Unconfirmed: Dick Smith Getting Out of Games From April 2 with Barga...
Dan
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Brisbane, Queensland
12935 posts
Online bargain hunting site ecogamer are reporting on an anonymous tip claiming that Australian retailer Dick Smith Electronics plans to scale down their foray into video game retailing and as a result will be having one heck of a clearance sale, said to be commencing on April 2nd 2012.
Ecogamer appears to be struggling under the increased traffic at the moment, so here's the important bits:
As we all know Dick Smith is going through a sell-off process right now. A business decisions has been made to pretty much do what Myer has done and just focus on Consoles, branded accessories and popular new releases. Thus all aged inventory and inventory that doesn't fit this description is been cleared.
Pricing starts from Monday 2nd April, but won't be advertised in stores until the 11th of April (to give stores time to actually price everything properly).
Accompanying the tip are some price lists, that if accurate indicate some tasty gaming bargains indeed. List one, list two, list three.
Yeah, I dunno how much stock they have, or if this is just stuff thats in the store or what. Just found the full Guitar Hero 5 bundle with the guitar and the drums and everything on PS3 for $20, but I was just in Dick Smith today at lunch time and they definitely had no stock of that in-store.
Before anyone gets super excited I'd check the dse site first, there are plenty of things that are either: not deliverable/not available in many (brisbane)stores/not even on the site.
I bought a set a while back and they're awesome. I only use them when playing WoW with my mate and the mic system works great. Sound is extremely clear. We just use the fone thingy on MSN to talk and that works perfectly. Also, they don't need batteries either. You have them plugged in to the USB and they charge while you use them and then you can just unplug the cable after. Also, it comes with some fun software that can change your voice to the different WoW races. Most sound pretty dodgy but some are hilarious. Also, I got the push to talk foot peddle for no extra cost which is nice if you don't wanna hit a key with you finger.
Anyway, if it's only $5 than that's a stupidly awesome bargain.
Starting to really think this sale will be a massive fizzer. Good luck to anyone who manages to get something, but as RockitMan mentioned, the hot items are not in stock. The online store will be a hit and miss ala catchoftheday.
Yeah being "leaked" early pretty much means that the ebayers who ruin ticket sales will rape the online store as many of those items listed can be sold for more on ebay.
It does have the feel of bait advertising using a viral method of "leaked" information. When something is too good to be true, it usually is.
Yeah, I'm not going to even bother with the online store, I'll hit up the Dick Smith next to work on monday morning and see if theres anything worthwhile there though
Already hearing anecdotal commentary (you know, 'my mate works at DSE and said..' type things)that DSE staff are hording the good stuff already ahead of Monday. Guess it's to be expected with this kind of thing, right?
Wouldn't you if you worked there?
They can't hold EVERYTHING >:D
In other news, to anyone who makes it to one of these sales and isn't interested in MS points... right here, I'll offer you 150% of what you've paid for the 1500/3000MS Points if you can find em.
I certainly hope they were referring to the day the sale starts... maybe i should go to the other store just in case (shudder)
The guy did mention that he had heard that someone had released incorrect information online and the head office is none-to-pleased.
Rumours are people working at the stores are storing most of the good stuff for themselves, and also looking at the Xbox 360 now, no store has them available and this is just the normal price. Also apparently it's incremental stages.
Don't think the prices are getting any lower. Those WoW headphones someone linked back at the start are listed as $5 online now, but they were out of stock on the site days ago and haven't come back.
Seems like a fizzer.
Might have been a few bargains for people lucky enough to get into stores, but if people are trying to hunt the big wins from that leaked price list they're going to be disappointed.
Haha, teh googles is taunting me. A lazy search for dick smith locations gave me the 8 bit quest map.
Thank You Daz! But Our Hundred Dollar Xbox Is In Another Castle!
Might have been a few bargains for people lucky enough to get into stores, but if people are trying to hunt the big wins from that leaked price list they're going to be disappointed.
Yea I've got the day off and theres one around the corner. Will let you know if I have any luck. Looking at the FB it appears some :of the prices were live at 7:30am which is fucked.
Menai DickSmiths (Sydney) had 40 people at openning. $100 xboxes sold out before they opened the door. One lady went down yesterday to confirm stock and they had it. Staff admitted that they bought them themselves even though they were forbidden. She's now complaining to head office. Don't like her chances.
Wifey recons most people were buying XBOX points.
Blacktown DS had no xboxes on sale, only had the Kinect bundle.
I rang and complained yesterday about the staff buying all the good stock at the special price before the sale even starts and there response was quote "We are allowed to do this, It's our right"
That is complete bs, I have a friend who works at dicksmith and said they were hiding all the shit in the back rooms and saying they weren't in stock which is technically illegal. I'm about to phone up the head office in Sydney and make a serious complaint. I suggest others to do the same.
Sorry guys just got back and it sucked. I went for hardware, so headphones, keyboards mice etc and there was literally 0 of them on sale. No G19 surprisingly :P
Had a handful of the MS Points and XBOX Live things (12 mnth) and the guys like, naa not part of the sale.
Sale basically consisted of a few PC games, old xbox games, old ps3 games, bunch of wii games and shitload of wii controllers and cases etc. Was pretty miserable overall. I saw a lot of angry people like "this is horrible" etc etc and I agree with them.
Just bought a $1 wii fit mat and nun chuck controllers for a couple of bucks for my mum
The amount of items people got to the counter with stuff and the guys are like naaa not part of it was insane.
A woman answered the call center phones in tears. Apparently there's some rage going on. You need to speak to 'Nigel' to complain to him, and the queue is about 20 long to get to abuse Nigel.
A mate of mine just went to the Hoppers Crossing DSE and said there was a line up to get in and pretty much everything worth getting wasn't in stock. They only had 1 Xbox at the sale price and the first guy in the door grabbed it, the rest was just old games for a couple of bucks.
A mate of mine just went to the Hoppers Crossing DSE and said there was a line up to get in and pretty much everything worth getting wasn't in stock. They only had 1 Xbox at the sale price and the first guy in the door grabbed it, the rest was just old games for a couple of bucks.
Exactly same as my store, Altona North, although I didn't see anyone walk out with a console. (Doesn't mean they didnt have it).
Didn't we go through this kind of shit 1 month ago with WOW Sight and Sound. Its not worth getting worked up over. If I worked at Dick Smith I would wanna hog all the good stuff for me and my friends as well.
So what is the go with staff being able to take items and store them? Pretty much all the good stuff they advertised was gone, and none of the G19's were available, even though yesterday there was plenty of stock.
I rang and complained yesterday about the staff buying all the good stock at the special price before the sale even starts and there response was quote "We are allowed to do this, It's our right"
That is complete bs, I have a friend who works at dicksmith and said they were hiding all the shit in the back rooms and saying they weren't in stock which is technically illegal. I'm about to phone up the head office in Sydney and make a serious complaint. I suggest others to do the same.
Lol dude, its dodgy but come on, everybody does that. I sure as fuck would. I mentioned that 12month xbox online for $15 to my console mate and he wet himself. Reckons he pays $70.
Didn't we go through this kind of shit 1 month ago with WOW Sight and Sound. Its not worth getting worked up over. If I worked at Dick Smith I would wanna hog all the good stuff for me and my friends as well.
This. Every seems to forget they would do the exact same thing if given the opportunity.
A mate of mine just went to the Hoppers Crossing DSE and said there was a line up to get in and pretty much everything worth getting wasn't in stock.
Same at the one on the Gold Coast - I rocked up around 9:20 at the Southport store and it was much busier than usual but no stock at all on sale on the shelves. Some dudes were wandering around with armfuls of gear that I'm guessing was on sale, but I'm not so sure since there was no signage and the shelves weren't marked down or anything at all. I just walked out.
rang up and tried to complain twice in the last 10minutes, Had them hang up on me.... Can they do that?
Nope that's a violation of the Trade Practices Act Section 6 subsection 12 part iv clause 18.f "Customer service representatives must not hang up on the telephone line to a customer, even in the event that the customer is calling to abuse them about missing out on free goodies"
Not like you can do anything about it - it wasn't even an official, announced sale. Everyone was working on a leaked list of prices which were totally internal and subject to change.
HOWEVER, they listed things like G19s this morning at the $40 price on their website, and said 'in store only', so the ACCC will be all over that since companies have many times over tried to pull that kind of crap, knowing full well they have no stock.
HOWEVER, they listed things like G19s this morning at the $40 price on their website, and said 'in store only', so the ACCC will be all over that since companies have many times over tried to pull that kind of crap, knowing full well they have no stock.
Yeah but wasnt there the 'check availability' button? If its on sale but only available @ a handful of stores then thats legit right? Suck balls but still legit.
Surely there is an ACCC complaint in this somehow, they gave out those price lists, got a lot of people excited to come to their store and then didn't have squat...
I don't really buy into the whole "it wasn't official" thing, who the fuck gave out that price list? Someone from the company. They confirmed it on twitter too. Everyone knew about this.
Surely there is an ACCC complaint in this somehow, they gave out those price lists, got a lot of people excited to come to their store and then didn't have squat...
I don't really buy into the whole "it wasn't official" thing, who the fuck gave out that price list? Someone from the company. They confirmed it on twitter too. Everyone knew about this.
Agreed. 'unoffical' leak my ass. It was talked about earlier in the thread by deadlyf:
It does have the feel of bait advertising using a viral method of "leaked" information. When something is too good to be true, it usually is.
They might have said "Yeah, there's a sale starting Monday", which isn't abnormal for any company, but it's hardly unlike random company employees six notches down the chain to grab a list, photocopy/scan it and sent it to some random website.
this was funny how bad this sale was, I went to a DSE simply because I happened to go grocery shopping and there was basically no sale on. no consoles, controllers were still marked at like $80, there was a few games discounted but nothing you couldn't find cheaper elsewhere like online.
Didn't we go through this kind of shit 1 month ago with WOW Sight and Sound.
the difference is that people expected huge price drops for the WOW sale and there really wasn't. this sale had pretty much all the good stuff out of stock before it even started.
Yep, went to 3 Dick Smith stores this morning and they were sold out of everything, and not just the good stuff, people had cleared the rubbish off the shelves.
Had a job early this morning, but thought I would go in to check it out after.
Went to the one in the Mega Centre (near Ikea) and they didn't have anything left. One of the staff said they had 300 people lined up this morning for it...
Everyone went nuts over the wrong MS 3000 pts (the POS activated ones... think 'pre-paid mobile credit/gift card' style) so they got disappoint...
The smart cookies headed straight for the register after opening, coz all of the consoles are 'out the back'... the store I went to had 3 xbox's (4GB model, w/Rugby) so they vanished quickly.
There was one G-19 at this store (which I made the mistake of runnin for the shelf where I'd seen it the day before) but it moved straight after the consoles were gone.
The second store I hit opened at 10. and I saw possibly the most disgusting thing I've seen at a sale ever.
One older dude was there grinning like a turd... the store opened and he went straight to the counter... His words, "I'll take all of your consoles".
He walked out with 2x 4GB xbox 360's and about 15 Nintendo DS'... I'm not mad coz I didn't want a DS... but what a cunt act... this guy CLEARLY just wants to profit from this... sure sure, 'kudos, he got there first' but the queue of ppl waiting to ask for a DS (there were at least half a dozen near me) was fairly sizable.
I'm not entirely surprised about the whole 'lack of stock', what did catch me off guard was how much noise/excitement this had generated over the last week... The only other place I've seen that many people get nervous about a sale was one of the WOW midnight launches I (the store I was workin in at the time) ran.
I guess when the idea is to clear out all stock then they do away with the 1 per customer thing, I was going to call around some local stores today but after viewing this thread I'll just give that a pass.
I went to Robina, they had heaps of G19's but weren't selling them for the advertised $40 at first, they had no idea any kind of sale was on and told people that they had to pay the sticker price so there were piles of boxes dumped by disappointed people everywhere. Saw one really pissed guy storm out after he saw the G19 he was told he had to pay full price for get bought by some old bird for I assume the $40 price.
I did the go up to the counter thing to get the Fifa PS3 that the website said was in stock, the guy had me waiting for an hour and a half before telling me the "stock" was the display unit that someone had accidentally checked into stock and that I was shit out of luck.
Definitely feels like bait advertisement to me, leaked list or not they didn't even have enough stock of the stuff they had advertised online.
Can anyone identify these cocks selling this stuff on ebay and ruin their auctions by bidding a million dollars from a fake account? Never done it before so not sure if you'd get reamed for it...
The seller can just cancel the bid.
If it's done right at the end of the bidding process it'll just get rolled back and the next highest bidder wins.
You may or may not get a nastygram from ebay, but on a fake account nobody would care.
the guy had me waiting for an hour and a half before telling me the "stock" was the display unit that someone had accidentally checked into stock and that I was shit out of luck.
Worked at DSE a lifetime ago, display stock for games is still "stock". They take the cd out of the case, store it out the back and put the empty case on the shelf for display (like any retail store).
So I hit up 2 of the Hobart stores this morning, one out in the suburbs and one in the city proper. The city store was completely stripped of anything decent and the staff were having a bit of a laugh at the fact the store actually shook when the hordes of neck beards surged through the doors at 9am. The other store wasn't too bad, with several reasonable titles still available for cheap and had several 360s left, but they were gone not long after I got there.
Still, I managed to snag a couple of $5 games I wouldn't have bought otherwise so I'm happy with the haul.
Due to the popularity of the Gaming Sale, we understand some customers have been left disappointed this morning.
Today’s sale was a clearance sale which means stock was strictly limited and availability varied between stores and online. This was clearly outlined on our page when the sale was announced last week.
We received an overwhelming response this morning. As a result many stores sold out within the first hour of the sale and our website received an unprecedented volume of traffic.
Contrary to some reports, Dick Smith will continue to sell Gaming.
That is from their official Facebook. Would be hilarious to see if the staff were actually putting stuff out back.
Yeah, that won't fly. "Clearly outlined" or not, you can't disclaim legal requirements. The laws were changed a few years ago that ensured the level of stock available must match both the price reductions, the expected demand, and advertising pushed for a sale.
On the dick smith facebook page people are posting their eBay auction links to all the xboxes and crap they bought.
Someone came up with a good plan, buy the items and then raise a dispute on paypal for a refund.
The way I see it the sale will still go on and over the next few days / weeks or whatever they will put more of the listed items from the leaked list on sale.
The way I see it the sale will still go on and over the next few days / weeks or whatever they will put more of the listed items from the leaked list on sale.
Don't think anyone is going to trust Dick Smith after this crazy sale. The items that were actually listed as on sale on their website list weren't even on sale in some stores. The whole thing was a fiasco.
I went to Toombul first, everyone rushed through the doors towards the back where the gaming section is.
I casually walked in and found the bargain bin which contained all the games. Had my pick, felt satisfied.
Watched parents and others scream at the fact that they missed out.
Cannon Hill was my favourite, most the stock was behind the counter, you walked up and asked for what you wanted, i had a list so this shit was easy as.
Carindale was lack luster, by the time i got there the table had one game on it and i bought it just cause.
I considered checking out the Dick Smith next to work for some cheap games, but I figured I already have enough games I don't play, don't really need more atm, and it sounds like all the good stuff would have been gone (or would have never been there in the first place) anyway.
Yer, we got to watch staff grab product and put behind counter as we were first in line and could see through the glass doors. When we asked for products that we could see behind counter, they confirmed it was purchased by staff. A few games were left, but everything else was taken. Bummed that the wow headphones I eyed off at COB yesterday were taken by a staffer =p they were going to be a gift to a mate.
I had to go down the coast (I live a couple hours away from the coast, needed some new clothes) I want to southport DSE this afternoon. I asked one guy who worked there he said all the good stuff went 30min after opening. I am disappointed, Ill will try my local DSE tomorrow.
He bought 1 DS and 1 Game? Meh to that, not a big thing IMO. If he had bought 5 DS's and 5x the same game, then uproar, sure. 1 Item for personal use though? I'm ok with that.
He'd might have done better to keep his head down and shut the hell up. Nobody likes a gloater.
Og, for sure. And hate him all you like for being stupid, but hating him because he bought 1 DS is a bit rough. Save that for the ones that bought 5 of them, you can be sure they won't be tweeting their hauls.
Mr Grogan, did you go out of your way to contact a news.com.au reporter?
In this case i responded to the reporter via twitter. I have been contacted by reporters on twitter numerous times as a lot of my tweets make fun of news posts around the trot and they think I am some what involved or what not.
The last time I was contacted was just recently when those QUT party goers got on the drugs and had a bad night, I made some ridiculous tweet about all the drugs i got at a QUT party and next thing ya know i have reports hounding me for information... (which in that case i didn't give them anything)
Xbox 360S 250GB console!
never used, was bought for me as an early birthday present but i already own one.
Has been checked to ensure working order.
Box contains:
Console (250Gb HDD inside)
One Black controller
AV cables
Power supply
Local pickup preffered, but will mail on buyer request
^ my point on them hogging all the shit, And then claiming none in stock. The amount of shit Dick smith will cop over this is hilarious, They have no respect from the public any more (not like they had fuck all to start with) which should of been there main fucking priority, Mow they only have the respect of the people that walked in and said "yeah ill take all the consoles" and there staff. GJ hope it was worth it :)
Yeah, I don't really know what the point of this sale was, it sure hasn't garnered them any good will from their target market. At first I just assumed it was a sale to get rid of all the shit they wont be selling anymore, but they keep insisting they'll still be selling games and gaming hardware, so I got no idea
Would someone care to explain why they think staff are less entitled to purchasing sale items?
I think the problem is not so much with the fact that staff bought them, more that they had an unfair advantage over anyone else, ie putting the stuff aside for themselves before the general public even had a chance to get it.
But honestly, who here wouldn't do exactly the same thing if you worked for DSE, I know I would have.
They're entitled to buy of course, purchasing a dozen of one item simply to resell them and/or rubbing it in when so many people are annoyed is just bad form though, whether it's staff or the first dude in the queue.
It made some sense if it was a genuine clearance sale, sure, flog everything off at below cost just to get rid of it & staff get first dibs, but they've said it's not a true clearance sale.
Why even bother to acknowledge and advertise a sale if both the stock levels and price of goods are so low that staff just come in and scoop the lot? With a big axe looming in the near future it seems both staff and management just couldn't give a shit anymore.
I don't think anyone cares that staff buy stuff; they care that the put stuff aside before the sale started (eg, 8am) when others didn't have that opportunity.
But let's be honest - companies giving staff discounts is nothing new. So are people going to be all up in arms at Dick Smith/Woolworths employees getting 5% off all purchases?
Think it's more to do with what Raven said, that staff were able to put aside stock before the sale had even officially started. People walked into the stores to find no mention of any advertised stock which is very deceiving. Yeah it was limited stock, but having none is definitely not a good way to conduct business. Also having some stores out of the loop, and even some manager flat out refusing to adhere to stock prices is just dirty.
A mate of mine travelled 150km to his local Dick Smith to find that they had a heap of G19's, but they refused to sell them at $40, and he even showed them that it was on the website sale.
But let's be honest - companies giving staff discounts is nothing new. So are people going to be all up in arms at Dick Smith/Woolworths employees getting 5% off all purchases?
But they don't say... anyone can get a discount, and then don't give it
what they did is wrong, stop making lame analogies
The reason the staff should not buy out the whole sale is easy.
They may save or make a coupla hundred out of the sale, but they stand to lose their jobs as customers desert the brand. Stores would close and they would also impact on the jobs of their colleagues. Even if the effect of this traitorous act only brings forward the end of the chain by a few weeks it could easily cost them more than they saved/made.
^ The assumption being that staff and management still care what happens to the brand.
It's been public knowledge for since late January that Woolworths is gearing up for store closures and then a big sell-off. The smart employees started looking for new jobs when that announcement was made.
The reason the staff should not buy out the whole sale is easy.
They may save or make a coupla hundred out of the sale, but they stand to lose their jobs as customers desert the brand. Stores would close and they would also impact on the jobs of their colleagues. Even if the effect of this traitorous act only brings forward the end of the chain by a few weeks it could easily cost them more than they saved/made.
Hmm. I don't know if I blame the front-line staff.
If they were given the opportunity to buy super cheap stuff - either with a view to keep it themselves or to flip it on ebay - it would be massively surprising if they didn't take that opportunity. The failure here is completely with Dick Smith management for failing to create and enforce a policy by which staff were not able to purchase these items until customers had first crack. The policy should have been instituted as part of the sale and store managers should have been held accountable for enforcing it.
As above though, that all assumes they care about preserving the brand image, especially in the eyes of gamers. As a PR exercise it has been, I think, a spectacular fail - which is always going to happen if you have a massively limited supply at hugely discounted prices for which there will be massive demand.
At the Mildure store, they only had some games on special - only shit stuff left. I think they were being a bit cagey about anything else. Staff person said the sale was on Monday only and is mostly finished (WTF?) so I just walked out of there..
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