Awesome news!

I'll keep this in mind for the next time I happen to be in Spain and on the lookout for tatty, blood-spattered mobile phones traded in by teenage muggers.

How many of the new store openings where actually franchises?

Can't the industry get a break at the moment?
We don't need more stores that don't contribute at all.
I wouldn't have a problem iif they didn't sell current gen games.

Just say no to pre-owned.

To be honest, they should have been performing a lot better than this considering they're working with up to 150% margins (most companies work with about 30%). Any idiot could have achieved their growth.

Honestly, why do people hate this company so much, shouldn't some blame for 'no contribution' go to supermarkets who cherry pick the best new release and sell it for half cost price to ply some veg, and leave all the other decent, but not no 1 games behind to fail, because all the specialist stores have gone bust?

Martin
ZXGamer

I Bet they wish they has 150% Margins

If running a succesful business is so easy I suggest you go do it - rather than sniping on internet website!

I'm still somewhat cynical of their longevity myself - Could it not be that everytime a franchise opens they buy £50k - £100k of stock from the central CEX company that otherwise they are unable to sell in their own strores?

Maybe they should perfect their existing stores before jumping into opening others!! At the Exeter branch there is no manager so it seems to me like the inmates are running the asylum. The staff are rude and undisciplined.

They over charge on items for sale. Then wonder why their stock is not moving.
Example they are selling a second hand 8GB phone for the same cost as a new one from O2, I asked how much my 3G 16GB was worth and was told approx £200 for them to mark it up at well over the odds, I know they are there to make a profit, but come on. They try and sell a 2nd hand DS for £5 less than new with no game bundled in.
Rant over!

Funny you should say that, I am starting my own business! (not preowned games etc).

i had a bad experience with CEX and basically left feeling ripped off and vowed never to buy from them again. then more recently i was looking for a copy of Shadow of the Colossus and CEX sold it online for at least a fiver less than everyone else with free delivery. i defy anyone to find a copy for that price inc. delivery.

however i would say that the staff were the most rude, useless bunch of ****s i've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

in fact i remember the situation now: i went in on a monday (or whatever) and traded a load of games in but because they didn't have any money in the till i would have to come back tomorrow with reciept. guess what. they would only giuve me store credit saying the girl who told me that was new (despite her having double checked it with her boss while i was there the day before). and they weren't very nice about it either, so that particular store can go do things to themselves.

and then even with the online store i ordered a copy, submitted my card details only to get an email saying sorry, no stock. the next day i noticed SOTC was STILL advertised as 1 in stock, so i placed a second order thinking they may have gotten one in over night. same reply email, item was still advertised as 1 in stock. had an email conversation with the customer support team (rather sickeningly called the We Care team) and he was a **** wit and basically said tough, he really didn't care in the least.
still advertised as 1 item in stock, third time lucky, got it in seemingly good nick, not played it yet. always very reluctant to deal with CEX, but i do endorse the second hand trade. perfect example being Mirror's Edge. i pre-ordered that, completed it within a day and was so disappointed i traded it in straight away. i wouldn't have sold that to anyone other than Game because despite having paid way too much for rubbish game, i managed to rip them off too by palming it off on them. these days they're not selling a pre-owned copy for more than they bought it off me for.

i understand why people think second hand trading badly effects the people who made it. personally i think they should stop making the kind of games people want to trade in. i have a limited edition signed copy of MSG4, and i'm NEVER selling that, nor everyother MGS game i own, and i own all of them, some twice (anybody want to swap MGS2 Platnum edition and/or Snake Eater and Zone of the Enders2? can't find that for the life of me [not cheap anyway]).

I do agree with tom, CEX staff are NOT GOOD. I have been into CEX a few times and found the staff unhelpful and unfriendly, I am sure there are a few good ones but on the whole service in other stores (GAME etc) is better.

Why does everyone like having a go at this company?

Jonny, methinks it is because CEX do only pre-owned, and to some that is as bad as having two heads. CEX are no different to Cash Convertors, Available car, Ebay, me infact any 2nd hand business.

I dont mind pre-owned, it is the only way for an indie to make money now, since all the large companies get lower prices, more favourable terms and exclusives, and my store is now 100% pre-owned on a similar range of items as CEX (phones, DVD's, CD's, Games etc. prepares for abuse (: ). I became tired of finding games on sale to the public on amazon for less than the wholesalers were offering them to me for, and I wasn't keen on running a business stocking up from amazon.

However from my experiances though some of the staff complaints do have some credibility

Martin
ZXGamer

It's not the second hand sales that I take issue with by any means, it's simply the customer service. i haven't had a good experience with CEX on more than one occassion. in fact (refer to my last post) the only nice member of staff i met was a youngish girl who was new. she was alright, smiled n said hello n everything. the hairy, miserably, smelly, fat guy who told her what to say which then turned out to be incorrect, him? he's an ass. and his colleagues who look at you (OK me) like you're (i'm) wasting their time when you wanna trade some goods. that's why i opted to go online, i thought i wouldn't get the same treatment. sadly, that was not the case.

if that changes and the fat hairy guys had a wash and a shave and stopped being so arrogant, i'll stop slating them.
FFS you work in CEX, how much pride can you have?!?!?!

The CEX in Uxbridge is nothing like the stores you are all describing here, it is very well run with friendly staff. I have been into other Cex stores on Tottenham Court Road and in Harrow and it does seem like the Uxbridge store is a bit of an anomaly.

Just with regards to an earlier post re CEX mark ups, i was looking online for a copy of Patapon. CEX say they sell it for £10, buy it for £4 or give you £6 store credit. if you traded it in for £4 they would be putting a 150% mark up on it. this of course doesn't take into account overheads so 150% profit is not accurate but it does give you an idea of how they make money. as far as i can tell GAME don't tell you how much they'll buy it for on their website so it's hard to compare.

if given the chance, i would do what i did with LBP. i bought it off a mate for less than it would have cost me second hand on the high street, but for more than he would have gotten had he traded it in. we were both winners!

CEX 'customer service' (my quotes) is now even poorer as their stores will not give out a phone number. I wasted two hours visiting their Bromley store to collect sale money from a second-hand laptop: I found their tester had refused to test it because he said there was a password on the machine (there wasn't). How can you run a business that won't allow customers to call your stores to check things?

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