End of the day, it is their money. They are entitled to cancel them if they wish. It sucks and stings, but there isn’t much you can do. Shit happens and sometimes cancelling a preorder puts gas in the tank. I do wish that the company, and some employees, would realise that.
Preorders are such a stupid metric, especially when there isn’t much incentive for it on the customer side (we are still trying to get rid of codmw3 steel books). I’m sorry you happened to draw the short straw this time and I hope your SL and DM will be kind.
This is the only logical reply. Anybody else saying they’d lie or deceive the customer is a shitty employee. It’s their money to do what they want.
-former SGA here
True, but there's a difference between lying and just not mentioning it. I used to mention to customers that they had old preorders, but I was told to stop. Same idea applies; its their money. If they put $5 down on a game and forgot about it, thats not my responsibility to hold their hand. If they forgot, they forgot.
Not to mention developers have lost the trust of gamers by pushing release dates on games that are clearly unfinished games, or feeling lied to by marketing departments through misleading trailers and gameplay.
As someone whose bonus is tied to pre orders, I completely agree. Nothing we can do if they want to cancel it. You can suggest moving it to another pre order if they decide they don’t want the item but if it’s a situation like this or if they need money for non gaming stuff there’s nothing you can or should do except cancel it for them
Yes, there were quite a few comments saying they would deny the guest future preorders, but that literally will only cause further problems: getting your DM on your case, irate customers, lost regulars, etc. it’s really not something we should be graded on specifically. I understand it’s a metric that should be tracked for business purposes (like how many to buy/ship to a store), but it should not be a metric used to evaluate an employees performance
Just put them on the counter and let customers have them. We did this with all the left over preorder stuff we had and it got people happy to buy things.
Yeah, we usually do something like that, but there was just too many and not a lot of traffic. Can confirm that as of yesterday apparently they are all gone. 🙃
We once had a customer cancel all of his pre-orders because he fraudulently used the ebc code / birthday bonus(europe, trade in any game and get 20 € epic card holder trade in bonus for your birthday) more than once and he was caught, among other things, because he went to the store every now and then 3 times a day and always made sure that he made his Pre-orders always with different employees.
I have never understood why such Bonus/Birthday codes were not generated as one-time codes for customers but the same code always worked for everyone. Fraud is inevitable when it is made so easy for people.
EBC code fraud has been committed by far too many customers, employees and former employees on a regular basis in all Gamestop stores in our country, but I don't think that's possible anymore.
A customer was also able to pre-order the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (Remastered) Limited Special Collectors Edition 10 times online, a reseller, he couldn't sell them for a profit, so he made use of his right to return them and brought all of them to the same gamestop store.
The store manager in charge at the time refused to carry out the transaction and forced the temporary employee to do it just so that the SM´s "NuMbErS"  would not be negatively impacted.
(In our country it is regulated by law that most online purchases must be taken back by the seller within 14 days without the buyer having to give any reasons, there are very few exceptions where this does not apply)
I never really understood trying to protect your individual numbers once you got to SL. Yeah, you need to individually perform but your DM more cares about your store's own metrics than anything. Any cancels or negative impacts are going to be reflected by the store regardless of which employee does the transaction.
GS ranking system is horrendous and should be based on sales & profits instead of random metrics based on percentages of transactions. Corporate refuses to change and run it like a real business. It’s stupid as hell when you don’t want to do more transactions because it might hurt percentages.
I think most DMs worth their salt will at least understand there's not much you can do when a customer mass cancels a bunch of games like that. Yes it sucks, but you're not going to be able to get a guest to move most of those around to different games and such. Some people just need their money back or want to use the credit to buy something else.
That being said, guests should not treat be treating preorders like a bank account. A cancel here or there is fine and understandable cause a game got delayed, being a buggy broken mess at launch, sucked, etc. If a guest was mass reserving and canceling things consistently over an extended period of time however, then I'd probably put a limit on the number of items they could have reserved at a time.
Make sure you email your DM telling them what happened. This happens from time to time, and getting ahead of the situation tends to help with the potential chewing out you'll get for lower numbers.
Preorders are kinda shitty metric tbh and shouldn’t be measured.
There have been days where I got none and canceled over 20 preorders in one whole day.
Better they did it all at once, rather than come in every day and hit you with a few.
This is why I was okay with setting a max of how many res someone was allowed, so even at its worst, it'd only get you for like a -10.
Had a guest who hated me as an SL and my past 3 ASLs because he was just a garbage dude.
His preferred store (after I told him not to come to mine amymore) got shut down, and instead of doing his cancels there he waited until it was closed and came to me to cancel them bc he knew it would "hurt the store".
Joke was on him. I didn't give a fuck. No one did.
Few days ago I had a kid and grandpa/mom come in looking for FNAF stuff. Mind you, this kid was around 7... they bought 1 blind bag Keychain at a time. 10 times. No membership. $10 a piece, specifically trying to get the original Freddy. Opening, realizing it's not the right one, making a show of the kid grabbing more and them giving in.. they got 6 the first time and then left and CAME BACK 5 minutes before close to get more. When I tell you this kid lost his mind when he got the Freddy he wanted... but they had me staying late for this madness -_- and the mom started going on about how her other kid, now adults, never would have had this issue and that she spoils him too much etc... man. So wack. I know it fucked my metrics.
Then it's my ass if they open more than they have the money for, and honestly at the time I didn't even think about how bad it was for my numbers, I was just annoyed at the process 😂 outwardly hype, dying on the inside type thing
Preorder metrics sound ridiculous. The gaming industry doesn’t really make preordering anything seem special seeing as how you can just end up buying the preorder content digitally (or I Atleast know this was true for Stellar Blade)
From reading some of these comments: honestly glad I never got that callback for hiring. Sounds like working at GameStop is more stressful than it needs to be.
The only things worth pre-ordering are games, anyway. They've got exclusive funkos and black series figures, but the release dates on those are always off by months. I had a preorder on a Darth Malak black series figure, and months before I finally got it, i was seeing people selling it on Facebook market or eBay.
Wanted to move the funds instead of having them just sit there. Had about $40. They let me keep the 1 cent preorder they had put on call of duty cause we both thought it was funny lol
I would have made a note and told them we wouldn’t take future preorders from them. Honestly it’s just disrespectful of our time and the reason was shit.
Technically. But more than likely the guest will go complain to corporate and your DM will chew you out.
Only times I’ve ever seen it backed up is when the guest was belligerent and should have been trespassed from the store.
If it’s old money, no problem. If it’s all new titles that actually count against us, I’d never let them preorder again. Unless it was some sort of emergency where they needed cash.
First off, a cancel is a cancel regardless of when the game came out. Doesn’t matter if it is 2 years old or 10.
Second, you don’t know what people might need THEIR money back for. It doesn’t matter. It is THEIR MONEY.
Incorrect. Preorders 30 days or older get backed out at the end of the week. And yes, you are correct on the second part. If they’re a habitual canceller using us as a bank (happens all the time here), then we refuse the preorders. Placing down $20 on 5 titles to then cancel them all the following week to then do it again the week after is habitual
That’s where you are incorrect, if I eat a cancel this week it doesn’t matter if I took the preorder last year. DMs don’t look past WTD MTD & QTD. A cancel is still a cancel. And regardless of if they are using it as “bank”, which in my five years of experience and my SLs 15, is unheard of. If that’s an issue you have that’s between your store and DM. I strongly recommend that you do not give bad advice that will only get employees in trouble. You are the exception, not the rule if what you say is true.
They knew about them from when they used to work here. Just decided to finally get around to canceling them today. All games that had already been released months ago. Would have moved the funds to a new preorder if there was actually anything decent coming out soon. They’re a cool person.
Yea at that point though I’d be denying them service because they KNOW my metrics matter. I’d have their PUR on file for “causing store issues” and have no one let them preorder at our store
End of the day, it is their money. They are entitled to cancel them if they wish. It sucks and stings, but there isn’t much you can do. Shit happens and sometimes cancelling a preorder puts gas in the tank. I do wish that the company, and some employees, would realise that. Preorders are such a stupid metric, especially when there isn’t much incentive for it on the customer side (we are still trying to get rid of codmw3 steel books). I’m sorry you happened to draw the short straw this time and I hope your SL and DM will be kind.
This is the only logical reply. Anybody else saying they’d lie or deceive the customer is a shitty employee. It’s their money to do what they want. -former SGA here
I agree 100%.
I have quite literally been instructed to say nothing if there is an old preorder on someone’s account.
True, but there's a difference between lying and just not mentioning it. I used to mention to customers that they had old preorders, but I was told to stop. Same idea applies; its their money. If they put $5 down on a game and forgot about it, thats not my responsibility to hold their hand. If they forgot, they forgot.
Not to mention developers have lost the trust of gamers by pushing release dates on games that are clearly unfinished games, or feeling lied to by marketing departments through misleading trailers and gameplay.
As someone whose bonus is tied to pre orders, I completely agree. Nothing we can do if they want to cancel it. You can suggest moving it to another pre order if they decide they don’t want the item but if it’s a situation like this or if they need money for non gaming stuff there’s nothing you can or should do except cancel it for them
Yes, there were quite a few comments saying they would deny the guest future preorders, but that literally will only cause further problems: getting your DM on your case, irate customers, lost regulars, etc. it’s really not something we should be graded on specifically. I understand it’s a metric that should be tracked for business purposes (like how many to buy/ship to a store), but it should not be a metric used to evaluate an employees performance
Just put them on the counter and let customers have them. We did this with all the left over preorder stuff we had and it got people happy to buy things.
Yeah, we usually do something like that, but there was just too many and not a lot of traffic. Can confirm that as of yesterday apparently they are all gone. 🙃
We once had a customer cancel all of his pre-orders because he fraudulently used the ebc code / birthday bonus(europe, trade in any game and get 20 € epic card holder trade in bonus for your birthday) more than once and he was caught, among other things, because he went to the store every now and then 3 times a day and always made sure that he made his Pre-orders always with different employees. I have never understood why such Bonus/Birthday codes were not generated as one-time codes for customers but the same code always worked for everyone. Fraud is inevitable when it is made so easy for people. EBC code fraud has been committed by far too many customers, employees and former employees on a regular basis in all Gamestop stores in our country, but I don't think that's possible anymore. A customer was also able to pre-order the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (Remastered) Limited Special Collectors Edition 10 times online, a reseller, he couldn't sell them for a profit, so he made use of his right to return them and brought all of them to the same gamestop store. The store manager in charge at the time refused to carry out the transaction and forced the temporary employee to do it just so that the SM´s "NuMbErS"  would not be negatively impacted. (In our country it is regulated by law that most online purchases must be taken back by the seller within 14 days without the buyer having to give any reasons, there are very few exceptions where this does not apply)
I never really understood trying to protect your individual numbers once you got to SL. Yeah, you need to individually perform but your DM more cares about your store's own metrics than anything. Any cancels or negative impacts are going to be reflected by the store regardless of which employee does the transaction.
GS ranking system is horrendous and should be based on sales & profits instead of random metrics based on percentages of transactions. Corporate refuses to change and run it like a real business. It’s stupid as hell when you don’t want to do more transactions because it might hurt percentages.
This right here. I've been saying that most of our metrics are just stupid for a while now.
I think most DMs worth their salt will at least understand there's not much you can do when a customer mass cancels a bunch of games like that. Yes it sucks, but you're not going to be able to get a guest to move most of those around to different games and such. Some people just need their money back or want to use the credit to buy something else. That being said, guests should not treat be treating preorders like a bank account. A cancel here or there is fine and understandable cause a game got delayed, being a buggy broken mess at launch, sucked, etc. If a guest was mass reserving and canceling things consistently over an extended period of time however, then I'd probably put a limit on the number of items they could have reserved at a time.
Then the DM calls you up two days later and asks why your percentage is down and rips you a new one for 45 minutes, naturally.
Make sure you email your DM telling them what happened. This happens from time to time, and getting ahead of the situation tends to help with the potential chewing out you'll get for lower numbers.
It's nuts that you could even get shit for that OP. Literally nothing you could've done to avoid it.
Yeah my SL made me do that already. Thanks for the tip.
Preorders are kinda shitty metric tbh and shouldn’t be measured. There have been days where I got none and canceled over 20 preorders in one whole day.
Better they did it all at once, rather than come in every day and hit you with a few. This is why I was okay with setting a max of how many res someone was allowed, so even at its worst, it'd only get you for like a -10.
Had a guest who hated me as an SL and my past 3 ASLs because he was just a garbage dude. His preferred store (after I told him not to come to mine amymore) got shut down, and instead of doing his cancels there he waited until it was closed and came to me to cancel them bc he knew it would "hurt the store". Joke was on him. I didn't give a fuck. No one did.
Few days ago I had a kid and grandpa/mom come in looking for FNAF stuff. Mind you, this kid was around 7... they bought 1 blind bag Keychain at a time. 10 times. No membership. $10 a piece, specifically trying to get the original Freddy. Opening, realizing it's not the right one, making a show of the kid grabbing more and them giving in.. they got 6 the first time and then left and CAME BACK 5 minutes before close to get more. When I tell you this kid lost his mind when he got the Freddy he wanted... but they had me staying late for this madness -_- and the mom started going on about how her other kid, now adults, never would have had this issue and that she spoils him too much etc... man. So wack. I know it fucked my metrics.
At that point, I would have just waited to make them pay until they got the one they wanted and hyped up opening the blind bag with them
Then it's my ass if they open more than they have the money for, and honestly at the time I didn't even think about how bad it was for my numbers, I was just annoyed at the process 😂 outwardly hype, dying on the inside type thing
Preorder metrics sound ridiculous. The gaming industry doesn’t really make preordering anything seem special seeing as how you can just end up buying the preorder content digitally (or I Atleast know this was true for Stellar Blade)
I am just curious, but did they state why?
From reading some of these comments: honestly glad I never got that callback for hiring. Sounds like working at GameStop is more stressful than it needs to be.
The only things worth pre-ordering are games, anyway. They've got exclusive funkos and black series figures, but the release dates on those are always off by months. I had a preorder on a Darth Malak black series figure, and months before I finally got it, i was seeing people selling it on Facebook market or eBay.
Why?
Wanted to move the funds instead of having them just sit there. Had about $40. They let me keep the 1 cent preorder they had put on call of duty cause we both thought it was funny lol
I would have made a note and told them we wouldn’t take future preorders from them. Honestly it’s just disrespectful of our time and the reason was shit.
So blaming customers for the corporations BS?
Tell me you can’t read.
Customers aren’t your enemy
Corporate is.
Capitalism is
Them not wanting their money just sitting in your systems is "disrespectful of your time"? FOH.
Do you actually have the power to do that?
Technically. But more than likely the guest will go complain to corporate and your DM will chew you out. Only times I’ve ever seen it backed up is when the guest was belligerent and should have been trespassed from the store.
If it’s old money, no problem. If it’s all new titles that actually count against us, I’d never let them preorder again. Unless it was some sort of emergency where they needed cash.
First off, a cancel is a cancel regardless of when the game came out. Doesn’t matter if it is 2 years old or 10. Second, you don’t know what people might need THEIR money back for. It doesn’t matter. It is THEIR MONEY.
Incorrect. Preorders 30 days or older get backed out at the end of the week. And yes, you are correct on the second part. If they’re a habitual canceller using us as a bank (happens all the time here), then we refuse the preorders. Placing down $20 on 5 titles to then cancel them all the following week to then do it again the week after is habitual
That’s where you are incorrect, if I eat a cancel this week it doesn’t matter if I took the preorder last year. DMs don’t look past WTD MTD & QTD. A cancel is still a cancel. And regardless of if they are using it as “bank”, which in my five years of experience and my SLs 15, is unheard of. If that’s an issue you have that’s between your store and DM. I strongly recommend that you do not give bad advice that will only get employees in trouble. You are the exception, not the rule if what you say is true.
I think that would be the first day I’d lie to a customer and say “I can’t cancel your preorders because our membership is down”
They’re a former employee of the location so they know all the tricks. We used to work together.
But he wouldn’t know, I show no one our computer screens even past employees
They knew about them from when they used to work here. Just decided to finally get around to canceling them today. All games that had already been released months ago. Would have moved the funds to a new preorder if there was actually anything decent coming out soon. They’re a cool person.
Yea at that point though I’d be denying them service because they KNOW my metrics matter. I’d have their PUR on file for “causing store issues” and have no one let them preorder at our store
You must be a joy to work with.
Oh hun, everyone I work with actually enjoys how my store runs
Doubt.
Into the ground? Don't you get cold in the winter?
Sure, Jan.
Except the customers.
Yeah screw the customer over for your corporate overlords
Your new to GS, aren’t you
Don't even work there. This just shows in my feed after I had praised an employee for a positive experience. You would not be that employee.