with the situation though.

[Kielaran]

Way to show some cahones dealing with the situation though.

QFT. Much prop to you sir.