EBGames Can Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Of late I have been increasingly disgruntled with EBGames‘ policy of selling pre-ordered games. It’s been a vague dissatisfaction without any concrete evidence as to what makes it bad. The concept of pre-ordering a game to have a copy of it on release day seems reasonable until you’re faced with the alternative: not pre-ordering a game and expecting to get one on release day. EBGames is a retail store – a brick and mortar shop – that is in the business of selling games. I should be able to walk into a store and purchase it on the day it’s released. Not today, though! Civilization IV is in stores now, or it should be. If I had pre-ordered a copy from EBGames, I could have mine today. The Special Edition, available only through pre-orders is in-store now. But I didn’t pre-order one so I can’t get a copy. Even though they’re holding the non special-edition version of the game hostage in their back room until tomorrow. (Edit: I’m not 100% sure they received the non-special-edition the same day as the Special Edition. It made for a more dramatic statement though so I’ll leave it. Cuz I’m Pissed!) The sole reason for them to do this is to push their pre-order scam forcing people to give them money in advance of the actual release of the game.
Meanwhile, the Future Shops and Best Buys are awaiting delivery of their non special-edition games for me to purchase.
What makes all of this really frustrating is that there is no guarantee that you will get a copy of your game (or hardware) if you do pre-order it. You’re on a list and if they don’t get the number of items to accommodate everyone who pre-ordered, you get yours in the next shipment. Even if another EBGames store has extra copies down the road! So you’re taking a chance by giving them money up front. Some of my friends have pre-ordered Xbox 360s. I chose not to, thinking that when they’re released, I have a better chance of getting one at a Future Shop/Best Buy, a Walmart or a Toys ‘R’ Us. We’ll see if this holds true in about a month, and I will gleefully (or tearfully) post my results here.
Another annoying aspect of EBGames is their game selection. They’ve become increasingly geared towards selling console games. The last couple of times I went to their store, they had a smaller area devoted to PC games than to any of the various console systems. Maybe this is because the PC game market is dwindling, being forced out in favor of higher-selling console games that suffer less from piracy. Or maybe it’s because they’re no longer stocking PC hardware in any of the EBGames stores I’ve been in because selling it would require its staff to have actual knowledge of PC performance and that kind of expertise can get paid better elsewhere. But yeah, they’ll sell you a copy of Mario Kart.
And no, I don’t want to purchase “media protection” with my game for a dollar or two. That copy of Unreal Tournament I bought 5 years ago still works just fine because I took care of the media it came on.
The end of this frustrating story is that I’m still waiting for my copy of Civ4… I’d go to an EB and “pre-order” a copy of it but they won’t let me.
Petulantly, I remain…
Technorati Tags: Computing, Games
8 Comments
I just did a google on “civ4″ “special edition” and “future shop” (explaining why I came across your blog).
Funny thing to comment on (and yet frustrating)… I actually preordered my copy of civ4 from ebgames. I specifically asked for the special edition. Normally I don’t preorder, but the SE of civ4 comes with things like a sountrack at no extra cost, so I thought why not for a game I knew I would definitely get. For stupid reasons, and the company’s fault, my copy was not put in as an SE copy, just a regular. Soo… not only do I not get the SE copy which is annoying, I do not get civ4 as early as I could have (they did not get the regular in yet at any EB). I am not the only one who this has happened to, and talking to the clerk at EB who I know, there were a lot of other frustrated people. Also, a friend of mine on msn had the name “eb games screwed me” and when I inquired he had the exact same story as me. What I did was got a complete refund and I will now get it at FS tomorrow (friday) 10 dollars less than at EB (one day sale at FS though). I guess I save 10 dollars, but I am still extremely frustrated with this company that doesn’t seem to have any respect for [formerly] loyal PC game customers. From now on I will try to get games from other retailers unless eb is the only place I can reasonably find it – at least at other places I am not hammered with questions like scratch protection purchases when I try to buy a game.
Anyway, just thought you might like to hear someone who had a similar experience over the same thing.
Posted by Jon on 27 October 2005 @ 8pm
Thanks for the comment, Jon. I feel your pain. I too hope to purchase a copy tomorrow but am not going to place money on whether or not I’ll actually get one.
Most of my dissatisfaction with this situation I have shifted to the distributor of Civ4 (Take2?) who apparently didn’t do a very good job of shipping this out on time. While I still find EBGames’ policy of pushing pre-orders annoying, I suppose they can’t be blamed for the total lack of CivIV in Canada.
I have heard that Vancouver has copies. Anyone feel like jetting out to the west coast to bring us poor Easterners a copy?
Posted by boolean on 27 October 2005 @ 11pm
The US got copies fine as far as I can tell. It’s just us Canadians who can’t get a copy. Argh.
Posted by dria on 27 October 2005 @ 11pm
Why do they hate us so? Whyyy?
Posted by boolean on 27 October 2005 @ 11pm
I too got screwed by an EBgames store (EB = Evil bollocks?) but not on a pre order. I purchased a “pre owned” (meaning damaged) PS2 system, memory card and a couple games. After the sales droid went to the back of the store 3 times to get a working system he told me it was cleaned, tested, refurbished and working (a blatant lie) but wouldnt let me test it before taking it home (I should’ve gotton suspicious and walked out right then). He also told me it had a 90 day in store warranty (another lie) and I could purchase an “extended” 6 month warranty. As it turns out the “90 day in store warranty” or any other warranty as after 2 months the system went on me. After contacting the store I purchased from and through ebgames.com thats when I found out the system had absolutely no warranty at all and they also claimed the warranty was printed on the reciept both on the front and again on the back (yet another lie) yet when I look at the reciept which I still have, the front mentions nothing about the warranty, the back side contains only the EBgames logo printed in red.
Its not only the fact that they sold me a system they new wasnt tested and would probably fail that burns me. Meaning I have spent a small fortune on a system and several games since then which are not totally useless. Whats especially galling that right from the start and up until now EBgames continues to blatantly lie about the whole situation to avoid making right on their own mistakes
Moral of the story: when dealing with these places, if its not in writing then don’t believe anything they say. If you can’t see the product you want working before you pay for it, or at least before you leave the store, spend your money elsewhere. Me, I wont be dealing with ebgames again. I also won’t be “pre ordering” anything from any business again, not only is there no way of knowing if you’ll ever receiving anything you’ll never know even if you do, if it will be in working condition or not.
Posted by James on 21 November 2005 @ 3pm
I feel your frustration, James. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by boolean on 21 November 2005 @ 4pm
dont shop at EB games……i work there for a year……..that place drains you of your soul……there was soo many shady transaction…i had to leave
Posted by killerbunny on 7 February 2006 @ 10am
glad to hear from an insider. Thanks for the comment, killerbunny. we appreciate your brave admission!
Posted by boolean on 7 February 2006 @ 11am