games basement - advice appreciated

bookworm221

I too am chasing gamesbasement - they have had my money since 13th Dec. I am chasing a refund & keep being promised one. It's only £30 (thankfully) but i'm still mad that they can just get away with this.

HSB

Hi

I to am waiting for a refund from Games Basement.

I ordered a green DS lite for which they took my money on 19 November. In run up to christmas i kept checking that it would be delivered on time, which it was not. Tried to contact them by email several times over christmas period asking for a refund, i never got a reply to those.

Phoned mid January to start chasing again. I have phoned regularly since and still no refund. Have been promised cheques that have not arrived, gave them the new expiry date of my card over 2 weeks ago but still no refund. Have chased again today, so hopefully soon.

The frustrating thing is that the finance department will not speak to you, the customer services manager does not take customer calls, and i did try to get the address so that i could drive there but they will not give it.

misssimba

Like many of you I to am still waiting for a refund. Ordered a game console on the 23rd nov. daughter was left very dissappointed, but gave them the benefit of the doubt but by February finally got them to admit that they had no idea when i would receive it and as there was no equivalent they offered me a refund. I have made a number of calls asked to speak to a more senior member of staff but was told it wasnt possible. I then asked the girl if i was calling the company or a call centre, she replied call centre so ended up putting the phone down. I have emailed and received replies each time apologising for the delays but i am still waiting. :mad:

SJMS_2

I wasted time and money with this company and reported them and my transaction problems to Consumers Direct, they were most helpful and referred my complaint to Trading Standards.

Finally I got my problems sorted out, never again will I purchase anything from this outfit!

mandyp46

And a year on there still at it i was stung by them on the 3rd december 2010, i finally got through to them today and was told its a royal mail problom now, how are there alowed to get away with it

hippyadam

For clarification the company mentioned in this thread is Childs Pl4y Ltd.

It was incorporated (born) in August last year, it currently has no CCJ's registered against it. If you need to write to the company the registered office is:

1ST Floor
2 Woodberry Grove,
North Finchley,
LONDON,
N12 0DR

The Company Secretary and sole Director is one Antoinette Ferguson. Now before anyone starts moaning about this info it is all publicly available from Companies House

Silvermodak

Call your card issuer [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] You are protected under their internet protection scheme.

Report them to trading standards and their host rackspace.

Gazzza

I too had the same Games Basement run-around as seemingly experienced by many others who have posted here and on other review sites.


As with so many before me I ordered goods advertised as in-stock and after several weeks they had not been delivered despite my card being charged. I eventually cancelled my order. I never got anywhere with trying get a refund from them. I took it straight to my credit card company who after giving Games Basement a month to resolve the situation have refunded me.

Remember, ordering from a website you are covered by the Consumer Protection Distance Selling Regulations. Plenty of info on this if you search for it on your favourite search engine.
This affords you great protection. Whilst it might not help you get any replies out of Games Basement it gives you plenty of ammo to take it up with your card provider or the small claims court.

This is my general understanding of the situation, which may or not be 100% accurate, but it was enough to help me get a refund from my card company:

* Under the distance selling regulations they must deliver in the period stated or within 30 days if no delivery period is stated. If they haven’t they are in breach.

* You have a cooling off period which gives you a right to cancel your order under the distance selling regulations. This is up to 7 days from delivery of the goods. This is regardless of any conflicting cancellation clause in the suppliers own terms and conditions so don’t be fobbed off if they tell you that you cannot cancel and you are within that window. Thus if they haven’t delivered your order you should be able to cancel it under the regulations.

* if the order is cancelled they must refund you as soon as possible and within 30 days

* the distance selling regulations do not allow them to delay refunds for cancelled orders pending return of any goods. (of course if you have taken receipt you have a duty to look after the goods and return them). Thus I believe they must still refund you even if they are asking you to fill in royal mail missing item forms etc and they shouldn’t delay refund if you have cancelled.

* the distance selling regulations don’t seem to differentiate between credit or debit cards and allows for a card transaction to be cancelled if it is fraudulent under the regulations. Thus again you want to show and evidence that the transaction was invalid because they are in breach of the regulations. (if the order was on credit card and over £100 you also have the added consumer credit protection where the card co. is jointly liable)

I found the summary info on this website to be useful. Edit: sorry I can't post the link as I am new user - it was page on the distance selling regulations on a company website call "out-law" you can find it yourself if interested - Or you can access the full legislation via the Office of Fair Trading website.

Based on my experience, the moral of the tale seems to be that if you are getting fobbed off or ignored by Games Basement then take it up with your card company and demand they refund GB’s original transaction. Put everything to GB in writing and keep it as evidence. Bluntly if they haven’t delivered your goods then this is what I did : cancel the order in writing under the distance selling regulations and demand a refund. Give them a reasonable time to respond and send a reminder with a deadline. If still no response, or if you have already cancelled and have been waiting for a refund for more than 30 days then raise it with your card company as a disputed/fraudulent transaction. Just ring them and they will send you a disputed transaction claim form – fill it in, and send it back with evidence supporting your case (ie. copies of the original order, order acceptabnce, etc plus your correspondence to GB requesting refunds and a covering letter) and showing you have reasonably attempted to get your refund from the company.

Good luck.

Stu_Dee_Jay

I fully sympathise with everyone having trouble here. I placed my order at the end of February, and after four weeks of absolutely no contact at all (despite my items being in stock on the website throughout this time), I finally cracked and asked for a refund.

I got the "processing refund" email ten days ago, yet still nothing has happened. I sent them a very patient email today and have so far received no response.

I don't think I've ever been this angry with any website in my entire history of owning a computer, but rest assured: I'm in it for the long-haul. Games Basement owe me £140. Suffice to say, I would not recommend this website to my mortal enemy.

davidlizard

Similar problems here with this outfit.

Ordered a game in December 2010. They sent an email a few days later saying it had been dispatched. Nothing was received - initially we were fobbed off saying it was in the backlog caused by the snow. Still nothing received by end of December so we asked for a refund. We sent them the form, which they claimed they never received. Sent them another form registered post - again they claimed it was never received despite them signing for it. We spoke to various people on the phone over this period who all said we needed to fill these forms only to deny every received them.

Eventually I gave up with them and contacted my credit card company and put the payment into dispute. Yesterday I got a letter saying the £40 has been refunded to my account by my credit card company.

Lesson Learnt: check out the reputation of the vendor before placing an order. Its OK to be protected by Sale of Goods Act, distance selling regs, credit card section 75 and chargebacks, but would prefer not to get into that position in the first place.