News From The Front

[MarcusAurelius]

I can't dictate what other folks buy my kids. Mine had 70 quid of game vouchers each to spend today. In a way it's good, because the game sale is very good, so they got a lot for their dosh, but jesus it was busy.

 

Why so defensive Mr Slim ? I am glad that your kids got good value for money , but 3 tills , and queues out the door is not great.Like bauer said if HMV can have 6 tills and get customers moving quickly , why can't Game ? Plus if you get caught behind someone trading 50 games in , your screwed , will take forever. Just so you know , Game in Douglas turnsover between 1.5 million and 2 million pounds a year , you would think they could afford a couple of extra tills.

 

Game were already struggling to cope, every time I've been in last few days theres been 20-50 people in the queue, moving very slowly.

 

So how to they relieve the pressure of last min cramming on xmas eve? They start their sale! Fucking nuts, they've wapped loads of dosh off recent releases too, bioshock, halo3, etc. Also older 360 games for utterly fuck all, under a tenner in some cases. Massive queue, one guy serving, what is the point of slashing prices?

 

Daft feckers!

 

Sounds to me that the lovely ex Clarks assistant manager / current Game manager couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery as well. On a Saturday we always used to have our quickest 3 till operators on , with me running to the stock room for them and Matt & Josh on the sales floor.

 

Yet days before Christmas she has just one member of staff on the till.Granted there may have been some getting stock but you should have runner(s) for that

[modey]

Got to admit i went in game just before christmas for some presents, never again. what a joke.

 

I was looking for a psp game so i asked the girl if they had it, she dissapeared upstairs to look for it and that was the last i saw of her after waiting at the back of the shop for 10 minutes. so i picked 3 games out one of which was second hand.

 

I then joined the que and was in that for over half an hour, Just before i got to the till one of the guys working there went down the que to take everyones games off them so he could go upstairs and find them.

 

When i eventually arrived at the till everyones games were mixed up and so the games that were scanned through the till for me were not mine

 

Once this was sorted i got my games, paid for them and left the shop an hour after i'd got in there. I then noticed that instead of one of the games being second hand he had given me a brand new one and so charged me £10 too much.

 

But there was no chance i was going back in to complain, i just won't shop there again.

[MarcusAurelius]

Got to admit i went in game just before christmas for some presents, never again. what a joke.

 

I was looking for a psp game so i asked the girl if they had it, she dissapeared upstairs to look for it and that was the last i saw of her after waiting at the back of the shop for 10 minutes. so i picked 3 games out one of which was second hand.

 

I then joined the que and was in that for over half an hour, Just before i got to the till one of the guys working there went down the que to take everyones games off them so he could go upstairs and find them.

 

When i eventually arrived at the till everyones games were mixed up and so the games that were scanned through the till for me were not mine

 

Once this was sorted i got my games, paid for them and left the shop an hour after i'd got in there. I then noticed that instead of one of the games being second hand he had given me a brand new one and so charged me £10 too much.

 

But there was no chance i was going back in to complain, i just won't shop there again.

 

I don't get this with going upstairs for games especially preowned.When I was there all the preowned was either out live or stored in the draws behind the tills where they have that nice big glass cabinet where we used to put top sellers for quick service.

 

I shudder to think what they took week before christmas , all I know is that the missus and me were absolutely rushed off our feet and there is no way we could have coped with anymore.

 

I just know that maybe one day we will also have a shop in Douglas and that we will have as many tills as possible.I don't see why they could not remodel Game as the building they are in has a huge basement and two floors above the shopfloor which are not used for anything much

[Slim]

Why so defensive Mr Slim ? I am glad that your kids got good value for money , but 3 tills , and queues out the door is not great.Like bauer said if HMV can have 6 tills and get customers moving quickly , why can't Game ? Plus if you get caught behind someone trading 50 games in , your screwed , will take forever. Just so you know , Game in Douglas turnsover between 1.5 million and 2 million pounds a year , you would think they could afford a couple of extra tills.

 

I'm not being defensive, I'm just pointing out that I've no choice in what my kids receive from others as gifts. They got loads of Game voucers, so I've got to go to game. Telling me there's alternatives isn't really going to make any difference, if the vouchers are for Game.

 

Sounds to me that the lovely ex Clarks assistant manager / current Game manager couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery as well. On a Saturday we always used to have our quickest 3 till operators on , with me running to the stock room for them and Matt & Josh on the sales floor.

 

Yet days before Christmas she has just one member of staff on the till.Granted there may have been some getting stock but you should have runner(s) for that

 

The manager did close the door today at least and let the queue die down. They also had someone going up the queue getting the games from upstairs. I think the problem with the shops with the whole chain. Next for example dont allow folks to try stuff on on sale day, and don't accept returns. Game should do stuff like that when they know it's going to be busy.

 

I'm naffed off with their change of return policy too. My boy bought an abolute duffer of a game today, I'm usually knowledgable about the current games to steer him clear of shite, but cos he's only young I thought this game might fit him. He can't play it at all, and game no longer take returns, so that's a bunch of cash down the drain, I'll have to do a trade in.

 

I'm actually naffed off with companies chucking shovelware aimed at kids out too, put a nick toons char on the front cover, and any old shites sold easily, it's a shit trick.

 

Rant over

[MarcusAurelius]

The manager did close the door today at least and let the queue die down. They also had someone going up the queue getting the games from upstairs. I think the problem with the shops with the whole chain. Next for example dont allow folks to try stuff on on sale day, and don't accept returns. Game should do stuff like that when they know it's going to be busy.

 

So just to implement your suggestion about not accepting returns on a day when its busy.Imagine you had queued for 1/2 hour which is quite feasible in Game only to be told ' Sorry we are not accepting returns today ' you would hit the roof.The easiest solution would be like HMV , have more tills. Plus , why have stock upstairs ? Its dead easy to see at Game what your best selling titles are in store , one of the management responsabilities every week is to print off your best selling 50 lines on each format.So all you would do is have those titles in the glass cabinet behind the tills.Not rocket science is it ?

 

 

I'm naffed off with their change of return policy too. My boy bought an abolute duffer of a game today, I'm usually knowledgable about the current games to steer him clear of shite, but cos he's only young I thought this game might fit him. He can't play it at all, and game no longer take returns, so that's a bunch of cash down the drain, I'll have to do a trade in.

 

I'm actually naffed off with companies chucking shovelware aimed at kids out too, put a nick toons char on the front cover, and any old shites sold easily, it's a shit trick.

 

Rant over

 

The change of policy happened when I was managing the store , which was this time last year and to be honest I don't have a problem with that.But I know of one store that will let you try games on ps2 , ps 3 , wii , & 360 before you buy them but I can't possibly say who they are.Its so easy to copy games these days , why should retailers let you take games home , just for you to copy them and then return them.There were some customers in Game who would buy new releases finish them in a couple of days and then return them for no reason because the 10 day guarantee allowed it.

 

When I said there were alternatives it wasn't a dig , it was just a statement of fact.HMV do gift vouchers as well , but as the market leader Game have branches all over UK & Ireland and Gift Cards purchased at any of their stores can be used here on the IOM.

[Irwezsh]

I hate going into game...

Most of the staff are incompetent... Don't seem to even have a simple understanding of video games.

I get IDd(?) every time I try to buy a 15 (BBFC) or 16 (PEGI) game even when I show them ID proving I'm 16 they say I'm not old enough...

The manager couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery

I'm not saying it's the worst store ever I just think it could be a hell of a lot better, especially when you compare it to many across I recently was in one in Bristol and it worked perfectly even though it was full of the half term crowd.

Well just my 2-cents made me register as well!

[Slim]

So just to implement your suggestion about not accepting returns on a day when its busy.Imagine you had queued for 1/2 hour which is quite feasible in Game only to be told ' Sorry we are not accepting returns today ' you would hit the roof.The easiest solution would be like HMV , have more tills. Plus , why have stock upstairs ? Its dead easy to see at Game what your best selling titles are in store , one of the management responsabilities every week is to print off your best selling 50 lines on each format.So all you would do is have those titles in the glass cabinet behind the tills.Not rocket science is it ?

 

They do have popular stuff in that glass cabinet behind, don't know how they fill it.

 

The change of policy happened when I was managing the store , which was this time last year and to be honest I don't have a problem with that.But I know of one store that will let you try games on ps2 , ps 3 , wii , & 360 before you buy them but I can't possibly say who they are.Its so easy to copy games these days , why should retailers let you take games home , just for you to copy them and then return them.There were some customers in Game who would buy new releases finish them in a couple of days and then return them for no reason because the 10 day guarantee allowed it.

 

Because you can't try before you buy, therefore if you get a shit game, like I did yesterday, you're stuck with it. It's just another area that stops you using shops and going online instead. The distance selling regs mean I can return a game I bought online for any reason, but I can't do that in store now.

 

I really don't get your point of an alternative. I didn't have an alternative. I had Game gift cards. There is no alternative for me, see?

[flint]

I've been saying just how bad GAME has gotten for months now!

 

Moving the till was huge mistake, it took me about five minutes to get to the back on boxing day because of the que.

 

There are far to many pre-owned games rather than new ones, so finding what you want is a nightmare.

[Ushtey]

Moving the till has certainly been a disaster, but I think it's only made worse by the display just inside the front door. Suprisingly kids seem to want to hang around in small groups while one of them choose an xbox/ps3/psp/ds game and then someone had the good idea to put the Wii games opposite the till (at one Wii sale per 17 seconds via Amazon prior to christmas someone must have realised it's going to be a busy area).

 

I don't understand why the game shops over here haven't used the ToysRus model of one or two empty game boxes and then some barcode slips to take to the till. That would make more sense, hand those over, they're scanned at the till and then collect them at the end of the counter. Someone could just walk down the line with a bar code reader during busy periods to let them run upstairs in advance and prepare stock.

 

As much as I wanted to pick up a few extra items before and after xmas, the time taken to get served just put me right off. I'd rather order the items online and wait a couple of days longer. As it's a multiple, I don't feel too bad about taking my business off Island.

[flint]

Moving the till has certainly been a disaster, but I think it's only made worse by the display just inside the front door. Suprisingly kids seem to want to hang around in small groups while one of them choose an xbox/ps3/psp/ds game and then someone had the good idea to put the Wii games opposite the till (at one Wii sale per 17 seconds via Amazon prior to christmas someone must have realised it's going to be a busy area).

 

I don't understand why the game shops over here haven't used the ToysRus model of one or two empty game boxes and then some barcode slips to take to the till. That would make more sense, hand those over, they're scanned at the till and then collect them at the end of the counter. Someone could just walk down the line with a bar code reader during busy periods to let them run upstairs in advance and prepare stock.

 

As much as I wanted to pick up a few extra items before and after xmas, the time taken to get served just put me right off. I'd rather order the items online and wait a couple of days longer. As it's a multiple, I don't feel too bad about taking my business off Island.

 

 

I don't think you should ever feel bad about buying across or from the internet, the complete lack of choice and shops on the island is a joke!

[devil]

i just bought a 360elite bundle package, and the serivce wasn't too bad, but tbh the counters were empty for about 5-10mins whilst they were off getting stuff for their customers....

 

They really do need to sort it out down there.

[Shill]

Does anyone know if you can still trade in a 360 premium for a 360 elite ? And if so how much are they offering ?

 

Thanks chaps

[devil]

give them a call....

[Slim]

Does anyone know if you can still trade in a 360 premium for a 360 elite ? And if so how much are they offering ?

 

Thanks chaps

 

I asked when the elite first came out, and it was £160 to upgrade. They advise you to buy the elite first at full price, then you get the cable to transfer your stuff off your premium, then take that in and get the £140 for it. Sounds a lot, but given the 120gb hdd is 120 quid, it's actually not a bad deal, might do it when I get some spare folding.

 

details here:

http://www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx?lid=761...-_-tradeinoffer

[Shill]

Just read the print at the bottom and they say that price is valid upto the 31st October 2007. Hope its the same price now as that seems a reasonable deal.