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Originally posted by The Mad Gamer

Hello all. I'm cutting right to the chase this week. If you want to buy video games, buy them anywhere but Electronics Boutique. Just so you all know, The Mad Gamer was at one point in time an employee of EB. I've seen it all, done it all, and now I will repent for my past sins by dishing out all the dirt you never knew about EB. In the end you'll be glad that you've read what I have to say.

First, I would like to let everyone know that EB employees are not properly compensated for all the crap they have to go through. In short, they get paid slave-like wages. EB Corporate makes things no easier for these employees and definitely not for you, the customers. Thanks to EB Corporate, the employees have a list of bullshit they are supposed to tell you the second you walk in the door. Basically, EB Corporate Headquarters wants its employees to harass the hell out of you until you buy something. Believe me when I say that most EB employees don't want to bug you while you're shopping around. Me personally, I preferred that you buy whatever you want and ask if you need help. But according to the big wigs at Corporate, that isn't good enough. And to combat this way of thinking, the corporate scumbags actually pay people to spy on their employees. They call these spies "secret shoppers". If an employee is witnessed not completing the long list of crap to force a sell down someone's throat then they will face disciplinary action. Yeah EB Corporate, all of that harassing and lying to customers is really worth the minimum wage that most employees get. My soul felt so cleansed after a night of work at EB (rolls eyes).

Another thing you never want to do is ask an EB Games' employee their personal opinion about whether a game is good or bad. Why? Because they really aren't allowed to tell you if they think a certain game sucks. If they ever told you that Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects sucked ass, they would face disciplinary action. At one point in time EB used to let employees sign a book to take games home for a play test and to build an opinion of the product. Well that damn sure has changed. The reason given for the stop on play testing games was that too many games were turning up missing. What a load of crap as far as what I personally remember. The store I worked in hadn't lost a single game for three years and we still were not allowed to sign anything out. Guess we were being too honest about not wanting to sell "Average Joe Gamer" a steaming pile pressed on a game disc! And the same rule that applies to not asking about games also goes for gaming accessories. Should an EB employee tell you that a game or accessory is awesome, do NOT believe them. It's probably associated with the "Vendor of the Month" program also known as V.O.M. I actually had to lie to customers and tell them that Mad Catz made great accessories. NO! Mad Catz makes worthless pieces of shit that will almost always break during usage! But hey, EB Games gets paid a load of money to sell those worthless accessories so I guess it was all good. Remember if you dare to ask about the quality of anything EB sells, you're likely to NOT get an honest opinion. If you don't know then do some research on the product via magazines (not EGM though) and the internet.

Up next is EB Games' dirtiest of the dirty, their trade-in policy. One of the major things EB games makes money off is you trading in stuff! Trust me when I say this is not the thing you want to be doing. When you trade-in a game you will get only about 30% or less of the retail value. More often than not, you will get less than $15 for trading in a game that is more than a few weeks old. Got a few sports games you want to trade-in? Forget about it! Anything sports related from the previous year and beyond will either not be accepted or you'll get like $2 (if you’re lucky). If you get more than that then you've been truly blessed. Now, just so you know, the game that EB Games gave you 30% or less for will sell for $39 to $44 used. Now that's what I call a serious anal reaming. Often it doesn't matter whether the game has a case or instruction manual because you're still going to be charged top dollar for a used product. If you are crazy enough to trade-in your stuff at EB Games, always check the receipt to make sure you got credit for everything! EB Corporate will crap a brick house when I tell you this, but I've believed for a long time that they have the POS system setup to get over on customers. All too often and conveniently, the scanner will not register a game trade-in or two. It will still beep though and you'll think you got credit for what was just scanned. Not! This little practice is called creating "positive inventory". "Positive inventory" is often used to offset any losses the store may incur over time. Please keep in mind that these employees are not taking your games, but the company is. If any employee took a "positive inventory" game for themselves they would be terminated for stealing from the store. And should an employee offer you more money out of their own pocket for something you wanted to trade-in? Well then they'd hear the old Donald Trump trademarked phrase, "You're fired!"

Never ever buy a pre-owned game system. 90% of the time they are broken, or will be in a few weeks. Still, EB will sell you a one-time use warranty for $10-$15 more at purchase of the pre-owned system. It'll be good for a replacement should anything go awry. But ask yourself if it's really worth what you may be getting for your money. I have seen systems with roaches crawling in them go right out of the store, headed for the home of an unsuspecting buyer. Not only could they have a busted system, but now they have a freaking roach problem. And then there's the issue of how sanitary are those systems, roaches aside. In my store we kept a lot of those pre-owned consoles in the restroom. Do you know how nasty it was to see some Gamecubes, PS2s and XBOXs sitting in a plastic bag near the toilet with dried piss on them? And guess what? Lots of those pissy Gamecubes, PS2s, and XBOXs got quickly wiped off and sold to customers...at X-mas time. Little Tommy wakes up on X-mas morning and plays with his PissBOX, PeeS2, or Toiletcube and everything is just great in the world.

Do you pre-order games at EB Games? You might want to reconsider doing so after this little piece of info I'm about to drop. If you don't pick up whatever you pre-ordered in a certain amount of time EB Games will take your deposit. Yes, I said "take your deposit". Let's say you deposited $50 on Madden NFL '06 back in June. You go active for the military, go to jail, or something occurs that will keep you from an EB Games store for a number of months and beyond. You will most likely get screwed. EB Games purges their system of pre-orders after a certain period of time. Why? EB Corporate Headquarters will say that the system is overloaded and needs to be refreshed. And maybe this is true, but it still boils down to the fact that they are basically taking your money. Or maybe a better word is "stealing" since there is only one way to get what you paid for after this purge. That way would be you having hard evidence of your pre-order which would require you to have held onto your pre-order receipt. If you can present a pre-order receipt then you may actually be able to get what you paid for. Without that receipt, your rear-end might end up feeling a bit looser from being reamed.

So I hope you found this read enlightening. I barely scratched the surface of how low EB Games really is. But hey, EB Games is about to go "poof" into thin air very soon. Gamestop taking them over may be a good thing. Then again, Gamestop may suck just as much. I've never worked there so I don't know their business practices from the inside. In any case, now you know what's been going on right under your noses at EB Games. I'm sure some corporate big wigs or Managers from EB Games will read this and try to shoot down everything I've said. I expect it actually. People are going to protect their incomes no matter how shady it may come to them. But to any of the real gamers out there who pay for games on the regular and think what you've read is just plain ass then you should voice your opinion on it. In fact, I'd like you all to call EB Corporate at (610) 430-8100 and let them know how you feel about this stuff. You just may wanna call them quickly before Gamestop turns off the phone and lights…

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very interesting, but you didnt have to double the story

thats insane man your right x-play reviewed this one game as really bad and the e-games employee said its was ok.

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Originally posted by expert
thats insane man your right x-play reviewed this one game as really bad and the e-games employee said its was ok.

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I'd argue every point in there, but It's just not worth the time.

I used to hate Electronics Boutique, I think that it is called Game now, and has been for a while, they overcharge you for games, pre-owned games and pay you very little for trade-ins.

I always go to GameStation, it owns Game by far.

i go to gamestation..man i wonder if this is true or not...