Gamernode: News - Exclusive: Gamestop responds to Wii price gouging

Exclusive: Gamestop responds to Wii price gouging

Category: Industry, Posted: 05/30/2008 at 04:39PM CDT by Frank Ling, Editorial Director

A GameStop store in Florida allegedly sold a used Wii game console for full retail price to a customer desperate for a Wii.

According to the story found on gamingconsolenetwork.com, the store employee who supposedly sold the unit told the customer that used Wiis had to be sold at the full retail price because it was in such high demand.

The "eyewitness" who overheard the conversation between the store clerk and customer said:

"The employees main excuse for it being the same price as a new system was 'The Wii is extremely hard to find, thats why its $250 used.' The customer stated that he had been looking everywhere for a Wii system, but could not find one. So after the Gamestop employee was done spewing his BS, he talked the guy into buying the "used" system for $249.99. So basically this man bought a "used" Wii system from Gamestop for the same price he could buy a new one at Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc...."

GamerNode contacted the GameStop store in Florida to get its side of the story. The store's manager, Kent Huntsman, replied to the accusations made by gamingconsolenetwork.com.

Huntsman sent GamerNode an email regarding the allegations and stated:

This post is so full of inaccuracies that I call bullS**t on it. There are many reasons why. First and most important is that it is unethical to change the price of a product to get more money for it, even if it is in "high demand".

No matter what your opinion of Gamestop is the company does not sale pre-owned products at full retain price. Second the price of a pre-owned Wii is $229.99 and not 249.99 the retail price. Third if any employee of mine where to ever pull something like this I would fire them immediately.

The only way a product could be sold for any price other then what it is marked in the computer is for an employee to change the price during the transaction. If this where to happen the manager could easily see this with a quick search. I personally investigated all Wii sales in the store for over 1 month and no Wiis where sold at any price other then the correct price (249.99 retail, 229.99 pre-owned).

If a used Wii were to be sold as a new one by scanning the original barcode then the inventory of the store would be off by one. This would not make it past the next day since all systems are inventoried on a daily bases.

Also why did it take 8 days for this individual to get the "balls" to post something about it? Also why didn't the individual who supposedly bought this over priced pre-owned Wii not talk to the manager or district manager? Hmmm. This whole thing is either an upset customer (remember he had an "issue" getting his ps3 COD 4) trying to get back at a store that he claims he had a bad experience in or is just plain BS. Let's recap real quick.

Facts:

No Wii's where sold at inflated prices from said store (easy to check and confirmed by manager)

Said Wii customer never contacted the store manager, district manager or corporate. Trust me I would know if he did.

Individual who made the post was upset with said store for undisclosed cod 4 issue.

There is no evidence what so ever of said claim. Where's the receipt? Where's the upset customer who supposedly bought a pre-owned Wii at full retail price?

Individual who made the post is ill informed about return policies of GameStop.

He also states that he knows that the used system was used. Is it just me or is this just a dumb statement?

He also states that he heard it with his own two ears that the used system was over a month old. Now where can you return an over 1 month old system? Not wal-mart, not anywhere.

He is also wrong about the warranty.

Now let's all get back to what's important. Enjoying our games.

So from the looks of it, the customer isn't always right and in this case, it seems the customer was just trying to get back at GameStop because of a misunderstanding over a previous incident.

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