Sadly this is a growing case of buyer beware. Even walking
into a big box store like Best Buy, that also sells used games, it is getting
harder to distinguish between the new and used games. I am actually surprised
it has taken a retailer this long to make this kind of move.
What is obvious to me is the timing of such a move. This is
the peak time of year where gamers don't buy their games for themselves. With
Christmas just weeks away, all of the gamers relatives are out en-mass with wish
lists in tow. These are the poor unsuspecting souls who will not know that
there is a difference between new and used within a gaming retailer and will
just see the game their loved one wants and will pick it up without truly
looking at the price or any words written on said price tag. Retailers usually put
their name on the price tags, who would think that the new or used tag would be
used there instead.
While this might have an immediate positive effect to the
bottom line during the Christmas rush; when the gifts are opened and the truth
comes out about the tactics used to sell an item you are only going to truly be
hurting your bottom line in the long run. The fastest way to lose customers is
to upset them or a relative. Imagine when the game is opened on Christmas day
and the gamer goes to play the game only to realize that the game is used and
that the features they expect are unavailable or they have to pay extra to get
them. Are they going to go to the retailer first? No, they are going to go to
the person who bought the game and enquirer why a used game was bought in the
first place. Who would want a used game for Christmas? You now have two unhappy
people; the gamer for getting a used game and the person who bought the game
for feeling duped or even worse, ripped off. A customer who feels they have
been cheated or ripped off is a retailer's nightmare. Because they usually have
no qualm about going back to the store and complain or the other thing that
usually happens is that no one involved in the situation goes back to the store
again and they seek out alternatives to fill their loved one's requests in the
future.
Case in point, my mother, who is in her late sixty's has
opened a Steam account just so that she can play Pop-cap games and to take
advantage of their quarterly sales when I (her son) or one of her grandchildren
want a game for Christmas or for a Birthday. No fuss and we usually get the
best version of the game and on top of that with Steam's wish list feature she
doesn't even have to ask us what we want; she looks it up and just picks
something off the list.
Want to fight the system on this one... don't go to the
clerk behind the counter (they don't get paid enough to take crap from their
bosses and from cheesed off customers) talk to the manager and ask for the
regional manager/director's phone number. Complain up the chain to as close to
the companies head office as you can get. If you get that far, they know that
there are at least ten to twenty other customers who are upset and are not
saying anything. Better yet use the tried and true method of showing a retailer
you are upset with them. Stop buying from them in the first place.
