Why I will never deal with EB Games again.

Seven weeks ago, I went into EB Games in Cuba Mall, Wellington, looking for a copy of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. They only had a pre-owned copy, so I asked if they could get a new copy in. They looked in their computer, and found that the only new copies in all New Zealand were in Invercargill and Johnsonville. The bloke behind the counter called Johnsonville, and found that their copy was scratched. So he called Invercargill and asked for their copy to be transferred to Wellington. That done, I was told it might be a week or two because they were "in the middle of their stocktake".

Two weeks later, having not heard anything, I went back to Cuba Mall EB and ask what was happening. Without even looking at the computer, the bloke behind the counter (the same one who took my original order) told me it would be a week or two because they were "in the middle of stocktaking."

Another two weeks pass, and I go in again. This time, there's a different chap behind the counter, who helpfully tells me there's no record of my order. Annoyed, I ordered the game again, and once again, it'll "be a week or two".

Two weeks later, I go in. The order is in the computer, and the game is in transit -- should be in "next week".

Finally, I get a call yesterday saying that my game has arrived. When I went in to pick it up, it's a pre-owned copy (remember, I went through all this because I didn't want a pre-owned copy) with a battered case. Admittedly, they only wanted $85 for it (plus another $5 for "scratch insurance"), while it's selling for $120 new.

I did buy it -- and the damn scratch insurance -- because (a) I had a $25 voucher for EB, courtesy of my sister-in-law, and (b) I want to play the game, and didn't want to wait any longer. But I will never, ever again buy a game from Electronics Boutique, or even visit any of their stores.

My recommendation for buying games: MightyApe. We've had nothing but brilliant service from them, and their prices are usually on par -- or better -- with bricks-'n'-mortar stores. They also do books (the Watchmen comic for under $50.00? cool!), DVDs, and other odds and ends. And free delivery within New Zealand if your order is more than $50.00.

Grrrrr.....

As we were leaving Johnsonville tonight, we got on the motorway and accelerated up to 100 km/h. Just past the J'ville on-ramp, bright orange flash.

I'll be seriously annoyed if I get a ticket -- it was a 100 km/h zone, my speedometer was reading 100 km/h, and the Tomtom GPS was reading only 94 km/h. (When I go past those little info boxes that tell you how fast you're going, they always say I'm travelling around 5 km/h slower than what my speedo says.)

Ugh!

Wandered into the Electronics Boutique in Cuba Mall at lunchtime to see where a game I'd ordered 6 weeks ago was. Hasn't arrived yet -- will hopefully be here next week -- but at least they haven't lost the order like they had two weeks ago.


They also had posters up for the red X-box 360 (a limited edition bundled with Resident Evil 5), and it looks revolting. The Xbox looks really nice in black or white, but this is just plain icky.

New blog

I've decided to create a second blog for all my game dev stuff.