Fraize Dotcom

Gary Crimble to you,
Gary mimble to you,
Getty Bable dear Christmas,
Happy Birthday, me too!

There have been several articles on the Interwebitubes discussing why GameStop sucks, and how they’re evil, but most of these folks are complaining about GameStop’s business model. They make most of their money by inviting players to trade in their old games for new games, often paying the player less than half of their new game’s street value while turning it around at close to the brand-new unused price.

This business practice never bothered me. To me, they’re performing a valuable service – acting as a consolidation point for players who are done with a game that would like a way to easily afford newer games. Good for them, I say.

My particular GameStop is run by a fellow named Tom, who is jovial, friendly, conversational and incredibly helpful. I bought an XBox from them earlier this year, and was convinced by him to pick up the extended warranty. That XBox started to lock up earlier this week, and finally gave me the dreaded “red-ring-of-death,” yesterday.

Heather and I searched the house high and low, but were unable to find the receipt for the XBox. I knew that, when I signed up for the extended warranty, they took special note to record the serial number, so I figured that I could at least take the XBox there, and they could look it up and reprint my receipt. Worst case, I could send the XBox back to Microsoft and wait the 8 to 10 weeks to get it repaired. I figured I had to give it a try.

Tom, always helpful, called the “home office,” sat on the phone for a good 30 minutes, and tracked down my receipt, went into the back room, grabbed a brand new shiny XBox and handed it to me. Easy peasy.

Tom is why I love GameStop. A store manager that, even in the hubbub of the holiday season, took time to help me out when he could have been working with paying customers. That’s good customer service, and that’s why GameStop will be getting my business.

Sue Palka, our local Fox affiliate weatherperson, insisted that we’d get no more than an inch-and-a-half of snow by 8pm Wednesday night, none of which would stick to the roads. Imagine my shock when there was already that much before 8am.

What’s more, the plows and salt trucks weren’t prepared for the initial dump, so the roads are slick.

Now they’re talking about upwards of 3 inches.

Now, some of you, particularly those of you in the Pacific Northwest, may laugh at us Washingtonians who panic at the snow. You have to understand, I don’t doubt my own ability to maneuver in slick streets. My car is unusually heavy for its size, and has anti-lock / anti-slip technology, and I drive relatively slowly, don’t change lanes often, and maintain a pretty safe distance. There are those, however, that insist they can drive like they always do, in their SUVs, getting frustrated by us driving carefully, and weave and speed through the roads, eventually causing accidents.

It is those people that frighten me.

So, the Heather-fiance and I are staying home, at least until the salt and sand trucks get their butts in gear.