Struggling GAME halves customer reward points
UK retailer GAME has had its fair share of struggles including coming back from the brink of administration, and quite recently, UK’s biggest video game specialist retailer is said to be struggling once more. In a desperate bid to raise profits, rather than having more competitive prices to compete with other online retailers or to make their trade-in scheme more appealing in-store, the company has decided to halve the amount of points you earn when using their basic reward card. The £36 Elite per year reward card will be unaffected by this change.
As it was, you would earn £1 every £50 spent or £2 every £100 spent. It’s not a great return scheme, especially as it was far more generous some years back, but if you shop at GAME quite regularly, it’s better than a poke in the eye with shit on the stick. However, now with the new changes implemented, using the basic reward card you will have to spend at least £50 to earn 50p or £100 to just earn £1 to spend at the retailer.
A spokesperson at GAME told MCV “This change is due to wanting to have more points based events, campaigns and the opportunity to earn more points on specific products throughout the year, in order to deliver that we have made this adjustment.”
That above jargon just reads BS to me, because if that’s the case, why not have these events they speak of while keeping the basic reward card points as they are? Which would surely encourage many customers to spend more anyway, but having the amount of points earned on the basic card halved, will only frustrate most customers and deter them to spend elsewhere, if they haven’t done already.
I was once a loyal customer too GAME some years back, but not only considering the decreasing reward scheme over the years, the main issue has been the pricing of their items, where even standard games can be up to £10 more expensive than other online retailer competitors and I always dread seeing the slogan “Only at Game” when they’ve acquired the exclusive rights for a collector’s edition, which often means that it will be more expensive then if that collector’s edition would be sold elsewhere.
Other then desperation (which will just turn-off many of their customers), not only is this an attempt to hit customers that decided to use the basic reward card, but in my humble opinion, it’s a strategy to attempt to make their £36 a year Elite reward card more appealing (it that’s at all possible). “Only Game” will they think this is a great idea.
But in an attempt to end this news on somewhat of a positive attitude, I hope that GAME prove my doubts wrong and we have some fantastic offers for basic reward card (and Elite) members this year and beyond, but I won’t be holding my breath.
What do you make of these changes to the reward scheme? Do they bother you or is this move enough to turn you away from GAME? (If you haven’t done already). Let us know via our social media channels.