EB Games: Power to the Player. Yeah Right...

I have a story for everyone. It's a tale about customer service and company policies. A tale of joy, money transaction,turmoil, and a boy with an empty game case.
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That was lame. But here's what happened. Steph and I visited EB Games a few days ago to buy some DS games because we'd just got a DS for $90 off a local classifieds site. We browse the games, she looks for Yoshi's Island, I look for Final Fantasy 4($40 for a DS game? Eff that noise.) She finds her game, I don't buy mine. Instead, I see Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. Awesome, Dawn of Sorrow was sweet, hopefully this one will be just as good. It's brand new, sealed in the plastic, everything. We buy the games, and leave the mall content and eager to play with our new toys.

I give the DS to Steph, and let her play Yoshi's Island first. On a related note, I've spent way more fucking time playing that game than her, and it is ridiculously addictive and actually quite fun. Look for a review soon. I don't hesitate to rip open the wrapping and open up the case. I do hesitate to grab the DS and play Castlevania when I notice a small problem, though. There is no game card or instruction manual in the case. Just the case itself and the DS WiFi manual. I am a little dumbfounded, considering it was a brand new, not used game, perfectly sealed in plastic wrap. No one could have tampered with it. I turn to Steph with the case open and go "Uh..." Steph didn't really see the problem at first, she though I might have had the game in my hand or something, and then she realizes. Back to EB Games we go.

Now, let me point out, I'm not a confrontational person, I'm not one of those people who goes off on employees because most of the time it's not their fault that something is wrong. This is one of those cases.

I bring the case to the girl behind the counter, with the receipt and even the plastic sealing and tell her the problem. She has to call up the district manager. After a brief talk, she tells me she can't do anything about it and we have to call up Konami and talk to them. Normal people would go nuts. But I know how these things work. It would actually be Konami's fault and not EB Games'. I let out a sigh and said "Ok".

We are back in the car when we realized we just purchased a $40 case. Now I'm kind of pissed. We pay $40 for an empty case and EB Games tells us there's nothing they can do about it? At all? This is where my problem lies. Why the fuck do we have to call up Konami? It bugged me more and more as I thought about how easily EB took our money and shrugged off something that granted, wasn't their fault, but they should be the ones taking care of. I as a decent person and a gamer would be slightly angered as well if I worked at EB and someone purchased a $40 case. I even said to Steph, "If I worked there I would have told that person I'll take care of it and call them back when the game comes in." But guess what? That's against company policy according to them. Helping a customer is against the rules. All Gamestop/EB Games cares about is the fact that they made their profit. That's all.

So what are we doing now? After calling many parts of Gamestop/EB Games, we've gotten the same answers, so the same day we had to call Konami ourselves. The game is en route to Konami's building in California. I better get some free shit from Konami...

-Tyler