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The Zavvi Thread of Monumental Incompetence

V

VibratingDonkey

Member
Bubblebag >>>> Zavvi box > Play envelope.

And it's been a while since I ordered from Play, but I think they shipped their stuff in a different manner as the envelope never looked tarnished when I received it. With Zavvi however I've come to expect elephants having sat on it. Luckily the cases are sturdier than the boxes they're shipped in, so they're concave rather than cracked.
 
S

Strife91

Member
Screw Zavvi. After the sweater-deal I completely lost faith in them. Such incompetence. I never had much problem with them either. Well, they bent my Killzone 3 limited edition box so they could fit it in the packade once. lol. They are slow to answer as well.

I don't know why you would support them. There are other places that have competitive prices. They might be a few bucks cheaper sometimes, but screw it. If they don't care for their customers and only for their wallets, I don't want anything to do with them.
 
D

Dachande

Member
Zavvi really are a bunch of useless fuckwits.

Ordered Vanquish from them at least three weeks in advance from it coming out, and on Thursday it hadn't shipped. Since I wasn't going to be at work (where it was being sent to) after this for another two weeks, I cancelled it that evening and decided to reorder elsewhere. Already sour by this point

A sensible company would have waited until Friday morning, seen the cancellation and dealt with it, but not Zavvi. Instead they just fucking ignored it until Saturday, and then proceeded to charge and ship me the game that I'd cancelled two days ago and couldn't get to for another 2 weeks.

I didn't want to bother sending it back, so sold the duplicate copy to someone else at a loss. Never using Zavvi again.
 
R

radioheadrule83

Banned
I've not used Zavvi since the Virgin Megastores days.
They are not the company they once were. They have the big brand, but don't have the huge operation backing it up that they used to..

Basically, the Zavvi brand was brought into being when Virgin Megastores in the UK split off from the main Virgin group and re-branded itself. At the time, its main supplier was EUK (Entertainment UK)... they were a company founded by EMI, but later owned by Woolworths Group. When the credit crunch started hitting British companies, Woolworths and therefore EUK went under. Zavvi, as a highstreet retailer, could no longer compete. Some of the shops were sold to their rival, HMV, and the online retailing arm was sold off to The Hut Group (TheHut.com, Sendit.com, Iwantoneofthose.com, Confetti.co.uk, Mankind.co.uk, BeautyExpert.co.uk) who saw it as a good play.com competitor -- they are a big up and come'r and they've won some regional business awards, but they don't have anywhere near the clout and resources that Virgin had.

That said, you shouldn't have to put up with the problems some of you are having. Write a proper complaint. Bust balls!
 
D

Diablohead

Member
Zavvi used to be really good until just before the christmas rush last year, they changed werehouses which delayed a ton of deliveries and then one can only presume they fired the original manager and hired a chimp, everything went downhill and still is.

I use to love ordering from them until some cheap games started to be "delayed" or out of stock even though I ordered it the day before while they still had some, they will take money and ask questions later, ignore cancellations and are just overall shitty about it. They have discount code offers they force cancel because you used it to save a few quid and they then decide the saving is too good for you, they sell stock they do not have, they take about a week to reply to your email with a stock copy pasta...

Do what I did and ignore the shit out of them, remove your details from your accounts too in case something bad happens.
 
C

Corleth the Fey

Member
Everything Diablohead just said.

I had a good service from Zavvi for 2 years. Some decent pre-order prices on new games, and cheap prices on bombas. But something happened at the end of last year. I had a couple of massively delayed games - I can accept that, but the complete bullshit they put my poor girlfriend through. We'll never order again.

She ordered a Rock band pro guitar for my birthday. The site had it 'in stock'. They took the money - over £100. She waited a couple of days - no dispatch email. She phoned - it's dispatching today. Two more days. Site now says out of stock. Rings again. Sorry there's a problem it's been 'held up', but they can't say why. She asks if they really have it as it's now out of stock. Yes they reply - there's just a problem but it will dispatching tomorrow. No dispatch for two more days.

At this point my tearful girlfriend comes to me for help, she's upset because my birthday surprise is no longer a surprise, and she hasn't got enough money to get one from somewhere else, or even buy anything else for me - because Zavvi have the money. I tell her to try to talk to someone in charge and that if they don't have it there to refund the money and cancel the order.

She does this. She is told that the manager is away, but will ring back later to deal with this. I recieve the 'managers' call. I tell him that if they can't send it that day or at least the next day - I want to cancel the order. He says okay.

My girlfriend checks the site the next day. They've cancelled the order, but it's showing as in stock again. She's angry. Why did they cancel it if they have it to send? And when are they going to refund? She rings again and asks these questions - the manager can't speak to her then but will definitely ring back that day. Nothing - no call back. Nor the next day.

We've given up getting the guitar at this point but we've still gotta get the money back. So before we contacted Zavvi, we contacted Trading Standards. These guys were very helpful. They pointed out that Zavvi had broken rules with everything they had done and if they did not refund immediately - Trading Standards would have a case against them.

So Zavvi was phoned - and the refund was asked for. We were told this would take several days with no explanation as to why. We then asked to speak to someone in charge and that we had contacted Trading Standards. Again we can't speak to anyone as the manager is unavailable, but that someone will ring us before 5 o'clock. At 6 someone rings. They apologise saying that they can't refund now till the next day as it's too late. I point out that it wouldn't have been had they rung when they said they would. I repeat every fucking lie they've said for the past two weeks. I tell them that they've took my girlfriends money and stopped her buying it from anywhere else. I then asked if they really had in stock like their site was saying even then, and would they guarantee they'd sent one the next day. They couldn't. I was told the money would be refunded the next day and that they would refund an extra £3 (woo!) for all the trouble.

The money wasn't refunded the next day. I phone - I'm told again that it will be refunded that day. Nothing. Complaint made to Trading Standards. Two days later my girlfriend finally gets the refund - without the extra 3 pounds they promised. We weren't going to bother chasing that.

So as consumers we've done all we really can do which is we've never bought anything from them since nor ever will again. Don't waste your time with these lying fucks, people.

I got email from Zavvi yesterday saying 'they miss me' and they're offering a 10% discount. I don't miss you Zavvi - go fuck yourselves.
 
T

Torraz

Member
I've been waiting for two games that have been both shipped on 07.02... Usually they arrive within 7-10 days, but no luck this time.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
Diablohead said:
Zavvi used to be really good until just before the christmas rush last year, they changed werehouses which delayed a ton of deliveries and then one can only presume they fired the original manager and hired a chimp, everything went downhill and still is.

I use to love ordering from them until some cheap games started to be "delayed" or out of stock even though I ordered it the day before while they still had some, they will take money and ask questions later, ignore cancellations and are just overall shitty about it. They have discount code offers they force cancel because you used it to save a few quid and they then decide the saving is too good for you, they sell stock they do not have, they take about a week to reply to your email with a stock copy pasta...

Do what I did and ignore the shit out of them, remove your details from your accounts too in case something bad happens.
Click to expand...
So true. Nice to see I'm not the only one to pick up on their decline starting just before Christmas.
 
G

Griffin

Member
Child of Eden for 20 euros

http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/ps3/child-of-eden/10239122.html

Never had any problems with Zavvi, decent prices, shipping always took a week, never more than that.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
I might have to add a bad experience with Zavvi for this thread. Maybe I should wait a few more days, its only been 10days, but others are getting it, in the same state no less. Come Friday if I don't have the game, I'm going to ask for a refund. I knew I should've went with GAME.

Oh, this is about Xenoblade.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
RPGCrazied said:
I might have to add a bad experience with Zavvi for this thread. Maybe I should wait a few more days, its only been 10days, but others are getting it, in the same state no less. Come Friday if I don't have the game, I'm going to ask for a refund. I knew I should've went with GAME.

Oh, this is about Xenoblade.
Click to expand...
Is there any shipment tracking of any sort? A shipping confirmation?
 
H

hirokazu

Member
I'll just add my experience:

I've been buying things from Zavvi for probably two years now, and it's been good. Usually I get a bunch of stuff for myself and my friend and vice versa when things are on sale at a good price. About six months ago, I placed an order that included a 2 for £25 as well as a £5 off £50 coupon code that was posted on their Twitter. I had changed to paying by PayPal since they made the option available so as to have my credit card details on less sites and it was fine up to that point.

On that particular order, they processed half my order, taking the funds from PayPal and sending it, then the other half was stopped with a Payment Problem error. The email they sent me said to check that my credit card had enough funds. I filed a support ticket asking what the problem was, as my bank account clearly had enough money for PayPal to pull funds from, why the email said there was a credit card problem, and what I should do, if anything, to rectify the problem. The response I got ignored my questions and simply said they couldn't do anything about it and I had to place a new order for the items they hadn't shipped.

Right, whatever, I decided I'd save my money and not place a new order. The Payment Problem was never removed from that order and that order was never completed, as their support said they couldn't do that.

The next order I placed, I used PayPal again. The request to access funds showed up fine on PayPal when I placed the order and everything seemed dandy. Next day, same problem happened. I checked my PayPal and they never took the funds from my account, but the entire order was stopped because of Payment Problem. Their support is completely useless and illiterate and doesn't seem to do much more than scan for keywords and post the best canned response they have.

I got my friend to place the order and it went through fine. I haven't used them since, but still place orders through my friend because it seems like my account is basically barred from getting orders processed for whatever reason.
 
K

kyo_daikun

Member
Just to add my friends experience.

He bought a blu ray from them and accidentally ordered 2, they hadn't despatched yet and it was showing as being picked so he contacted them asking to cancel the second copy.

They refused to cancel the second copy even when it hadn't been despatched, crazy service..
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
_dementia said:
Is there any shipment tracking of any sort? A shipping confirmation?
Click to expand...

If you have not received this by the 5/9/11 we can then start to trace this for you.
Click to expand...

Then I ask if she could please do this earlier, just so I can be at peace. Then she says:

Thanks for your email. Unfortunately we do not have tracking numbers on items sent out.
Click to expand...


I don't know, lol. I did get an email saying it was shipped and I was charged, but nothing else. I'm in the dark.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
I only had pretty bad experiences with Zavvi.
Sometimes it took more than a month for a game to arrive, wth?!
Amazon.uk never takes more than a week (and if it does, it tells you so) and it's far more reliable.
The prices aren't even that worst, compare dto ZAVVI's.
 
D

donny2112

Member
RPGCrazied said:
I might have to add a bad experience with Zavvi for this thread.
Click to expand...

Not trying to defend Zavvi specifically, but you're being too impatient. You're not dealing with UPS or even USPS. Stuff from overseas takes a while, and there is not consistent rhyme nor reason as to why stuff takes how long it does. If you want guaranteed timing, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of however long Airmail takes.

For reference, my Pikmin 2 order took 18 days from "despatch" to arrival from Zavvi.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
donny2112 said:
Not trying to defend Zavvi specifically, but you're being too impatient. You're not dealing with UPS or even USPS. Stuff from overseas takes a while, and there is not consistent rhyme nor reason as to why stuff takes how long it does. If you want guaranteed timing, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of however long Airmail takes.

For reference, my Pikmin 2 order took 18 days from "despatch" to arrival from Zavvi.
Click to expand...

I was waiting about 6 weeks on Rhythm Tengoku and Ouendan. I already forgot about my order by the time it arrived.
 
C

C-Jo

Member
I ordered Another Code: R, dispatched August 22nd and arrived yesterday (Vancouver). Xenoblade was dispatched the next day, so I'm hoping for it before the end of the week.
 
A

Animation-Imp

Member
I have had a few kinks in the cable with Zavvi (with play too for that matter)
For example: Castlevania arrived without the standard ps plastic wrap and with a slightly damaged booklet, Way of the samurai 3 arrived without ps plastic wrap and dlc codes...

Now on both accounts the price I bought it at was low enough not to complain and send back the items. But still annoying none the less and made me question if they were new or second hand...

Still the majority of the orders came through swimmingly.

Latest example:
I ordered the Madcatz SF4 round 2 te stick from their site.
It was only € 122 at that time (shipping free) and that was the cheapest I could find it anywhere willing to ship to Belgium.
I bite, even when the delivery info tells me it would take more than a month before they would be able to ship the item.
A week later the item ships and another 5 days later it rests on my lap, perfectly on time for the sf3 launch.

Now they may have their hiccups. But if you want something cheap, you have to take the nasties with it... Everything comes at a price, so does customer support.
 
S

Samurai Penguin

Member
I use Zavvi all the time, and generally I have had no issues with them what so ever. I would always get my order (Aust resident) within 14 days. But the last few orders have taken longer.

My order for Shadows of the Damned was shipped Aug 1st, and it still hasn't arrived. My previous order took 3 week...and I fear Xenoblade will wind up the same.

Yet my orders from TheHut (Zavvi parent company) which use the same shipping and even ship from the same address arrive in about 6 days :/

I am starting to think I should go back to dvd.co.uk for all my new release UK imports and TheHut for when there are bargains to be had.
 
L

LiK

Member
Ordered Another Code: R from them last week and it arrived today. Gotta say, I do not experience any issues you guys have with them.
 
OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather

OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather

Member
My first order from Zavvi was Tactics Ogre. Shipped five days before release, arrived in the States seven days later. And it was cheaper than anywhere else. Thoroughly satisfied.

Ordered Xenoblade from them as well. Shipped five days early (8/15). They said 10 - 15 days, arrived today, 14 business days later. And it was cheaper than anywhere else. No complaints. I was a little impatient, but that's my own fault, not Zavvi's.
 
D

Dragon

Banned
^In comparison, Game told me 4-6 business days after shipping and it's now been 8, and I can't even access my order on Game at all because their website went through a renovation during this period. So yeah Zavvi doesn't seem to be underpromising at all.
 
OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather

OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather

Member
TheBranca18 said:
^In comparison, Game told me 4-6 business days after shipping and it's now been 8, and I can't even access my order on Game at all because their website went through a renovation during this period. So yeah Zavvi doesn't seem to be underpromising at all.
Click to expand...
GAME = UK's GameStop.
 
P

Poimandres

Member
I'm an Australian resident and I've ordered probably 20 games from Zaavi. All of them have arrived within 2 weeks, and the prices have been dirt cheap.

I had no idea there were so many issues with Zaavi before seeing this thread!
 
M

Mailenstein

Member
eLZhi said:
I really wish I had one of these. The only one's we've had got put out of business my GS.
Click to expand...
Same thing happened here. Like ten years ago, there were over a dozen of these around here. I bought my jap. N64 a few days after launch - no problem. Now we got actually only ONE left. The guys are totally cool. They can get you anything you want, got Uncharted 2 almost two weeks before release without even preordering it and they gave me Call of Duty World at War uncut for free another day, because of being a loyal customer. Once I was really in need of a Guitar Hero guitar, so the dude just opened a game bundle and sold me the guitar for like 25€. Sure, I could order games even cheaper online and save some money, but that's not worth it to me. These guys are just cool and I want to support them as long as I can. I really don't dig that GS bullshit with their McDonald's mentality and their strict pricing list. All you get is the finger. Seriously, if they would be the last place who got Uncharted 3 in stock, I would refuse and just wait instead.
 
D

DualShadow

Member
Poimandres said:
I'm an Australian resident and I've ordered probably 20 games from Zaavi. All of them have arrived within 2 weeks, and the prices have been dirt cheap.

I had no idea there were so many issues with Zaavi before seeing this thread!
Click to expand...

Aussie also, my overall experience with them has been positive, although sometimes it does take longer then 2 weeks, sometimes up to 4.
 
S

SerArthurDayne

Member
I have had mixed experiences with Zavvi, but overall find them to be reliable. I ordered Tactics Ogre and it came with a pretty badly damaged outer box due to poor packaging. I also order Demon's Souls Black Phantom, which had a more fragile box, but came in perfect condition. I have also ordered various other games in standard plastic cases, so damage wasn't an issue with these. Oh, and a book which came in perfect condition as well. I didn't record shipping length on anything, but I would say that 2 weeks has been on average my shipping time. Xenoblade has run a bit over, but to be honest, they also shipped before launch date (supposedly, I think the delay might be that it took them a few days from printing labels to actually getting them to post, likely due to a high volume of orders), so I'm willing to give them a few more days before I start to feel frustration.
 
C

Conrad Link

Member
Man, I did an order from AUSGameShop, pile of different games and they all sent out individually for some reason (apparently).

So I get one of the games instantly, like 4 days later, the rest haven't been seen or heard from, 2+ weeks now.

A previous order never arrived to me either from earlier in the year, I was giving it one more chance as no one else seems to have a problem from them.

So for me, things from the UK seem to arrive straight away or not at all. :(

Luckily my Xenoblade from GAME was in the arrive straight away category, this other stuff has me worried now. 1/5 for parcels showing up is pretty shoddy luck.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
So I get this today:

lol.jpg


Thanks for my order. Hope I'm happy with my purchase. Did they really just send me that? Come this Wesnesday will be week 3. How is this website with giving refunds? Don't think I'm going to make a whole month.
 
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