My boyfriend plays World of Warcraft, and on November 13th they released a highly anticipated expansion for the game. It was a midnight release, and WoW addicts from all over lined up hours early to wait for the release.
My boyfriend (and I) did likewise. Luckily he knew of a less-popular GameStop, where he reserved and prepaid for his copy. He was correct, only about 50-75 people showed up for the release at this particular location, and we ended up about halfway down the line. At midnight the line moved fairly quickly, and in about 5-10 minutes there was only 1 person (or rather, 1 stupid kid and his mom) ahead of us.
Said kid proceeds to pull out about 2 dozen games to trade in for store credit to pay for his copy. I don’t know if any of you have ever traded anything into a GameStop before, but I did it all the time with my ex and it takes, at a bare minimum, 10 minutes for them to check all the cases to ensure the game is in there and undamaged, scan all the barcodes and find the games in the system, and complete the transaction.
And it took about 10 or 15 minutes this time, as well. There were 2 registers open, and about 20 people from the other line completed their transactions in the time it took for this kid to get his store credit.
Now, GameStop allows you to reserve and/or prepay for new releases well in advance. My bf had reserved his at least 2 months in advance. So this kid could have come in at any time and traded in these games to get his store credit and prepaid for the expansion.
Not only rude, but I’m surprised that the store allowed it at all. Most gamestops cut off actual business before the midnight release so that the actual release is conducted via exchange of stamped receipts only.
Kids are stupid and rude by their nature because they haven’t been taught what’s right yet. The fault in your situation lies with the store in allowing this kid to monopolize the line that way. They should have taken him aside and dealt with him after all the other customers were satisfied. Never, under any circumstances should people who paid actual money come second to someone who is, essentially, bartering.
Why is it rude to expect to be treated like a customer? Sorry, I disagree. I also like to allow people the chance to actually put their money away before I start shoving into the register area to make my transaction. I think the kid showed little foresight, but I don’t see anything rude with it. My guess is the kid probably only talked his mother into the whole ordeal by promising not to need any money for the transaction – trading the games being his only other means. I have a teenager and a geeky video-game playing younger kid. I would have happily been the mom in line with the kid, allowing them to be self-sufficient.
I am surprised the store allowed it, but there is nothing rude in expecting to be able to process a normal transaction. Big fucking deal if other people got waited on before you. Meh, your mileage obviously varies, but I think your outrage is internal.
10 to 15 minutes for standard business? Not rude at all. What is rude is that this particular GameStop had separate lines ofr each register. Any reasonable retailer should have one line and allow the next in line to go to the next available register.
Jeez, I felt bad that I had forgotten to bring my receipt, so they had to look me up by phone number. The store shouldn’t have helped that kid 'til they’d already cleared out the line behind him- some of us old fogies had to go to work the next day.
He waited in line to conduct a valid transaction - I say he should be able to conduct it. Perhaps the store deserves a boo for not disallowing such transactions during a special event or for not finding a way to expedite the process, but unless the kid was lengthening the process by dickering over prices or something, I don’t see rudeness on his part.
I don’t believe you. WoW addicts don’t have jobs. We all know they are girlfriend-less nerds wearing pajamas in their parents’ basement eating Mac n Cheese and Top Ramen and drinking Jolt Cola all day.
It wouldn’t have bothered me; it’s not like he was trying to pull one over on the store or do something illegitimate: he was using a method of payment accepted by the store to buy the game. Ten or fifteen minutes isn’t that long to wait for anything that’s not life or death.
It would’ve been nice if the store only had one line, but really it’s just bad luck.
To Lightnin’- you went to the midnight release, then went to bed at a reasonable time? Go you for having discipline! We specifically pre-ordered for delivery the next day so we wouldn’t be tempted to stay up all night playing.
I’m going to come out on the other side and say I think it was definitely rude. Not like, oh my god, he’ll burn in hell terrible, or anything, but it showed a distinct lack of consideration for other people around him.
More than the kid, though, the store’s policies need work. If they’re doing mass line-up midnight releases for a single game, they need to just do that thing, and do it in the most efficient way possible.
It was the store’s fault. They should have opened another register or what not.
It probably didn’t even occur to the kid that there was anything inconsiderate in what he was doing. It’s not like the kid could have just hopped in his car and headed over to Gamestop before the release to take care of the trade-ins. Hell, he probably had to nag the crap out his mom to get her to go to the midnight release.
My opinion? Inconsiderate. Not rude. Rudeness requires intent. Being inconsiderate can be just as obnoxious, but it’s rooted in blind obliviousness regarding others, not deliberate disregard.
What I’m trying to wrap my brain around is why the heck y’all felt the need to go on the release date? I mean really, he already prepaid and reserved a copy, why not just go later that day when the lines have died down?
So if anybody was being rude it was you! You didn’t need to be there. (OK I’m kidding with that last line)
I put this in the same category as letting someone with one item in their basket go ahead of you at the grocery store. It’s a nice thing to do, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. In the end the store is the one making money off of it’s customers, it’s store’s job to make sure that everyone gets through the checkout lines quickly and happily.
So if the kid was in the right line, waited patiently, and wasn’t pushy, then no, I wouldn’t say he was rude.
I wouldn’t say rude so much as clueless. He had as much right as anyone else to get the game on the release date, and maybe this is the only way he could get it, by trading in old games.
Did he hold some people up? Sure, he did. But in the grand scheme of things, do these few minutes really matter?
Anyway, if it was a kid, especially, I’d say chill out already. I suppose the store could do something, but I’ve been to Game Stop and I know that those boys that work there know the games and stuff, but don’t have much else in their geeky little heads.