Grainger Games – 06/05/2012
| Item: |
Valkyria Chronicles – PS3 |
| Price: |
£9.99 (new) |
| Delivery charge: |
Free delivery |
| Purchase date: |
06/05/2012 @ 20:00 |
| Estimated dispatch: |
Next working day |
| Estimated delivery: |
Royal Mail 1st class (next working day) |
| Actual dispatch: |
09/05/2010 |
| Actual delivery: |
10/05/2010 |
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Grainger Games has gone from strength to strength in recent years, helping it to become one of the big players in videogame retail. They’re a bit like CEX, but stock t-shirts instead of second-hand electrical equipment (which no one will ever buy). Anyway, I wouldn’t normally buy anything from Grainger Games as their prices aren’t much better than GAME; however, on this occasion, they were one of the few online retailers stocking new copies of Valkyria Chronicles. They were selling used copies for £7.99, and new copies for £9.99. It’s worth an extra £2 in my opinion to have a factory-sealed copy which hasn’t been kicked around a child’s bedroom.
Above: Screenshot of Grainger Games’ website at the time of purchase.
The Grainger Games website is nothing out of the ordinary; the distinctive orange background is rather ugly, though. The category tabs at the top of the page are somewhat vague. Why would a videogame retailer need a ‘games’ category? GAME’s website does something similar, but if you hover your cursor over their ‘games’ tab, a dropdown menu listing all the formats appears. Grainger Games’ website just isn’t as sophisticated, I suppose. Weirdly, the search bar has a dropdown system which offers suggestions as you type. Why didn’t they use this coding for the category tabs? Moving on, the item descriptions are very detailed, but the same cannot be said for the low-resolution cover art images. It’s good to see there’s a user review section, though.
The checkout process is relatively straightforward. If you don’t want to give yet another online retailer your card details, Grainger Games gives you the option of paying by PayPal. Once you’ve placed your order, you’ll receive an e-mail to confirm your transaction. Just before my item was dispatched, I received an e-mail from Grainger Games’ sales manager stating that my game had been posted (Royal Mail) first class. It’s always pleasant when online retailers are honest about the type of postage they’re using.
Despite a relatively decent online shopping experience, Grainger Games had unfortunately fucked-up when it came to shipping out the correct product. I specifically ordered a ‘new’ product, paying the extra £2 for the privilege. You can imagine how pissed off I was when THIS arrived:
The disc was covered in dust, the box was completely battered and the instruction manual was creased. Clearly, this was not a ‘new’ factory-sealed copy of Valkyria Chronicles. I suspect Grainger Games didn’t actually stock any new copies of the game, which would explain why virtually no other online retailer sold it either. Rather than admitting they made a mistake, someone in their company thought they’d pull a fast one by sending a second-hand copy, and hoping I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. I know a lot of people who probably wouldn’t have noticed; or if they had noticed, would have just put up with it. I’m not one of those people: if I pay for a new game, I expect to receive a new game.
My first reaction to this debacle was to send the game back using the postal return slip provided. Unfortunately, Grainger Games don’t actually provide a postal return slip, which means you have to write out your own slip and pay for your own postage. Why the fuck should I pay nearly £2 of my hard-earned money because THEY made a mistake. Surely they should be paying ME the £2 for fucking-up my day? Clearly, I wasn’t going to do that, so I took the second option of returning it to my local store. I live a good 20 miles away from my ‘local’ store, which means that a return trip costs around £8 in petrol. Again, it’s more money I’m having to lay out because someone else fucked-up.
Upon entering the store, the staff member admitted that the game was pre-owned. He informed me that he didn’t stock a new copy to exchange, so would have to offer me a refund. I agreed, but then, for whatever reason, he said that he wasn’t quite sure how to process the refund. He informed me that because they didn’t stock the item new, there wasn’t an option on his till to process the refund. In other words, he expected me to travel all the way back home (20 miles away), without resolving my predicament, and expecting me to pay the £2 postage to return it back to their HQ. Naturally, I wasn’t happy with the customer service, so he phoned his colleague for some advice on how to resolve the situation. Eventually, after a good 15 minutes, he refunded the game as a pre-owned copy, which is what he should have done to begin with.
All this fucking about could have been saved if I was originally sent an e-mail informing me that the website was inaccurate, and that my order could not be processed. Yes, I’d have been pissed off, but at least I’d have saved 3 hours of my time, and 8 pounds of my earnings. It might have started out as a relatively decent shopping experience, but ultimately, it ended up a complete fucking disaster.
The result of NNR’s shopping experience:
| Website |
Navigation |
Decent search bar with drop-down suggestions. Not enough advanced search options. Vague category bars. |
| Item descriptions |
Decent. Some games feature very low resolution box art pictures. |
| Range of items |
Not bad. Too much pre-owned shite, though. |
| Value |
Competitive. This particular item was the cheapest on the web. |
| Service |
Rewards |
Nothing, as far as I can tell. |
| Delivery |
Very prompt. Free first class postage. |
| Item Condition |
ITEM ARRIVED IN PRE-OWNED CONDITION. |
| After Sales |
Items can be returned back to their HQ, but you have to pay the postage. Items can be returned to your local store. Unfortunately, my local store was 20 miles away. Staff did not appear to understand how to process web refunds. |
| Final score |
0/10 – Arguably, this shopping experience was worse than Tesco Entertainment’s. At least they didn’t try to fob me off with a second-hand substitute. I also didn’t have to waste hours of my precious time returning the item to my local (20 miles away) store. Grainger Games deserve a zero because of the underhand fashion my order was dealt with. I’ll never shop there again. |
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UPDATE:
Since uploading our review, Grainger Games has contacted NNR and made the following statement:
Hi,
I’m sorry to hear that you had been sent an incorrect item. Although as our stock is sourced from stores, some low in stock items may be unsealed so the discs can be stored securely. We do state this in the terms of our website, as well as before your order is confirmed during the checkout process.
However, if an item arrives damaged or in unsatisfactory condition, we do send out a pre-paid returns label for you to send this back to us. so we can refund the full amount directly onto your card. Did you contact anyone from the website to let them know of this, so I am able to look into why this wasn’t done?
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience,
Gareth Banfi
Grainger Games
We appreciate and respect Grainger Games for contacting NNR with their thoughts on our shopping experience. It would appear that our shopping experience was not typical of the customer service Grainger Games offers:
- According to Grainger Games, the customer service department will send out a pre-paid postage label if you’re unsatisfied with your purchase. However, according to the terms and conditions on the Grainger Games website: “You can return goods you have ordered from us for any reason at any time within 7 days of receipt for an exchange. The costs of returning goods to us shall be borne by you.” So which is true?
- According to Grainger Games, the pre-owned game I was sent may have been ‘new’, but was “unsealed so the disc could be stored securely.” For me, ‘new’ means factory-sealed. If it’s now acceptable to sell ‘new’ products in the condition my game arrived, I really think the definition of ‘new’ needs updating.
Here at NNR, we’re not in the business of sensationalising our reviews for entertainment value; we simply commentate on the products and services we experience in order to safeguard consumers. We would never retract one of our objective reviews, as it would go against everything NNR stands for; however, we will always offer businesses a platform to justify their actions. In the spirit of fairness, we’ll be giving Grainger Games a chance to redeem themselves in the near future (just like we did with Tesco Entertainment). Grainger Games have made the effort to apologise for our negative experiences, which suggests that customer service is very important to the company. Let’s hope this sentiment is reflected in our next online shopping experience.
NNR
No Nonsense Reviews 