Hello from Gogamer

M

Mike@Gogamer

Official Representative
Hey CAGs,

My name's Michael and I'm writing from my desk at Gogamer.com. Just flitting through the fora, we've noticed a lot of discussion, good and bad, pertaining to Gogamer, so we're officially stepping in to take your questions and feedback.

I may not be aware of all relevant threads, so don't hesitate to PM me with your feedback. BTW, If you have something negative to say, please be rhetorically creative!

Now, since this is the deals section, I suppose I should close my entree with today's Madness. I'm not really here as a solicitor, per se, but mods let me know if posting deals in an official capacity is errant from CAG guidelines :)

good time to get COD: World at War, imo.


Grip-it $3.90* - *After Coupon code - GRIP-IT $ 3.90
NAOS 3200 $49.90* - *After Coupon code - NAOS32 $ 49.90
X-Tatic SP Headset $59.90* - *After Coupon code - XTATIC $ 59.90
PC Police Simulator (I) $ 31.90
PS3 Fallout Vegas $ 49.90
Xbox 360 Fallout Vegas $ 49.90
PS3 Enslaved $ 49.90
Xbox 360 Enslaved $ 49.90
PS3 Medal of Honor Limited Edition $ 51.90
Xbox 360 Medal of Honor Limited Edition $ 51.90
PC Medal of Honor Limited Edition $ 49.90
PC Civilization V $ 41.90
PC Call of Duty World at War $ 17.90
PC Hidden & Dangerous 2 $ 0.90
PC Two Worlds $ 0.90
PC Crystal Key 2 $ 0.90
PC Neverend $ 0.90
PC Jericho $ 0.90
PC Mercenaries 2 $ 1.90
PC Warhammer Dawn of War GOTY $ 1.90
PC Dark Horizon (I) $ 1.90
PC Legendary $ 2.90
PC Velvet Assassin $ 2.90
PC CivCity Rome $ 2.90
PC Raven Squad $ 3.90
PC Stalker Clear Skies $ 3.90
PC Painkiller Black $ 3.90
PC Trine $ 3.90
PC Call of Duty Deluxe (I) $ 4.90
PS3 Fuel (I) $7.90 – Limit 1
Xbox 360 Supreme Commander $ 9.90
Xbox 360 Blood Bowl $9.90 – Limit 1
Xbox 360 Timeshift $7.90 – Limit 1
Xbox 360 Star Wars Clone Wars $9.90 – limit 1

http://www.gogamer.com/48-Hour-Madness_stcVVcatId553100VVviewcat.htm
 
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I agree my only complaint about gogamer is the lack of free shipping option. I think it would be best if they instituted a price point free shipping like orders of $25+ etc. It has stopped me from ordering quite a bit from them in the past. I don't know how much that would help though with the crazy less than a few dollar deals they consistently have. It just sucks to pay $1.99 for game and $2.99 for shipping. at that point I pass and wait for a Steam sale.


Even though I'm an Amazon prime member and love it. I doubt I would pay for a shipping service from gogamer. It's not that I don't like gogamer its just that Amazon's everyday prices seem better. Also Amazon sells a lot more and not just games. Paying that much money for only games seems silly.
 
Waht do we want?

FREE SHIPPING!

When do we want it?

NOWWWWWW!

:)

I like gogamer a lot, they've never done me wrong. I also enjoyed the free grip-it promo from a month or two ago...those little rubber things for the end of my stick really upped my scoring potential...lol...
 
I love the sales but I always tend to shy away due to the shipping.

Now if its not Free Shipping (I wouldn't mind waiting 7-10 days) or $1 shipping then more and more of my money will be moved from Amazon to GoGamer.

But either way welcome! I hope to see this thread grow out of control.
 
Gogamer sure does try, but the fact of the matter is most of the pricing just isn't competitive, even before shipping+tax. There's always a better discount or future credit from someone else.
 
[quote name='Mike@Gogamer']Spoken like true cheapasses.

Good stuff. I'll comment more when I get into work today (PST).[/QUOTE]


this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.


I think you maybe barking up the wrong tree.
 
this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's not just cheapassery, it's the cleverness behind how we get these deals.
 
[quote name='MrYouTube']this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.


I think you maybe barking up the wrong tree.[/QUOTE]

Someone who has been a CAG for less then 2 weeks trying to distill the entire communities actions, motivations and beliefs into 5 sentences? Maybe you should wait until you have been around a while before trying to represent the rest of us (especially in the slightly rude manner you have been). A representative from the company offers to work with CAG to see if they can win are business and you dismiss them?

I have always had good experiences with Gogamer. Their shipping is fast, they have very deep discounts on PC games, and you can always count on a new game going on sale through them a week or 2 after release. That not even touching on the fact that they carry international versions of games.

As everyone else has said, maybe free shipping (or fixed low price shipping) after a certain dollar amount, would get me to buy a lot more from the 48 hour madness sales.
 
[quote name='MrYouTube']this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.


I think you maybe barking up the wrong tree.[/QUOTE]

I don't think he meant it derogatorily, he was using the site's name to denote our mentality/feedback living up to it in an almost admirable way. At least that's how I read it, he can shed further light.

+1 to liberaltugboat
 
[quote name='MrYouTube']this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.


I think you maybe barking up the wrong tree.[/QUOTE]

Yea you should just go to Slickdeals or Fatwallet.
 
I've placed orders from GoGamer quite a few times in the past and received my orders in a prompt manner. However, that was usually for titles where there were no equivalent local deals to be had, so essentially the shipping costs offset the Madness Sale discount, and I was saving a couple of bucks plus tax.

However, the marketplace has been so agressively discounted lately (particularly with the Amazon pricematching wars, a streak of GC deals from Toys R Us, and most recently, the huge coupon discounts at K-Mart) that GoGamer really only wins against items where MSRP is the only other option, and those are much rarer.

I love free shipping as much as the next CAG, but it's really about overall savings. If the discounts are less steep and the shipping is free or the discounts are deeper and the shipping costs remain the same, it doesn't matter to me (although psychologically, I can see how it might to some). I just want the best total out of pocket.
 
I may not be live all the rest of the Caggers around here, but I watch the deal forums alot for deals on CE and LE packages for my personal collections. I have purchased 3-4 times from Gogamer in the past half year, and love the madness sales. I agree with everyone that the shipping really hurts the "deal" mentality. I've had purchases where the items cost around $24 and shipping was over $18! I think the best solution would be to factor in your shipping costs into the sale price and offer the free shipping. I can also tell that some of your profits come from shipping, as shipping costs do not cost $18 on $24 dollars worth of products. That feels like them ebay auctions with Buy it Now prices that are super low and have terribly expensive shipping rates.
 
I miss the days of free random stuff.

I do like the deal on Call of Duty: World at War even if it is over 2 years old.
 
[quote name='rpnguyen']

anyway $150M is big enough to negotiate deals with shipping companies. Compare that $150M to whatever DD gets, and maybe we get a better picture.[/QUOTE]

You are totally missing the point. If Deep Discount can afford free shipping, then gogamer should be able to find a way to achieve this because both companies are about the same size (don't ask for data about gogamer, do your own homework).

I was comparing gogamer to deep discount not to amazon.com
 
[quote name='Bronson-Lee']Yes, get me all of GoGamer's financials, all of DD's financials, and prepare a 15 page report comparing thei-shut up.

[/QUOTE]

I will pick up your mom on my way to your place to drop off that report :lol:
 
I used to run an E-business and it was no where near the size of GoGamer and we were able to do free shipping. UPS will always cost a few bucks to companies like this but USPS has dirt cheap and reasonably fast service. Your only detriment is insurance isnt as easy and tracking is virtually non-existent. That being said we increased our sales so much with free shipping the risk factor was negligible.

Those of us with goozex know that you can ship a game as a consumer through USPS in a padded envelope insured for about $2 or less and expect it to get there within a week. I'm sure GoGamer could figure something out. Maybe not on their 1-2 dollar specials but at a certain price point it only makes sense.
 
[quote name='oasisboy']I will pick up your mom on my way to your place to drop off that report :lol:[/QUOTE]

Since your response deems misunderstanding, I was being sarcastic. You got data on a separate company with completely different business principles, operating costs, et cetera. You can't compare companies of this scale and expect them to implement such a policy without a significant restructuring of everything.

The mom joke pretty much just solidifies you're just attempting to troll with someone else's information. I'm also willing to bet you have no business experience in regards to actually implementing such a policy.

Want to keep going?

Edit: To the person below me, you have to take scale into account. Your company wasn't near the size of GoGamer, and thus didn't have the volume of shipping. They would have to restructure a lot more than you would to offer free shipping. Also, insurance and tracking are kind of important to people.
 
[quote name='Green Card200']They have Clive Barker's Jericho for $4 shipped. Is the game worth playing? It seemed to get mediocre reviews but I do like horror games.[/QUOTE]

Yea it's fun. It's not really a horror (as in scary) game. It's typical Clive Barker story & gory (for the engine) graphics.

Decent squad based tactics shooter. For $4 you can't go wrong.
 
Also for that matter, its not even the shipping cost on a single item its that each item tacks on about the same in shipping. At $3 a pop it gets insane. It really should just flat rate at $3 or be free at a certain point and reward people for ordering more.
 
[quote name='MrYouTube']I would encourage caution using GoGamer.com heres why.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4011-5_7-310071.html?tag=untagged

I for one think the market place is saturated with great deals NewEgg, Amazon.com and every retailer is giving out $20 gift cards with purchases.



What worries me the most is this. Quoted directly from their return page.


Return Authorization
To request a Return Authorization Number (RA#) for an item, please log into "Your Account" on the store from which your purchase was made. Then choose the appropriate order number to process a return request for the item within the return period stated above.
Returns will not be accepted without a RA number. RA numbers will expire after 10 days, and the item will not be accepted if it is returned after that timeframe. Please include the RA number on the outside of the shipping package. (Please do not write directly on the manufacturer's box).
Returning an item(s) may change or void coupon discounts or refunds currently appearing on an order.
For your protection, please send your return prepaid via a shipping service that can be tracked, such as UPS. Please be sure to keep your receipt. We cannot guarantee refunds for returns sent via a non-traceable method.
Credits are processed upon confirmation of the return by our suppliers. Please allow up to two billing cycles for the return credit to appear on your credit card statement. If credit cannot be issued to your credit card, a store credit will be issued.




!!


So we get credited aka money back not when GoGamer.com gets the game back but when "their supplier" authorizes it.



I have seen alot in the retail business but nothing like this. So they are in essence a 3rd party re-seller.


Maybe Mike would like to clarify this and shed some light on it.[/QUOTE]

My pleasure. The RA # comes from Gogamer, not our suppliers. Part of the service we provide as a reseller is saving the vendors most of the headache with customer service issues. For technical assistance and some other things, sometimes you will be better off contacting the manufacturer, though.

We need that RA # so we know what to do with items that get shipped back to us. We can assign the returns to the correct customers and credit them appropriately. The "two billing cycles thing" usually amounts to about 4 business days. That just depends on when our E-Commerce hosting provider batches the credit card charges, then on when the bank itself decides to issue the credit. But from our end, we get the product, look you up via RA#, and refund you on the spot. I hope this clarifies a little.


[quote name='gantt']My last order from GoGamer (a 360 game that was supposedly new) arrived with a busted case. It looked like someone stepped on a corner, grabbed the other end of the case and yanked up on it. It was also shrinkwrapped, not folded wrapped - which most people on here associate with a game that has been resealed.

I realize that the busted case could have happened during shipping, and in theory could happen to any shipment. Unfortunately, in years of buying games and DVDs from Amazon, Newegg, etc., nothing has arrived in such poor condition as this order from GoGamer.

When I called, GoGamer could have won me over by sending me a prepaid mailer to return the damaged game and then sent me a new replacement. I guess they couldn't do that, because they were sold out of the game, and remained sold out for MONTHS. Second best would have been to just refund my money in full (it was
 
[quote name='MrYouTube']this site is based on gamers getting great deals ala free shipping, Coupon codes staking with free shipping. Price mistakes (we love those). And gift cards. Or flipping cheap $2 games purchased from one store and traded in for tripple at gamestop or amazon. Thats like 90% of what goes on at these forums.


I think you maybe barking up the wrong tree.[/QUOTE]

Nonetheless, CAG is one of our top referrers; hence, it serves as an excellent portal to an important segment of our customer base. I'm not here to feed you commercial BS, but I am here on business. ;)
 
Now, clearly shipping is an achilles heel for us. That's why I sincerely appreciate you guys volunteering your ideas, or simply painting a better picture of your thought processes and purchasing behavior.

It's a mess, I promise you. And, though it may not seem so, bringing down the shipping in a saturated commodity market (loose terminology, but it's a mature market that in many ways presents the competitive challenges posed by commodities) like gaming retail is difficult. In fact, it's a matter of charging you or paying out of pocket, which is difficult with tight margins and stiff price competition. Ergo, whatever fees we waive have to be re-couped in volume (else we've made a bad business decision). Part of the whole equation will be quantifying the $shipping elasticity of demand with enough statistical comfort to convince the owners that it's a smart move. So now we hit the spreadsheets. (i realize the above commentary makes some assumptions about acceptable solutions; e.g., if we decided to roll some shipping costs into nominal prices, that would obviously be a question of nominal price elasticity of demand)

Anyway, the bottom line is we know we're not the Amazon of shipping, and not just from the POV of CAGs. So we're looking into it.

Thanks again for your feedback. I'll be listening.

p.s. - Gogamer is not as big as some seem to think. I don't think we even have a Hoover's profile, ha ha
 
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It would actually be nice to be able to buy something that doesn't go out of stock within the first hour of a 48 Hour Madness sale. Multiple times I've tried to buy items that were on sale, they're out of stock. Once the sale is over, they're all magically back in-stock.

I've made a number of purchases from GoGamer in the past, though now, I just shrug off their sales. Not worth it to me.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']It would actually be nice to be able to buy something that doesn't go out of stock within the first hour of a 48 Hour Madness sale. Multiple times I've tried to buy items that were on sale, they're out of stock. Once the sale is over, they're all magically back in-stock.

I've made a number of purchases from GoGamer in the past, though now, I just shrug off their sales. Not worth it to me.[/QUOTE]


noted
 
Welcome to the boards.

As others have said, its the shipping that kills it for me. I've made one purchase from you guys, and since then I try to keep an eye out for sales but after including shipping it kills it.
 
[quote name='Mike@Gogamer']noted[/QUOTE]I'm not talking about items 2 days into the sale, I'm talking about six hours after the sale starts or less.
 
[quote name='FeathersMcGraw']I've placed orders from GoGamer quite a few times in the past and received my orders in a prompt manner. However, that was usually for titles where there were no equivalent local deals to be had, so essentially the shipping costs offset the Madness Sale discount, and I was saving a couple of bucks plus tax.

However, the marketplace has been so agressively discounted lately (particularly with the Amazon pricematching wars, a streak of GC deals from Toys R Us, and most recently, the huge coupon discounts at K-Mart) that GoGamer really only wins against items where MSRP is the only other option, and those are much rarer.

I love free shipping as much as the next CAG, but it's really about overall savings. If the discounts are less steep and the shipping is free or the discounts are deeper and the shipping costs remain the same, it doesn't matter to me (although psychologically, I can see how it might to some). I just want the best total out of pocket.[/QUOTE]

Very well said and sums up my views exactly. The only time I have ordered from GoGamer is when the only other deal to be had is MSRP. That's the only time (after I factored shipping, of course) where GoGamer had the (slight) better value.

Here's the kicker though: their shipping is pretty slow and by the time I received the game, there was a better deal to be found locally. Thus, I haven't ordered from GoGamer since. Not sure what they could do, but they need some coupon system (ala, KMart and Amazon) to really remain competitive for me.
 
[quote name='Bronson-Lee']

1. Since your response deems misunderstanding, I was being sarcastic.

2. You got data on a separate company with completely different business principles, operating costs, et cetera. You can't compare companies of this scale and expect them to implement such a policy without a significant restructuring of everything.

3. The mom joke pretty much just solidifies you're just attempting to troll with someone else's information.

4. I'm also willing to bet you have no business experience in regards to actually implementing such a policy.

5. Want to keep going?

[/QUOTE]

1. I was being sarcastic too. You ask me for a 15 page report, I ask to see your mom. An eye for an eye in sarcasm.

2. Deep discount and gogamer are in the same league where both companies are trying to make a name for themselves. They can be compared on the fact that both companies are much smaller as compared to amazon. The average Joe has never heard of deep discount or gogamer. All they know is amazon.com, target.com, walmart.com and perhaps buy.com

3. Your joke about a 15 page report shows you are just trying to troll when all I am doing is providing data about two companies and justifying my argument with another CAG.

4. What experience do you have? Unless you have worked for an e-tailer, you and I are on the same boat.

5. Sure, lets keep it going.
 
[quote name='tinyandi']Very well said and sums up my views exactly. The only time I have ordered from GoGamer is when the only other deal to be had is MSRP. That's the only time (after I factored shipping, of course) where GoGamer had the (slight) better value.

Here's the kicker though: their shipping is pretty slow and by the time I received the game, there was a better deal to be found locally. Thus, I haven't ordered from GoGamer since. Not sure what they could do, but they need some coupon system (ala, KMart and Amazon) to really remain competitive for me.[/QUOTE]

It really depends and this isn't true for everyone. I've ordered several titles, mostly older PC games and I've always received my shipment within a few days with dirt cheap shipping.

I also understand the stance Gogamer has in regards to shipping. People love to point out free shipping from Amazon or buy.com. Thats a senseless comparison seeing as how those are huge multipurpose retailers who get thousands of orders per day. You can't expect small online retailers to compete with that by offering free shipping and discount coupons that would reduce their profit margin down to zero. It might generate more traffic and orders, but if it comes at financial loses then you can't reasonable take that path without bankrupting the company. It really is a tough market, and for the ones that aren't at the top there just is not a lot of flexibility you can manage on deals. Now I can see them having a shipping discount on group orders especially when shipped in the same package.

I do respect what gogamer tries to do, and still remember some crazy nice deals like Homeworld 2 for $5. There are always some nice random deals to be had, even if they aren't omg crazy.
 
[quote name='oasisboy']
2. Deep discount and gogamer are in the same league where both companies are trying to make a name for themselves. They can be compared on the fact that both companies are much smaller as compared to amazon. The average Joe has never heard of deep discount or gogamer. All they know is amazon.com, target.com, walmart.com and perhaps buy.com

4. What experience do you have? Unless you have worked for an e-tailer, you and I are on the same boat.[/QUOTE]

I'll ignore the other points because it's just you failing to be witty.

2. Generalizing companies down to "making a name for themselves" is absolutely asinine. It may seem like they're similar, but they have completely different business practices. Mark's even said in this thread that there's a lot of things that would have to change to offer what is essentially a buzzword. All you did was provide publicly available information to try and justify your mass generalization.

4. Like others in this thread, I've had my own e-business and worked for other e-tailers. Is it easy for me to offer free shipping for my own business? Sure. Does it up my costs/profits, and force me to change everything about my store, or lose a significant amount of money for the purpose of a marketing term? Yes.

And my store is slim pickings. Imagine having to do that on the scale of GoGamer. GameDealDaily doesn't do it because it would bring down the company, and would be a colossal pain in the ass to boot, all in the name of a miniscule growth in consumer sales. And that's not even counting the man hours wasted on preparing for such a service.

Free shipping is only one facet of gaining repeat customers, and it's a small one. The big one is complete cost, and secondary to that is customer service and general experience.

You haven't provided any counterpoints to mine or others, so I would honestly suggest doing actual research on the matter before speaking about it. It's clear you didn't.
 
Welcome to CAG Mike, I ordered from the sale this morning, so at least you got one new customer. I ordered Trine for the PC, Star Wars and Blood Bowl for the 360.
 
IMO, gogamer should implement a Prime like deal of free USPS Priority for 1 year ... charge like 10 to 20 clams for it ... would probably be a break-even proposition shipping-wise for gogamer and would definitely result in more sales.

You could even launch it by offering a free GoGamerPrime trial to CAGers.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']It would actually be nice to be able to buy something that doesn't go out of stock within the first hour of a 48 Hour Madness sale. Multiple times I've tried to buy items that were on sale, they're out of stock. Once the sale is over, they're all magically back in-stock.

I've made a number of purchases from GoGamer in the past, though now, I just shrug off their sales. Not worth it to me.[/QUOTE]

This.
 
[quote name='gravel']Welcome to CAG Mike, I ordered from the sale this morning, so at least you got one new customer. I ordered Trine for the PC, Star Wars and Blood Bowl for the 360.[/QUOTE]

A haiku of gratitude for Gravel --

Gravel bought some games
Including Trine for PC
For that we thank him​

No, I'm not published, yet.​
 
[quote name='Bronson-Lee']

1. I'll ignore the other points because it's just you failing to be witty.

2. Generalizing companies down to "making a name for themselves" is absolutely asinine. It may seem like they're similar, but they have completely different business practices.

3. All you did was provide publicly available information to try and justify your mass generalization.

4. Like others in this thread, I've had my own e-business and worked for other e-tailers. Is it easy for me to offer free shipping for my own business? Sure. Does it up my costs/profits, and force me to change everything about my store, or lose a significant amount of money for the purpose of a marketing term? Yes.

5. And my store is slim pickings.

6. Free shipping is only one facet of gaining repeat customers, and it's a small one. The big one is complete cost, and secondary to that is customer service and general experience.

7. You haven't provided any counterpoints to mine or others, so I would honestly suggest doing actual research on the matter before speaking about it. It's clear you didn't.[/QUOTE]

1. It sounds like you didnt like a taste of your own medicine when it comes to sarcasm. You ask for a 15 page report (smart ass comment of course) and you get a smart ass response. If you can't take the heat then...

2. And you know this because you work for gogamer or deep discount? Or just your "expertise" doing the talking?

3. I provided information available through a premium account at Hoovers which specializes in collecting information from companies. That's more than what you have done besides asking for 15 page reports.

4. So based on your experience with free shipping, can you provide an analysis with facts and numbers that can help our friendly gogamer representative? I mean like an excel spreadsheet based on your findings on how free shipping affects demand and other financials. Otherwise, you are just talking from your "experience".

5. Why am I not surprised?

6. Some numbers please to back up that conclusion?

7. If you have done the research, please post some excel tables with all the numbers on free shipping and its impact. Please do the gogamer representative a favor so that he can see if free shipping might be an option for his employer. Otherwise, you are no better than me.
 
@oasisboy

Just wanted to ask if you took a look at my post way back about DeepDiscount.

The reason why DeepDiscount save so much on shipping is because they are not a company by themselves and they are actually part of a much larger company called Infinity Resources Inc.

The company itself actually operates quite a few different smaller companies which all do business in the digital media company, and Infinity Resources themselves are also a high volume shipping company themselves, which is why one of their smaller companies, like Deep Discount are able to afford the cheaper shipping rates that some other smaller companies may not be able to, for example GoGamer.

And I'm not trying to knock on you or anything, but just wanted to make sure you know that Deep Discount does have free shipping for a reason even though on the surface they look like a small company, but they are actually just a small part of a much larger corporation.
 
Squarehard:

I did read about your comments on deep discount but according to Hoovers, deep discount represents most of their revenue (but not profit necessarily). Infinity is a private company so they don't provide many financials. I know what you mean about the shipping aspect and the resources of Infinity. My argument is that deep discount is not a major player in the online shopping world, yet they are able to sell with free shipping, yes they have a parent company that specializes in shipping, but the company has to be creative enough (and that's my keyword) in order to afford free shipping.

Edit: and to add to the point, there are huge corporations bigger than deep discount who don't offer free shipping. Is it because they cannot afford it? or because they are not creative enough? That's my point. If deep discount can do it, why can't the Microsoft store offer free shipping?
 
[quote name='Squarehard']@oasisboy

Just wanted to ask if you took a look at my post way back about DeepDiscount.

The reason why DeepDiscount save so much on shipping is because they are not a company by themselves and they are actually part of a much larger company called Infinity Resources Inc.

The company itself actually operates quite a few different smaller companies which all do business in the digital media company, and Infinity Resources themselves are also a high volume shipping company themselves, which is why one of their smaller companies, like Deep Discount are able to afford the cheaper shipping rates that some other smaller companies may not be able to, for example GoGamer.

And I'm not trying to knock on you or anything, but just wanted to make sure you know that Deep Discount does have free shipping for a reason even though on the surface they look like a small company, but they are actually just a small part of a much larger corporation.[/QUOTE]


While that's an interesting observation, to a consumer and I would venture to guess the majority of people on this board, it doesn't matter if the company is a single guy in his garage or a multi-national corporation, what matters is cost of the item, cost and speed of shipping, selection, ease of placing an order, ease of returns and customer service. The reality is, while I support small businesses locally, I have no time or patience for a small Internet business that repeatedly charges higher shipping than most places I deal with, including many small Internet businesses, sells grey market "international" products which can't easily be resold or traded-in, often runs out of the stuff that is actually a bargain after tax and shipping literally hours into a sale and doesn't have a particularly user friendly ordering or return system.

I'm sorry, but as much as people bitch and complain about big companies, there are just some things they are really good at. Selling cheap games, dvd's, cd's, etc... for low or no shipping seems to be one of them. I don't know how a small business can compete since they will never have the buying power of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Kmart, etc...Maybe the truth is, they can't. Unless they carry such specialized products that they are literally not readily available anywhere else, there is just absolutely no reason to buy from a small Internet retailer. No amount of friendly customer service or good intentions will ever offset a 20% or more difference in price when the shipping and tax get added. Sorry, but that's just the reality and frankly, the customer service at Amazon while it has gotten worse over time, is still pretty darn good and their returns process is instant and simple as can be.
 
*headdesk*

This is like watching a car, a train, a helicopter, and a space shuttle crash into the same thing at the same time.

What you're doing now is the equivalent of "I know you are, but what am I?" Your sarcastic response didn't help your case, so now you're asking for numbers, which was exactly what I did first: press you for proof. You don't have it, so the burden of proof is now on me to provide hard financial data? To be blunt, that's not how it works.

The Microsoft store can't offer free shipping because implementing such a policy involves an astronomical restructuring of their entire business model, website, and handling of orders, all for, like I said before, a miniscule uptick in sales. The people who whinge about free shipping don't actually buy anything. They're the vocal minority.
 
@ Mike@Gogamer

I just would like to say I've been buying PC games from Gogamer since Neverwinter Nights PC first came out (Summer 2002). Still buying from you guys - though, not nowhere as much as I used to and not as much as I would like to, since especially Amazon, especially Steam, Impulse, Newegg, Best Buy, and others been also coming up w/ good deals here and there.

So, yeah - keep coming up w/ them deals! :) I love buying PC games from you guys!

I'd really like to see you get back in stock some good deals on the following:
--> Risen for the PC.
--> Sacred 2: Fallen Angel - The Gold Edition [Import] for the PC.
--> Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the PC.
 
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This is the first time I've ever checked out gogamer. Always saw it mentioned, never bothered to check. Good price (IMO) on CIV 5, and if I hadn't just bought it, I'd have gotten it from you guys.

More to the point, its nice to see your company on a more personal level and I'll be stopping by regularly now to check your stuff. Thanks for taking interest in the community!
 
Man, you have no idea how many times I would have bought stuff from gogamer if the shipping didn't kill the deals.

And really I love to give you guys more of my business. You are by far one of the best
online retailers that actually have a great PC game selection. It just sucks to see some of those $1 games get charged more for shipping and it just doesn't do anything for me.

That being said, I appreciate that you took the time and talk to the CAGers and are willing
to look into doing something about shipping.
 
Hey Mike, welcome to the forums.

I've only bought one game from y'all so far, though I always do look at the Madness emails. Like most other folks, shipping is a killer - especially when I can get the same game from Amazon with Prime on release date AND with a credit incentive (case in point: Halo - Reach - $59.99 with $20 credit).

My suggestion is to offer incentives like credit on future purchases, but to also do so selectively - as in, go after those games Amazon and other retails have ignored or dropped the ball on. COD: Black Ops is a perfect example of this - first, Amazon had a "price mistake" on the 360 version ($49.99 WITH $20 credit), and all those orders were cancelled. Then it was $59.99 WITH $20 credit. And then they ditched the $20 credit, creating an open marketing opportunity for everyone else.

I see you've got FREE SHIPPING on Black Ops, but that $59.90 price isn't going to sell many units.

Seriously, offer $5 or $10, or $15 or $20 off the next purchase, on certain pre-buys especially, and you'll see more sales. You may take a temporary hit, but you've got to develop a long-term strategy and also realize people on this site are cheap...as cheap as can be. And that we tend to buy into whichever store has the best offer.

Case in point: Enslaved. I was going to wait to pick it up used. And Amazon's $10 credit wasn't very inspiring. But KMart's $25 game coupon (valid for only 40 days, mind you - and I HATE going to KMart(!)), got me to buy into the store. That means, within 40 days, I'll be back at KMart, picking up another game. Chances are I'll pick up a game that has another coupon attached to it, thereby getting me into the store yet again.

Over time, KMart will certainly get their money's worth out of me. I'll continually feel like I got the best deal. And it'll also keep me from going to Best Buy, Amazon, Gamestop, etc.

Far as I can see, there are no deals yet on games like James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition, Vanquished, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, to name just a few.
 
[quote name='Bronson-Lee']*headdesk*

This is like watching a car, a train, a helicopter, and a space shuttle crash into the same thing at the same time.

What you're doing now is the equivalent of "I know you are, but what am I?" Your sarcastic response didn't help your case, so now you're asking for numbers, which was exactly what I did first: press you for proof. You don't have it, so the burden of proof is now on me to provide hard financial data? To be blunt, that's not how it works.

The Microsoft store can't offer free shipping because implementing such a policy involves an astronomical restructuring of their entire business model, website, and handling of orders, all for, like I said before, a miniscule uptick in sales. The people who whinge about free shipping don't actually buy anything. They're the vocal minority.[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry, but where exactly do you work? Having worked with a number of Internet start-ups including several that sold consumer products, I can state for a fact that free shipping promotions typically do lead to substantial increases in sales volumes. Of course, they also have a cost, but there is a middle ground like the Amazon $25 and over FSSS where you maximize sales and minimize losses due to shipping. Obviously free shipping works or the world's largest Internet retailer wouldn't still be doing it after all this time. People wanting free shipping are the majority, not some fringe group. Most consumers like a deal on what they are buying and free shipping esentially helps to balance out the advantage B&M stores have in areas like customer service, instant gratification, seeing what you buy in advance, returns, etc... Why would anyone buy anything from Internet sources if the price is the same at retail after they pay for shipping?
 
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