Poor packaging resulting in damaged CE items

[AlexFlynn]

Originally Posted by xhunter

GAME sent me the Halo: MCC special edition in a bubble mailer. It was squished.

Same here. The envelope was squished, the box was torn, the steel is bent and has a huge dent.

They wrote me to send it back to a freepost adress. Does it mean I have to pay for the shipping or not? Because here in Germany we have the possibility to mark it as "Recipient pays".

How is the shipping within the UK? Because I would really like to have that Halo SE again. And also would like to preorder another game where you get a free Shirt but only within the UK. My plan is to send it to someone here on the forum who can forward it to me in a good packing.

[Tacoshark]

Oh I got a story for this thread. Sorry if this goes on for a while but this was a particularly bad screwing.

I found a listing for a Mass Effect Saren lithograph, from first glance it seemed to be the full-size, super rare one (maybe you can see where this is going). The package I got arrived looking like this:






...yea, and that was the half of it. Inside there was absolutely zero protection for the print. No acid-free paper wrapping, no bubble wrap or crumbled paper to cushion, and no "fragile" or "handle with care" stickers on the tube, hence the top third being crushed. Since the cap was squeezed into the tube it was moving around in there and it is a minor miracle the print was not scratched or creased by it or from rubbing against the tube, which was much more likely since it was a thin, 2.5" tube over twice as long as was necessary (wide tubes much better for prints). Now, if that was not enough, it turns out it was the mini-litho which is hardly rare and I payed way too much (more than I would like to admit) for, though it somehow was not damaged (still amazed by that).

Upon contacting the seller they immediately became very defensive, both about the shipping and item. My concerns with the shipping were scoffed at, saying the print was not damaged so I have nothing to legitimately complain about. Despite the ambiguous description, which I compared with several other listings, and use a stock photo implying it to be the full-size litho, she threatened and insulted me claiming I was a scammer with buyer's remorse. I made the point if that was the case I would had just crumpled the print and claimed damage during transport to guarantee a return of money. I filed a claim with Ebay but after a back and forth it became clear Ebay would side with them this time.

[KnightOfTruth]

Originally Posted by xhunter

GAME sent me the Halo: MCC special edition in a bubble mailer. It was squished. And now it has been 40 days since I ordered an item and it has not shown up. 5 more days and I can get my money back. So ridiculous.

Yeah gotta say that GAME was also my worst experience from the UK. They're 0/2 and now I just rely on our friendly UK members who are willing to help. It may cost a bit more or take some more time, but it saves the headaches from dealing with GAME.

On the other side of the coin, I ordered 2 items (in one order) from 365games in the UK and they arrived in 2 separate boxes, SUPER quickly and without incident.

[xhunter]

Originally Posted by KnightOfTruth

Yeah gotta say that GAME was also my worst experience from the UK. They're 0/2 and now I just rely on our friendly UK members who are willing to help. It may cost a bit more or take some more time, but it saves the headaches from dealing with GAME.

On the other side of the coin, I ordered 2 items (in one order) from 365games in the UK and they arrived in 2 separate boxes, SUPER quickly and without incident.

Yeah, I'm 0/2 with GAME as well. Planning to enlist the help of a fellow member next time I need something here.

I'll give 365games a try.

[Interinactive]

In my experience, EB games have been the worst when it comes to shipping items incorrectly that results in damage. eg:




That packing case is way too thin for the content inside. Here's the result of boxes that are too small from EB:








I must have complained a dozen times now, yet last week I still received an item with a crushed box.

This one was brilliant. It should have been damaged but was not. It is theGround Zeroes CE for the PS4:




That there is nothing but the gamebox and some cardboard, yet it arrived in MINT condition.

Here's another from Larian:




But they sent another one out free of charge.

Each of the following are damaged, so they kept sending out more:




They eventually sent out a signed one, for free, but it still came damaged. I had the worst luck and felt so bad for them because they just kept trying. The packaging never changed though, so they just kept getting dented in some place or another. They probably thought I'd sell them, but I couldn't bring myself to if I tried!

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Twisted

send GAME customer service pictures of the damage and they may send you a replacement or a prepaid shipping label to return for refund..they have done for me in the past, when receiving damaged items from the UK to the US..but be careful..my account was "banned" afterwards. but i was able to quickly set up a new one.

Originally Posted by 0329liuken

Did you order from Game.co.uk? If you did, I don't think you'll have any luck for exchange or return... I had same experience with a steelbook edition of a game, which was worth ~$80 when it was released. It arrived bent with dent... I contacted Game's customer service, they told me they've issued me a £5 gift card as goodwill...

Originally Posted by xhunter

GAME sent me the Halo: MCC special edition in a bubble mailer. It was squished. And now it has been 40 days since I ordered an item and it has not shown up. 5 more days and I can get my money back. So ridiculous.

GAME is probably the worst supplier in the UK, it kind of sucks that they get these exclusive deals. Otherwise I normally try to buy elsewhere.

Out of curiosity did you guys in the US pay the base price? i.e. the same price the people in the UK pay? if you guys did the you probably got shafted again! Technically as you guys are outside the EU, you should not be subjected to VAT so should have a 20% discount from the price we pay - if they didn't do the 20% adjustment they probably kept the money for themselves and declared the transaction on their VAT return as an export so not liable to pay the taxman the 20% of your sale.

Amazon is probably the only one I know of that does this properly if you order from Amazon UK.

[Dreamcazman]

Originally Posted by Raven

GAME is probably the worst supplier in the UK, it kind of sucks that they get these exclusive deals. Otherwise I normally try to buy elsewhere.

Out of curiosity did you guys in the US pay the base price? i.e. the same price the people in the UK pay? if you guys did the you probably got shafted again! Technically as you guys are outside the EU, you should not be subjected to VAT so should have a 20% discount from the price we pay - if they didn't do the 20% adjustment they probably kept the money for themselves and declared the transaction on their VAT return as an export so not liable to pay the taxman the 20% of your sale.

Amazon is probably the only one I know of that does this properly if you order from Amazon UK.

I rarely use GAME now, unless I absolutely have to. Their packaging has totally gone to shit since they nearly went broke. We used to have GAME here in Australia & their postage was awesome, everything came boxed with bubblewrap. Unfortunately they've been shut down over here.

It is true though that VAT does not get removed from their orders, Zavvi are the same. You are correct that Amazon remove the VAT and they rightfully should too.

[0329liuken]

Originally Posted by Raven

GAME is probably the worst supplier in the UK, it kind of sucks that they get these exclusive deals. Otherwise I normally try to buy elsewhere.

Out of curiosity did you guys in the US pay the base price? i.e. the same price the people in the UK pay? if you guys did the you probably got shafted again! Technically as you guys are outside the EU, you should not be subjected to VAT so should have a 20% discount from the price we pay - if they didn't do the 20% adjustment they probably kept the money for themselves and declared the transaction on their VAT return as an export so not liable to pay the taxman the 20% of your sale.

Amazon is probably the only one I know of that does this properly if you order from Amazon UK.

Yes we do, and I don't know why. When I purchase stuff from Amazon EU, I don't have to pay VAT, but I need to pay full price when purchasing from GAME...

[Cosmic_Link]

I personally think you're lucky it was sent in a box... Usually they just put sticky backed white bubble wrap shit on them and send them out... >.< If I was you I would contact them for some kind of resolution. If you don't get anywhere with that, make a charge back to your credit card and just chalk it up as a learning experience and in future I would advise contacting a UK member to assist with item forwarding. It's not convenient or as cheap but it avoids all kinds of headache like this.

There are plenty of members on this board who would help with UK forwarding.

[Dreamcazman]

I use Ozgameshop here in Australia. It's one of the same company as 365games and I find them really good.

Much better than GAME, that's for sure.