A YouTuber by the name of Camelot331 has been covering accusations of immoral and illegal activities conducted by GameStop employees and corporate staff for over a year. This is his story.
Our prior articles discussed Camelot’s first video (detailing many suspicious activities he allegedly saw when working at GameStop), and the accusations made by others who came forward [1, 2 3].
These included mistreating and defrauding customers, mistreating staff, firing staff under false or dubious pretenses, poor business decisions, and attempting to maximize profit by any means before liquidating the company or senior corporate management leaving after achieving all the profit they could.
It even includes claims that corporate and senior staff did nothing when told of sexual assault by senior store staff against employees under their care.
Camelot continued to produce videos, fueled by current and former GameStop staff providing him information on their own experiences [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40].
Camelot would also encourage his viewers to avoid using GameStop; as digital services were cheaper, more convenient, less likely to rip you off, and would not fund the GameStop senior staff who treated their employees poorly.
This article will focus on accusations of what GameStop and individual GameStop employees did in retaliation to these allegations published by Camelot. We have organized these in chronological order.
December, 2018
In December, 2018, individuals made threats against Camelot, who Camelot claims were representing GameStop (possibly from Human Resources). This was seemingly caused by a Reddit AMA Camelot hosted that eventually ended up on Reddit’s front page (with the threats coming via the replies).
This resulted in even more stories that put GameStop in a negative light, as well as from other posters claiming to be former or current staff.
The exact nature of these threats were not elaborated upon too much. There was a brief mention of threats that he would lose his current job, and how posts would encourage him to talk positively about the opportunities for working at GameStop. It appears such posts have now been removed by moderators.
Camelot implied he felt it was by employees of GameStop. He stated he did not understand why anyone would defend the company, especially when they were being paid so little, and that GameStop did not look after its staff. Later threats allegedly included death threats.
June, 2019
On June 22nd, 2019, Camelot details how he got a call from one of the people within GameStop (working as a Store Manager in the district he used to), telling him that the District and Regional Managers asked him if they spoke to Camelot.
The informant assumed superiors in GameStop had asked other Managers the same, to find who was feeding information to Camelot. Camelot then confirmed this with another Store Manager.
The first informant also allegedly overheard them talking about GameStop’s legal team and corporate staff, to bring charges down upon Camelot. Another friend of Camelot had allegedly heard that anyone who had talked to him about GameStop matters was to be fired immediately.
July, 2019
On July 10th, 2019 Camelot revealed he was fired from his job (selling “specialist items” at Walmart that their own employees could not) after someone allegedly from GameStop told his current employer about his YouTube channel (as confirmed by his then-boss).
Human Resources asked Camelot if would do a similar exposé to their company, and if he felt his actions were professional. He was asked to go home for the rest of the day, and was fired a week later. No reason of termination was given (which is legal where Camelot lives).
On July 26th, 2019, Camelot stated a Store Manager (mother of three, later revealed as Ashley) was fired for “just being his friend” and “talking to him.” The same Head of Human Resources who attempted to fire Camelot before he preemptively quit, spoke to this Store Manager.
Both the Human Resources Head, and District Manager fired her on the grounds of time-card fraud. When Ashley had opened the store at 10:00 a.m. one day, the store’s alarm allegedly malfunctioned, and gave records of being disabled at 11:00 a.m. This made them believe she had clocked in, but not opened the store on time, or closed it with no reason.
This was despite her entering the store at around 9:00 a.m., and the alarm having allegedly been replaced earlier that year due to malfunctions of that nature.
Ashley herself later describes how with earlier incidents, her superiors would call with their concerns that the store was not open (due to the alarm). Ashley would explain they were calling the store she was standing in, and that the store was indeed open. In addition, Ashley states the issues occurred during a time the CCTV recordings would not have been kept (over 60 days).
Comparatively, another employee (Ashey’s Third Key) had not opened the store when the Store Managers were going to a conference, but they were not fired for it.
As mentioned in our previous coverage, Camelot proposes that GameStop implements strict rules around the time-cards to make it easier to fire individuals they want to be rid of, as well as not paying for unemployment (compared to when an employee quits), and not pay for overtime that was owned.
In addition, the Head of Human Resources claimed that an anonymous call had told them that Ashley had been leaking inside information to Camelot. Camelot theorizes this was a Store Manager of a nearby rival store, who was keen to support and defend GameStop.
In that video with Ashley, Camelot also claims that the District Manager was “chopping off heads, blindly, at people they think may have talked to me.” Camelot implies these were individuals who had not given him information, and were speaking to him about non-related matters.
He explains how he obtained his inside information from individuals “across the United States,” and not from his former colleagues (aside from “a few tid-bits.”) Camelot also states that Ashley had not divulged any information to him, and was “the one person that wasn’t.”
October, 2019
On October 30th, 2019, Camelot revealed he was getting sued by someone he spoke about in his videos. The unnamed individual allegedly sent him a direct Twitter message, asking to speak to him directly on LinkedIn.
On that platform, they stated they had begun legal proceedings against Camelot, due to his videos speaking about them in a “derogatory fashion.” They stated they would not pursue the lawsuit if Camelot deleted all videos involving them, and made a statement claiming what he had said was a lie.
Later the individual asked for a response, and stated they were going to be fired, presumably over the videos. They added “I have done a lot for you in the past. I need you to look out for me now.” Camelot then replied to the individual (after seeking legal counsel), and told them that he had never mentioned their name, and never said anything that was untrue.
When the individual stated Camelot could not prove his claims either, Camelot revealed that at least five to seven others could corroborate what he said. The unknown individual then begs for Camelot to delete the videos and claim they were a lie, as they would be fired. “I will call and apologize to everyone I have wronged. Give me that chance.” Camelot replied that he could not do so.
“People need to know that these things are possible when they enter the workforce. Whether it be Gamestop or Walmart or any company.
People have a right to know that there are terrible bosses out there that will completely use their power to abuse and mistreat people.
You knew about [redacted] and everything he was doing. He was breaking the law on a daily basis and you did nothing. You even went out to get drinks with him on a regular basis. You knew about him in the backroom. You knew about [redacted] and what he did to her. And he worked there another TEN years.
You made the comment several times when [redacted] got fired that he was “in tears,” and it was “hilarious.” He was generally a good dude. Just had a poor ranking store so HR pulled the whole “timecard,” crap on him too.
I don’t think there is enough time left in this world for you to apologize to everyone you’ve wronged.
I won’t be deleting stuff. I would just ignore it.”
The unknown individual then responded.
“Just letting you know. Since you won’t be deleting that stuff. I will never stop and never let up. I will make sure you have nothing left. You will never work again and you will be on the street when I’m through with you. I will have your ass. You will be hearing from my attorney ASAP so be prepared. There are also several other people looking into bringing lawsuits against you. This was really stupid. Hope you enjoy this. You will be fighting this for years. Better get yourself a job to afford it.”
Camelot replied “Sounds like a fun time my dude.” Camelot also stated at the time he doubted the claim other people were seeking lawsuits.
November, 2019
On November 5th, 2019, an anonymous former colleague reached out to Camelot, claiming they knew more about the lawsuit. The source claims they were close to the person suing Camelot, and they “told him everything.”
The source also claimed the individual was serious about moving forward with the lawsuit, and fully expected to be fired. They would also allegedly sue over defamation, and emotional stress.
On November 21st, 2019, Camelot revealed claims from anonymous employees from the corporate office that his video on the “endgame” (Camelot’s theory that senior staff would attempt to maximize profit before leaving or liquidating the company) had been shared among corporate employees.
Many had began to fear they would lose their jobs. Superiors would even allegedly tell those staff it was not true, before firing them days later. Some had begun to quit before they could be suddenly fired.
One source told Camelot that even talking about his videos would get them fired “instantly.”
“Now we aren’t even allowed to mention your videos. People will get fired instantly if you mention them. So we have to do it in secret. The environment is horrible. Everyone above gives us dirty looks. New people leave or get fired every day.”
The CEO (George Sherman) had also allegedly released an internal video to corporate employees addressing Camelot’s videos, denouncing them as false.
Another individual who was higher up in GameStop’s corporate structure (who knew major staff “face-to-face”) claimed to Camelot that the internal video was to prevent mass panic or “some giant walkout,” and they were even orchestrating a “plan of action” to deal with the claims made by Camelot.
The alleged plan of action had recommendations to attempt to debunk or leave “negative things” in the comment sections of Camelot’s videos, and on Twitter.
“They have mentioned everything from creating a weekly fact check email that will address your videos weekly or any that croup up to be honest. It’s mainly brought on because of your channel. There have been talks of using social media such as twitter or youtube to comment negative things or debunk things in your comment section. Including on twitter. The most unlikely suggestion I heard was using the team that works on the youtube for Gamestop TV to directly combat your content. Which I think would be revenue suicide. “
The source also claimed that “Several die hard members are blaming your videos for the loss in sales or revenue,” and that while Camelot’s videos had “almost no impact on sales,” the unspecified senior GameStop staff believed they did. Finally, that source revealed that corporate meetings were centered around “what to do in the near future if we go belly up suddenly.”
Camelot was then contacted by more individuals supporting the claims in the earlier video. On November 25th, 2019, Camelot revealed at least one corporate employee who had allegedly attempted to reach out to him had been fired, due to their internet activity being monitored.
A Store Manager also claimed to Camelot that their District Manager had said anyone discussing Camelot’s videos was to be “taken off the schedule.”
An allegedly new policy was also to be rolled out that would “punish” employees for watching, sharing, or discussing “YouTube videos that discuss rumors.” The aforementioned Store Manager also revealed a new policy came into effect the month prior, stating employees should “not talk to any media about anything.”
Another source claimed to Camelot that there was an “emergency meeting,” and that GameStop was considering “making everyone at the corporate level sign a [sic] updated non-disclosure agreement and pursue legal action if they find out anyone talked to you.” One suggestion was to make it a company-wide policy.
The plan to attack Camelot via his comment section was also confirmed to be moving ahead, headed by “interns and others.”
Over the past articles, Camelot has levied some serious accusations at GameStop. Disgusting behavior from store level to corporate office, attempts to throw employees under the bus while those above them seek to get what they can from a sinking ship.
No matter the case, GameStop is doing something wrong in the face of digital distribution and next-day deliveries. As of this time of writing, GameStop’s stock value has fallen to its lowest point on record- 4.20 a share. A harsh fall compared to it being worth 46.07 a share back in October 1st, 2015.
Camelot’s videos propose that GameStop will soon enter bankruptcy, through constant mismanagement, and a leadership keen to do so if they can walk away with more in their pocket.
If only a fraction of the allegations are true, is it even possible for GameStop to turn things around? Will 2020 be the year GameStop, stops?
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!
