EB Games pulls fast one

E

elderdog

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 13, 2003
Messages
97
Not sure if this is common knowledge, but I (well the wife actually) made an online store pick-up purchase of F.E.A.R Directors cut DVD for $49.99 (got the receipt and everything), but when I went to pick it up they changed the price to $54.99. In the adult world this is actually considered unethical business practice, and furthermore just pure deception, bate and switch, or whatever you want to call it.

EBGames doesn't feel this way. A district rep called me and told me the prices on the website are merely best guesses and the price could be different when the product is picked up at your local store. I don't know about you, but that is BS in my book.

So what's my point? Buy from someone else if you really want to pay the price on your online receipt for a pre-release game.

ba bye
 
That suck's, I'd take that to you're city's Consumer rep, I think that's the right dept.
 
I don't know when you pre-ordered. But when I preordered, but shipped not pickup, they said that if you pre-ordered you could get the dir. cut for $49.99. and thats what i was charged.

They knew what it would cost, it wasn't a guess. Sometimes, especially if its really early, they really dont know, but they should make it clear in those situations. I'd definitely complain.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. I may pursure it further, just to make sure they burn at least 100 times as much money letting me know they will not make up the difference.

I did make a complaint on the store, but was contacted by what they called a district representative, not a City Consumer Rep. He backed the store up and is the one that told me the online pricing was a best guess. His voice was shaking like crazy, since I'm sure he was told by someone else to say it, and it was a lie. If you go to the site now, the price is $54.99 for the released game.

I think the pre-release in-store pick-up is handled differently in every store, and if someone got the price on the pre-release receipt when they picked up the game, they were lucky the store management was on the consumer's side. Here in Gilroy California the store is only interested in making as much money as possible. Such is business.

With the in-store pickup they apparently didn't want to fully close the transaction until the game was picked up. This may have been my wife's choice as I was not the one buying the pre-order online. I would have walked out of the store with nothing, but then they would have shipped it to my address and charged me another $5. That is what the online store pick up receipt says if the product is not picked up in 48 hours.

But in the end the main point is that EBGames does indeed suck. EBGames is purely retail. When I do the buying (and that is how it will be from now on), I buy games at Fry's Electronics. Nobody else around here comes close to a Fry's sale price price near the release date. I can't seem to drill that into the rest of my familiy's collective mind though. They like to pay a premium just so they don't drive too far. Lazy
 
Huggles said:
All this over $5?
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it's not about the money. i've driven back to Wendy's because they forgot my .99 5 piece nugget.
 
Huggles said:
All this over $5?
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It's the principle of the matter.

Next week it might be $10. What's to keep them from doing something like this in the future with something more expensive, like a game console or video card? 10% off something like that is a much bigger dent in the pocket book, and all because "we advertised a 'best guess.'" If the price online wasn't advertised as subject to change, then you have a valid complaint that I would definitely take to the proper authorities. Corporations aren't allowed to get away with this, unless you let them.
 
the store should have had a cupon to scan to knock 5 bucks off the preordered price to 49.99, I saw one in our store the other day specifically for pre orders only.
 
you sure its not just tax they included on your pickup?

If you paid for it online, they shouldnt have charged you more when you got there...

nonetheless, I cant stand ebgames, so I stay as far away as possible unless there is no other option. I havent had it come to that in many years now though....
 
Thanks for letting us know. I will personally boycott Ebgames for my future purchases, and with the 360 coming out, that will be a lot more than 5 bucks they'll be losing from me. Hearing that just chaps my ass.
 
i pre-ordered the Quake 4 DVD online and had it set to instore pick up. At the end of the transaction online, it said that my credit card would not be charged until i picked up the game.

When I went to get the game, the guy at EB asked how i'd pre-ordered it and I told him online. He said it was strange because the pre-order slip said i made a $0 deposit, and that he hadn't seen that before...

I'm guessing that when you preorder online, it doesnt even do a transaction, just keeps a record that you are supposed to get one. The transaction occurs when you pick up the game.

but still, that sucks that they charged you more.
 
They can get pretty shady. I preordered and paid for part of a game. When it came out, i went to pay for the rest and it was 54.99!

Before it said 49.99.. When I asked about it they "couldn't do anyting about their prices" :rolleyes:

They always charge full price and sometimes more. Now, I only shop there for maybe a cheap used game.
 
Unless their orderform has some kind of disclaimer I would think that is illegal.
It sounds like you had a valid contract for 49.99

I haven't shopped at EB in years. Ever since they stopped their policy of
allowing the return of opened games within 10 days no questions asked. Their selling practices and prices suck.
 
I used to buy all my games at EB Games but then I started taking the WalMart route after I read about another [H] Member being disgruntled towards them, them bastards!
 
Most stores won't take back opened games unless to replace it with a good copy if it's bad. Too many people would copy them and then return it to get free games...I usually only go to EB to check out their bargain bins tho.... :D
 
Jeriko_Cherry said:
yeah, make a report to the Better Business Bureau. That's just not right.

http://www.bbb.org/
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BBB doesn't actually od anything. They file a complaint and a mark is put against EB Games. Nothing is actually physically done to EB Games.

And yes, it's considered false advertising. It is actually illegal. If it's posted at one price and they tell you it's another they have to eat the difference and give you the item for the price you saw it marked at.

For example, FEAR is $45 dollars, you pay online and they tell you at the store $55 legally, they have to give it to you for $45. Especially if you paid for it already.

The prices on the website need to reflect the prices at the store. Plain and simple.
 
erf said:
it's not about the money. i've driven back to Wendy's because they forgot my .99 5 piece nugget. biatch.
Click to expand...

Now I understand. EB screwed you out of $5 and you could have bought five 5-piece nuggets with the money.
 
you did an instore pickup? you did read the website right? where it says Ebgames is not responsible for typos or whatever on the website? Instore and online are different....

also yeah if you get it shipped you may have saved your 5 dollars...or they charged you 5 dollars for holding it. IM not sure but....next time pre order it in the store and dont be lazy.

the online website isnt linked to the store. They do/sell alot of stuff we do not, in the stores
 
elderdog said:
When I do the buying (and that is how it will be from now on), I buy games at Fry's Electronics. Nobody else around here comes close to a Fry's sale price price near the release date. I can't seem to drill that into the rest of my familiy's collective mind though. They like to pay a premium just so they don't drive too far. Lazy
Click to expand...

If anyone is lucky enough to live near a fry's, go there. I've had a frustrating couple of years with EB, as they slowly decended to the level of pond scum, with them either not carrying a game on release day, or only carrying the CD-ROM version of it.

(For any EB retail managers who might be reading this: have you ever noticed that the DVD versions of games sell out instantly, but your stuck with 20 copies of the CD-ROM version? Did it ever occur to you that you just might want to order more of the DVD version and less of the useless CD-ROM version?)

When I went to go and get Quake 4, all they had was the CD-ROM version on the shelf. When I asked if they had it on DVD, I got the EB motto "you should have pre-ordered." So with that, I left EB for the last time and went to fry's, where they (not exadurating) had 2 shopping carts full of the DVD version and 2 carts full of the CD-ROM version.

From now on, Fry's is my first stop for games. I had forgotten what it was like to be able to get a game on release day hastle free.

...and it's kind of ironic that the worst place to get games theses days is at a game store.
 
I've only gone to EBG for used games cheap. Now they're not dealing in used games anymore, so looks like they'll never see me again.
 
EB didn't intentionally raise the prices for FEAR preorders, it was a pricing mistake in their computers (according the manager at my local EB anyway). If you got the cashier to call their head offices they wouldve gotten the correct price. The EB where I got FEAR luckily still had a FEAR preorder cardboard cutout in the store with $49.99 on it so I didn't have to wait for them to call anyone.
 
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