GRcade

My problem with GAME/Gamestation are the prices. The last thing I bought from them was Yakuza 3, on a maddening impulse, for £40. 40 quid! I thoroughly enjoyed the game so I don't feel that hard done by, but that price is just not competitive. They can't rely on impulse buys all the time; if a business can't stay competitive, it deserves to go under. There is no obligation on me to support them, so I'm not going to.

Their online deliveries are excellent. Can't fault them for that.

Obviously no-one (hopefully) roots for others to lose their jobs, but in truth, Game aren't exactly contributing positively to either the industry or to consumers.

gaminglegend wrote:

Grumpy David wrote:Only companies that charge me the lowest price deserve my financial support. No private sector company inherently deserves our support.

So you'd happily put up with gooseberry fool customer service to get the lowest price? Price isn't always everything, I'm not soley talking about games here. I may be able to get things alot cheaper online but I can't get it at that moment, I'll happily pay more for things that I want that day.

You could but a cash value on every part of the service. For example playing a game ASAP could be worth £2, advice could be worth 50p that way you could monetize every part of your purchase and work out a relative value. Although I doubt that is what Grumpy Dave meant.

Also Bartman computers in Kingston is a indie retailer with half an hour of the writer if he lives in Croydon if he wants one so bad, also he seems really sniffy about CEX. The staff in the Streatham branch of CEX are really friendly in a good quite informative way.

zXe wrote:Their online deliveries are excellent. Can't fault them for that.

They used to be, but they changed from Royal Mail about a year ago. I'd now say they have the worst delivery of any online retailer I've shopped with, there's no way I'll ever use their website again.

Game are important to the UK games industry, if they die then I think a lot less games will be sold and there's no good side to that..

Game can't just blame external factors for their collapse though, GameStop accross the pond have had a really good year and their share price is doing fine. They have all the same obstacles that Game have, if anything Game have it easier as there's less competition over here.

They need to realise that £40 per game isn't great for us = avoid game like the plague. £32,99 is a nice price for an impulse buy.

Shadow wrote:

zXe wrote:Their online deliveries are excellent. Can't fault them for that.

They used to be, but they changed from Royal Mail about a year ago. I'd now say they have the worst delivery of any online retailer I've shopped with, there's no way I'll ever use their website again.

This is the for the shitty delivery then. Does anyone know who they use now? Is it Yodel, by any chance?

Dr Cottle wrote:

Shadow wrote:

zXe wrote:Their online deliveries are excellent. Can't fault them for that.

They used to be, but they changed from Royal Mail about a year ago. I'd now say they have the worst delivery of any online retailer I've shopped with, there's no way I'll ever use their website again.

This is the for the shitty delivery then. Does anyone know who they use now? Is it Yodel, by any chance?

Royal Mail are awesome except they never ring the doorbell probably which means I often have to wait another 24hours before picking up my packages. I'm not to bothered about it though as the office is real close to my house.

Eighthours wrote:Also worth mentioning that while people losing jobs is obviously horrible, aren't the vast majority of GAME staff only working part-time to supplement their studies?

Sorry, but I feel justified in "wishing ill" on a retailer that rips its customers off with impunity and doesn't seem to have the faintest idea about how to sort itself out (which, by the way, would be very easy). I'm capable of separating my view of the company from my view of wishing people not to be unemployed. To twist a popular political quote: Is employment at any price, a price worth paying?

Of the four/five stores I can think of off the top of my head no, they aren't. One or two people maybe but the majority of staff are there and only working there.

The majority of staff at my local GAME in Redcar are all full time staff. I think they have maybe one or two part-timers at any one time, mainly christmas and summer, but besides that it's been the same people there for quite some time and every single one of them are very good at their jobs. They're polite, friendly, like to have a good chat with the customers and they know what they're talking about when it comes to games.

Whenever a business fails there always tends to be a valid reason. In GAME's case, I think there are quite a few. Having worked under the management there for a few years myself, the upper brass certainly don't have my sympathy. Obviously when it comes to the shop staff it's incredibly unfortunate, but you could make that argument for any failed business in any industry.

Some of the arguments here are valid - the benefits of having a 'specialist' store, no matter how mainstream it's become, are obvious - but I'm not sure that an article like this is entirely appropriate, and especially not from a professional trade magazine.

Whether or not the people working at game give good service is sort of irrelevant to me because I know enough about games to not require they help. However, I can see why it would be a godsend for someone buying a game as a gift who had no clue about what to get.

Meep wrote:Whether or not the people working at game give good service is sort of irrelevant to me because I know enough about games to not require they help. However, I can see why it would be a godsend for someone buying a game as a gift who had no clue about what to get.

Sometimes it's nice to have a chat to with somebody who shares your hobby though. At work I told people I'd being player Dead Space 2 and they looked at me with blank expressions, if it's not COD or Fifa they don't know.

They keep cancelling my online pre-order for Mass Effect 3 N7 CE, all details and info correct so no idea why. Sack the strawberry floating lot of them and board up the properties