GAME exits Administration

[killbot]

For anyone amassing loads of "Trade In" credit on their GAME cards, consider this...
Do you really think they're going to be around much longer to spend it all..?

Indeed. I'm going to try taking a few things in, but I'll be taking the cash thanks.

Good to see that my one remaining local Game still has an entire rack free to clog up with various PS2 FIFA games for 99p each.

[James A]

For anyone amassing loads of "Trade In" credit on their GAME cards, consider this...
Do you really think they're going to be around much longer to spend it all..?

Well you've got to think with them coming out of admin they'll be around for a bit.

I haven't had chance to get into town for a few days but did they Witcher 2 get released through them or not? Would be nice to be able to get that and the MGS HD collection tommorow.

With this trade in with the extra £10 can you get it put onto a gift card incase they start getting stock through properly? Really wish now id held onto some of the stuff id got in the fire sale. Saying that if some of those prices that there offering for trading in are right you'll still make a bit even getting stuff from the carboots.

[commanderkaiser]

I hope they re open the old gamestation store in Birmingham and re open the downstairs area, re-introduce retro and re-employ all the excellent staff who worked there.

So much this
I miss the old downstairs full of retro games, machines and preowned PC.
I'll never understand why they got rid of all that, it was the one thing which made the store stand out

[Liamh1982]

Picked out six Wii games to trade in - even at their rip-off prices, that'll effectively end up with me getting say Mario Kart DS for free!

[Megamixer]

For anyone amassing loads of "Trade In" credit on their GAME cards, consider this...
Do you really think they're going to be around much longer to spend it all..?

Well you've got to think with them coming out of admin they'll be around for a bit.

I don't know. Offering insane amounts of cash/credit for crappy old games that they might not even be able to re-sell themselves seems a bit suicidal to me. Also with the prices going back up (and sometimes being worse than before), the threat of online shopping is still very real.

At the moment, it just looks like they haven't learnt a lesson at all.

[dste]

With this trade in with the extra £10 can you get it put onto a gift card incase they start getting stock through properly?

Yes you can, the £53 that I made on Friday is currently on a gift card.

[big-byte]

On Saturday I traded in 51 games and now have £296 on a gift card. However Ive no idea what to buy with it.
I did consider getting a PS Vita but just cannot justify spending £270 for a handheld console with one game. Besides I really need
the money now as head gasket has gone on car yesterday so am now considering buying stuff just to sell on.

[Liamh1982]

Picked out six Wii games to trade in - even at their rip-off prices, that'll effectively end up with me getting say Mario Kart DS for free!

Got £38.40 which I was more than happy with! They didn't have any MKDS in though.
So I got Sonic Rush, Super Scribblenauts and NFS Nitro instead.

[killbot]

I've got six Wii games picked out and I'm running them up to Game tonight. The deal is still on, right?

[James A]

I've got six Wii games picked out and I'm running them up to Game tonight. The deal is still on, right?

Yep. Went in this afternoon and traded 8 games in and got £71 so thats going towards the Witcher 2 tomorrow and if theres any left the Final Fanatsy X111 -2 boxset. Could have got more but stupidly left a DS game in the machine when i was testing it last night. Crazy trade in prices though £18.40 for Mass Effect 2 and £8 for Duke Nukem. Wish id picked some more cheap stuff up at the carboot yesterday, could have has a good chunk off a 3DS.

Heres hoping that deal keeps going for a few more weeks and that they get some more new releases in

[Liamh1982]

Apparently it ends on the 25th April, so be quick people!

[killbot]

Just called to check and apparently DS games are in the deal too? That's big news because I have shedloads of them I don't mind getting rid of.

EDIT: I can exchange these for cash, right? There's not some smallprint which says I only get store credit? If so I'm not interested, mainly because I can't see Game being in business by the time I get round to using them.

[Morkin]

Is there any real difference between Game & Gamestation (with regards to stock of new games) that anyone knows of?

[Liamh1982]

Just called to check and apparently DS games are in the deal too? That's big news because I have shedloads of them I don't mind getting rid of.

EDIT: I can exchange these for cash, right? There's not some smallprint which says I only get store credit? If so I'm not interested, mainly because I can't see Game being in business by the time I get round to using them.

It's Wii/360/PS3/DS/3DS/Vita, no PSP, PC or what they class as retro (i.e. PS2/Xbox/Cube and all before then).
Not sure if they'll give you cash, I already had a trade-in card.

[killbot]

And this is the complaint email I've just written:

I have just returned from your Monks Cross branch in York where I attempted to trade in 24 Wii and DS titles. I have walked past the store numerous times and have seen the sign advertising the 'value +£10' deal you are doing at the moment, and decided to trade these games in for cash. I appreciated that this may mean an overall lower amount than store credit, but I was prepared to accept this.

However, on arriving at the store I was told that the deal only applied if I wanted store credit. The games were scanned and I was told I could have £155 store credit or just £54 cash. I went and looked again at the sign in the window, which did not seem to indicate anywhere that the deal only applied to store credit. There was some small-print on the bottom but despite crouching and squinting at it from a couple of inches away I found it impossible to read, nor did anyone in the store seem to know what it said.

I had travelled a considerable distance specifically to visit the store for this purpose and was not happy, so I spoke to James who appeared to be managing the store at the time, but his response seemed basically to be of the 'that's the offer, take it or leave it' approach. He told me that these deals are always store credit-only, but didn't indicate how I as a customer was supposed to know that if the advertisments didn't tell me. Before seemingly getting bored and wandering off, James told me that what I was attempting to do was trade in for cash, not simply trade in. He seemed to think that the distinction should be obvious to everyone.

Having left the store I was still unsatisfied and called again by phone. This time I spoke to Lee, who was a little more helpful. He dug out a flyer advertising the deal and found a clause in the small print which indicated that only the 'standard trade-in price' would be paid. Based on what I was able to glean from talking to Lee, this is basically internal Game employee jargon meaning that only store credit will be paid, but even Lee was forced to admit that this is totally unclear. There is nothing to indicate to a customer that the 'standard trade-in price' could not be paid in cash. Furthermore this bit of small print only appeared on the flyers, not on the signs and posters dotted around the store which people are much more likely to read.

I am surprised and slightly saddened to see a company which only a fortnight ago was struggling to even stay afloat falling back on these kind of tactics again already. As things currently stand I am of a mind never to shop at Game or Gamestation again, and I await a satisfactory response which may go some way to restoring my faith in your organisation.