News: Weaknesses in GameStop's Rewards System Produces Free Game Rentals… Even Cash

Weaknesses in GameStop's Rewards System Produces Free Game Rentals… Even Cash

Yes, you read the title correctly. GameStop has problems, and if you're lax in morals, you can take advantage of them for free games and cash. I'm bringing you all yet another exclusive Null Byte that falls into the fascinating category of life hacking.

If you do not like what is posted here, that's your prerogative; Please do not insult other members because of it. If you're the type of person who will exploit GameStop, that is also your prerogative. But at Null Byte, we exploit weaknesses for a greater good. By teaching by example, the issues that we exploit become fixed quicker, or so I would hope. Are you listening GameStop?

With that said, I bet you're wondering exactly how these exploits work. There can't really be a way to get free money from such a large retailer, right? The unfortunate part about that is, I'm not kidding. Many exploits and techniques exist within GameStop's system to get free game rentals, and you can even earn a profit.

Warning

  • Do this at your own risk. These are merely examples. If you get in trouble, it is your fault and your fault alone. Warnings aside, I'm sure GameStop knows of their flaws, but must be too lazy to do anything about it.

Requirements

  • A bit of money.
  • GameStop PowerUp/Edge card is preferred and required in some scenarios.
  • Confidence.
  • Your brain.

There are several weak points in the way GameStop has their sales systems implemented. I'm going to make a list of scenarios that we can exploit to save money, gain money, and get free games rentals.

Note: PowerUp and Edge Cards will be referred to herein as rewards card(s).

How to Generate Free GameStop Revenue, Method 1

  1. Go into GameStop.
  2. Pick a used game.
  3. Use your rewards card to reduce the price and tell the employee that you want to purchase $5 of the game with credit from the rewards card (or a personal card of your choice).
  4. Purchase the remainder of the game with cash.
  5. Return the game, no later than seven days after the initial purchase.
  6. Profit? Yes.

Since you purchased the majority of the game in cash, they have to put on the receipt that you paid in cash. This causes the discount from your rewards card to "disappear". Upon returning the game, you will receive the full purchase price back because you "paid in cash", rather than the amount you paid with your card discount active.

How to Generate Free GameStop Revenue, Method 2

  1. Go into GameStop.
  2. Pick any game or item that is on sale.
  3. Purchase a percentage of the game with your rewards card and pay the rest in cash, just like the last scenario. The card is not required, but does help yield a larger profit.
  4. Return the item when the sale is over and you will receive a refund for the item at its normal asking price.
  5. Profit.

How to Rent Games for Free

  1. Go into GameStop.
  2. Buy any used game in the store.
  3. Play it as much as you can for 6 days.
  4. On the seventh day, return the game. GameStop has a store policy that allows you to return a used game 7 days after its purchase for any reason you feel, even if it works properly.
  5. Profit.

Don't do this rental method all the time though, because the employees might catch on and ban you from the store. Try to buy from a different employee as frequently as possible, and switch store locations when you can.

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15 Comments

Most of these tricks can be used any retail store, not just GameStop.

I've went to BassProShops and gotten a rod&reel combo and returned just the rod after it broke and got the full purchase price back on the reel, plus when I returned it, it had gone on sale so got the difference of the rod.

All in all I got: $125 cash, new rod, and got to keep my reel.

That's a damn nice deal my friend.

Nice tips Alex, will use :)

Wow. This is awesome! I like these how-tos on real life instead of code. I love the mix.

I find these interesting and useful, and this might make me a nerd, but the code is beautiful. A perfectly textual love.

I second you. Why can't the rest of the world see it like that? Haha :p.

In my area all the employees know about the "free rental" scenario and in fact tell the customers they can just return it on the seventh day after playing it for a week. I think they figure eventually someone will buy something. I did this back to back with three games and they never said boo.

Yeah, that's true :). I mean, they make most of their profit from selling used games, so that kind of tells us something. They don't really need it xD.

Honestly, I love these articles. The world is so full of broken systems and possibilities and its great to take advantage of them. I would much rather exploit a broken system than become a slave to it. Keep up the good/bad/illegal/legal work!

I absolutely love the real life hacks - More please!

Thanks man! The more people I have asking for them, the more I can do :D. Try to get your friends to join Null Byte and make requests :D.

Thank you, sir :).

That WOULD be nice and all... if that actually worked. These problems have all been solved in the last year by GameStop and will no longer work. Their systems have been fixed to recognize if part of the product was paid for in cash and the other in-store credit, and will return only what you paid for. You also can't pay using your in-store credit without your rewards card with you, (unless you brought in trades). Employees also know about the "7 day rental" trick and now only allow a return the 1st time you bring in a game if you didn't like it. After that, they make you do a trade with it. I realize this was posted over a year ago, but I wanted to give a heads up to anyone who was wanting to do any of this that at 90% of the stores now, this won't work. :/ Nice try though! Can't wait to read more!

actually the 6 day rental still works you just cant keep going to the same gamestop as long as you have the receipt you can make a return at any gamestop you like

That 6 day rental thing isn't a "hack," and you don't need to be careful about doing it in the same store too much... I work at GameStop. We're not going to "ban," you. It's not an exploit-- it's a policy to encourage used game purchases over new game purchases. If you buy a new game, there's no risk-- if you don't like it, just bring it back. If you want to take that, and play a agme for 6 days, then return it and re-buy it, go ahead. We don't care. Actually, we encourage customers to try a game out, and we always let them know they can bring it back for a full refund within 7 days... there's really nothjing special here.

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