so i go into HMV...

Stellios · 26 Jan 2011 at 23:06

They dont do it with games on purpose, we get deals with EA occasionally that let us sell our retail for cheaper then we can do second hand. Any reasonably intelligent member of staff wouldnt let you buy the second hand one if we had new available.

The reason they charge more on the trade stuff is because they dont lower what they will give on trade in when the retail lowers in price, so the second hand stays expensive to keep its trade in value similarly matched to Grainger and other competitors

Yeah I remember that with Red Faction, I nearly bought a copy myself as IIRC I could have bought it brand new and traded it back in again for the same price. The same happened with Pure Football for a tenner, but I suspect that one was just a massive over allocation of stock and they needed shot of them.

johnny6 · 26 Jan 2011 at 23:19

Last time I actually went to buy something from HMV was around Christmas 2009. Saw a game advertised for £10.00 on TV, which at the time was good value.

Got to the shop, found about 2 dozen of the game but all marked up for £25.00. So took it to the till and asked why, when they were advertising it for £10.00 on TV.

The bloke behind the till apologised and said they had no more copies for £10.00. So I asked him to sell me one of the games marked up for £25.00 for £10.00. He then told me they couldn't as those ones were £25.00. So I asked him what was the difference between the £10.00 and £25.00 game. Nothing was his reply and then repeated the ones in the shop were £25.00 and they had no more of the £10.00 ones left.

Needless to say I haven't been back to HMV since.

Demoniser · 27 Jan 2011 at 01:52

lol. Strange stuff.

I can sympathise with the grunts behind the tills tbh with stuff like that, especially if they're just following instructions from the higher ups.

Tummy · 27 Jan 2011 at 03:02

I tried to buy a DVD of an old (ish) film (Joes Apartment, great film

).

It was £12 in store. Got the iPhone out, found it for £3 on Amazon. Meh.

beachBOYken · 27 Jan 2011 at 11:32

arknor said:
hmv layout is no different to how virgin/zavvi was?

i'd imagine most the the music if turned sideways because it takes up less space like that :S

everything is ordered by alphabet anyway? ive never had a problem finding stuff its just not competively priced

yeah true but for instance there was a cd i wanted in the 2 for £10 but i had no idea of what other cd to get and ones with face showing did not appeal to me if most of the others were showing the front cover im sure i would have found that 2nd cd , instead i could not be bothered to look threw them all wondering weather i would find something.

Abraham · 27 Jan 2011 at 11:47

I have an hmv voucher to spend at the moment, it's a real bugger to find anything worth buying, even more annoying that you can't use them on their website. Just keeping an eye on hotukdeals for anything they've got on offer that I want.

Global_Inferno · 27 Jan 2011 at 11:59

johnny6 said:
Last time I actually went to buy something from HMV was around Christmas 2009. Saw a game advertised for £10.00 on TV, which at the time was good value.

Got to the shop, found about 2 dozen of the game but all marked up for £25.00. So took it to the till and asked why, when they were advertising it for £10.00 on TV.

The bloke behind the till apologised and said they had no more copies for £10.00. So I asked him to sell me one of the games marked up for £25.00 for £10.00. He then told me they couldn't as those ones were £25.00. So I asked him what was the difference between the £10.00 and £25.00 game. Nothing was his reply and then repeated the ones in the shop were £25.00 and they had no more of the £10.00 ones left.

Needless to say I haven't been back to HMV since.

Omg. That is so stupid! See, this is why I don't go "shopping" anymore, I just turn my PC on and get a) better prices b) No salesman annoying me and c) delivery to my door. Doesn't get any better than that!

Podmonkey · 27 Jan 2011 at 12:07

Still have £30 gift voucher from xmas. Was £50 but managed to find something to buy (couple of cheap old dvds like blues brothers, hook etc). Really struggling to spend it as anytime I see something its always twice as much as I can get it for anywhere else so I cant even justify spending free purpose made money on it. Its basically a shop window now where I browse for stuff I might want to buy somewhere else (i.e. cheaper).

tom_e · 27 Jan 2011 at 12:12

Demoniser said:
Funny that i've always thought the store closest to me needs more space.

I don't know how it is with stores in other parts of the country, but the store in the Mander centre is abysmal in its layout. It's not uncommon to see queues stretching all around the shop like a game of snake. As they have no dedicated or cordoned off area to queue, the line stretches through the aisles where nine times out of ten you will have a dozen people browsing the shelves.

That aside, I can't remember the last time i bought something from there as a must have purchase. The prices are atrocious, and the selection for some of the stuff is pretty poor. HMV and high street entertainment stores nowadays are just there mostly for your average joe who thinks the internet is some twisted monster.

But if i order something from the net it takes a simple click or two of the mouse. Much easier than paying at the checkout.

I hate going in that place, I swear theyve always got the heating set to boiling as well.

tom_e · 27 Jan 2011 at 12:14

johnny6 said:
Last time I actually went to buy something from HMV was around Christmas 2009. Saw a game advertised for £10.00 on TV, which at the time was good value.

Got to the shop, found about 2 dozen of the game but all marked up for £25.00. So took it to the till and asked why, when they were advertising it for £10.00 on TV.

The bloke behind the till apologised and said they had no more copies for £10.00. So I asked him to sell me one of the games marked up for £25.00 for £10.00. He then told me they couldn't as those ones were £25.00. So I asked him what was the difference between the £10.00 and £25.00 game. Nothing was his reply and then repeated the ones in the shop were £25.00 and they had no more of the £10.00 ones left.

Needless to say I haven't been back to HMV since.

You will get that in a lot of places though, as they may have managed to get a nice discount on a batch but then have to pay full price for another so once the first batch is gone its back to full price.

Semple · 27 Jan 2011 at 12:19

arknor said:
yea the newcastle one is 3 floors each floor has tills...

do they really need tills on every floor?
downstairs is just gaming stuff and half of the floor is just wasted space.

top floor is DVD's and the same dvd can be in multiple areas wasting even more space.

the ground floor is mostly music but a large chunk near the entrance of the store is covered with the latest movies and games which are also on there respective floors anyway so even more wasted space.

it could easily be half the size with half the amount of staff, HMV must be one of the worst managed chains and if i had shares i would sell them as quick as i could

I live in Swindon and they have a three floor shop.

But yeah I'd agree if HMV plan to survive they're going to have to cut down on a lot of shops/staff/size of shops.

I don't see why they can't just have 10-15 shops across the big cities of the country and then run everything online.

johnny6 · 27 Jan 2011 at 12:32

tom_e said:
You will get that in a lot of places though, as they may have managed to get a nice discount on a batch but then have to pay full price for another so once the first batch is gone its back to full price.

I have to say I have never experienced it in any other shop. If an item has been advertised for a certain price that’s the price I've paid in the shop. At the very most the item may still be labelled up at the higher price but when scanned through the till it has come up at the lower advertised price.

So to be honest it doesn't really wash with me. I don't accept HMV can get away with advertising an item for £10.00 and then claiming they had a few at that price, but the bulk of that item are a higher price.

People moan about the invasion of supermarkets and the internet on the high street, but when you can either:

A: Get the item cheaper online (a lot cheaper sometimes)

OR

B: Get over charged (which in affect is what HMV are doing) by the likes of Tesco, highlight the error to their customer service and get double the difference back, making the item even cheaper.

Places like HMV and their tactics really don't have a place for the modern consumer.

agnes · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:50

I went in the other day to buy Harry potter blu ray boxset which was £25 online on the website, rang before hand to confirm price and stock. Walk in, "we don't have that in stock, can get it in for tomorrow"... Go ahead with that.

"That has been ordered for you, will you like to pay now or tomorrow?"
"pay now"
"£66 please"
"...... Not a chance in hell"

Walk away.

ags

A.N.Other · 27 Jan 2011 at 16:41

I go into HMV to browse DVDs (/music on occasion), scan the barcodes of things I want to buy with my iPhone and put everything else on a list of things to get from LoveFilm. The prices in there are just daft for some things. I was recently buying some Attenborough series for the gf and you can reliably knock £7 off each DVD by buying it online.

physichull · 1 Feb 2011 at 20:59

Just been to the one in the Trafford Centre. I was browsing the dvd shelves for the West Wing. Series 1 = £45! Series 2 = £12! Series 3 = £45! Series 4 £12! Series 5 = £45 and wait for it.............Series 6 = £60!!!!

What a complete joke their pricing is! No wonder they are struggling. Their prices are erratic and expensive.