Game and HMV, not surprised they are struggling

powerful_Rogue

Krojan wrote: »

As a former employee of both companies (Game, then Gamestation just as Game bought them from Blockbuster) I'm not surprised they're going under, in fact, I'm actually surprised they haven't gone sooner.

Game treated their staff like dirt at all levels, managers who run the stores have no control as to the actual running of their stores and as to what prices to charge for new or preowned goods, what titles were included with console bundles etc, it was constantly frustrating to see competitors (even neighbours) charging less or paying more for the same items when we were supposed to be the market #1.

All head office were concerned about were getting people to buy a "loyalty" card for £3 a pop and getting people to preorder games. It was actually a running joke that on their system staff had set up fake loyalty card accounts such as mr m mouse, dr v ader etc... just to bump pre-order sales up to hit targets.

Gamestation were completly different, you could make your own bundles up, to an extent adjust what you'd buy pre-owned titles for and immediatly price-match competitors on launch day (you'd acutally leave the store and go visit your competitors and price check them locally!) however all these practices stopped as soon as Blockbuster sold Gamestation to Game.

Now Game Group are reaping what they've sown, majorly overpricing in their stores, running offers on out of stock items on their website and offering pittance on trade-ins (£30 for a Nintendo Wii console, thats a £100 less that you paid for it!) it's no surprise they've bled both companies dry and that they now cannot afford to buy stock from EA because they can't get credit, and no doubt other suppliers will demand payment upfront which they cannot afford to do.

The only people I have sympathy for are the front-line staff, their talent and expertise will go to the likes of Tesco shelf stacking or McDonalds burger flipping because no-one else is giving the youngsters jobs these days.

I used to work for them back in the day when it was Electronics Boutique and then a little while after when it changed to GAME.

Back in the day when we decided how much to trade games in for and how much to price them at. Also when we could choose which games to put in the bundles and change them around to suit the customer.

When staff were allowed to borrow games for a couple of days to test the out and to gain knowledge of them.

Then slowly things started to change. Staff were no longer allowed to borrow games. Then the set bundles came in with no option to change games etc.

Then the pre-owned computer system where the computer told you how much to offer and how much to price the game at.

Back in the day EB/GAME was #1 - Thats only a distant memory now though.

powerful_Rogue

Helix wrote: »

They have always been £3, even in the Electronics Boutique days. They may occasionally give them away as a promotion. http://www.game.co.uk/en/game-reward-card-93701

Used to be free during EB days, then they introduced a £2 charge which then rose to £3.

vyle

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Used to be free during EB days, then they introduced a £2 charge which then rose to £3.

I can't remember if I paid for mine, but I certainly got my money's worth when they used to do the "THIS price for everyone, or THIS price if you have a loyalty card."

And I got Beyond good and evil, 98p from £15, and Burnout 3, £2 from £15. Two cracking games.

jamespir

it is confusing sometimes when thye charge more for the preowned than they do new

but i notice game and hmv give you more when you trade in like i took driver sanfranciso in to gamestation last week they offered £8 trade and £6 cash as they were selling it preowned for 20.00
game offered £14 trade and £12 cash where as hmv offered me £19 cash and 16 trade needles to say i took the 19 quid

bluenoseam

Game were until very recently one of the least professional companies i worked for - heck we're talking levels of incompetence which had a manager shout at me on the shop floor for not jumping on a till to which my reply was that i hadn't been till trained! (litterally shout, infront of customers) Gamestation while slightly more holiday camp than boot camp was an awesome company to work for, they gave a toss about their staff, let us deal with as much of the nuts & bolts as it took to run a successful shop and it worked. (but that was in the Blockbuster days - even then we knew we were being measured up to be sold, i got out about 6 months before the sale took place)

I didn't step foot back in a Game for years after the manager in my local shop followed me around like a shoplifter while i was in the shop making snide comments to his assistant along the lines of "oh look he's price checking again". When i went to the till to pay for something (when they did the ol trade 4 games in and get a new release for 99p deal) he came up & kicked off at the till, refused the sale and gave me dogs abuse. Poor guy on the till (who had worked with me) didn't know where to look so i cleared off but put in a complaint about him in graphic detail - couple of weeks later he showed up at Gamestation looking for me and launched into a rant at my manager! When i got to work the boss asked what happened, i told him and he let me know what was said - as it turned out said manager left Game for being lets just say more than a little fond of the ol 5 finger discount!