Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?

Anything to do with games at all.
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Cuttooth
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Cuttooth » Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:03 pm

aayl1 wrote:They'll also sell you Lego city undercover

City of Heroes is another game with the word 'city' in the title. :)

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aayl1
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by aayl1 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:41 pm

Cuttooth wrote:
aayl1 wrote:They'll also sell you Lego city undercover

City of Heroes is another game with the word 'city' in the title. :)


Yeah they sell that too :!:

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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Rapidly-Greying » Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:47 pm

gooseberry fool. I just rushed in because I wanted the special edition of little nightmares 2. I used my bank of Scotland visa debit card, do you think I'll get a refund?

I'm a twat.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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rinks
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by rinks » Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:57 pm

You should immediately contact your bank and tell them that you’ve been a twat (re-phrase as you see fit), so they can cancel your card. Make sure you read about chargeback while you’re on hold, and use it in the conversation.

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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Rapidly-Greying » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:05 pm

I called the bank and they said I have to wait 15 days before I can start a dispute. The payment was taken from my account by PayPal*playstore and they only took the amount that the game cost so maybe I'll get a refund.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Rapidly-Greying » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:05 pm

I called the bank and they said I have to wait 15 days before I can start a dispute. The payment was taken from my account by PayPal*playstore and they only took the amount that the game cost so maybe I'll get a refund.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Dangerblade
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Dangerblade » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:15 pm

Surprised this isn't a No:1 Final Fantasy Fan thread.

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Ironhide
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Ironhide » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:18 pm

Rapidly-Greying wrote:gooseberry fool. I just rushed in because I wanted the special edition of little nightmares 2. I used my bank of Scotland visa debit card, do you think I'll get a refund?

I'm a twat.


I'd be very surprised if you got your money back as a) you willingly gave the company your banking details and b) paid by debit card.

I once had my card details stolen (probably when Shopto got hacked) and someone used it to buy phone topups but managed to get my money back purely because it was due to criminal activity rather than my own carelessness.

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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Rapidly-Greying » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:44 pm

They sent a confirmation email and didn't clear out my account, don't you think that maybe goes in my favour?

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Robbo-92
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Robbo-92 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:51 pm

Whatever happens, hope you get either the game you ordered or your money back.

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rinks
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by rinks » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:56 pm

I’ve just looked at the site. Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?! Not being able to sign up should have been all the warning you needed.

Have the bank cancelled your card?

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rinks
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by rinks » Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:57 pm

Rapidly-Greying wrote:They sent a confirmation email and didn't clear out my account, don't you think that maybe goes in my favour?

Yet.

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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Rapidly-Greying » Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:47 pm

rinks wrote:I’ve just looked at the site. Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?! Not being able to sign up should have been all the warning you needed.

Have the bank cancelled your card?


I just ordered as a guest to save me the hassle of registering, in retrospect though........ It was only when I looked into what was happening with the order that I noticed all the warning signs.

The lady from the bank didn't suggest cancelling the card, I'll phone back tommorow but he/she/they did only take out the value of the game.

A definite f#&k up on my part.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez?
by Green Gecko » Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:33 pm

I wouldn't worry too much. If the payment came through as PAYPAL then they are probably using PayPal as the payment processor even if it is only accepting debit card transactions. That gateway is implemented by PayPal (even if it's just literally copy and paste code) but they could just be spoofing the bit of text that shows up in your bank. It takes a LOT of work to create a dodgy card transaction processor from scratch which is why even scammers will just implement PayPal because it's faster.

Oddly the site's footer has the Stripe logo instead in which case I'm not sure why it would come through as PAYPAL on your statement, as Stripe definitely looks different there (I use both).

The number will be VOIP redirected to some number wherever and the address is probably a virtual office in London, although even that seems dubious.

The photos are obviously old or appropriated, probably the latter.

Regardless of where they are actually based, they're still subject selling in the UK to distance selling regulations. You have a right to cancel within 14 days and return for any reason within 30 days of the item arriving. As nothing has been despatched you have a right to cancel the transaction and get a refund anyway. It's just getting through to them that is going to be the hard part.

I'm amazed Lime even found the company registration details. You could try contacting company's house if they're not acting in the proper manner for a UK company with the potential for them getting struck off the company register due to fraud. But they will just spin up other some other guise. The suggestion here is that, if they are actually registered, this is just some joker/chancer trying to run a crappy games retail outlet in this country.

If you got a PayPal receipt from PayPal (regardless of whether you signed into your PayPal account or not, PayPal still acts as the payment processor for the card details) you could try contacting them.

If that doesn't work or you don't want to wait for the bank to chargeback the transaction (which is still possible on VISA network, absolutely, whether a debit OR credit card, it doesn't matter) you could just go straight to trading standards. You've made every reasonable attempt to contact them and haven't got a reply.

They seem to be using a support ticket system as well, maybe try this form instead of emailing? They probably aren't monitoring that inbox.

https://citygamez.com/submit-ticket-2/

This seems more a case of just a crappy and poorly thought out business set up in a weird way to be honest, hopefully you'll get your item or your money back my eventually. If you were super worried about it I'd cancel the card and get a new one because they could (theoretically) record those details and keep/sell them. I really wouldn't rely on this site to comply with the PCI requirements for storing and processing credit card information, so hopefully PayPal did actually process it in which case it's safe. What did the form look like when you placed your order?

It's good you posted about it too as within a few days Google will pick this up, list it in the search results probably near the top and discourage anyone else from ordering from them. A crappy business can refuse to set up any kind of reviews/social media presence for a site like this, to avoid doubt, but you can't stop people talking about it on some other platform with good search visibility. As their site is so poorly written we might even become the no.1 result instead of them :simper:

Edit: That address is the offices for "Registered Address Ltd" :lol: how deep is this rabbit hole

And how does Companie's House allow these onto the company register with no staff actually present in the United Kingdom :fp:

Edit 2: Wow

RegisteredAddress.co.uk is pleased to announce a new upmarket virtual office address:
South Molton Street, Mayfair, London, W1K.

This office offers a mailing address in the premier luxury retail district of central London.

The office interior is a standard office layout. Located on the second floor, it includes a meeting room, desk spaces and open-plan office space for corporate users. The meeting room can accommodate groups of up to 6 people. At ground level there is a boutique.

This office establishes the client as having a prestigious presence in a very expensive area of central London. The area has name-recognition for both UK and foreign residents, so it will add cachet to your new or existing business if you use it as your registered address, director's address or business address.


So basically this seems to be a legitimate service that allows international businesspeople to form a business in the UK although of course this means there is a pretty difficult path to take to hold them to scrutiny.

https://www.registeredaddress.co.uk/officeservices

It might work as a freight forwarding / drop shipping business but I wouldn't get your hopes up this item is going to reach you any time soon, which is, well, bold considering the company goal is to "deliver games instantly" (emphasis theirs). How they intend to do that with nobody inside this country is anyone's guess.

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by Rapidly-Greying » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:45 pm

Thanks for all that Gecko. I've used the ticket, used the email, the phone number doesn't work but nothing. Zero reply, order still processing. Its been long enough, I'll call the bank tomorrow to try and get my money back. I'm doubtful though, not looking for sympathy but nothing ever goes right for me.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by Green Gecko » Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:44 pm

You should definitely issue a chargeback and Stripe if they're using it will probably freeze their funds so they can top talking people's money. Charge backs are seen as a massive risk factor for those payment processors and they'll do anything they can to avoid them, including just straight up refunding all historical transactions for that account and closing it. You could report them to Stripe for fraud if they have a place for that. No payment processor will touch a website like that if they're aware it's defrauding people. You might help other people get their money back too, even if they did receive their items. I think stripe would literally rather sort it out later and pay back the seller after a long dispute process.

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
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❤ btw GRcade costs money and depends on donations - please support one of the UK's oldest video gaming forums → HOW TO DONATE
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Rapidly-Greying
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by Rapidly-Greying » Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:00 pm

Hoorah for justice. I got my money back as well as all overdraft fees I incurred. I didn't expect to get reimbursed, never mind having it go so smoothly.

Avoid www.citygamez.com at all costs.

Thanks for the help guys, especially Gecko.

Rapidly-greying is Mediocre to Average at games :fp:
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by Green Gecko » Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:59 pm

Was that through the bank or a dispute raised with the payment processor? Well done for pursuing it rather than just nope-ing out as most people would.

It does piss me off that there are legitimate business people out there and crap like this just makes it even harder to earn anyone's trust. Especially since they're registered in the UK as a company as well, and use a pretty respected payment processor. It shouldn't be so easy, yet I did have to go through some vetting procedures as well to sort mine out (I'm with Braintree).

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
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❤ btw GRcade costs money and depends on donations - please support one of the UK's oldest video gaming forums → HOW TO DONATE
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Lotus
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by Lotus » Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:06 am

Glad you got it sorted in the end, RG. We all get burned by something every now and then.

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rinks
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PostRe: Has anybody bought from City Gamez / CityGamez.com?
by rinks » Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:14 am

Phew, lucky escape.


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