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[shinobi602]

Update: SimplyGames issued a (lol)response:

Simply Games says PS4 upgrade offer is "largely a retailer-lead initiative"

“We are aware of some fairly major inaccuracies that have been reported on various web sites,” Simply Games director Neil Muspratt told MCV. “Whilst this is very regrettable, we have taken the decision not to get involved with internet speculation, rumours and untruths.

“We can confirm that ours is largely a retailer-lead initiative and on site we have listed a combination of Sony bundles and our own PS4 bundle offers. By and large these offers have been very well received, to the point at which our launch allocation has now all been sold through.”

MCVUK

Update to previous story: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=690953

Any gaffers with preorders at SimplyGames?

When UK-based online shop SimplyGames slapped an attractive pre-order price of £349.99 on its solus PlayStation 4s, people clicked and people pre-ordered. But now those people are angry, because they can't buy their PlayStation 4 from SimplyGames for £349.99 - the least they can spend is £414.99.

SimplyGames emailed its PS4 pre-order customers at some point last week to tell them things had changed. "Thanks for bearing with us with whilst we finalised stock configurations with Sony," the email began, reposted on the European PlayStation forum. But those stock allocations "DO differ slightly" from what was originally offered.

Customers now "NEED" to update their order and "MUST" choose one of the new console bundles (pictured in article), the cheapest of which is £414.99 - the others are £469.99. Sorry, but that's what SimplyGames was allocated by Sony. An email sent in late September had warned customers that bundle configurations were being worked out, but nowhere did it say the solus PS4 people had ordered would no longer be available to buy.

Look more closely at what customers are now being offered: look specifically at the dual charging cable, an unofficial, non-Sony item. It's a simple USB-to-two-mini-USBs lead that costs £14.85 if bought alone on SimplyGames. It is not the official DualShock 4 dual-charging cradle thing that costs £24.85.

Our tipster wrote: "This company are now trying to force bundles compiled by themselves onto customers who already pre-ordered the standalone console. Myself and others who had already ordered the standalone console at RRP of £349.99 are now being told we have to change to one of their own bundles."

SimplyGames has so far not responded to Eurogamer's request for comment.

Meanwhile, our tipster - the man who started the forum thread and contacted Sony and contacted Trading Standards - has been offered a £349.99 PS4 by SimplyGames with a game thrown in as well. He politely declined.

Via Eurogamer

 

[GameSeeker]

Sounds like SimplyGames is trying to scam folks. Not a Sony issue.

 

[red731]

Bollocks.

 

[Carl]

Fuck Simply Games.

 

[Cornbread78]

Wow, this could be a legal issue for Simply Games if true, no?

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

That's messed up, somebody needs to step in, wonder if Sony can get them to stop this shit.

 

[DBT85]

Fuck the cunts.

 

[stargateheaven]

friend ordered from tesco, he still just getting the console by itself.. same price, nothing changed.

 

[EGOMON]

SimplyGames are already scalping

 

[TheRealTalker]

I wonder if this is also connected to the whole Amazon UK issue

Edit: Seems more of a Simple Games issue.... thanks for the info Mokubba

 

[sublimit]

I hope no one is desperate enough to order from them.

 

[mr_toa]

Sounds like SimplyGames is trying to scam folks. Not a Sony issue.

Seems likely, as Sony probably would have 0% interest in forcing a non-Sony produced and procured item down potential customer's throat.

 

[Mokubba]

I wonder if this is also connected to the whole Amazon UK issue

Edit: Seems more of a Simple Games issue

Amazon's price is back to normal.

This is just Simplygames

 

[Highwind]

I always thought SimplyGames was decent about this sort of thing......

Outrageous.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

What a bunch of cunts.

 

[BRocknRolla]

Wow. This retailer sounds like an absolute asshole. If they were going to create fake bundles and try to pass it off as being Sony's doing, the least they could have done is selected Playstation branded products to create that illusion.

Edit: Haha, that's hilarious too that they tried to placate the complaint by dropping back down to the normal price and offering a game. I hope the rest of folks take a similarly hard line with this retailer. I don't know the UK laws on this sort of thing, but it certainly seems like a truth in advertising suit could be headed their way.

 

[kartu]

Finally some bad news on Sony's front... lol.

 

[Leg-End]

Sucks for those that pre-ordered from there and it puts them in limbo for a Day 1 release but they really should cancel and go elsewhere.

 

[red731]

Finally some bad news on Sony's front... lol.

No. Store's front.

 

[Nibel]

Finally some bad news on Sony's front... lol.

It's not Sony's fault though

 

[Custard Trout]

Here's what Sony told me:

Sony is not and would not force anyone to buy something they don’t want. We value our consumers and offered the bundles precisely to give them choice and value. And the key word there is choice.

We continue to work closely with our retail partners to ensure we offer this choice against the challenges of managing demand and inventory in the climate of amazing excitement and unprecedented demand for PlayStation 4.

We updated the article with another follow up from our source too, which was edited for grammar:

Centresoft who handle the UK distribution of Sony products called all retailers (80% independent names including Shop.to, SimplyGames etc, as well as supermarkets) and stated that the allocation of CONFIRMED pre-orders for independent retailers were now comprised of 50% solus machines and 50% bundles. We were given a couple of Mega packs, 9 Killzone bundles and 3 Watch_Dogs packs. All of which are the same bundles being offered to everyone.

However, when I asked if customers chose not to have a Killzone pack, would they be entitled to a solus machine that was originally allocated, we were informed no.

Other retailers were informed they were to take additional DualShock 4s for a high attach rate for the machines, again meaning “forced” bundles being offered by the likes of SimplyGames and whomever else is being told this. Again this is being sold to us by Centresoft. They are the only official channel other than being direct with Sony in the UK.

This basically means that customers who don’t wish to upgrade to any of the bundles we have left (believe me when I say Killzone ISN’T in our top 10 of pre-ordered titles) are being left in the dark or on the wave 2 list of stock which is not guaranteed before Christmas.

Amazon, Play, Game etc are all direct with Sony, Sony will cater for them far more than they will for supermarkets and Independent as the market share is piss all compared to the volume online sites sell.

It may just be Centresoft forcing these on us and it wouldn’t be the first time but I can state this is what I have been informed by the representatives I speak to on a daily basis.

 

[RulkezX]

I wonder if this is also connected to the whole Amazon UK issue

Edit: Seems more of a Simple Games issue.... thanks for the info Mokubba

There is no Amazon issue.

I'd never heard if simply games before all this started , sure as hell won't ever be ordering from them in the future.

 

[Chucker]

Finally some bad news on Sony's front... lol.

Except not..?

 

[shem935]

Finally some bad news on Sony's front... lol.

More like simply games front....try harder.

 

[KHlover]

Amazon guarantees the lowest price between preorder and release at release..fuck SimplyGames.

 

[phosphor112]

It has to be just Simply Games trying to do this. Why would Sony force ONE company to do it?
Maybe Simply got the wrong stock of only bundles and now can't get rid of them without doing this? I don't know. It all smells rotten though.

 

[Minions]

Oh wow, retailer blames Sony in order to get more profit.... throws people over a barrel because if they don't pay the new price, they won't get a console at launch because they are sold out.... I thought you guys had better consumer laws over there in Europe...

 

[nelsonroyale]

Yeah, I preordered there ages ago since I have had pretty decent service in the past. But I am cancelling mine. All the bundles are poor value. Unless, they retreat on this I will probably skip simplygames alltogether in the future.

 

[kasane]

Simply games scalping before scalpers.

 

[Takuan]

I get why they'd do this, but the amount of digital-only purchases must be so miniscule that it can't be worth losing customers over. What an idiot call.

 

[cyberheater]

No. Store's front.

No Sony's fault because Sony won't supply a console only SKU to the shop or did you not bother to read the OP.

 

[shinobi602]

What's worse is they're supposed to be at least pretty highly regarded...

 

[Acquiescence]

Time to ban SimplyGames and remove the ban from ShopTo.

 

[geomon]

Disgusting behavior on the part of the retailer.

 

[$h@d0w]

What probably happened is SimplyGames never got any solus allocation due to their shitty status in the retailer food chain but took preorders anyway, now all that's left is bundles so they have to upsell all their preorders.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

Hard to tell who's really at fault here. If Sony never contractually agreed to supply SimplyGames the nonbundle consoles that they were selling on their website, then that's pretty fucked up of the retailer and it's a clear case of price gouging.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Time to ban SimplyGames and remove the ban from ShopTo.

Seeing as how Shopto threatened Evilore, i don't see that one happening.

 

[BRocknRolla]

No Sony's fault because Sony won't supply a console only SKU to the shop or did you not bother to read the OP.

Did you bother to read the part about one of the bundles being some random non-Sony charging cord? Sony didn't mandate or suggest that bundles since they'd have nothing to gain. This is retailer made.

 

[Canis lupus]

Wow, first they force people to buy their expensive bundles, now they increase the price of ps4 consoles?

 

[zomgbbqftw]

No Sony's fault because Sony won't supply a console only SKU to the shop or did you not bother to read the OP.

Because Sony are clearly interested in getting peopleto buy Simply Games bbranded USB cables and such?

SG are scalping because the demand is so high, it has nothing to do with stock allocations unless SG oversold them in the first place.

 

[DBT85]

No Sony's fault because Sony won't supply a console only SKU to the shop or did you not bother to read the OP.

The dual charging cable is nothing to do with Sony though.

 

[Ikuu]

Got BF4 from £27 from them, so they're alright in my books.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

There was no way this was ever going to be Sony. Can't believe they tried to blame them then add 3rd party cables to bundles.

 

[Canis lupus]

No Sony's fault because Sony won't supply a console only SKU to the shop or did you not bother to read the OP.

Look more closely at what customers are now being offered: look specifically at the dual charging cable, an unofficial, non-Sony item. It's a simple USB-to-two-mini-USBs lead that costs £14.85 if bought alone on SimplyGames. It is not the official DualShock 4 dual-charging cradle thing that costs £24.85.

Yeah Sony would bundle non Sony accessories with the PS4.

 

[Haunted]

Meanwhile, our tipster - the man who started the forum thread and contacted Sony and contacted Trading Standards - has been offered a £349.99 PS4 by SimplyGames with a game thrown in as well. He politely declined.

ha!

 

[dead monkey uk]

This could seriously backfire on SimplyGames, there are plenty of other retailers to buy from. Plus I think a Trading Standards investigation may be coming there way.

I got an email from Amazon.co.uk today offering me an upgrade, I decided to keep my console only purchase.

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

So the retailer, not Sony, forcing bundles confirmed. Again. Triple time.

 

[kasane]

Wow, first they force people to buy their expensive bundles, now they increase the price of ps4 consoles?

Oh wow. Just who is forcing who?

 

[Kane1345]

Fuck SimplyGames, that's insane.

 

[Cornbread78]

Seeing as how Shopto threatened Evilore, i don't see that one happening.

Oh, do you have details, or a link to the details... I missed this part of it over the weekend..