14 DAY TRIAL // Not only does Gamestop harass people by trying to convince them into doing all sorts of things, but they also do another thing that is completely against all retailer's rules: selling opened packages at the original price of the product, the "new" product's price. How doe we know this? After hearing nothing but God of War II for a whole week from their colleagues, guys at Joystiq went on to Gamestop to get their own copies. They already knew about Gamestop's "tradition" of selling products at their original price, even though the package had been opened, but they went anyway.
Now, if you're asking why they went over to Gamestop if they knew all that, I can't answer that, they don't say. Maybe they wanted to convince themselves of this, or maybe it was just closer to them. The important thing is that they did go to Gamestop to get their own God of War II copies. But before that, they even called the store to make sure they had GoW II copies. Getting to the store, the guys went straight to the counter and asked for GoW II copies.
After telling the employee that they had no reservation and that they just wanted their games, the man proceeded to the display and grabbed an empty box of GoW II. By this time, they couldn't have known it was empty, but after the gentleman took some discs and a manual from the security case, they did. You think it stops here? You have no idea!
After they told the employee that they wanted a "new" game, not one that's been opened up, the man said "This is new. We just take the game out of the box." If I were there, I'd surely have liked to ask why? Why on Earth would you do that? So people don't steal them? So you can play at home without buying? But here comes the best part. As Joystiq says, the product had a "New: $49.99." sticker on it. What I personally found extremely amusing was that the gentleman kept tapping the sticker to ensure the customers it was a new game. Need I say that most retailers offer a discount for selling opened products, or they don't sell them at all?
Of course they went and got their GoW II copies elsewhere, and that is at Best Buy, where not only do they sell games in the original factory-sealed box, but also in a second security case (you know, the woman at the register has to open it up for you). So that's Gamestop for you. I don't know how much more they'll be able to go on like this, until people start to lose confidence in their services.