Short Shelf Life

Yesterday I picked up a bunch of computer games for $5 each. It amazed me how cheap these things were. They were titles I recognized. I have seen commercials for some of these games on TV. How can they make any money off these cheap sales?

I think this is an indicator of the shelf life of the PC game market. You got to make your profits when the game first comes out and goes for full price. After that, it is all down hill.

This makes it a discouraging market to get into. After all, I am sure there are publishers taking their cut of the profits. Then the stores that do distribution must make some money. What is left over for the guy that writes the computer programs. Probably not much at all.

Customer Service

I have been dealing with this mail order company for some time. They prices are reasonable. And they normally stand behind all their products. So I decided to take the relationship a bit further and buy something big from them. Hey. I felt like it was time to give them the big change. They blew it.

Instead of getting the product I ordered, they drop shipped some other junk. I sent the wrong merchandise back. And I requested they send the right order to me. What happened? Nothing. I get no reply from them. Damn. No trouble. I stopped payment on my credit card charge. That got their attention. They credited back the amount I spent minus shipping. WTF? They are making matters worse. My credit card company ended up eating the charges.

Now I figured I would give this company one last chance to redeem themselves. I placed another moderate order with them. They did not execute correctly. Turns our they missed part of my order. I called up their customer service. Got disconnected after waiting for a few minutes. I called back. Wanted to make sure I did everything I could to salvage this relationship. Luckily I got through and the rep on the line apologized and said they would eat the costs to make the order right. Now that's what I am talking about. In the end, I did not take them up on their offer. Just them willing to put things right was all I needed to hear.

Let's hope this company keeps treating me right. I am fighting to remain a loyal customer. How many other customers are willing to go this far for any company? This company does have the right mix. They got low prices and good customer service when you get through to them.