Stupid Gamestation reward card is stupid.
The latest attempt from The GAME group PLC to stave of it’s inevitable gradual slide into irrelevancy, and boost it’s falling profits. A reward card.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Well now is YOUR chance to join the highest order of gamers
Are you a bad enough dude to provide us with rich market research data? Have you got what it takes to keep a plastic card on your person at all times? Are you hip enough to be in the Gamestation Elite?
I’m not sure if I’m cool enough. We’ll see if they let me have one when I go into the shop later on today. I’ll wear sunglasses and a sideways cap, just to be safe.
What the card does:
Firstly, it’s pretty adept at patronising you.
Every purchase you make gives you 2.5% of your purchase back as reward points. A spend of £39.99 would give you £1 worth of credit to spend on anything in store.
Every trade in you make gives you 2.5% of the value of the trade in back as reward points. A trade in of a game worth £10 would give you £0.25 worth of credit to spend on anything in store. No mention if this applies to trade ins price matched to CEX.
There are also a series of achievements accolades, listed here, where for specific landmarks of trading in or spending, you get reward points.
You can spend reward points in store or online, although it’s not clear if the online thing is set up yet.
The card apparently costs money to get ” An administration fee is charged on an application for a Gamestation Elite Card.” but who knows how much.
What’s the big problem here? Well, don’t for a second think that Gamestation are actually doing anything for your benefit here. Would they really just give people loads of store credit for free? It seems to me far more likely that this is an attempt to make people believe Gamestation is better value than other retailers even when it is not. Even if you chopped 5% off all the prices at Gamestation, almost everything would be cheaper elsewhere. I know this, they know this. However, instead of just discounting prices, they are giving store credit for everything. Forcing you to be a return customer if you want to get any of the benefits, and no doubt they’ll be increasing prices to counteract the “savings” offered by the reward card.
Gaming the system
How can we exploit this system for maximum benefit? Well, I have a few ideas, most of them pinned on the idea of getting them to pricematch CEX for trade ins. You get £17.50 for trading in 25 items within the next 14 days, and £10 for every additional 25 after that. I suspect that they won’t give reward points whilst pricematching, but if they do, there is a potential for some free money. I’ll keep you informed.
Gamestation was so much better before they were bought by GAME. Amazing customer service and good pricing. Now it’s just GAME with very little retro stock.
Yeah, the Gamestation in my area used to have an Amiga 500 in the Window and a whole load of obscure, retro consoles & such.
Then along came GAME 🙁
Surely though, that’s the entire point of a reward card?
I’ve had a Gamestation reward card for years, does this mean my current one has been made null and void? Shame, I have a couple of quid on there, and got distinctly better than 2.5% return. It always was a bit strange, I got it in their Edinburgh store, but the folk in Swindon seemed to have no idea what it was. (However the folk in Swindon also didn’t know what my Gamestation student discount card was either.)
Bah, seems that they have canceled it, without informing me. Don’t think they have the right address any more, so the new card has gone elsewhere. Will try E-mailing them, but TBH I rarely buy in brivk and mortar any more anyway, except for second hand.
The info:
http://www.gamestation.co.uk/gedit/
So it’s just like the GAME reward card then.
Okay. so?
It’s almost exactly like the GAME reward card, but with a worse design.
<3 this post
My reply is too short so…words.
I may get one of these, the CEX pricematch is a godsend and the staff at my local GS are quite pleasant.
Yeah, whether or not the card is worth your time is going to be largely down to whether they let you do it and price match at the same time. I am assuming not, but we’ll see.
Actually the reward card is free. Also they’ve given triple points in the first week. I spent £60+ and got £5 back in credit already. If you’re spending in there anyway why are you complaining about getting some money back for it? In no way is this a bad thing. If you shop there regularly, bonus. If you don’t then you don’t have to bother with one.
I have had a gamestation elite card for ages now, my points have stayed on there, and I’m almost 100% sure that the 2.5% means you get 2.5% EXTRA I always used to get points when I traded games in.