Ordering games online - poor delivery service

saguy

saguy

saguy

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8 Jul 2005
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I am curious if anyone else is experiencing the same issues I am having with Royal mail deliveries. I used to order most of my games from online retailers but due the poor postal service in my area I am becoming reluctant to do so. I live in London and so many of my orders are arriving late or not at all which means that they are loosing or nicking them. This is frustrating because online is cheaper than high street retailers and download services like STEAM.
 
Aye i know how you feel. Personally i've given up with steam i think they are terrible in terms of pricing and prefer waiting the extra few days for the game.

As an example you can get L4D2 for less than £17 from a reputable online site whilst steam are charging you over a tenner more. I really do not understand their business sense seeing as you are not even getting a hard copy of the game and are paying more money. My guess is people still buy from them as its so easy and fast so they can charge the extra premium (still annoys me though).
 
I mainly use a company who give you free recorded delivery and the prices are nearly always very cheap sometimes 40-50% less than Steam! Cannot link to them though as they are considered a competitor!
 
Aye, after this christmas I will be less inclined to use online retailers either due to the company themselves being inept or slow deliveries, but last year was a right old pain.

Got told by one retailer a few days before chrimbo that they were having trouble with suppliers and so a pressy that my gf was going to get for her brother may not turn up - it did but could've done without it and that was one of a few.

STEAM may seem terrible though, however the deals they put on can some times be brilliant, however for me it has to be quite a deal (prefer having physical copies). But I hardly every buy from stores - sometimes get 360 games when supermarkets do their price wars over blockbuster releases but that's about it.
 
shmacks said:
Aye i know how you feel. Personally i've given up with steam i think they are terrible in terms of pricing and prefer waiting the extra few days for the game.

As an example you can get L4D2 for less than £17 from a reputable online site whilst steam are charging you over a tenner more. I really do not understand their business sense seeing as you are not even getting a hard copy of the game and are paying more money. My guess is people still buy from them as its so easy and fast so they can charge the extra premium (still annoys me though).
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but you dont have to worry about losing your dvd or cd with steam, is always there. I think that is what you're pay the extra for, digital backup.
 
Slightly OT:

Does Steam save your game progress/unlocks remotely?

i.e. If I formatted could I just re-download from Steam and all my saved games would be there...?
 
antran said:
but you dont have to worry about losing your dvd or cd with steam, is always there. I think that is what you're pay the extra for, digital backup.
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No, thats not right since all hard copies of games now come with the the serial codes which you can then load into your steam account. So buying the hardcopy gives you both the physical copy and the digital backup. (I may be wrong)
 
shmacks said:
No, thats not right since all hard copies of games now come with the the serial codes which you can then load into your steam account. So buying the hardcopy gives you both the physical copy and the digital backup. (I may be wrong)
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You are unfortunately. Not all retail games let you do this. At least, not all the ones I have that are also sold on Steam. My valve games all work with the serials, but others, namely Command & Conquer, STALKER, etc they don't let you use their serial numbers to download versions.
 
McGray said:
Slightly OT:

Does Steam save your game progress/unlocks remotely?

i.e. If I formatted could I just re-download from Steam and all my saved games would be there...?
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I remember reading that they were planning something like this but that was ages ago
 
All my saved game data was there the last time i installed my games, like Resident Evil and Half Life 2.
 
d_brennen said:
I remember reading that they were planning something like this but that was ages ago
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I believe Torchlight uses steamcloud and keeps your saves though it is the only single player game that uses steamcloud, the rest are multiplayer like TF2 and L4D which only keep controls mapped.
 
AWPC said:
I mainly use a company who give you free recorded delivery and the prices are nearly always very cheap sometimes 40-50% less than Steam! Cannot link to them though as they are considered a competitor!
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I will have to search for it as I have not come across a free signed delivery option.

I am still hoping that Royal Mail closes down so that a new cheap delivery service springs up. I do not mind paying more for a delivery, say £3, and not as much as the usual £7 for a next day courier delivery.
 
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Yeah, I stopped using Play since xmas - I ordered a DVD for my mother, it went into a status of 'packing' for nearly three weeks, which meant I couldn't cancel it.

I could never get through to their number, and it's incredibly difficult to find an email address to mail them on. DVD arrived after xmas, and they still haven't replied to the complaint I finally managed to lodge.

It's a far cry from ocuk, who go to the trouble of mailing you their phone numbers in case their website is ever down.
 
Mahnsikir said:
I believe Torchlight uses steamcloud and keeps your saves though it is the only single player game that uses steamcloud, the rest are multiplayer like TF2 and L4D which only keep controls mapped.
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Trine also uses Steam Cloud to save games, but yes, it's a rarity atm.
 
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