funny gamerush story I got the "letter"

[quote name='GunPanther']
While I do feel that it is slightly unfair that your friends' accounts were banned because your name happened to be attached to them, it still goes back to the fact that you did indeed abuse your trading priveleges, hence, you and your friends do deserve to have your trade priveleges revoked, especially since they were willing enough to have you linked to their accounts.
[/QUOTE]

This is where I disagree with you... on this notion that this user 'abused' anything.

This user may have taken advantage of a favorable system, but they didn't do anything 'wrong'... ABUSE implies: "to use wrongly or improperly; misuse".

While I agree that BB has every right to change their policy at a moment's notice, the fact that they will shut down someone's account is as lame as a casino refusing to allow someone to play Blackjack if they believe they are a card counter (for as few of them as they are)... They are refusing service in lieu of changing their trade-in policy which *they know* has issues... I'm sure someone can post the entire agreement to which you sign, but I'm sure there is nothing in there that says "you are forced to always have GR/BB make money on these trade-ins"...

...and in both cases there is an 'easy' fix.. for a casino, they just need to change the game to make it impossible to count carts (which gamblers really don't like because then they know it is unfair). For BB, they just need to change their system to make it less favorable for a 'flipper'... Like some casinos, BB is just taking the easy way out... They want people to have the illusion of great trade-in deals, but they really don't want people to take advantage of their great trade-in deals... free alcohol to keep the masses drunk and gambling... Casinos want people to feel like they are getting a 'fair' Blackjack game, but clearly they don't want the player to have the advantage, so they cut you off the instant you show signs that you have taken the 'slight' advantage back...
 
You know, they pretty much took care of the flipping by ending the Trade 3 get any used game for $5 deal early. That killed the flipping right then and there. In other words, it has been taken care of since June.

Now, the issue of them giving high trade values on certain games and people taking advantage of THAT, I think, is HIGHLY unfair to ban someone over or even think that they are abusing the system in some way. They offer a price, customer accepts, they take the game. End of story. It shouldn't make a damn lick of difference where the game came from or how much it cost as long as it wasn't stolen or flipped from BB itself using deals (that no longer exist). As long as we stick within the posted limits of 2 of a title per day, how can they cry "abuse"? They should CHANGE THE DAMN POLICY if they consider trading 8 copies of a game in (over several weeks) as abuse. Don't out-and-out and very unevenly apply bans! That just alienates people...
 
[quote name='io']You know, they pretty much took care of the flipping by ending the Trade 3 get any used game for $5 deal early. That killed the flipping right then and there. In other words, it has been taken care of since June.

Now, the issue of them giving high trade values on certain games and people taking advantage of THAT, I think, is HIGHLY unfair to ban someone over or even think that they are abusing the system in some way. They offer a price, customer accepts, they take the game. End of story. It shouldn't make a damn lick of difference where the game came from or how much it cost as long as it wasn't stolen or flipped from BB itself using deals (that no longer exist). As long as we stick within the posted limits of 2 of a title per day, how can they cry "abuse"? They should CHANGE THE DAMN POLICY if they consider trading 8 copies of a game in (over several weeks) as abuse. Don't out-and-out and very unevenly apply bans! That just alienates people...[/QUOTE]

Exactly. It seems comical that this is an issue... as I said, I believe the only way I can justify it is that it boils down to them wanting to give the illusion of providing the best possible trade-in deals/value for 'non-devil customers' who will make that one or two trade-ins a year on games that really don't screw them, but possibly not wanting people to excessively take them up on their good deals... It makes me think a bit of Best Buy and the $5 games, e.g., I recall someone posting that such games are offered/designed to not only get rid of excess stock, but also encourage people to come in and buy other stuff... but ultimately they all get bought up in an hours time by people who only want to buy said cheap games and nothing else... so Best Buy gets po'ed at such customers who are *only* taking advantage of the cheap games... If that was the case, though, I'm surprised they wouldn't just say, "the game only costs $5 if you purchase another game of $29.99 or more"
 
I don't why anybody is defending BBV on their policies. I feel that they brought it on themselves. They came onto the dvd/game trading scene a year or two ago with their typical "we're number one" bravado attitude. To help boost trades, they offered these trade in deals and prices. Of COURSE they are going to attract flippers and everyone else looking for a deal. I own a video store, and when they had their $7 dvd trade-in minimum, I sold them about $1000 worth of dvds and turned around and bought new games that I needed for three months. I sold them CRAP and looking behind the counter at what other people were selling them it was crap too. Goodbye BBV!


marc
 
GunPanther-"While I do feel that it is slightly unfair that your friends' accounts were banned because your name happened to be attached to them"

i was not linked to my two friends account they just knew me

GunPanther-"When you signed up for your accounts, I'm sure that they actually had you physically sign your name onto a document with numerous rules and policies that you probably didn't read. I'm certain that one of those policies/regulations is somewhere along the lines of the following: "Policies and trade-in rules may be amended at any time, for any reason, with or without notice..." and if you didn't agree to their terms, they wouldn't allow you to have a trade-in account, right? (Please correct me if I'm wrong)"

i was put under my parents and family account i never flipped on the same account i would buy underneath one name and trade under another. yes this still means i and my parents are responsible but this in some way or another has to breaking the law. i thought (but am probaly wrong) that thier was a law that states yes you may deny service but if you do you must deny them from all services not just some.
 
I stopped going to blockbuster officially after last week because of multiple complaints

A) It costs about 9 bucks to rent an XBOX game for a week...No bullshit either, I was outraged

B)They never carry good games, but will still have 10 copies of THUG 2...

C)Their customer service is shitty

Im thinking Gamefly now...Is that a good choice?
 
Funny thing is that I probably traded in about 10,000 worth of games in a 6 month period and they just laughed when I would bring in a handfull of maxed out cards to spend! (I would never let them put it on my account)
My wife use to go to college in another state that had GameRush (where I live in Il. has none although the regular BB's are now taking games...for crap prices), so everytime I would go to see her I would take tons of games I had collected from all around and make a couple thousand dollars worth of trade each time. I of course did so between about 15 different GR's, and would follow their rules to the T(I would even go in and discuss with the Game person before hand in some cases what I planned on doing and he would tell me to bring in 10 today and 10 the next and so forth).
I too was made to resign up multiple times, but I just did so as happy as I could because I was making a killing off their horribly thought out offers! I even would go in and joke with them about the fact that I could take a used game in and trade it for 40, get a new game for 30, and turn around and trade it back to them for 40(I never did this because I didn't want to piss off management...but they told me it was totaly ok to do if I wanted to because everyone else was doing it.) When I would go in there and talk to them while I traded and made butt loads of money they would just laugh and tell me how dumb management was. I made friends with most of them becasue a lot of them were doing the same thing. I can see why you would think it is abuse, yet if you follow their guidelines and they are sitting there asking you to bring in games every time you walk in...then do it! If you are told to stop...then stop!
I walk the belief that if you don't like how somone runs a store..don't just spend your time complaining about it...just don't shop there. If you want to shop there then play by their rules..if they screw you, turn them in and stop shopping there, and start your own store to take them out with!

Are you sure that the letter seriously came from Blockbuster District Manager? It may have just come from that individual BB because some manager's think it is their life goal to run BB with an iron fist. Or maybe it is someone just screwing with you...? I know for a fact that you can trade in at another store, because even with the 10 games per day thing I was able to do 10 per day per store...and with a blockbuster on every corner I got a a couple hundred trades a day almost...some would let me trade more than 10. (Heck some would even give me give me better deals than what was posted if I would preorder games from their store just to make them look good.)

Oh, and the arguing with them about a game that you just bought can get out of hand. I took back games that looked like someone took a knife and stabbed it over and over...and they would try and tell me that they didn't sell it...even when I had a receipt and their sticker right on the game. (This being at BB's that had jerky managers)So I would wait for them to throw a deal and trade the game back in at a different blockbuster and get more than I paid for it...all I had to do was distract the person taking the trade by talking about random crap and ask them insane questions when they would go to open the case...they would get confused and just reclose the case and scan it...lol so dumb!
Now if I ever go to a GR I make them sit and open every case so that I can inspect the game before they scan it, and I end up putting a little over half of them back because they look like crap!
GR is great and completely sucks all at the same time. It's kind of like a love/hate relationship. There were a few times that they tried to screw me, and the emplyees in gereral were dumb as crap when it came to video games, and if I hadn't made so much money off of them I would have also never gone back.
On the other hand, I gotta also say that some of the manager's were totaly awesome and knew exactly what I was doing and were like my best friend when I came in and they had no problem with it at all...although I worked for their friendship and was always completely honest and helped them out with customers even when I would come in. ( I even told them how dumb their emplyees are because I would take four disc games in and they would try and give me trade in for 4 games...I may work the system as set up by their own, but I am not dishonest so I couldn't accept it) When they see you do one good deed like that...you got them eating out of your hand for whatever you want to do.

(Saw you get another guy for poor grammar, but let me just say in my own defense that I can bearly see the key board as I am laying in bed next my wife trying to be quite...lol)
 
My MOTHER got the letter too. Not the corporate letter, the military letter, telling her that her son had been murdered in Iraq. SICK SICK

Just kidding. My brother works at a grocery store in Minnesota. He's 28 and just got his drivers license last week. I swear people from minnesota are all inbred. Slow and pretty damn naive.
 
in may blockbuster/ gamerush really started to suck, they told me i couldn't overlap deals they had let me overlap before, and started denying what i wanted to trade in. Now i know gamestop and eb have blacklisted games from deal trades, but they flat out wouldnt' take them, then they started telling me i couldn't trade in my games that they would make very little on for their deals. basically just making them equal with gamestop and eb if not worse.

I was the only one out of my friends that had their parent come to do trades at gamerush, because you have to be 18 or something so all of my friends and I (we're in highschool) brought in 10 games at atime and traded them in
in under a month i traded on one account around 25 games , the following month prolly 15, and 5 or so the next couple of months leading to may. i haven't seen any letter, and one time i was trading the "9 holes of outlaw golf" games to use deals, (i had a few different versions) so i could trade 3 games and get their current deal, no letter.

i think this is just blockbuster realizing someone pays a price when they have great deals to drive business away from competiors.
 
So how many letters is that now? Six, Seven? Does not seem like a lot considering how many traders there are. Can anyone spot a pattern or find a reason for the letters? Do any of you who received a letter plan a response other than "not going to Blockbuster anymore"? Because that actual seems like what they want in the first place. For YOU not to come in any more. However, I suspect they know you will because you have to spend whatever credit you have.
 
[quote name='minos1067']good point, but i think you're posting in the wrong place. i think the "i love blockbuster cock" and "i bend over for blockbuster" thread can be found at www.goFurself.com

now go back to work and put those rentals back on the shelf.[/QUOTE]

Wow, someone's a little touchy. You'll note that my post was much more about general ethics than trying to stick up for Blockbuster. But yeah, good to see that we can have an intelligent debate over our differing opinions.

oh god another bleeding heart, for the love of god people, bb does what they want, we do what we want, so why do we judge each other. and i live with myself quite fine. so my advice to you is sit down shut up and relax
Click to expand...

Here's what you guys are missing. It's not really about us vs. Blockbuster. It's more about us vs. us. Let's look at it this way - and this also ties in with all the folks who defend abusive flipping by "it's within the rules" and so forth.

Let's say a candy store is giving out free samples. So the average customer is going to take one. If he or she likes it, they might make a purchase. The customer benefits either way and the store benefits from the potential sale.

But then you get one jerkoff who is too greedy. He takes the whole plate and leaves. He rationalizes it saying "They didn't say I couldn't take the whole plate." All the other customers don't get to try one now for the rest of the day because one guy ruined it for everyone. Then this repeats several days in a row. Finally, the business says forget it and stops the promotion. Who benefits? One fat guy. Who loses? Every other consumer and the store.

What it boils down to is one person or a small percentage of a population willing to screw over others for personal gain. This is the same mentality of the Ebay freaks most of us hate. The ones that scan these forums for good deals and run out and buy out the entire stock of something so they can resell it. They probably don't even play the games. Those of us who actually want to play the game find it sold out.

Most people here are probably thinking "Yeah, those guys kinda ARE douche bags." Those that lash out with brilliant comments involving sexual acts with a corporate entity tend to smell of vinegar and water.
 
If you follow the rules that they stated there should be no problem with what you are doing.

As for flipping i define flipping as buying a game at the register and immediatly selling it back to them in the same transation or on the same day. I wouldnt consider it flipping if you bought a game from BB, took it home for a couple days and then re-traded it in. That should be ok cause you can just say you didnt like the game and decided to trade it in again. Its kind of the gray area if you do this with like, 20 games in the same 2 day period though, if you do it with a couple games thats fine but try not to overdo it. Even if you did it with a lot of games if the company does not state anything about this in the rules it shouldnt matter where the games come from as long as they are legally purchased and not stolen or bootleg.

As for where the games come from, it should not matter as long as you are not trying to return stuff that has a wrapper and clearance stickers all over it, you have to at least make the game looked used, and the last time i checked a game is considered used if the packaging is opened. Buying a game on clearance and then trading it in i would not consider as fraud or flipping, its just being smart.

Multiple of the same game should not matter as long as they dont have a rule stating this. If they say you cant trade in any more than one copy of the same title per day then you have to follow that rule. If you dont follow the rules its fraud. However if you follow the rules there should be nothing wrong with what you are doing, if a store has a problem with something then they need to spell out the rules more clearly in the trade agreement. If they dont want people flipping games then the agreement needs to state that if you buy a game at BB it cannot be returned to BB for trade in value, or games must be pre-purchased in order to qualify for trade in offers. Agreement also needs to give definitions of the term flipping if they dont want people doing it. Taking advantage of a trade in promotion is not fraud, its just using it in a smarter way then most people would think to. I have heard of some local newspapers writing articles on how to get the most out of your game store credit trade ins. Frankly if a company is stupid enough not to fix their loopholes or if they hire stupid employees it should not be the customer's fault.

If they keep sending letters out to people then they will get a huge backlash on their games and rental customers, the people that get letters will obviously not return to the store, they are basically telling customers that they do not want them to shop at their store. Not to mention the people that are considering trading will not trade for fear of suspension.

I think there are less and less people taking the ebay route, ebay is so clogged with bootlegs and multiple copies of the same game that you cant even get that much for them if you bought on clearance specifically to resell. If there is a massive clearance sale and a bunch of people hoard it all to resell on ebay then it drives down the ebay price so much cause the market gets flooded with multiple copies of game x, then the reseller loses out instead of making profit.
 
I have to agree with Eltis. So far we have gotten no evidence that these letters are a mass mailing. They seem to be selected responses to certain individuals. Those that have reported getting letters have yet proven that they are not flippers (as you defined it). I suspect they are and are just complaining for sympathy. They have provided only sketchy details of their trade activity and a few have even admitted to flipping. These are the people who are causing the tighter restrictions on all trade promotions at Blockbuster. Lets also remember that Blockbuster is a major retailer whose programs and restrictions will probably influence other retailers. It does none of us any good to allow system abusers to exist in any form.
 
The candy store metaphor does not totally line up in a general since, although it helps the argument against flippers in one definition.
Flipping, by definition of buying a game and 2 seconds later trading it back in, is agreeably seen as shady.

Is it against the rules…no, not exactly. Although, as a business they have the right to refuse business, and if they wanted to refuse business for the fact that there is “loop hole” and it is being abused then they have full right. Well, unless they have stated otherwise and bound themselves from doing so.

If we are going to use generalized metaphors then we could say that “flipping” by definition of making money off of blockbuster by trading games in at high prices and buying at low prices with the purpose of making money could be restated as this: The stock market, American Market Place/Business, etc…or:

A man goes to a garage sale and the guy there is selling games for 10.00, but takes them back in and give 15.00 for trade towards anything else at the garage sale. The man that happens to come across this is confused and scratches his head, and can’t help but wonder if this guy has all his marbles and if this real is for real. The man asks the garage sale man if this is for real, and the garage sale man says yes.

The guy starts buying up all the games and trades them all back in and now has a ton of credit at the garage sale. The guy comes back to this garage sale every week for the next couple months doing the same thing, until one day the garage sale man realizes he is dumb and is making no money so he changes his policy and now gives .50 trade in for the games he sells for 5.00

So now you have one guy griping that the guy stopped giving so much trade in value and got smart, and another man griping that the guy was buying all the games and ruined it for everyone else, which is actuality him griping that the garage sale man realized he was dumb.

I remember when the deal first happened asking a manager why they were doing it.

He told me because they wanted everyone to use blockbuster and that they were trying to make themselves the big dogs of the gaming world…and eventually eliminate everyone else.

I don’t believe anyone actually ruined it. It was a promotional deal that BB started in order to grab attention of all the gamers, and they did so, and now they moved on.

Employees have said that they stopped it because of people “abusing” it, but managers have told me otherwise.

If they wanted to keep it, then it would not have been hard. All they would have done is put stipulations on it or just do what they have a right to do and ask people to stop trading in that are “abusing” it.

I really think that people need to redefine what the word abuse is though and realize what they are associating it to. We love America for the same things we hate it for…if you want the good…sometimes you have to put up with the bad, and mostly bad is only perspective.

BB would do the same thing if it made them money on a large scale…most business men would. “Shady” businessmen on a bug scale are what help keep the prices so far down for the people that gripe about them on the small scale. Otherwise we would all be buying games at local game stores and paying what they should be worth, and not based on the the effects of crooks.
 
[quote name='PavilionNewFire']
A man goes to a garage sale and the guy there is selling games for 10.00, but takes them back in and give 15.00 for trade towards anything else at the garage sale. The man that happens to come across this is confused and scratches his head, and can’t help but wonder if this guy has all his marbles and if this real is for real. The man asks the garage sale man if this is for real, and the garage sale man says yes.

The guy starts buying up all the games and trades them all back in and now has a ton of credit at the garage sale. The guy comes back to this garage sale every week for the next couple months doing the same thing, until one day the garage sale man realizes he is dumb and is making no money so he changes his policy and now gives .50 trade in for the games he sells for 5.00

So now you have one guy griping that the guy stopped giving so much trade in value and got smart, and another man griping that the guy was buying all the games and ruined it for everyone else, which is actuality him griping that the garage sale man realized he was dumb.

[/QUOTE]

FIrst, please don't change the font to that color, its very difficult to read.

Second, do you honestly believe that the person running the garage sale would take the games back that he just sold the guy. Once he noticed what the man was doing he would have said no to accept them back. It took BB a while to realize what was going on, but once they did they stopped it.

BB may have even set up prices originally to encourage trade ins llike that. They may have viewed it as a sort of advertising expense. I'm sure they did not imagine the chaos that would happen with the frequency of people flipping games.

If this is not the case, then why are the banning anyone?
 
Maybe them "banning" people is not an attack. Maybe it is just a fail safe. They knew it would cost them money as you said, but then at a certain point it would have to stop. Big Business may sometimes play dumb, but almost every move they make is a strategic move and actually thought out. Sometimes by us thinking someone is dumb we have played right into their strategy.
Now, on the other hand, I think it was a poorly thought out strategy. The same that the government highers slackers, BB needs to higher CAG's.
(Ther other font was a mistake.)
And as far as BB realizing it right away...the employees saw it coming out the door. I can't imagine that the employees are smarter than the executives! Well, hmmmm...
I think it really comes down to the fact that BB needs a better Public Relations department.
Actually their snappy judgement in this situation is this situation is even true would lead one to believe one of three things: They made a mess and are now trying to clean it up, or it is playing out as expected, but the PR department is making a mess, or the local BB this guy shops at is a Backwoods BlockBuster with a manager that has made it his goal to become king of BB.
 
Does anybody know someone here who has bought stock in a company in order to watch it rise and sell it for a profit? How about someone who has bought real estate for the sole purpose of reselling it at a higher value? Yup, they're both examples of flipping.

I am here to defend the position of flippers. I believe that the corporate bigwigs screwed up by promoting a deal that really was too good. I myself flipped to the tune of $500 by using about 8 blockbuster locations. That means I signed 8 trade agreements, right? Did anyone read those? I did. There is nothing on that trade agreement that states that my trading account can be banned for flipping. Go dig it up and check it. This is simply a situation in which Blockbuster thought they could promote a really good (really too good) deal without getting hurt. I bet that the cost analysis guy that said this would be a good idea got canned (as he should). Blockbuster offered the deal without thinking things through and they got burned. Why do you think that GS and EB have such harsh restrictions on their trades? I understand that Blockbuster has the right to refuse service, but there is nothing on their trade agreement which states that I cannot flip games specifically.

In closing, don't offer anything you can't back up ( don't Blockbuster it).
 
[quote name='edavis0780']Does anybody know someone here who has bought stock in a company in order to watch it rise and sell it for a profit? How about someone who has bought real estate for the sole purpose of reselling it at a higher value? Yup, they're both examples of flipping.
[/QUOTE]

That is a terrible comparison. You are not buying and selling to the same person when you deal with stocks. You are buying a stock from one person and then reselling to another different person.

I understand you are trying to justify flipping, but trading stocks is not a valid comparison.
 
[quote name='greendj27']That is a terrible comparison. You are not buying and selling to the same person when you deal with stocks. You are buying a stock from one person and then reselling to another different person.

I understand you are trying to justify flipping, but trading stocks is not a valid comparison.[/QUOTE]

Same thing applies here.. many of the games I flipped were bought from EB / Gamestop / TRU and flipped to Gamerush for a profit.
 
[quote name='Shrooms420']Buying anything with the intent to turn around and sell it, is called flipping.[/QUOTE]

And everyone partakes in flipping. So why do people here get bent out of shape over people flipping? Some of you guys, if you bought a copy of Chrono Trigger for $2, would you resell it at that price? I know I wouldn't because I know the value of it, and therefore I partaked in flipping.

It's a part of capitalism.
 
[quote name='Kuros']And everyone partakes in flipping. So why do people here get bent out of shape over people flipping? Some of you guys, if you bought a copy of Chrono Trigger for $2, would you resell it at that price? I know I wouldn't because I know the value of it, and therefore I partaked in flipping.

It's a part of capitalism.[/QUOTE]


That is completly wrong. We are not talking about reselling. Flipping is that act of buying something at a store and taking advantage of thier sale or something and then returning it in some way(trading in, returning, etc.) for a profit. The store makes no money and infact loses money.


And this is not a part of capitalism. Capitalism is the idea of free enterprise and privately owned buisnesses. Reselling is a component of every economic system ever. Reselling is the only true way to make a profit from anything.
 
They do it to us. Sell you a game for $50 then they turn around and buy it back for $30 maybe even $20 2 weeks later. Anybody talking about flipping is bad is only mad because it's gotten so out of hand, it's harder to do these days. I got chewed out once for no reason... I don't flip but I will return a game if I don't like it or if my lady brought me extra.
if they don't like it, they're in the wrong business.
 
i remember the term vaguely but isn't flipping is call arbitrage? for the flipper, it's still require their time, money, and effort plus the risk to achieve the profit? what's wrong with that... GR are doing the same thing.. it's just a matter who has a better 'information' and can react faster to that valuable info... then the side win (gain monetary profit)....... i maybe wrong.. but that's what i remember from long long time ago (way too long.. i'm getting old haha)
 
I don't see how BB is going to be sucessful in this preowned video game trade in thing. Thier buyout of Rhino has only made Rhino's worse OOT
 
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