Last September we reported that GameStop announced at their annual GameStop Expo that Power Up Rewards memberships would automatically renew when a guest renews or signs up for the card and they use a card payment with the program going into effect on October 1. Now it seems that the company are not backing down and are setting high goals for the stores.
A current store manager took to the GameStop subreddit to reveal that corporate was a 50% auto renewal rate for each PUR card issued. This has led to loads of discussion by employees on how to go about this. One store manager revealed that a majority of employees are simply not telling customers that it auto renews if they pay by credit or debit card. Stating
Most people aren’t telling the customer. They are just green if info is right then green for term and condition.
One former store leader brought up the idea that this practice could be illegal under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act which “requires companies that automatically charge customers for products or services on a recurring basis to clearly and conspicuously disclose the material terms of the offer, obtain consumers’ consent to the offer terms, and provide customers with a simple cancellation mechanism.” However, many have also pointed out that customers tend to not read the fine print on the card readers and simply hit the green (accept) button. Despite this, some employees are still taking manners into their own hands in an ethical way. One assistant store manager wrote:
My store did 100% auto renew Monday. I always make sure the guest knows they opted for it. If they get tap happy I explain what they did and offer to redo it if it was a mistake. Im generally just like so this first screen is verifying your info, once you agree to that pause a second and Ill explain the next screen where I ask if they would like to auto renew so they dont have to come into store to renew. Also, they can opt out of auto renew with the app, so you can definitely be like hey if you agree to auto renew for me you can turn around and turn if off by logging into your website.
