Gamestop Insults Thier Customers Some More

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Saw this over on EvilAvatar, GameStop is settling a class action lawsuit against them alleging they were selling used games repackaged as new. Hooray right, didn't we win? If you've bought a game from them since 1998 you are entitled to a part of the settlement. Your part? A 5% discount! That's not all folks! You can only use it once, regardless of how many games you bought from them. Way to stick it to the man, guys! With results like this I think suing them for their return policies or any other sh*tty policies they have would feel kinda pointless. Good thing I don't buy games from them.

Comments

EB does the same thing, is there a lawsuit against them as well?

I so want to sue EB as well, YES they do it and makes me so damn mad every time.  I am glad this is happening though.  I know EB is sweating bullets.....er maybe not.

If I buy a game online, it's from dvdempire.com. Timely releases, fast shipping, good prices. What's not to love?

Well, the last thing I was "burned" on was a "new" Xbox game and a "new" Gameboy game.  I took the Xbox game back even though they didn't even take returns on open items.  I expressed my displeasure with the clerk and he took it.   He knew they were busted.  Last time I have ever shopped at EB or Gamestop.  Ebay will probably be where I get my games until HL2 comes out.  I will probably be forced to get that at EB because they are so fast....

This isn't so much Gamestop's fault as it is the fault of the lawyer representing the class. Gamestop has every right to settle for as little as it can get away with (talking about the legal aspect of it, not the "good business treat your customer well" aspect), but the class lawyer appears to have short-changed the class in exchange for $125,000 in legal fees:

 http://www.gamestop.com/gs/help/classaction.asp

Then again, I don't know much about the legal merits of the claim, and it could be that the claim wasn't that good. And the lawyer was up against Bryan Cave, which is a very large law firm that was probably burying him in paper.

That's a good point, Alien13z. While we can frown upon Gamestop for the questionable business ethics of repackaging used games and selling them as new, we can't really blame them for settling in a relatively painless way. My gaming dollar usually ends up at Best Buy, CompUSA, or GoGamer.com simply because I rarely buy new releases anymore. Lately I've only been buying games on sale. Even if I'm interested in a new game, it usually only takes a couple weeks before Best Buy runs it on sale for $10 off.

This is how ever calss action lawsuit works. the ocmpany just "settles" by giving their customers coupons instead of money thus making more sales for them. it suck asn it so totally and completly a scam i can't believe that it is legal.

Way back in the day (probably 20 years ago now) when Kodak came out with an instant film camera, my parents bought one. Kodak got sued by Pollaroid and lost and had to stop selling film for the cameras. So how did they settle with people who had bought the camers? by giving them coupons for film, batteries and another camera. My parents hunted and hunted for that camera but could never find that exact model that the cupon was for.

Then recently Microsoft settled a case and what did they do? gave out coupons for microsoft products.

Oh I agree, you can't blame them for taking the deal. I blame the lawyer, like you said. It's just insulting to thier customers, hence the title. I don't think it's a travesty of justice or whatever, just that it makes us look like we don't matter to them, which we don't.