Play.com to Cease Retail Trading

Eliot · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:07

As above, Play has been a rubbish site for a long time and its downturn is pretty well desvered.
Delivery in particlular has been appaling for the last 2 years at least.
they never were competing with amazon in my view

Name · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:10

True Eliot, i remember delivery being terrible also, ordered a teddy panda bear for my girlfriend 2 weeks before christmas, took five and a half weeks to arrive.....

shocking is not the word.

Lazy · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:12

I'm amazed about play. I've ordered quite a lot of CD's and other things over the last few years. Just on sunday I ordered a couple of CD's where each were around 50p-£1 cheaper compared to amazon even via the same seller.

Firestar_3x · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:14

Theophany said:
If a company wasn't competitive in the first place, what difference does it make when they disappear?

Because it's then the choice of the remaining company to charge you what they fancy. :confused:

Lack of competition is a bad thing is all market segments.

sven256 · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:17

Firestar_3x said:
Lack of competition is a bad thing is all market segments.

This is a false statement.

Goberpiles316 · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:18

I'm quite shocked but looking at my history with them it's no surprise I went from an average of 8 orders a year from 2003 to one order in 2012 and the last few years being tat like £2 ps2 games for my son so I have not really been a decent customer since 2009. Every year now I have asked for amazon vouchers and looking at my amazon orders some 70 since 2010 you can see why they have taken over.

d_brennen · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:21

Last time I ordered from Play it was a PSP UMD game, it was that long ago. They cocked the order up, it didn't arrive, I complained, two copies arrived a week or so later. They even failed to take payment and I tried to inform them, for fear of being charged twice

[TW]Fox · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:31

Theophany said:
If a company wasn't competitive in the first place, what difference does it make when they disappear?

Firstly they are not plain uncompetitive across the board but more importantly in areas they are uncompetitive they are such because Amazon undercuts them. Once they are gone the reasons to undercut them are gone, too. Currently there are others too so this alone won't cause huge changes but its a trend. Many of these online firms are competitive purely because they operate on margins so small that sustainable profitability is very difficult. So more will fail but not until after they have driven other firms with more sensible margins out of the market, eventually resulting in what ends up being an uncompetitive oligopoly.

The consumer loses when market players begin to reduce.

mmj_uk · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:33

i've not used them since about the time Rakuten took over, not because of that but just Amazon tend to have everything I need and cheaper.

I've a big fan of competition though, society is going like Demolition Man with the fast food wars - in another few decades Amazon will be the only store left in existence and will have run everyone else out of business.

Bennie-Mac · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:35

diamount said:
They offered that service when I last ordered with them like earlier this year, express delivery that is and it was decently priced.

Ah yes I see they now advertise it on their homepage, just shows how little I use them.

MadFruit · 9 Jan 2013 at 15:40

Jono8 said:
**** I have a credit card that gives me play points and about £30 worth of vouchers. Time to spend the vouchers and jump ship!

Ditto - did have £130 but cashed in last year on a new TV - already built up another £60. Do you know, can you get the voucher and then sell it? Not much I want from them anymore.

I also echo everyone else's comments. Play were awesome when they just did DVD; when they first branched into games it was a God send. They they just took a nose dive and I haven't bought off them for years (except the TV

).

Quite surprised they're shutting up shop though. I suppose if anyone can compete with eBay - they can, they've got the name.

Viper² · 9 Jan 2013 at 16:36

[TW]Fox;23524949 said:
Firstly they are not plain uncompetitive across the board but more importantly in areas they are uncompetitive they are such because Amazon undercuts them. Once they are gone the reasons to undercut them are gone, too. Currently there are others too so this alone won't cause huge changes but its a trend. Many of these online firms are competitive purely because they operate on margins so small that sustainable profitability is very difficult. So more will fail but not until after they have driven other firms with more sensible margins out of the market, eventually resulting in what ends up being an uncompetitive oligopoly.

The consumer loses when market players begin to reduce.

There is very little margin in entertainment goods anyway so any businesses with "sensible margins" simply aren't competitive in the first place. The main focus nowadays is on supplier funding to become market leading by a couple of £ on one or two titles. In the ultra-competitive market today, suppliers control which retailer does what, and when unfortunately.

Stretch · 9 Jan 2013 at 16:39

grumpysculler said:
Luxembourg

Plays holding company is also based in Luxembourg.

The problem is retail isn't profitable. That goes for Amazon as much as anybody. Play will sell again if the market recovers, but for the moment it's a crazy business to be in.

Uhtred · 9 Jan 2013 at 16:47

It came as a bit of a surprise to see this thread, i had no idea they were in trouble, although I did find it strange they only sold for £25 mill.

As it happens i ordered from them this morning for the first time in months. I got annoyed with the high number of marketing emails, product layout and constant sales, not that they have been cheaper than amazon for a long time now.

v0n · 9 Jan 2013 at 16:49

n3vrmind said:
DVDs are second rate, you have to rebuy movies you bought already if you want to experience them in full quality which to me is just not on and I refuse to purchase blu-ray on the basis that in a lot of cases they cost 2x-3x the price

This is my world. I live for movies and TV shows. Definitely compulsive obsessive watcher. Borderline maniac. I have two multi LNB satellite dish setups pointing 12 different parts of the sky in the same time. Several satellite tuners, with legitimate, annual subscriptions to pay TV, including HBO, Cinemax and Canal+. Love this stuff. Seriously addicted. Now, to the point.
Back in a day I had humongous collection of VHS tapes. I even captured some of them to VCDs in later years just to stop grinding the tapes. At some point it was literally floor to ceiling shelves, like you walked into "Blockbusters" (it was a rental shop kids, with tapes, true story). Then DVD came along, the tech was worth it, size made collection more portable, the switchover period was long enough, prices were a bit steep, but I re-purchased about 25% of my catalogue. Which was still hundreds.

Then the tech moved on. A bit too quickly for my liking, but at least it was to HD. As someone who previously got several times in the middle of format wars and owned both Digital Compact Casette Player and Minidisc this time I waited for the two media formats to finish their fight. But I really dreaded switch to BluRay. Long loading times, bad conversions, some cuts and versions became unavailable, inflated oulandish prices (how much for "Friends" collection?! It's 18 years old show for crying out loud!), overall did not like the new technology that much. Sold 99% of my DVDs but repurchased maybe 2% of titles as BluRay. Didn't invest in 3D technology, it's a no-go for me, will not, shall not, ef that, don't care.

Last week when I heard at one of the meetings Sony was launching 4K I just thought - this time I'm not going to invest at all. I've been through so many music and video media switchovers in my 38 year lifetime that despite my manical love of movies and TV shows, I'm calling it quits. They literally whacked the collector out of me with a big price stick. There is just no point feeding the same greedy troll all the time. I'll just record/re-watch all the stuff when it's on one of the 1000's of channels on TV.

Jono8 · 9 Jan 2013 at 16:58

MadFruit said:
Ditto - did have £130 but cashed in last year on a new TV - already built up another £60. Do you know, can you get the voucher and then sell it? Not much I want from them anymore.

.

I assume you can sell the code yes. I don't think it is tied to your own account or anything.

I bought a few things the other day with vouchers but still have nearly £30 worth left and some points to redeem. I guess i better get rid of these sharpish. i don't think i will bother to sell them. I'll probably just buy some blu rays or some clothes.

Strife212 · 9 Jan 2013 at 17:02

Play have been awful for a while, the rot set in way before it became Rakuten

MarcLister · 9 Jan 2013 at 17:31

jon86 said:
I used to use Play many years ago before Amazon became the one-stop-shop for most things. I now have Prime and usually only buy from Amazon direct or merchants using Amazon's packing and delivery service.

I did the same. Once I got Amazon Prime and found I could get stuff at a very similar price to Play.com but get it the next day rather than several days that it took Play to get it to me I dumped Play.com.

[TW]Fox · 9 Jan 2013 at 17:57

Viper² said:
There is very little margin in entertainment goods anyway so any businesses with "sensible margins" simply aren't competitive in the first place.

They are not competitive because there are numerous firms out there selling for less without an eye for sustainability. It's a race to the bottom and it will end with almost nobody left. How anyone thinks thats a good thing is beyond me?

All the established traditional retailers will end up gone because they can't compete with the prices of the online stores. Then the online stores will fold because there was never real money to be made in selling things for so little anyway. Then where do we buy from? The few who survive, now with the ability to charge whatever they want because hey, where else are you going to buy it?

memyselfandi · 9 Jan 2013 at 17:57

I've refused to use Play for a long time (since way before they were sold) after some atrocious service from them in the past ... so no great loss for me ...