Why Play.com are complete bastards.

[skarmachild]

Here's my story:

I was happily browsing Play.com and decided to pre-order Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Yay!

Of course Play is a UK site so I expected them to give me a UK copy of AW: DS.

So that day finnaly arrived, the parcel was there, on the table...

I opened it and!!

Advance Wars: Dual Strike... USA copy.

I was annoyed, not just annoyed, pissed off.

Anyway, I played it a bit and decided to return it since it wasn't a UK copy, so I e-mailed Play and they said if I send it back they will give me a UK copy. Okay then.. *sends back*

A few days later:

Package! Opened up and...

Advance Wars: Dual Strike... USA copy.

Guh. WTF, they said they'd refund my P&P costs for sending it back, and they haven't since. This has made me NEVER to buy anything of Play.com again - Gameplay.co.uk is the way to go.

So, has Play.com ever scammed you?

[Haver]

Does it really matter if it's an American copy or not?

[Infinete]

this is all tru, also gameplay has a wider varity at a much better price :-)

[rizz]

I pre-ordered a CD with them that was out on monday. I checked on monday to find 'Out now. Waiting for delivery of stock', I would guess its 3/4 weeks before I get my CD :-/ Although its not much of a surprise, on the HMV website it says 'usually ships within 3 weeks'.

[CVD]

You really want those VIP points, don't you?

[The3rdChildren]

I once ordered a US copy of Mario 64 DS and ended up getting sent a brand new UK DS console and a UK copy of the game months before release.

True story, I was well chuffed.

[Infinete]

u 1 lucky person then

[The3rdChildren]

u 1 lucky person then

I was lying, matey.

[MunKy]

Never scammed me, I got my DS on launch day, and most things 2 days after release. Only thing that pissed me off was that they sent Black & White 2 Collectors edition 4 days late with a cracked case. Dicks. Free P&P though I dont think they have that on Gameplay.

[Dieter]

I thought play.com was based in the UK, so why would they go through the trouble to pester you with a USA copy? Plus, I thought the DS was region-free....

[Noodleman]

yes there right up there with the Hitlers of this world. On the happy side ive been buying stuff from play.com for 3 years now and have never had any problems with them.

[cheets]

lol, i would love to have play.com profits, they make a killing, they can undercut any online site.

there are now alot of jersey websites, blah.com

but you just need to know where to look for good deals and offers, cod 2/fear/bf2 all for £60.

[Offerman]

Is there any major differences? If so does it matter?

[Strider]

If i get any USA PSP games ill go and slap play.

[Oli1983uk]

never had any porblems with play.com, been great every time i have used them. as every one is asking whats the difference between the uk and usa versions of the game?

[Pestneb]

don't particularly love play, they aren't significantly cheaper than game.co.uk, as in their prices match up to games more often now (annoyingly). obviously you don't have to buy £100 worth of stuff to get free delivery from play, so thats where they win over game, but there are cheaper sites out there now.
annoys me though, because play used to be consistently cheapest which reduced the reward of shopping around.

[Ormingstoke]

Um, why bother.

In my opinion the US boxes are much better.

I've no argument with Play, use them all the time, always reliable, get DVDs early too.

[ThePigMarcher]

I have never had a problem with play , and have used them for a while now. Although for any major releases that I may get impatient waiting for I always go with gameplay because the shipping times from Jersey can be a bit slow. Other than that I have always found them to be very good.

Despite the above , I tend to use blah nowdays as there prices are sometimes a bit cheaper - they also come highly recommended.

[Maverick]

Does it really matter if it's an American copy or not?
This is the main factory me personally i have never had any problems with play but i am a more frequent amazon/ebay user.

[Bren]

i agree, the USA DS boxes are so much better, i try my hardest to get US instead of UK, get them first aswell.

[Infinete]

with ds catrirdges though, i do beilieve that a us cannot link up easily with a uk, although it should not mater with maro kart, as it has that global wifi thingy.

[ViPeR]

I stopped using them ages ago. It wasn't anything major but I pre-ordered Timesplitters 2 from them about a week before release. A week after release i'm still waiting for it so I buy a copy from a shop. A few days later it arrives in the post, I send it back and get no refund. So yeh, sucky deal.

[Sprout]

I haven't had any problems from Play. But they better not mess up my Mario Kart DS order, or else...I'll...err...be very mad or something.

[elniro]

I've never had problems with play.com either, i prefer to do online shopping with them than anywhere else, because generally they have cheaper prices online than anywhere else

[blacklight]

Sent me the wrong thing once, wasn't too happy but I've had the wrong thing from Gameplay and had to wait ages with Amazon too so it probably wouldn't stop me buying from them again.

[Eddage]

Bastards? I just ordered Futurama seasons 1-4 and Family Guy seasons 1-3 for just under £100 from those guys! Don't see that happening anywhere else!

[demonmike04]

US DS games do not link up with UK DS games, i've tried, none of them worked.

Unless my DS just likes to piss me off...(which is actualy true, stupid DS)

[Kurtle Squad]

Play are SO slow!!!! I like Gameplay's service the best, though I mainly use Amazon.

[Ramar]

Play are SO slow!!!! I like Gameplay's service the best, though I mainly use Amazon.

You complain Play is slow.. but use Amazon. You sir must have major patience with Amazon.

I've used Play a few times, not for pre-orders. I found them good, I wasn't really fussed on how long it took for the goods to arrive (about 5 days IIRC) because they weren't important orders, but none the less, good service and cheap prices.

[Kurtle Squad]

:S It takes Amazon a couple of days. Play took about 5/6 days when I ordered AWDS (I got the PAL ver. btw)

[rokhed00]

Never had any problems with Play, ordered a few games and DVDs off them. Stuff always arrived quickly and the pre-orders I made actually turned up early.

[AshMat]

I dont buy ggames from play.com my mum uses it for cds but mot recently started using cdbang.com

I use gameplay, i pre-oredered nintendogs and got it 6th october, uk copy, cheaper price. I pre-ordered MKDS and WiFi adaptor on tursday and am hoping for the same service.

[Raining_again]

i order quite a bit off amazon and i find its really good in terms of delivery. 2 days which is awesome for us lot over here. theres a lot of websites that like to charge £10-£15 extra to ship to northern ireland, but amazon doesnt.

[Sarka]

It takes items 3 days or so from Play tome, in Shetland! Tehy are quicker than Gameplay in my experiences, with cheaper prices and better service etc.

[Atomic Boo]

i oredered 'ssx on tour' on amazon and it arrived rite on time for my bday 3days after i ordered it
i was chuffed to pieces

[Kurtle Squad]

It takes items 3 days or so from Play tome, in Shetland! Tehy are quicker than Gameplay in my experiences, with cheaper prices and better service etc.

But Gameplay have an online help service :confused:

[elniro]

from play for me the stuff i order arrives within 3 working days. And stuff which i preorder i usually get early like the zelda game i got over a week early

[Platty]

i use play.com all the time and never had any problems with them except the odd package going missing but thats mr naughty postman's fault and not play's! when things like that happen they have always sent me a new one free of charge.

if i was you i would ring them rather than email them, i always do if somethings wrong and it all gets sorted there and then.

i constantly order CD's and DVD's from them but tend to get my games from gameplay...

[Retro_Link]

I always use Play.com and they've always been GREAT!!

Good prices, Free delivery and never waited any longer than 2 days!!

[Infinete]

Bottom line is that play.com is getting to expensive, they used to be cheap but now the are almost the same as game.

[bryanee]

Nowhere near as expensive as GAME.

I find them to be one of the most reliable sites with excellent prices. I've had roughly 50ish things off the site with no problems what so ever. All arrived within 4 days and in perfect nick. Just pretty much done all my Chrimbo shopping with the website and not a single problem. Did feel sorry for the postie though. He must have had 7 jiffy bags to deliver me in one day.

[Cube]

No poblems with play. When i got Eternal Darkness off them, the game wasnt in the slot in the case and got scratched to hell. Wasnt their fault. i Emailed them and they told me to send it back. I sent it back and they sent a new copy of the game and refunded the P&P.

[rokhed00]

Bottom line is that play.com is getting to expensive, they used to be cheap but now the are almost the same as game.

In the same way as you're almost as tall as me?

[Infinete]

what are u on about, i dont know your hight, and im sure we were never the same hight anyway, unlike play .com and game.

[Raining_again]

In the same way as you're almost as tall as me?

Best comeback ever! arent you like 7ft or sumthin rokhed?

[Offerman]

Bottom line is that play.com is getting to expensive, they used to be cheap but now the are almost the same as game.

They dont cost anywhere near as much as Game. Besides they need to make a profit as much as any company.

[Infinete]

Best comeback ever! arent you like 7ft or sumthin rokhed?
what do you mean best come back, it doesnt even make sense, how can you compare our hight to shop sales.....???? :confused:

[Dieter]

what do you mean best come back, it doesnt even make sense, how can you compare our hight to shop sales.....???? :confused:


Dude, even I got that one. :hmm:


It was an analogy. Look it up.

[CompSci]

i never had problems with Play, heck i when serious sam 2 came out for the pc they were selling for £17.99 with free delivery, whilst other retailers were selling it for £25+ (excluding delivery)

[Offerman]

what do you mean best come back, it doesnt even make sense, how can you compare our hight to shop sales.....???? :confused:

You said Plays prices are nearly as much as game.

Rokhed was implying that thats like saying your nearly as tall as he is.

It was sarcasm, because Rokhed much, much taller then you are, just like Plays prices are indeed nowhere near as much as Games are. And they never will be.

They are in based in Jersey for tax purposes. Hence why they are so cheap, but because the goverment is cracking down they are having to slightly increase their prices to make the same return on revenue. However they will never have to charge as much as Game do. And if they do they are in trouble because they will go out of buisness because they canne compete.

[Infinete]

oh well i gues that the point is that i fell that gameplay is a better shop than play, and that games priceses are very high, like plays.

[Space]

You can't compare gameplay or game to play. Play is a discount store, the others largely offer close to RRP prices. This is why Play's service is going to be worse. You sometimes get what you pay for.

I buy loads of stuff from play.com. Over the years they've saved me hundreds of pounds. Their delivery isn't quick but their prices are great and generally things have been good.

Only one issue.. I bought Fantavision of PS2 (for £5 mind) and it was clearly pre-owned and scratched. I sent it back and they sent me another clearly pre-owned version. They refunded me for the price for the game along with the postage cost though so I got the second one for free. Clearly they had got a very cheap batch, but yes they should have stated it wasn't a new sealed copy.

But considering I've bought probably a hundred things from them I've been very happy.

[Twozzok]

So Pre-Orders genrally come day before/on day of release?

[Infinete]

there are some good quailitys of pla i guess, i do like the fact that they send their stuff early, and that it is good delivery, i just think they are expensive for what they do.

[Offerman]

there are some good quailitys of pla i guess, i do like the fact that they send their stuff early, and that it is good delivery, i just think they are expensive for what they do.

But what do you expect? Any company that offers just a few quid orf the RRP and free PnP is pretty fantastic; considering just how competitive game retail is. I mean its near impossible to shave a price orf a new game, when you consider just how many people need to make a profit. Bear in mind the retailer only makes a small profit anyway orf the game. We are talking possible 10-15% max. Thats a fact.

The price the publisher gives the game away is pretty standard, so all they can do to save the final consumer money is to knock down the mark up price. Now they can't afford to do that too much otherwise they wont make any worthwhile profits.

[Infinete]

i guess that your right.

[Space]

I'm pretty sure the retailer takes most of the profit. For books it's at least 50%.

[Raining_again]

Thats a fact.

but he said thats a fact :O

[Offerman]

I'm pretty sure the retailer takes most of the profit. For books it's at least 50%.

Bear with me Sir. I saw the ol' break down somewhere Sir. It was in the form of a pie chart. I think its in one of my magazines I'l see if I can scan it.

[KingJoe]

I'm very pro-play.com
They're fast enough fo me, and the one time a CD got 'lost' in the mail (I have suspicions that an old flat mate nicked it though) they sent another out pronto, no fuss. Good old play.

[skarmachild]

You really want those VIP points, don't you?

Well at least someone knows..

And I can't play Multi-Card play with my friends, because my mates have the UK copy.

[Colin]

I'm pretty sure the retailer takes most of the profit. For books it's at least 50%.

I saw the ol' break down somewhere Sir. It was in the form of a pie chart. I think its in one of my magazines I'l see if I can scan it.

Yeah, retailers do make bugger all on games. They typically buy a £34.99 game for around £23, then the 17.5% is then taken. So retailers are looking only at a 10%-15% profit max like Offerman said, and while it's Christmas and retailers are competing it'll most likely be even less than that.

And play.com rock, as they happily sent me a £5 voucher. :wink:

[Noodleman]

And play.com rock, as they happily sent me a £5 voucher. :wink:

They also sent me one as well, The shining for 99p cant be beat I do believe.

[Towers]

I often find that if you preorder with play you get things cheaper as well. Especially games.
Wifi Dongle £14.99 when I preordered current price £24.99
Mario Kart £25.99 when preordered, current price £27.99