EB Games raising the prices of certain new releases by 5 dollars

OmegaChaos said:
Yeah, but a lot of people are already moving their pre-orders to other retailers like Amazon.
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Yeah, I'm not going to be that nice to them. I'm doubling up my pre-orders, then when I have both in hand I'm going keep the better condition one (all my pre-orders are CEs), and return the second copy to EB saying I noticed they increased the price.

They don't really care that much about pre-order cancellations. But they don't like returns, and corporate gets notified about the reason for the return.

 
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I'll most likely use EB still for niche titles. Best Buy/Futureshop has a few, but some are already sold out of pre-orders. I don't own a Credit Card, so I can't use Amazon. I might use VGP, but we'll see.

 
But yeah VGP just kind of rubs me the wrong way especially since I am in Toronto (etobicoke) and they want 15$ shipping on a 90$ order. 

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1 x  Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God Limited Edition - PS VITA (In stock usually ships within 24hrs) 1 x  Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars [Launch Edition] - PS VITA (Preorder)
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$89.98CDN Shipping Carrier  
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Shipping Rate (Country CA : 0.42 lb(s))

$14.99CDN

But lets pretend and say it's cause the curry god special edition costs more to ship. For just conception alone.

 
Shipping Carrier  
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Shipping Rate (Country CA : 0.21 lb(s)) $9.99CDN
How are you guys getting lower shipping?

 
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EvilMario said:
It would also be lovely for them to lower their prices much quicker when / if CAD reaches USD parity once more. Last time, it took almost a year of media articles and customer complaints on 'we're at par, why is everything still so expensive' to see any sort of price drops. Always so quick to raise the price, but not drop it. Not that it's surprising, but that's where it draws some ire from me.
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This is exactly why this bothers me so much.
 
Lockescythe said:
But yeah VGP just kind of rubs me the wrong way especially since I am in Toronto (etobicoke) and they want 15$ shipping on a 90$ order.

pixel_trans.gif
1 x Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God Limited Edition - PS VITA (In stock usually ships within 24hrs) 1 x Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars [Launch Edition] - PS VITA (Preorder)
pixel_black.gif
$89.98CDN Shipping Carrier
pixel_black.gif
Shipping Rate (Country CA : 0.42 lb(s))

$14.99CDN

But lets pretend and say it's cause the curry god special edition costs more to ship. For just conception alone.


Shipping Carrier
pixel_black.gif
Shipping Rate (Country CA : 0.21 lb(s)) $9.99CDN
How are you guys getting lower shipping?
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Ok, that is weird. Why are they charging $9.99 S&H for that, when they charge $2.99 S&H for a $60 game?

 
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Silent Obscurity said:
Is the amount of tax owed on the full price of the game or just the $5?
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Well, remember that trades exempt you from tax for the amount of the trades. If you took advantage of the Trade 2, get $60 deal, then $60 of the game was paid in trade credit, and you don't pay tax on that $60. Therefore, you'll be left owing $5 plus tax on the $5.

 
OmegaChaos said:
Ok, that is weird. Why are they charging $9.99 S&H for that, when they charge $2.99 S&H for a $60 game?
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Because they're just charging approximate Canada Post rates. A normal DVD case can simply be dropped in lettermail for $2-something, and VGP pockets a tiny bit of change. Conception II will probably need to ship as a parcel as it's slightly thicker than a normal DVD, and probably costs ~$12, so VGP might eat a slight loss there. Shipping Curry God and Conception probably costs exactly the same as just shipping Conception, as 2 games is still well under the minimum parcel weight/price, so they recoup their slight losses on orders like this.

Yes, those prices are stupid, but that's Canada Posts fault. VGP has done a pretty decent job of balancing it out IMO. But still, paying for shipping sucks, when we can just use Amazon.

 
Maybe this will inspire more people to go all-digital with their purchases. I already thought it was worth it just for the tax saved, but now it's a no-brainer.

 
Bigwig_rah said:
Maybe this will inspire more people to go all-digital with their purchases. I already thought it was worth it just for the tax saved, but now it's a no-brainer.
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Day one, maybe. Assuming it doesn't have a tangible collector's edition, maybe. Otherwise, no.

 
Bigwig_rah said:
Maybe this will inspire more people to go all-digital with their purchases. I already thought it was worth it just for the tax saved, but now it's a no-brainer.
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Pfft. You know you're making your purchases in USD, and automatically paying more. Or if you're buying from some system in CAD, they'll bring their prices in line eventually too. If they don't bring their prices in line Americans will setup Canadian accounts to get 10% (or more...) off :lol:

 
ragnar14 said:
Because they're just charging approximate Canada Post rates. A normal DVD case can simply be dropped in lettermail for $2-something, and VGP pockets a tiny bit of change. Conception II will probably need to ship as a parcel as it's slightly thicker than a normal DVD, and probably costs ~$12, so VGP might eat a slight loss there. Shipping Curry God and Conception probably costs exactly the same as just shipping Conception, as 2 games is still well under the minimum parcel weight/price, so they recoup their slight losses on orders like this.

Yes, those prices are stupid, but that's Canada Posts fault. VGP has done a pretty decent job of balancing it out IMO. But still, paying for shipping sucks, when we can just use Amazon.
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I'll just say this. I'm probably going to go with Best Buy or Futureshop for Conception II honestly. They don't require me to have Amazon Prime or w/e to get free 2 day shipping. I know Futureshop ships the game a day before release, I just wonder if Best Buy does the same thing.

 
QuagsireQing said:
Well, remember that trades exempt you from tax for the amount of the trades. If you took advantage of the Trade 2, get $60 deal, then $60 of the game was paid in trade credit, and you don't pay tax on that $60. Therefore, you'll be left owing $5 plus tax on the $5.
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I keep hearing different stories. Some say you'll most likely get the game for the original $60 if you did the promo before the increase, others say you'll have to pay the $5+ if you did it. In the end, I will wait until February 11th to see what happens.

 
OmegaChaos said:
I'll just say this. I'm probably going to go with Best Buy or Futureshop for Conception II honestly. They don't require me to have Amazon Prime or w/e to get free 2 day shipping. I know Futureshop ships the game a day before release, I just wonder if Best Buy does the same thing.
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Neat, BB/FS didn't have Conception up when I was price checking 2 days ago.

BB/FS both fulfill orders out of the the same distribution centers. I'm sure their shipping guidelines are identical.

 
ragnar14 said:
Neat, BB/FS didn't have Conception up when I was price checking 2 days ago.

BB/FS both fulfill orders out of the the same distribution centers. I'm sure their shipping guidelines are identical.
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I noticed it yesterday when randomly checking. I just don't normally enjoy paying for S&H, when Best Buy/Futureshop offer free shipping. Especially when you compare Futureshop to Amazon, where they basically give you 2 day shipping at no cost, since they basically ship the games a day before release majority of the time. The only downside here, is that their pre-orders for niche games is very limited. Meaning, they don't always have the titles I want.

Which means, I either go with EBGames or Amazon.

 
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Except maybe for at the corporate offices, EB doesn't track unreleased products' price histories, so at best, I can only see certain fully-paid pre-orders being honoured at old prices, but they've never done that before, so I'm not even optimistic about that.

 
Naylord said:
Should have held off, can't you pretty much cancel a preorder last minute (or even day of?)
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From my understanding when you pre order it's more or less treated like in store credit (That's designated to a certain product)

If you cancel a pre order I'm not sure if you can get the money back or if you have to put it onto a different item (Personally I've typically just put it onto something else.. This was when I realized AC III would just drop in price :p got the LE for $20 about a week ago)

My general rule about pre orders is if you don't need to cancel it and you still want the product then don't (Unless it's the Silly rules FS or BB use when it comes to pre orders and you really want the Pre Order Bonus).

On the plus side if you get lucky you can price match with Amazon (Get the right employee who just doesn't care to realize it's the .com site instead of the .ca site)

 
Naylord said:
Should have held off, can't you pretty much cancel a preorder last minute (or even day of?)
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I only had $5 on the orders I cancelled anyway.. Still, when I went to pay off my pre-order for FFX/X-2 HD remaster I had to pay off the $44.99. We'll just see what happens.

 
I've also pre-ordered for a game as well that increased in price. But, I've pre-ordered this in one of the stores that gives me the best credit for used games (Play n' trade in Canada). Even if it's 5$ extra, I usually can squeeze out extra credit for some good games. For example, they'll give me 15$ on a game they'll sell between 35 to 50$. I`ve brought games in the past, knowing they sell them at 50$, and get 25 to 30$ in credit for them. You can negotiate more easily if you know how much they sell the game for and if your games for trade aren't in their inventory.

 
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So apparently the head of EB Games Canada does want to allow pre-orders to be price protected in this particular instance.  There are still no details about how they'll handle this in stores.

 
QuagsireQing said:
So apparently the head of EB Games Canada does want to allow pre-orders to be price protected in this particular instance. There are still no details about how they'll handle this in stores.
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Does this mean I'll get back some of my money with the pre-orders I did keep? Like FF X/X-2 collection?

 
The store employees don't seem to have a single clue as to how this will be done.  They'll have to come up with a plan by the time South Park: The Stick of Truth gets released, or the goodwill will go down the drain.

 
QuagsireQing said:
So apparently the head of EB Games Canada does want to allow pre-orders to be price protected in this particular instance. There are still no details about how they'll handle this in stores.
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Where did you get that info? Have you guys been pestering the EB Games twitter feed?

Anyway I just realized I got hit by this 5$ increase on FFX HD LE. I hope what Ranzo says is true but I agree with everyone else that says EB Games doesn't track price history. I fully expect having to fight for my 5$ "discount".

 
denpanosekai said:
Where did you get that info? Have you guys been pestering the EB Games twitter feed?

Anyway I just realized I got hit by this 5$ increase on FFX HD LE. I hope what Ranzo says is true but I agree with everyone else that says EB Games doesn't track price history. I fully expect having to fight for my 5$ "discount".
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You didn't pre-order it during the E3 or Gamescom sales?

 
My EBGames told me, that they're honoring all pre-orders made before the increase and if they're paid off, you get them for their original prices before the increase.

 
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I'm not seeing how it's retarded. Most people pay off their pre-orders when making them. When you pre-order online with Best Buy/Futureshop/Amazon, you're basically paying them off in full.

 
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OmegaChaos said:
I'm not seeing how it's retarded. Most people pay off their pre-orders when making them. When you pre-order online with Best Buy/Futureshop/Amazon, you're basically paying them off in full.
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What? Best Buy/Futureshop/Amazon all bill when the product ships. I don't personally know a single person IRL that pre-pays their EB preorders. The only way I've ever plugged in anything other than the minimum is when blowing trade credit. Why would anyone hand them cash? Interest is a thing.

 
ragnar14 said:
What? Best Buy/Futureshop/Amazon all bill when the product ships. I don't personally know a single person IRL that pre-pays their EB preorders. The only way I've ever plugged in anything other than the minimum is when blowing trade credit. Why would anyone hand them cash? Interest is a thing.
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I'm not sure what you're talking about with your last part. I've paid off some of my pre-orders with cash/debit by them.

As for your first part, yes they bill you when the product ships, but you're basically doing a full payment on your pre-order with your CC or Debit.

Also, I never said which method people use when paying off their pre-orders at EB.

In the end, they're giving people the original prices for the games. Whether you find it retarded or not, it's better than having to pay the increase. Majority of people most likely took advantage of the Trade 2 for $60 promotion towards the games on their list.

Let's not forget all the Trade 3/5/7 games get $10-$30 extra deals EB has done. Which allowed many people to pay off their pre-orders in advance months ago.

 
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Oh my god, I'm going to write the exact same thing again.

OmegaChaos said:
As for your first part, yes they bill you when the product ships, but you're basically doing a full payment on your pre-order with your CC or Debit.
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What?!

OmegaChaos said:
In the end, they're giving people the original prices for the games. Whether you find it retarded or not, it's better than having to pay the increase. Majority of people most likely took advantage of the Trade 2 for $60 promotion towards the games on their list.

Let's not forget all the Trade 3/5/7 games get $10-$30 extra deals EB has done. Which allowed many people to pay off their pre-orders in advance months ago.
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I'm going to pull some anecdotal evidence out of my ass, but have you ever paid attention to others buying things when picking up preorders? While standing in that pickup line I spend my time staring at the people at the front of the line to see what they're buying. Approximately 95% of people hand over a credit card. Yeah, anecdotal evidence, so lets say I'm half wrong. That's still like 50% of consumers, who aren't fully pre-paying for goods.

 
ragnar14 said:
I'm going to pull some anecdotal evidence out of my ass, but have you ever paid attention to others buying things when picking up preorders? While standing in that pickup line I spend my time staring at the people at the front of the line to see what they're buying. Approximately 95% of people hand over a credit card. Yeah, anecdotal evidence, so lets say I'm half wrong. That's still like 50% of consumers, who aren't fully pre-paying for goods.
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I'm just repeating what my EBGames told me what they were going to do, when I went in to do some trade ins last night.

It's my fault for not wording my earlier post properly. So, I edited my earlier post to reflect this. Also, you can ignore the first part of my later post. I was up until 5AM last night, so I was half awake when I made that.

Just wait for a EBGames themselves to make an official confirmation on this matter.

 
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OmegaChaos said:
It's my fault for not wording my earlier post properly. So, I edited my earlier post to reflect this. Also, you can ignore the first part of my later post. I was up until 5AM last night, so I was half awake when I made that.
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Off topic: I just had to comment on this, I've so been there (haven't we all?) Haha, you're up late reading a blog and feel the need to comment. As you're typing you know you could be making more sense but in the end you give up and your tired brain says "fuck it, Post!" I've writen some wacky sounding stuff in this zone myself, potentially up to a 5th of my posts on Kotaku I would estimate :p
 
KAPBAM said:
Off topic: I just had to comment on this, I've so been there (haven't we all?) Haha, you're up late reading a blog and feel the need to comment. As you're typing you know you could be making more sense but in the end you give up and your tired brain says "fuck it, Post!" I've writen some wacky sounding stuff in this zone myself, potentially up to a 5th of my posts on Kotaku I would estimate :p
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I say we still wait and see what happens with this. I called 2 more EBs, and none knew what would happen. So, maybe what Ranzo said earlier is still in effect, just that the higher ups haven't notified them of it.

Let's just wait for an official confirmation from EB themselves.

 
Ranzo said:
All games ordered before the price increase will be honored at the price it was.
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That would not appear to be the case at all EB games. I preordered Tomb Raider, and with trade ins, paid in full. I went to pick it up this afternoon I was told that the price had gone up and I still owed money. I asked if they price matched because every other retailer is selling it for 59.99 and I was told no. So I am taking my business elsewhere.

 
Had the same kind of problem in the past. Paid a game in full with trade-ins about a month before launch, then go back to store to pick up the game with my receipt and there's a difference of 2$ that I had to pay, even if I had the original receipt (which indicated the game had been paid in full). I paid the extra 2$ since it was only 2$ and that it was supposed to be that price anyway. Not sure if they're allowed to do this, since you have a receipt indicating a complete payment for a game (or anything for that matter). In my point of view they should honor receipts.

In my case, it was only 2$, so I didn't really care. Not sure about the legal aspects of this, anybody?

 
30hanman said:
I paid the extra 2$ since it was only 2$ and that it was supposed to be that price anyway. Not sure if they're allowed to do this, since you have a receipt indicating a complete payment for a game (or anything for that matter). In my point of view they should honor receipts.

In my case, it was only 2$, so I didn't really care. Not sure about the legal aspects of this, anybody?
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Perfectly legal. Until such time as you take receipt of the item (that is, until they are satisfied that you have fully paid, they finalize the transaction and you sign for picking up your order), it is their property and they may charge what they wish, which in this case, is the new MSRP. The receipts technically do not indicate the final price of the item, only the amount of the deposit you paid toward it.

 
That's what's nice about placing pre-orders online. You give stores a payment authorization, and they have no further contact with you. So if the price increases, and they attempt to charge you more you can just hit them with a justified chargeback. They really don't want that, repercussions from the credit cards are supposedly pretty nasty. So that leaves them 2 options. Simply fulfilling your order. Or cancelling your order. I'm somewhat surprised EB.ca hasn't resorted to some sort cancellation extortion, like they're doing in stores...

 
QuagsireQing said:
Perfectly legal. Until such time as you take receipt of the item (that is, until they are satisfied that you have fully paid, they finalize the transaction and you sign for picking up your order), it is their property and they may charge what they wish, which in this case, is the new MSRP. The receipts technically do not indicate the final price of the item, only the amount of the deposit you paid toward it.
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This, unfortunately. I suspect that this is the reason that the "Trade __ for ___" deals that we see now specify a dollar amount, rather than the game itself. For example, a few years ago you would've seen something like "Trade 2 for Titanfall", where as now it's "Trade 2 for $60 towards the pre-order of Titanfall". Most of the time this works out to the same thing since games have been priced at $60, but in a case such as this you'd be paying $5 + tax when you pick up your game if they've decided to raise the retail price.

 
adayinthelife said:
This, unfortunately. I suspect that this is the reason that the "Trade __ for ___" deals that we see now specify a dollar amount, rather than the game itself. For example, a few years ago you would've seen something like "Trade 2 for Titanfall", where as now it's "Trade 2 for $60 towards the pre-order of Titanfall". Most of the time this works out to the same thing since games have been priced at $60, but in a case such as this you'd be paying $5 + tax when you pick up your game if they've decided to raise the retail price.
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Actually, part of the reason that they stopped saying, "Trade 2/3, Get it Free" is that publishers didn't like EB Games attaching the value of "free" to their games. Some publishers ordered EB to always advertise their games as "$59.99," and I suspect EB just started doing that for all games.

 
On Best Buy's site now, and taking note of each game that's gone up. It's only consoles for now; the handhelds don't look like they've had their prices adjusted at all.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is the only Wii U game to have gone up by $5.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, Dark Souls II, and South Park have all gone up $5.

Elder Scrolls Online on PS4 has gone up $5.

Agent is the only title to have gone up $10. If Watch_Dogs CE was originally $119.99, then it has also gone up $10 since.

 
Like I said, EBGames did it all at once compared to other retailers. Best Buy and Futureshop are all slowly adjusting their prices as well. The only way I see people buying in store anymore. Is they either had their pre-order with the old price, or using trade ins (not sure if Best Buy and Futureshop take off the tax with these).

Otherwise, I can see more people buying from Amazon more often now.

 
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