Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked Permanent Price Drop - $30

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$30 Gamers Club Unlocked

  • Save 20% on new video games, receive 10% bonus trade-in credit on games, plus other benefits. Terms and conditions apply. In-store activation required.
Was $99.99, now $30 for two years. Begins March 8th:
https://corporate.bestbuy.com/just-30-the-new-price-to-join-my-best-buys-gamers-club-unlocked/
 
Membership benefits:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/regularcatpcmcat338600050004/gamers-club/pcmcat338600050004.c?id=pcmcat338600050004
 
20% off new games, 10% off pre-owned, 10% extra trade-in credit, B2G1 Free Coupon and 50% off strategy guide coupon in Welcome Packet/email. Discount not applicable for consoles or accessories, but works on interactive gaming figures like amiibo, Disney Infinity, and Skylanders.
 
FAQ

 
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slowdive21 said:
He messaged me in 2013 about my GCU, but I didn't think he actually worked for BB. oops.
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He works for corporate at BBY as well. He is someone who I can say has consumers in mind with what he does, but he also has BBY's bottom line in mind as well, so while he does his best to help consumers/CAG, he has to help BBY more.

 
I don't think Best Buy is doing nearly as bad as you guys think they are. They had a lot of bad press a few years ago saying they would soon go the way of Circuit City, but Best Buy has seriously turned it around. They still have some kinks to work out but really, they aren't going anywhere.

 
thesuzukimethod said:
for those talking out your ass about the discount going away, remember, we have a best buy rep here on cag that helps with question...including this post.
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Oh you mean the same guy that said to us the original GCU memberships would be extended to February and never were?

Ill take what he says with a grain of salt

 
Lord Hamm said:
Oh you mean the same guy that said to us the original GCU memberships would be extended to February and never were?

Ill take what he says with a grain of salt
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Actually they were.

But, you have some weird hate with best buy and will make shit up just to try and make them look bad.

 
Hey all,

Will answer the questions that are going around.

  • Yes, I work for Best Buy.
  • Yes, I have talked to CheapyD about becoming a confirmed rep. I have not done that as I'm only able to be on here from time to time. Working to get us an official rep here who can be on to answer questions that come up and help solve problems that arise. We value the insight and activity of this community. We have taken MANY suggestions from this community and implemented them to better serve the community.
  • The 20% discount is and will continue to be a major benefit of the program. Can it change? Yes it can. It is right there in the terms and conditions of the program. BUT... companies do not put out press releases about a program they are offering (particularly loyalty program related) and then change the program immediately following that release. Not ones that want to be around for long, anyways.
  • We did extend memberships as stated that we would. While it is possible some were missed as working with systems and databases don't always go as planned, we did our best to take care of anyone who had an issue getting the extension through our Best Buy Unboxed forums. That team is really a great resource for issues such as this and many more problems that unintentionally arise.
  • Yes, Best Buy's financial situation is pretty strong. Google the stock and check for yourself. Those that nerd out on financial stuff will enjoy the read.
All that being said, everyone is free to have their opinions on the program and the company. We'd like to have you buy all your games and electronics from us. We believe our program is quite attractive for gaming enthusiasts but understand it's a decision you need to make for yourself based upon many factors. Your opinion and decision will be made with where you spend your hard earned dollars.

Again, I/we hope you choose BBY and GCU.

Thanks once again to all current GCU members and also welcome all new members to the group!

 
dc delta90 said:
Hey all,

Will answer the questions that are going around.

  • Yes, I work for Best Buy.
  • Yes, I have talked to CheapyD about becoming a confirmed rep. I have not done that as I'm only able to be on here from time to time. Working to get us an official rep here who can be on to answer questions that come up and help solve problems that arise. We value the insight and activity of this community. We have taken MANY suggestions from this community and implemented them to better serve the community.
  • The 20% discount is and will continue to be a major benefit of the program. Can it change? Yes it can. It is right there in the terms and conditions of the program. BUT... companies do not put out press releases about a program they are offering (particularly loyalty program related) and then change the program immediately following that release. Not ones that want to be around for long, anyways.
  • We did extend memberships as stated that we would. While it is possible some were missed as working with systems and databases don't always go as planned, we did our best to take care of anyone who had an issue getting the extension through our Best Buy Unboxed forums. That team is really a great resource for issues such as this and many more problems that unintentionally arise.
  • Yes, Best Buy's financial situation is pretty strong. Google the stock and check for yourself. Those that nerd out on financial stuff will enjoy the read.
All that being said, everyone is free to have their opinions on the program and the company. We'd like to have you buy all your games and electronics from us. We believe our program is quite attractive for gaming enthusiasts but understand it's a decision you need to make for yourself based upon many factors. Your opinion and decision will be made with where you spend your hard earned dollars.

Again, I/we hope you choose BBY and GCU.

Thanks once again to all current GCU members and also welcome all new members to the group!
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Off topic but can you get me a final fantasy type 0 ce lol. Thanks for your help on all you do here for us.
 
I think BB is going to change the terms so that any of us that have a membership will pay a 20% markup over MSRP. Quick, someone file a class action suit to stop this injustice!!!!!!

Seriously... After enrolling a bunch of new members, do you think that BB would want the bad will that a material change like that would generate. Jesus, people are stupid...
 
crazedracerguy said:
I think BB is going to change the terms so that any of us that have a membership will pay a 20% markup over MSRP. Quick, someone file a class action suit to stop this injustice!!!!!!

Seriously... After enrolling a bunch of new members, do you think that BB would want the bad will that a material change like that would generate. Jesus, people are stupid...
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It's always the same people.
 
YBX87 said:
people literally ran them off, when there is an issue. look at what happen to neweggjeff recently, poor guy.
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That's not true. Josh from KMart had his entire team downsized and him moved to the Facebook part of KMart marketing. He saw the sinking ship of KMart/Sears and then started his own gaming news site, and now is working PR for Bethesda.

Cheapy talked about the Amazon PC guy 2 CAGCast's ago and basically said he got a better job somewhere else and there were no issues with CAG.

It's BB that has the bad history with CAG in terms of official represenation. On the same show I just mentioned, Cheapy talked about how he had a 1-2 hour talk with the guy who was supposed to become BB's official CAG rep from corporate and when Cheapy hadn't heard from the guy in a couple of weeks he looked into it and the guy was leaving BB and no one (at that time) would be taking his place on CAG.

 
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dc delta90 said:
Hey all,

Will answer the questions that are going around.

  • Yes, I work for Best Buy.
  • Yes, I have talked to CheapyD about becoming a confirmed rep. I have not done that as I'm only able to be on here from time to time. Working to get us an official rep here who can be on to answer questions that come up and help solve problems that arise. We value the insight and activity of this community. We have taken MANY suggestions from this community and implemented them to better serve the community.
  • The 20% discount is and will continue to be a major benefit of the program. Can it change? Yes it can. It is right there in the terms and conditions of the program. BUT... companies do not put out press releases about a program they are offering (particularly loyalty program related) and then change the program immediately following that release. Not ones that want to be around for long, anyways.
  • We did extend memberships as stated that we would. While it is possible some were missed as working with systems and databases don't always go as planned, we did our best to take care of anyone who had an issue getting the extension through our Best Buy Unboxed forums. That team is really a great resource for issues such as this and many more problems that unintentionally arise.
  • Yes, Best Buy's financial situation is pretty strong. Google the stock and check for yourself. Those that nerd out on financial stuff will enjoy the read.
All that being said, everyone is free to have their opinions on the program and the company. We'd like to have you buy all your games and electronics from us. We believe our program is quite attractive for gaming enthusiasts but understand it's a decision you need to make for yourself based upon many factors. Your opinion and decision will be made with where you spend your hard earned dollars.

Again, I/we hope you choose BBY and GCU.

Thanks once again to all current GCU members and also welcome all new members to the group!
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Thank you and welcome to CAG. Hopefully things will go smoothly for you here.

As I stated before I've now got what I paid for GCU via the buy phone ($15 Go Phone) get GCU free promotion from last fall, but it's been a bit of a struggle to get the full value initially as the inventory of games offered by Best Buy is pretty poor unless you preorder all of your AAA games there. Also needing 4 associates and 20 minutes to find a Deluxe Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition on PS4 on launch night is kinda of ridiculous.

And with all the horror stories from the past CE threads on CAG of CE's being canceled going all the way back to Forza 4 CE, Dark Souls 1 CE, and Witcher 2 360 CE, plus my own experience having to wait an hour and call corporate while in store over not getting the Metalpak for Batman: Arkham Origins, with one of the service desk reps flat out lying to me, only for two of the stores media reps to finally find the box in the corner of the back room, I don't trust BB for preorders.

Plus I never got my welcome packet for signing up for GCU and I just haven't cared enough to post on the BB forums to beg for it to be resent to me.

 
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I got my card in the mail yesterday, Guess I'll have to go to a store (closest one near me is like 40 miles away) to get it registered.

Does anyone know what they will ask me? Other than the email that my bestbuy account is registered on I suppose...?

 
I'm pretty sure the program won't be changing soon and the price drop is just to get some more game sales. Personally, I almost never went to Best Buy before, and now they're where I buy pretty much all of my games. They could be better about some things (order status page is a goddamn mess, not sure why you can't filter it to just show preorders... Across the board release day shipping would be nice... Etc) but the sizeable discount makes up for it.

I would guess if they change anything, it'll be raising the membership price up to ~$60 or so, a middle ground. I would still think that's a reasonable price if the discount remains at 20%.
 
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Just an FYI, check your GCU expiration date if you are a member.  Especially all of us that had our date fixed because of error back when they started the program.  Apparently they have messed up and reverted expiration dates back to what they were which has resulted in many people being expired (and no one should be expired yet since the program is less than two years old).  I was told it would take 7-10 days to resolve and my benefits would be unavailable in that time period.  Don't wait until you are ready to make a purchase (like I was) to find out your expiration date got re-messed up.

Very, very unhappy.

 
I feel it could change in the future, but I think whoever has it before they change it will be fine and grandfathered in,I don't think they could change it for current members anytime soon due to "bait and switch" laws
 
Membership already paid off after my first purchase. Obvious discount from GCU on Final Fantasy pre-order, and I used all the welcome coupons I could since they expired on the 20th. Additional 5 off the game and got the hardcover guide for half off (which was already discounted by $10 for some reason). Pretty awesome savings =).

 
I got a question, I picked up a pre-order card for Bloodborne for next week so I can get the pre-order bonus while I pay for it the day of release since I am getting a Reward Coupon that day. But will the GCU will be discounted when I pay for it, including the $5 I put down? I ask since the pre-order stated I still owed $59 after the $5, meaning the GCU wasn't used.

 
Rirse said:
I got a question, I picked up a pre-order card for Bloodborne for next week so I can get the pre-order bonus while I pay for it the day of release since I am getting a Reward Coupon that day. But will the GCU will be discounted when I pay for it, including the $5 I put down? I ask since the pre-order stated I still owed $59 after the $5, meaning the GCU wasn't used.
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you'll get the discount at the time of pick up. you can pay for it in full for 59.99+tax, and at the time of pick up you'll get your 20% back in whatever form of payment you used.

 
s2k said:
you'll get the discount at the time of pick up. you can pay for it in full for 59.99+tax, and at the time of pick up you'll get your 20% back in whatever form of payment you used.
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Okay thank you for telling me this. I was just a little worried that I might screw myself out of the GCU discount.

 
I haven't read anything past the first few pages where someone said they don't understand how best buy makes any money off this now.. It's pretty simple. The discount is 20% off.. All they have to do is sell 20% more games to break even. To overly simplify it, the 30$ is all profit. Then the person who paid 30$ just needs to spend 20% more at best buy than they normally would on games - if you NEVER buy any games at Best Buy, but you buy one from there now, they've already made more of a profit than they would have made if you continued buying all your games at gamestop or amazon.
 
Rirse said:
Okay thank you for telling me this. I was just a little worried that I might screw myself out of the GCU discount.
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Also when you go pick up your game, make sure they take the $5 you already put down off the price. It seems to be a normal issue with instore preorders at BB. Personally I just preorder from the site, and occasionally do store pick up.
 
RistoGriffith said:
I haven't read anything past the first few pages where someone said they don't understand how best buy makes any money off this now.. It's pretty simple. The discount is 20% off.. All they have to do is sell 20% more games to break even. To overly simplify it, the 30$ is all profit. Then the person who paid 30$ just needs to spend 20% more at best buy than they normally would on games - if you NEVER buy any games at Best Buy, but you buy one from there now, they've already made more of a profit than they would have made if you continued buying all your games at gamestop or amazon.
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I'm sorry, but that is also sorts of wrong, and shows a lack of understanding of both math and business. For example, you are treating revenue as profit, ignoring profit margins, and the 20% in the 2 sections I've bolded do not mean the same thing as each other, but you seem to think they do. I will concede your point that if someone who never buys any games from BB pays $30 for GCU and then buys only 1 game then BB comes out ahead (and the consumer in that example clearly loses), but that is a pretty weak example. If their profit margin usually nets them more than $12 on a $60 game, then it will take them a lot longer to break even on a GCU member buying just games.
 
guessed said:
I'm sorry, but that is also sorts of wrong, and shows a lack of understanding of both math and business. For example, you are treating revenue as profit, ignoring profit margins, and the 20% in the 2 sections I've bolded do not mean the same thing as each other, but you seem to think they do. I will concede your point that if someone who never buys any games from BB pays $30 for GCU and then buys only 1 game then BB comes out ahead (and the consumer in that example clearly loses), but that is a pretty weak example. If their profit margin usually nets them more than $12 on a $60 game, then it will take them a lot longer to break even on a GCU member buying just games.
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Right, profit margins on games are notoriously thin to begin with (hence the used market being gamestop's Thang) and so with GCU they're not making much at all on most sales. Hell, with the $10 cert promos they're almost certainly losing money.

But he is right that, in cases like my own, where I never bought games there before but exclusively do now, they do come out ahead, even if it's in small increments.
 
guessed said:
I'm sorry, but that is also sorts of wrong, and shows a lack of understanding of both math and business. For example, you are treating revenue as profit, ignoring profit margins, and the 20% in the 2 sections I've bolded do not mean the same thing as each other, but you seem to think they do. I will concede your point that if someone who never buys any games from BB pays $30 for GCU and then buys only 1 game then BB comes out ahead (and the consumer in that example clearly loses), but that is a pretty weak example. If their profit margin usually nets them more than $12 on a $60 game, then it will take them a lot longer to break even on a GCU member buying just games.
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The above is true. I'm a "Buyer" for a large company and media has probably the WORST profit margins. The WORST! You have to take into account landed costs and margins. Landed costs isn't just the cost of the goods being sold but also freight, etc. So even if they are making $12 per game that may or may not even factor in additional costs. Shipping, etc.

The reason why BB offers a GCU is because they want one simple thing, a customer to purchase from them and continue to purchase from them. Once they have you as a customer they can try to upsell you on other things, or when you get that $5 cert, you feel inclined to make a purchase in order to use it, a purchase a regular customer may not have made initially. There are so many tactics it's not even funny but that's the nature of retail.

Unlike clothing where the more units you buy, the company gets a price break, I don' think media has pricing tiers. If Best Buy purchases 100 games or 1000 games, their cost is still the same. but apparel, if you buy 144 units, cost may be $6. If you buy 360 cost may be $5 and if you buy 1000 units cost may be $4.50 increasing margins.

 
guessed said:
I'm sorry, but that is also sorts of wrong, and shows a lack of understanding of both math and business. For example, you are treating revenue as profit, ignoring profit margins, and the 20% in the 2 sections I've bolded do not mean the same thing as each other, but you seem to think they do. I will concede your point that if someone who never buys any games from BB pays $30 for GCU and then buys only 1 game then BB comes out ahead (and the consumer in that example clearly loses), but that is a pretty weak example. If their profit margin usually nets them more than $12 on a $60 game, then it will take them a lot longer to break even on a GCU member buying just games.
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I saw this guys post around when he made it and it was too late for me to even begin to respond, I was hoping by the time I got on CAG after I woke up someone else would have addressed it. Thanks!

 
Anyone's GCU not showing up anymore?  I just bought some games on bestbuy.com yesterday, but when I added a few to my cart today, no discount, and it doesn't show up in my account...

 
SrDiesel49 said:
ya bestbuy is changing the site yet again. seems like they change it way too much.
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I hate the new layout. UNlike amazon it doesn't tell you if you bought an item before. I used to be able to just go to past orders and skim them to see if id bought anything with a ctrl+f search. But the new layout makes you click on every single order individually to see whats in it.... i buy a LOT of shit. It makes it a nightmare to double check what i've bought or not before and if im at my 3 game limit

 
I'm a new GCU member, I have a $5 printable coupon, which I think is in store only, can I use that on my first pre-order?

 
elessar123 said:
The Best Buy Android app has been like that for years. It has nothing to do with recent Android updates.
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actually it does the OS update has a whole laundry lists of issues and the best buy app was never this flakey in the previous OS. The problems started with lollipop in nov 2014 and have continued ever since.

 
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