GAME.. lousy service

[gregd]

Great service as always from them today!

[9:10am]Greg says:
Hi there. When I placed this order the item showed at 44.99 GBP but on my confirmation email the price has gone up to 49.99 GBP. Please can you correct this. If the higher price was correct I would have preferred to order the Premium Edition at 59.99
[9:37am]Greg says:
Hello?
[9:59am]Greg says:
Anyone?
[10:11am]Greg says:
Still waiting..
[10:15am]Kylo L says:
Connected to Kylo L
[10:16am]Kylo L says:
Hi Greg, bare with me while I look into your order for you.
[10:16am]Greg says:
Thank you
[10:17am]Kylo L says:
I can confirm the total charged here is £49.99 as per the price on our website this morning Greg. We would not be able to discount this down to £44.99 I'm afraid.
[10:18am]Greg says:
Why was this showing at that price in my basket then?
[10:20am]Kylo L says:
I am unsure Greg, on our end it hasn't been marked down to £44.99, the price charged will be the price on the order confirmation, but if you do not wish for the order at the price of £49.99, we can cancel this if you prefer.
[10:24am]Greg says:
No, that's OK, but I see it was 44.99 to pre-order (perhaps this was why the copy in my basket still showed this price when I confirmed my order). I would have pre-ordered but your website does not allow gift cards to be used on pre-orders (even on the day before release) which is poor. I am therefore penalised by 5 pounds as you put the price up by 5 pounds on release day. This is very poor service and makes me wonder what is the benefit of having gift cards at all. In the circumstances I think a 5 pounds credit would be appropriate out of goodwill, or alternatively sending the Deluxe edition at no extra charge, or even sending the strategy guide.
[10:28am]Kylo L says:
I'm afraid we cannot price match the price of a pre-order and the release date version Greg, I'm afraid we are not able to compensate or reimburse any price difference. As mentioned, I can cancel the order if you prefer, but I will not be able to refund any difference unfortunately.
[10:31am]Greg says:
Great service all round then.. Also taking over an hour to reply to my "live chat" is very poor. This reminds me why I use Amazon and not Game! Leave the order as is as I'm sure you would muck up crediting our gift cards. I will take my business elsewhere in future.
[10:32am]Kylo L says:
I am sorry to hear that Greg and am sorry for any inconvenience or dissapointment caused by this. I am sorry I could not have been of more help, but feel free to contact us again should you have any further queries and we would be happy to help as best we can.
[10:32am]Kylo L says:
Kylo L has left
[10:33am]Greg says:
Didn't hang around long did you? By the way it is "bear with me" not "bare" and "disappointment".

[IIIRestorerIII]

gregd said:

Great service as always from them today!

[9:10am]Greg says:
If the higher price was correct I would have preferred to order the Premium Edition at 59.99
...
[10:20am]Kylo L says:
I am unsure Greg, on our end it hasn't been marked down to £44.99, the price charged will be the price on the order confirmation, but if you do not wish for the order at the price of £49.99, we can cancel this if you prefer.
[10:24am]Greg says:
No, that's OK, but I see it was 44.99 to pre-order (perhaps this was why the copy in my basket still showed this price when I confirmed my order). I would have pre-ordered but your website does not allow gift cards to be used on pre-orders (even on the day before release) which is poor. I am therefore penalised by 5 pounds as you put the price up by 5 pounds on release day. This is very poor service and makes me wonder what is the benefit of having gift cards at all. In the circumstances I think a 5 pounds credit would be appropriate out of goodwill, or alternatively sending the Deluxe edition at no extra charge, or even sending the strategy guide.

You said you would do one thing then asked for something completely different. Also talked to them like they were goons. What did you expect?

[gregd]

I think I only lost it slightly towards the end when I got the "computer says no" routine (after waiting an hour for a "live chat" response). However you slice it up they offer a lousy service. Their prices are higher than elsewhere and I only bothered at all as my son had a couple of gift cards as presents to use up.

[supertouring]

This is why places like Amazon do well, they look after their customers.

I recently ordering an item through Amazon marketplace and after several weeks it did not arrive. I message the seller (no answer) but already noticed they were getting back feedback due to non-deliveries, so I knew I had no hope of getting my item.

After a few days I was able raise a claim and instantly got my money back. No ifs or buts.

Based on this I will be using Amazon again, but not this specific market place seller.

[Grumfutock]

Have to say I agree that Game are giving a very bad service these days online. Store wise it is better, well at least at my local one, but they are heading down the HMV, Woolworths route in my opinion.

[anonymous-user]

Pointless complaining to companies with frontline staff who earn close to the minimum wage and are probably only there for a few months on average. They dont give a fk and to be fair its easy to see why. I realised this long ago.

At least they offered a refund.

[Durzel]

Not got any particular love for GAME, but...

- It appears like you wanted to place a pre-order for a game retailing £44.99.
- You added it to your basket and realised you wouldn't be able to use a gift card on it (being a preorder), so abandoned it.
- You subsequently came back after the game had launched (?) and your basket was still live, showing the preorder product for the preorder price, so cheekily proceeded with the order.
- Your beef seems to be that a) GAME don't accept the use of gift cards on preorders (a moot point I think) and b) you expected them to honour a preorder price after the preorder window had closed (which, I might add, you had the benefit of and chose not to proceed).

I'd assume you knew full well at the point you actually placed the order that the pre-order price logically wouldn't apply. I don't know at what point the GAME website actually told you the amended price, Amazon - for example - tell you as soon as you look at the basket if the price of something has changed since you last visited.

I don't think GAME have done anything partiuclarly wrong in this affair. Their T&Cs no doubt make mention of gift cards being invalid for preorders, if the website didn't tell you when you tried to use it. Their only mistake I think is in having a system that doesn't correctly inform customers that the price of what is in their basket has changed. Either way you appear to have been chancing your luck with them w.r.t getting a discounted price, rather than having a legitimate gripe imo.

[shakotan]

RaymondVanDerDon said:

Pointless complaining to companies with frontline staff who earn close to the minimum wage and are probably only there for a few months on average. They dont give a fk and to be fair its easy to see why. I realised this long ago.

At least they offered a refund.

There's no 'at least they offered a refund', they are bound by Law to do so.

[BrabusMog]

OP you sound like a really annoying customer and you were also rude to someone whose hands were tied with what they could do, which is really unnecessary.

[orhan]

I on the other hand had brilliant experience with Game,ordered Skylanders pack they were the cheapest first 1 never arrived gave customer service a call replacement arrived next morning so I call that good service.

[Mastodon2]

GAME are pretty feckless, but they're paragons of professionalism and service next to goons like Grainger Games.

[gregd]

BrabusMog said:

OP you sound like a really annoying customer and you were also rude to someone whose hands were tied with what they could do, which is really unnecessary.

Thanks, I love you too Well, being made to wait over an hour for a response on a "live chat" is poor, as is ending the conversation before it had been completed. That coupled with a response that was basically "tough" did tend to wind me up somewhat. I'm usually a lot more laid back than that! The poster who compared Game's service to Amazon hit the nail on the head.. In my experience Amazon's service is HUGELY better than Game and their customer support people have real latitude in terms of how they can assist.

I take the point that they were not obliged to do anything as putting up the price on release day is something that they are perfectly allowed to do but when you pay over the odds at a retailer (as Game's prices generally are) you should expect better service. Gets off high horse.

[gregd]

Well, priced at 49.99 compared to 42.00 at Amazon or Tesco I would say is over the odds. I don't expect retailers just to cave in but it's how you deal with an unhappy customer that matters. Any retailer's T's and C's covers them up the wazoo but that doesn't mean they can't show a bit of latitude.

[BrabusMog]

Buy it for £42 from Amazon then, GAME can charge what they think the market will pay. And before you mention it, I am aware about your gift voucher etc. But, to be fair to GAME, once they've got the physical cash and have handed back a gift voucher, they don't need to give voucher customers purchasing incentives. And that isn't bad customer service, it's called running a business.

[gregd]

That would explain why they are doing so well then! In my experience there are better ways of dealing with unhappy customers. Anyway, bygones etc, it's only a fiver!

[BrabusMog]

Would your experience include getting exactly what you wanted, even if it was unreasonable? The customer isn't always right, as has been highlighted here. I'll concede that maybe they could have honoured the pre-order price as a GOGW but everything else you requested isn't reasonable.

[gregd]

I'd agree honouring the pre-order price would have been fine.. I had the hump at the time and offered a few other suggestions out of annoyance.

[BrabusMog]

Fair enough, I misread your posts! I reckon the livechat guy had his hands tied and didn't want to "escalate" it to his line manager, hence the abrupt ending to your conversation. Hopefully the game is going to be a good one

[gregd]

No worries! Let's hope so, although early reports suggest the single player is pants as usual. I'm lucky if I get a go on the PS4 in our house with two boys commandeering it!

[Rick101]

I don't think you were rude. Had a couple of these email live chat things and they either go very well, of you're through to somebody who couldn't give a st.
Either way, Amazon for the win.