I was after a copy of Command & Conquer: Kane’s Wrath PC for ages which is now advertised at £4.93. Having been out for a couple of years I wanted to get it for as little as possible and eBay didn’t seem to yield any auction bargains.

So when I had an email from The Hut with a £1 off code I bought it from them.

What they don’t tell (or even show) you is that this is “EA Classics” budget version with a bright yellow cover. Ok, I admit it – I detest budget covers. Maybe I’m a bit retentive or a bit OCD. I like my games to have the original cover as nature intended and if I knew that was what they were selling I would never have bought it…

I’ve let them know I’m happy to interview then for their side of the story.

Saving hundreds, if not thousands of people lots of money, allowing them to enjoy more entertainment than they could otherwise is more important than what the rest of us are doing. Go find a bridge or something.

You mean instead of posting messages on a games blog, for instance?

Of course it was taking it too far – an utterly ridiculous criticism calls for an utterly ridiculous response.

@Robin:

It’s a perfectly valid point. Phrased differently, someone breaking the law does not excuse someone else breaking the law in the same way. Obviously, getting both deal with is optimal. I fail to see how dealing with neither is the next most optimal solution.

Further more, this is a GAMING blog, not a DVD or Disney blog. So one issue is more likely to be noticed than the other

(You can remove the link/comment if you like, just wanted to pass on the info.)

Sock it to them dude!

An illegal marketing tactic. That’s the point.
It’s a supposed ‘special offer’ that deliberately misleads consumers into spending more than they have to. The misleading part is what makes it illegal under UK law.

I was tempted by a few items, but they can swivel if this is the way they choose to run their company.

If and when you see another games retailer do the same thing, or something similar, please let me know and I will name and shame them also.

Fair enough, but I think the the genocide analogy was taking it a touch too far! And I still take issue with singling out TheHut and labelling them “very dishonest”, when all they’re doing is employing a marketing tactic used across the industry

Since it was not apparently obvious, The Hut have done this before. Lewie is having a go at them for it because cheap games are the subject of his blog – Disney are outside the scope of SavyGamer, whereas The Hut are exactly the sort of company Lewie posts about. They let him know about upcoming discounts (via the usual spam), he goes through the site looking for nice prices on games, and posts a list in advance… and the day comes, and suddenly all the prices have gone up. He tries to get some answers, and they pretty much ignore him…

And now they’ve done it again.

He does have something against The Hut – their behaviour. Should he just let them off and ignore the fact that they’re ripping people off because they’ve done it before and other companies do it too? Seriously?

OK, think I’ll go somewhere else and talk to some grown-ups. Bye

“what do you have against hitler I mean stalin killed loads of people too why don’t you have a go at him!”

A hut needs some blowin’, yarr.

No, just add the annotation “dishonest scumbags”. Removing it entirely means that someone might stumble across it on their own – the warning’ll stick in their mind.

I would rather buy from Game and give the guy behind the counter a tip than deal with the Hut.

I never have, and never will, use the Hut to buy from. This is worse practice than places that state they’re on sale and “sale ends soon”, but they’re always on sale regardless (hint: if you’re on sale forever, then those are your normal prices!).