Business Before Customers
I love the system in Aus where they keep the CD and manual out back with all the cases outside, so you have a wonderful relaxed atmosphere with lots of pretty boxes, but people aren't shitting themselves in fear of being robbed.
Though a couple of games being stolen would hardly eat into their revenue anyway.
Though a couple of games being stolen would hardly eat into their revenue anyway.
Games locked behind glass baricades; opened games sold as "new" at Lamestop; These are the main reasons why I buy the vast majority of my games from Amazon and Ebay.
Well people steal them.
One of the site's forefathers.
Play fighting games!
I really dont like these huge contract like things you are suppossed to read through and tick before using programs. It's ridiculous, nobody has time to read all that shit and they just use it protect themselves even though it may be hurting the consumer.
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*crickets*
While I've never agreed with the mantra of "the customer's always right," there's an underlying principle there that states that the focus of the business should be to serve the customer; they aren't customers, they're clients. But if you evaluate the Canadian and presumably American corporate landscape, the understanding isn't that customers are clients, it's that customers are criminals.
To the discerning eye, it'll be noticed that the number-one priority in all big stores is preventing theft, particularly in the case of media. Wal-Mart and Zellers lock their games behind glass cases, EB/GameStop removes the boxed contents of every game, new or used, and we all know and hate the impenetrable plastic cases of doom of any product that hangs on a shelf.
Also, don't forget about the stickers. In some cases it's for security, some for cost-benefit, but in every case, it's the customer who pays for a policy that benefits only the business. Every DVD now comes with a sticker seal on the top of the case, Blockbuster video places a barcode sticker on the back and price sticker on the front of every DVD and game, and there's not a gamer in the world who doesn't despise the EB/GameStop price and barcode stickers on all games, again new or used.
Oh, but we're not done. Digital media is arguably worse. While the above mentioned are annoyances, they aren't hinderances; in the digital market, the prevention techniques are not only limiting to your enjoyment and use of the product you bought, but sometimes damaging to your computer. End-User License Agreements (EULA) are only prevented from making every customer a pirate by the fair-use laws, which are heavily lobbied to be removed entirely. Digital Rights Management (DRM) software in games, music and DVDs prevent playing without the disc, making back-ups, moving to alternate mediums or editing for the previously mentioned fair use; worse yet, DRM has occasionally installed monitoring programs that are both an invasion of privacy and a strain on computer systems.
If you ran your own business, would your focus be on locking down your products, or pleasing you, the customer? I think the customer would choose the latter; is he right?
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile