The Corner Penthouse

Well, I guess it's now 100% confirmed that GameStop hires the worst people to staff its stores, and provides the worst customer service. After the incident in October 2022 with ex-store manager Brendan Guerrin, and GameStop corporate never providing me with a proper response to the matter, much less doing anything to make the matter right, my family stopped shopping at GameStop. Recently, as we were shopping at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, we decided to give GameStop a second chance. The store in this mall (store #01287) is one of the few that didn't close over the past few months. After what we experienced, I sincerely hope that the entire company folds by the end of this year. Read on to find out more...

On February 28, 2025 at 5:15 p.m., my sister Michelle made a purchase of a Lilo & Stitch 'Angel Face' 40oz tumbler for $31.99 ($34.75 with tax). A few minutes later, she found a different Lilo & Stitch tumbler (the "2 Cute" design) in the store for the same price. She wanted to exchange one for the other. According to the receipt, the employee's name was Nicholas (employee #717823), though we didn't look to see if he was wearing a name badge with that name on it. GameStop corporate can easily check its records to see who was working in the store at the time. There were only two male employees, so it should be easy to figure out - especially since both of them said the same thing; so they're both at fault for what happened.

Anyway, the employee refused to allow my sister to exchange one tumbler for the other. He claimed that my sister needed to have a GameStop account in order to do the return/exchange, even though SHE HAD THE RECEIPT!!! Again, she just bought the item A FEW MINUTES EARLIER AND NEVER LEFT THE STORE!!!

Since she did not have a GameStop account, as neither of us regularly shop in GameStop, he proceeded to ask her for her personal information in order to create an account. She, foolishly, started to give him her name, address, and phone number. When it got to the point of asking for an e-mail address, she had had enough of this interrogation, and did not want to provide him with one. Since he could not create the unnecessary GameStop account without an e-mail address, he refused to do the return/exchange, even though SHE HAD THE RECEIPT!!!

I've returned things to GameStop in the past with a receipt, and never had to create an account. On the receipt itself, it does NOT say anything about having to have a GameStop account in order to do a return or exchange. The Full Return Policy page on the GameStop website also does NOT say anything about having to have a GameStop account in order to do a return or exchange.

I think the employees at store #01287 were trying to con my sister into providing them with her personal information in order to either sell it, for marketing purposes, or for some other nefarious reason.

Below is a scan of the receipt, though I blacked out the credit card details.


There is no reason that my sister should not have been able to exchange one tumbler for another as long as she had the receipt, which she did.

I'm really disappointed with the dishonest behavior of the GameStop employees at store #01287.

At this point, my sister and I will never go back to this store, or any other GameStop store, as this is not the first time that we have had to deal with inappropriate behavior from Gamestop employees. I've already written about what happened in October 2022 with then-manager Brendan Guerrin of the Rockville Centre, New York store.

If GameStop corporate wants to make things right, they need to send my sister a check for $34.75 to give her her money back for this tumbler that she didn't want anymore and was not allowed to return or exchange. She will then use that money to buy the "2 Cute" tumbler from another retailer. Corporate should then take the $34.75 out of the paychecks of the two male employees who were working at the store at that time.

Today, March 7, 2025, I mailed out a physical letter to GameStop's corporate office at 625 Westport Pkwy., Grapevine, TX, 76051. I also sent this article as an e-mail to care@gamestop.com on March 1st and 5th, but never received a reply back. I can't say that I'm totally surprised given that I never received a proper response to the October 2022 incident. It's clear that GameStop has no customer service and doesn't actually care about its customers. Well, my family is done with GameStop. This was the final straw.

[UPDATE - 3/25/2025]
While I have not received a reply to the physical letter I mailed to GameStop headquarters two and a half weeks ago, or to the e-mail I sent to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen (ryan.cohen@gamestop.com) on March 9th, I did receive a reply to the e-mail I sent to care@gamestop.com three and a half weeks ago.

Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 08:44:44 +0000
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] GameStop Employee Refused To Process Return/Exchange *With* Receipt
From: GameStop Support (care@gamestop.com)
To: Paul

Hi Spookcentral,

Thanks for contacting GameStop about your concern and we do apologize for the delay. I appreciate that you brought this to our attention and please accept my sincerest apology for the bad experience that you had at one of our shop.

That's not the experience we want you to have when you're visiting our stores. Moreover, I will escalate this issue to our specific department that handles investigation on this kind of unwanted store experience that you've witnessed. Rest assure that we will provide you much better service on your next visit to our store.

Your business is greatly appreciated. We are looking forward to your response and hope to hear from you soon. If you have any other questions, worries or feedback, please feel free to reach us back.

If you have additional inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach back to us! You know we're here to help!

You may reach us to the following platforms:
E-Mail: care@gamestop.com
Phone: 1-800-883-8895
Web: GameStop.com

Yeah, it's pretty much a generic "we're sorry" response. I doubt that anything will be done, and I certain don't expect that GameStop will send my sister a check for the tumbler that she was not allowed to return/exchange, even though she had the receipt.

[UPDATE - 2/14/2026]
To the surprise of no one, I never heard from anyone at GameStop corporate headquarters about this matter, nor was anything ever done to make up for the way my sister was treated on February 28, 2025. However, I take some solace in the fact that by the end of December 2025, the GameStop in Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York PERMANENTLY SHUT DOWN! It was one of several stores that permanently closed in December 2025/January 2026. It couldn't have happened to a shittier place.


The photo above, taken on February 14, 2026, shows the shuttered store, which Newsday reports originally opened in June 1996. Perhaps, but not as a GameStop. As a life-long Long Islander, I remember there being a Funcoland store (a company that GameStop would later buy) in a separately building that was in the middle of the mall's parking lot roughly around where the Best Buy currently is. When that building was razed, I believe that the Funcoland moved to the first floor location at the foot of the elevator where this GameStop was. At one point, there were two GameStops in Green Acres Mall, as the EB Games that was located on the second floor at the head of the elevator was rechristened as a GameStop when the company bought Electronics Boutique.

While GameStop was scummy in recent years - some may argue they always were - the closing of these stores is yet another nail in the coffin of physical media at physical retail outlets. That's the only sad part of all of this.