eStarland.com 15% of used PS3 games

I live 10 miles from them. I have always had good experiences buying and trading games with them. Most of the used games have gotten from there have been basically in pristine condition; they have some high standards on what you can trade in unlike some used game stores.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']wouldn't buy from these scammers..terrible business practices[/QUOTE]

what kind of negative experience do you have with them? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, just curious, as I've had great transactions several times form their site, and their customer service is pretty good.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']wouldn't buy from these scammers..terrible business practices[/QUOTE]care to elaborate?
I've never had any issues with them.
They've been around a longtime and unlike other mom and pop's I'm sure they will be around for time to come.
 
They only try to scam on trades. As far as purchases they're good (Animemaniac shouldn't complain since they just sent him a Steel Battalion Bundle)
 
sorry meant to post my bad experiences:

1. Ordered Golden Sun 1/2 Guide, never received it. E-mailed customer service about 5 times and never got a response
2. Traded in games to them and was quoted $150. Well once they received them, WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME, they knocked all the TIVs down making the total under $100. Then charged me for shipping costs (shipping trade-ins to them is free over $100) E-mailed customer service several times, NO RESPONSE
3. Ordered God of War PSP Bundle with trade-in credit. They cancelled an hour later saying "Credit Card has been declined, thanks for ordering with us" and of course when I went to re-order it was gone. Contacted CS...no friggin response
4. Trade in more than 1 of any game and they'll cancel your order accusing you of trading for profit in addition to threatening to ban your account
5. Requested one of my games be sent to a different address than the one they had one file (which was a PO Box). So instead of changing the address they ADDED THE ADDRESS TO THE PO BOX. And the post office of course sent it to the PO box which i no longer had any access to. (you don't even wanna know what i had to go through to get that shit back)

I have reported estarland to the BBB and the ONLY reason I'm still ordering from them is to deplete my credit and never have to deal with them again. As I said before, stay far away from this company, they are scammers and it's not worth the hassle they put you through to purchase any of their inventory.
 
pretty valid concerns, and I can see your issues. It's a shame they lost a customer with these shenanigans, but thankfully I've still had a pretty good history with them. plus, have you tried using their chat function to talk with their CS? it's worked well for me.
 
Just for the sake of fairness, I have submitted around $500 worth of trades in-store, mostly older-gen games, and everything has been fine. I can at least vouch for their brick and mortar operation.
 
estarland is the only place I will buy used games. Everything I have received has been in like new condition. They have strict trade-in grading to serve customers like me. I would guess I have ordered from them over 100 times. My Saturn collection is basically all from estarland. The only time I had a problem, they did not respond to my email. You might think that is a problem. But the reason they did not respond is that the owner CALLED me himself several times.

For the person who had his credit card rejected, what did you think they should do? Hold the games you wanted until you cleared up your bad credit? Please. Furthermore I do not think they have an obligation to accept as many copies of a game as you want to sell. They do not exist to support your flipping practices or act as a clearing house for what you found at a flea market. They also have a separate section of their ordering form for the mailing address. They do not enter the mailing address--you do. You are supposed to type that in yourself using a method that will be understood by the post office, not use a Vulcan mind-meld for advising them of where to send it. If the mailing address is incorrect, guess who is to blame?

There is a reason I don't shop at gamestop. estarland has better products and better service. If you have a problem dealing with them, perhaps you would be happier at your local gamestop?
 
[quote name='brutus']estarland is the only place I will buy used games. Everything I have received has been in like new condition. They have strict trade-in grading to serve customers like me. I would guess I have ordered from them over 100 times. My Saturn collection is basically all from estarland. The only time I had a problem, they did not respond to my email. You might think that is a problem. But the reason they did not respond is that the owner CALLED me himself several times.

For the person who had his credit card rejected, what did you think they should do? Hold the games you wanted until you cleared up your bad credit? Please. Furthermore I do not think they have an obligation to accept as many copies of a game as you want to sell. They do not exist to support your flipping practices or act as a clearing house for what you found at a flea market. They also have a separate section of their ordering form for the mailing address. They do not enter the mailing address--you do. You are supposed to type that in yourself using a method that will be understood by the post office, not use a Vulcan mind-meld for advising them of where to send it. If the mailing address is incorrect, guess who is to blame?

There is a reason I don't shop at gamestop. estarland has better products and better service. If you have a problem dealing with them, perhaps you would be happier at your local gamestop?[/QUOTE]

Et tu brutus?

see, we're on two completely opposite sides of the spectrum here. you've ordered hundreds of things from them...i've order maybe 5 or 6. half of those were bad experiences, the others were neutral. So naturally, im going to veer away from a company that doesn't make it their top priority to serve the customer, and serve them WELL. Why should I have to call them? Who says their business hours are convenient to me having the opportunity to call them? Again i have e-mailed them several times and not even the courtesy of a response = bad for business. And you obviously didn't read my post thoroughly enough...I told you i USED APPROVED IN-STORE TRADE CREDIT to purchase the God of War PSP Bundle...meaning it did NOT require a credit card (which was a paypal card at that, since i don't actually possess a credit card i have to pay off monthly). So that makes no f'in sense for them to say "Credit card declined" when no CC was used...And who says I am flipping? Yes, there is a 75% chance I am flipping but what about the other 25%? Makes no sense to accuse someone of flipping if their trading in only 2 of the same game, and the rest are single copies of different games. I'm not the only one who thinks they're a terrible company

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/EStarland

In fact this guys assessment of Estar is the perfect example of WHY NO ONE SHOULD BOTHER PURCHASING FROM THEM:

"If you value good customer service, DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM ESTARLAND.COM because it doesn't exist. I found it virtually impossible to contact anyone who works there by phone, email or their "live" support, which is always down. Their answering service states that they are always closed. The one time that I did get through someone there hung up the phone on me and sent me directly to their answering service. Their website claims to have an item in stock before you order, then after you place your order it registers as having a wait period. Very, very shady business practice. When sending an email or making a phonecall to cancel a preexisting order, again, any customer service contact is non-existant. Also, I received no conformation emails to show that my order was taken or shipped. To make any sort of return, they ask that you contact them for a return authorization number, but that's only IF you can get anyone on the phone or by email. Now I'm stuck with a copy of a video game that was sent well after Xmas. An order that I tried many times to cancel before they charged me or shipped it. I will definitely be reporting estarland.com to the Better Business Bureau. These crooks should not be allowed to take advantage of online buyers. Again, I warn you, save yourself the headache and DO NOT BUY FROM ESTARLAND.COM."

not to mention that's just sad. A 2.5 6-month rating? Seriously dude, I rest my case.
 
I usually go there in person and have had nothing but great experiences, and as was said above, the used games are in crazy great shape.

If it makes anyone feel better, I did hear them trying to hire some more people for customer service the last time I was in there.
 
If you've been "scammed" on used trade in prices it's most likely because you had less than perfect condition games and they knocked the value down. They are seriously strict on the condition of games. If your disc has even very light wear they will charge you to clean it.

That's not neccesarily a bad thing, because you almost always get good quality used games when you buy.
 
I live in Maryland and have had only great experiences with estarland.

I was able to trade more than one of the sam game with no problem. I NEVER sent anything or had anything shipped to them. The B&M is just fine. I have always been able to reach them during their store hours as well.

Any time I'm trading in games, I go in person.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']sorry meant to post my bad experiences:

1. Ordered Golden Sun 1/2 Guide, never received it. E-mailed customer service about 5 times and never got a response
2. Traded in games to them and was quoted $150. Well once they received them, WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME, they knocked all the TIVs down making the total under $100. Then charged me for shipping costs (shipping trade-ins to them is free over $100) E-mailed customer service several times, NO RESPONSE
4. Trade in more than 1 of any game and they'll cancel your order accusing you of trading for profit in addition to threatening to ban your account
[/QUOTE]

I've had good experiences with their customer service, never had them change a TIV on me, and traded plenty of multiples in to them with no issues.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']
4. Trade in more than 1 of any game and they'll cancel your order accusing you of trading for profit in addition to threatening to ban your account
[/QUOTE]

GameStop doesn't officially let you do that either, I believe. I know in VA, GameStop, eStarland, and other used games and movie stores (i.e. MovieStop) have to operate under a lot of the pawn shop laws. So, its usually like 1 only or 2 max with proof I purchase, I believe.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']Seriously dude, I rest my case.[/QUOTE]

You can rest your "case" (seriously?) all you want but just because you found some bad reviews on reseller ratings doesn't mean much. That site basically exists to collect bad reviews. Considering estarland is in the business of buying and selling used videogames (not the most sophisticated clientele), I would consider a 2.5 rating spectacular.

It sounds to me like you made a mistake in almost every one of your transactions with them (tried to sell them more games than they agreed to buy (scam), gave a bad mailing address, provided bad payment information, expected free shipping despite misrepresenting your shipment to them, etc.). You only had 5 or 6 transactions and you somehow managed to screw up almost all of them? That could not be easy.

I'm not saying they don't make mistakes, but it is evident that there was an abundance of errors on your part. Errors that you apparently want them to discern through some clairvoyance (holding items for you despite your failure to provide good payment information, providing a bad mailing address, etc) or errors you want them to overlook to their detriment and your enrichment (trying to flip games they did not agree to buy, demanding free shipping when you apparently did not live up to your end on what you were shipping, etc.).

Buying videogames is not that hard. If you can't handle it, you may want to examine a few things. Have your mother help you next time.
 
I went to eStarland to sell some old nintendo's and nintendo accessories. It was great, they tested everything to make sure it worked which was great because I hadn't even tested it myself:D. Their trade in values are great too! Even though you would be stupid to trade it in they will give you $100 for Suikoden 2. And about $2.50 for almost any CIB game that is completely worthless. Anyway I enjoyed the place and I recommend this site. If we had Starland's instead of Gamestops the world would be a better place.
 
I bought my 360 from eStarland flipping trades to them. They're fantastic. Not long after the generation switch was a great time for trades as last gen stuff was being cleared out, but was still worth decent money. I sent them multiples of brand new, sealed games (and to be honest, they were garbage games too) and they happily took them for exactly what they said they would.
 
[quote name='brutus']You can rest your "case" (seriously?) all you want but just because you found some bad reviews on reseller ratings doesn't mean much. That site basically exists to collect bad reviews. Considering estarland is in the business of buying and selling used videogames (not the most sophisticated clientele), I would consider a 2.5 rating spectacular.

It sounds to me like you made a mistake in almost every one of your transactions with them (tried to sell them more games than they agreed to buy (scam), gave a bad mailing address, provided bad payment information, expected free shipping despite misrepresenting your shipment to them, etc.). You only had 5 or 6 transactions and you somehow managed to screw up almost all of them? That could not be easy.

I'm not saying they don't make mistakes, but it is evident that there was an abundance of errors on your part. Errors that you apparently want them to discern through some clairvoyance (holding items for you despite your failure to provide good payment information, providing a bad mailing address, etc) or errors you want them to overlook to their detriment and your enrichment (trying to flip games they did not agree to buy, demanding free shipping when you apparently did not live up to your end on what you were shipping, etc.).

Buying videogames is not that hard. If you can't handle it, you may want to examine a few things. Have your mother help you next time.[/QUOTE]

aha! I KNEW IT! It makes perfect sense now, you work for eStarland (either that or you run the damn company!). Congrats man :applause: had me fooled there for a while, and that's certainly difficult to do!
 
I'll just chime in to add that I live reasonably near to eStarland as well, and I've had mostly good experiences with both buying from them and trading in to them. Even when their TIV seemed unusually high (like maybe they hadn't gotten around to updating it in a while or something), they've always given me the promised amount without any problems.

The only even somewhat negative experience that I've had with them was when I traded in a few extra Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments that I had lying around and didn't need any more (barely used ones that I had picked up in clearances -- I ended up with more than I really needed and didn't want to store all of them). They said that they had to test them before giving me trade-in credit, and that it would take a few days. Fair enough . . . But a week later they still hadn't given me credit. I emailed them, they said soon. Another week after that, still no credit. I emailed them again, and finally they got it taken care of. So it did get cleared up eventually, it just took them a little while. Not a huge deal.

Beyond that, I've had nothing but good experiences with them, and I'd recommend them. The only possible difference that I can see is that I just always go to the store in person when I want to buy or trade something -- maybe they're not as efficient with mail.
 
[quote name='brutus']

It sounds to me like you made a mistake in almost every one of your transactions with them (tried to sell them more games than they agreed to buy (scam), gave a bad mailing address, provided bad payment information, expected free shipping despite misrepresenting your shipment to them, etc.). You only had 5 or 6 transactions and you somehow managed to screw up almost all of them? That could not be easy.

I'm not saying they don't make mistakes, but it is evident that there was an abundance of errors on your part. Errors that you apparently want them to discern through some clairvoyance (holding items for you despite your failure to provide good payment information, providing a bad mailing address, etc) or errors you want them to overlook to their detriment and your enrichment (trying to flip games they did not agree to buy, demanding free shipping when you apparently did not live up to your end on what you were shipping, etc.).[/QUOTE]

'maniac, I'm not trying to take sides but your argument about why you received bad service is explained pretty well here. If you read their FAQ you'll realize they have pretty strict requirements on trades and require valid payments. I'll traded in over $500 worth of goods in the past 2 years and bought a decent amount from them too. I've always received notification of shipped items, they email me when an item on my watch list comes in, they email me when they have received my trades and when they've been processed. I accidentally had an extra game in one of my game cases that I sent in to trade and they contacted me about it and offered to ship it back or add it to my total trade in. Their live chat is always available during normal business hours EST. And the people on that chat (I've used it 4 or 5 times) are very helpful and quick. I've traded in almost everything under the sun to them (handhelds, NES carts, last gen systems, games, etc) and as long as you follow their policies, you shouldn't have any problems.
 
[quote name='carbontiger']'maniac, I'm not trying to take sides but your argument about why you received bad service is explained pretty well here. If you read their FAQ you'll realize they have pretty strict requirements on trades and require valid payments. I'll traded in over $500 worth of goods in the past 2 years and bought a decent amount from them too. I've always received notification of shipped items, they email me when an item on my watch list comes in, they email me when they have received my trades and when they've been processed. I accidentally had an extra game in one of my game cases that I sent in to trade and they contacted me about it and offered to ship it back or add it to my total trade in. Their live chat is always available during normal business hours EST. And the people on that chat (I've used it 4 or 5 times) are very helpful and quick. I've traded in almost everything under the sun to them (handhelds, NES carts, last gen systems, games, etc) and as long as you follow their policies, you shouldn't have any problems.[/QUOTE]

regardless of y'all's defense of Estar's service, it's not going to change my opinion of them. I already laid down the sword and shield for the whole flipping business, but anything else you guys are trying to pin on me as MY fault is damn ridiculous. I've already reported them twice to the BBB and am only trying to give my opinion of the company for others to decide whether they want to deal with them or not. I haven't tried to insult your opinions of estarland have I? NO. So drop it.
 
I can see why their customer service would be a little shaky -- every time I'm in the store, I always see a bunch of dudes scrambling in the stock room to get shipments out. I think they're just really busy.

There's usually a kid working the front desk, and he's never terribly helpful, but he does look up stuff for me when I ask him to.

Seriously, though, their stuff is in such amazing condition and they have an enormous selection at reasonable prices that I really couldn't care less. I've been to tons of game stores in Japan and this is the closest I've ever seen an American store get to that level of quality and sheer stock.

I paid $7 for basically a new version of Jet Set Radio Future last week. Daaammmmnnn!
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']aha! I KNEW IT! It makes perfect sense now, you work for eStarland (either that or you run the damn company!). Congrats man :applause: had me fooled there for a while, and that's certainly difficult to do![/QUOTE]

Huh?! I don't work there. I don't own the company. I was just able to piece together your obvious half-truths into a reasonable explanation for what actually happened. It sounds like my conclusions were close to the truth. You sound like you are just a bad customer. You don't know what you're doing and you're trying to blame others. Why else would they consider banning you or whatever they wanted to stop you from doing? That's pretty extreme for any business to consider unless you were pulling something.

I did look you up on customerratings.com. Some interesting things were said about you:

"animemaniac14 is a poor excuse for a customer. He demands that I know his correct mailing address despite never having met him and him providing a completely different address. The post office couldn't even figure out where to send the package."

"animemaniac14 does not pay for the products he attempts to order and then wonders why he does not receive them."

"I made a deal to buy a single game from animemaniac and he takes that as an offer to buy all of that item he can get without even running it past me first. When I did not agree to participate in his scams, he reported me to the Better Business Bureau. Apparently he does not realize that the Better Business Bureau is completely meaningless and powerless. If I had done anything wrong, surely he would have reported me to the correct legal authorities for either mail or wire fraud? Pain in the a$$."

I cannot emphasize this enough: I DO NOT work there. I had a brief and friendly conversation with the owner 5-6 years ago. I just get angry when I see someone who is obviously telling a very skewed or false story in an attempt to harm someone's livelihood.

If you think I am somehow posing as a satisfied customer when I am somehow affiliated with the store, report me to a moderator. I'll handle it from there.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']wouldn't buy from these scammers..terrible business practices[/QUOTE]

i agree. it should NEVER take 2 moths to complete a trade in ever
 
[quote name='coolsteel']Why didn't you just call them?[/QUOTE]

calling does not help. i traded in a dreamcast, a sms, a gamecube and a crap load of games to them....all one big trade in. they held onto everything for about 5 weeks before i finally contacted them. i had to bug them for about a month. they finally said the dreamcast wouldnt read discs (i never had a problem with it and played it regularly), the a/v cable for the sega didnt work (i sent them 2, both of which worked), and a bunch of other bullsh1t

i was provoked to amassing a major offensive until they finally credited me with their bs quote. got the owner's person info and all that on deck. good thing i never gave them my CC number

that animaniac might be a bad apple, but im a straight shooter. estarland fuked me over. i got the impression that only 2 people work there, and that they felt vengeful because i checked on my trade in regularly (after waiting almost 2 months). i felt like they were trying to make me use a credit card

just an unprofessional and uncomfortable experience all around
 
I have bought only new games from them. Most of the time good but one time they said they had the game in stock. I ordered 2 games. They held my order for 2 weeks i called and said hey man you got my games they said ohh "" is out of stock. I said umm okay just mail me the one and refund the other. Sure NP. 1 week goes by get my game but no refund. This is 3 weeks later and they have like 50 bucks of my money. I call again they said ohh yeah accounting has it just be a couple days promise. 1 week goes by no refund. Call again oh yeah you will get your refund tommorrow guarnteed. 3 days go by i send in a dispute via paypal "cause i payed paypal." They email me next day and say "Get rid of that we cant refund a partial" Now i no this is BS i have gotten refunded partial before. So 4 days go buy i escalate it. The last day before paypal has to decide like 17 days later they refund me. THis is no joke they just simply wanted to F@#$ me.
 
[quote name='1stCome']that animaniac might be a bad apple[/QUOTE]


I'm rough around the edges but why is it that im the only one brutus is going after? Everyone else seems to be making equally valid complaints about this company that i am up above...so why do my complaints get criticized, and no one else's? I seriously and honestly had a terrible experience with Estarland, and this is the last time im going to post in this thread with my complaints (and Brutus will officially join the group of 3 people on my ignore list)
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']I'm rough around the edges but why is it that im the only one brutus is going after? Everyone else seems to be making equally valid complaints about this company that i am up above...so why do my complaints get criticized, and no one else's? I seriously and honestly had a terrible experience with Estarland, and this is the last time im going to post in this thread with my complaints (and Brutus will officially join the group of 3 people on my ignore list)[/QUOTE]

So you only put people who embarrass you on your ignore list? That's actually pretty smart.
 
My experience with eStarland is that they are slow sometimes and their CS response generally sucks. Don't email because you will never get a response. If you can get a hold of someone on the phone they usually will take care of you though.
 
Reading this thread, I've come to the conclusion that Estarland is an awesome store to deal with in-person. Online...not so much.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']I'm rough around the edges but why is it that im the only one brutus is going after? Everyone else seems to be making equally valid complaints about this company that i am up above...so why do my complaints get criticized, and no one else's? I seriously and honestly had a terrible experience with Estarland, and this is the last time im going to post in this thread with my complaints (and Brutus will officially join the group of 3 people on my ignore list)[/QUOTE]

I did not "go after" anyone else because the other people who cited problems seemed to be legitimate and with some effort the problems were eventually corrected (not a small point). Your problems were of your own creation and as such, had no place in this thread to begin with. If every sale thread for every store were to be infected with lists of years-old grievances, this site would be nothing but a bitch-fest.

I shall endeavour to live up to the acclaim and heraldry of being a member of such an august body as surely comprises your Official Ignore List. If only I could have qualified sooner....
 
I've been to the store in person - it's pretty sketchy. You have to go around the side of an old building into an alleyway, enter a door, go up a narrow set of stairs, and then the store is tucked into a small room behind another door in a hallway at the top. The whole thing feels very clandestine. :cold:

That said... they were an okay store. I only ever bought two things from them - new import items, and only because the prices were on par with Play-Asia and I didn't feel like waiting 2-3 weeks for shipping from Hong Kong.

I have heard about problems with on-line stuff before, though. They have pretty low ratings on ResellerRatings and the BBB if I recall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top