Tag Archives: bullshit

Gamestop – the new Moviestop of deceptive advertising.

Gamestop is really pissing me off lately. It seems that gamestop is actually not run by humans. Seriously.

I went into gamestop about a week ago and I ended up getting aggravated to the point of asking if they have secret binary rituals to which this went right over the workers head.

on July 3rd I went into gamestop figuring I’d try out dragon age, the price was right.  so I went down and and attempted to pick it up, boy did that turn out to be a lesson in how not to do customer service. Now if you do a quick scan of the price of Dragon age you will see that its 37.98 or so, When I went to game stop it was 39.99 or so i thought.

When I am on the gamestop site and I look for a game I’ve always used a simple method. Search it and find my system. So looking up Dragon age at first look you see.

You’d think “oh cool its $40 . Not so fast there.

I went down the gamestop picked the game up and brought it to the desk.  Figuring I had the edge card it would run me about $36 Dollars or so . Again not so fast. the Borg at the register goes “41.23 “. Me not thinking started to hand my card over and it struck me . I Said 41.23?  with the edge card that doesn’t sound right.  Than it came.. Well what the computer says is what the price is  we have no control over that and if you have found a price otherwise I can compare it.  I open My phone and show him the listing for dragon age and apparently I must be tuned into the incorrect universe because the guy goes , well you see  we don’t use the prices from the gamestop site, that’s a different company. At this point i Just wanted to get away from this great example of a Android, I ask him if that’s even legal at the point of that question he answers a condescending tone, I just work here I don’t set the prices the computer does. What the hell. is gamestop short for judgement day, every time you ask a question you are refered to the computer.

I pay the higher price for the purchase and my friend goes “hey lets stop across the street” .  The Gamestop across the street tends to be more caring in its customers rather than treat them like biological anomalies that need digital input.  I must of looked pissed because the person working asked if I needed help with something. I explained everything above and he took his time and gave me the price difference without speaking of the grand and mighty computer.  So I went home and decided to see what was going on. I Searched the game and it was only when i clicked game to the second page of the game itself.

It floored me. the website was right in one respect but totally misleading in another. “online only” 2nd page in , How deceptive. This is reminding me of movie stop with there pricematching pre-orders , How ever the hell you do that. I am sure a lot of people may go to gamestop and go “oh ill buy it anyways.” but…… there’s an issue, That first page. Advertises the fact of “this used product is …” and not the First more important issue. “Online price only” In order to be non-deceptive . ONLINE ONLY should be followed though EACH and EVERY page. You can’t just put a price out and slap on the last page “Online only” .

Also is the fact of  How can you have an “Online Only price” when the product has been not Available the whole time. On No place in the page does it list the “store price’ nor does it tell you the store price may cost more money, Even walmarts site tells you

Walmart Stores
Pick Up in Your Store

Prices in Store May Vary
That’s all you need.  A simple disclaimer “Prices in store may vary”
having the store slave tell you that his computer will not take my insolence for thinking I was getting some sort of deal.  Gamestopus of Borg Does not want you to pay that price.
I’ve taken some time to cool off before writing about this because of 3 to 4 incidents with the same gamestop can really make the chances of sanity go away.

Explain the fee… Sprint and there goofy “Free” 4g Fee.

I recently got a new phone on the fact of the phone i had was starting to have some issues. I know my luck with phones is not exactly the best. but, I decided I’d go with a brand new phone rather than a older phone.

So I picked up the HTC EVO and Figured i’d go with a plan with unlimited text and data, the one curious part was the fact that sprint wanted a 10$ Premium data fee, which made no sense, at first i didn’t think much of the fee than I saw multiple sites post about how 4g was suppose to be free, so I got curious. So what does this “premium data” cover?

Strangely enough it has nothing to do with data as sprint.com explains

Premium Data

This phone can do it all and then some. Because we’ve boosted your data experience with this phone’s amazing services and features, you’ll need this add-on. Enjoy:
  • A wicked fast processor to make your apps run smoother and faster on our Sprint 3G and 4G network
  • Top quality media experience with oversized screen, high resolution video and HD recording
  • High-quality pics to snap and share with friends and family
What the Hell? So somehow the “wicked fast” Processor is somehow “wicked fast” with this fee? Not so much. If you research the phone you’d realize the frame rate of 30 FPS, the frame rate is about as smooth as watching a constipated cow, not to mention this processor is nowhere near new.
Oversized Screen? HD Recording, we’ve not hit a point that deals with DATA yet.
High Quality pics? try taking a picture or a video in a dim room it looks like your filming from a black hole.
the phone performance-wise is MEH… Its not super its not bad. although the screen is 4 inches that’s about the only driving point to the phone.  There is a noticeable skippyness to the frame rate , Even killing off most processes you end up with no improvement over all.
Sprint Really Needs to just out and say they are charging for free 4g.

The great product spill of 2010

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2010/06/05/bts.thad.allen.oil.cap.wala

I watched this the other day and it brought me to the question… Who owns thad allen? Watch that video again and listen to 0:50 “… and we are starting to see product come a shore”. talk about white washing the consequences of this oil spill. Its a product spill! it makes it sound like a walmart drilling platform exploded because they were drilling for crocs. That way its a lot less threatening sounding than it really is.
Excuse me while I go put some product on my bike…

Stupid is as Stupid does with your star Sarah Palin.

I was reading up on the current situation on the  oil spill and i’ve noticed that every day that the oil spill is slowly mutating into something else.

It seems that BP is trying there damnedest to hide the severity of this oil spill. On may 20th i started to notice the whitewash  with bp using the national guard to block reporters from beaches. There’s just a huge ass attempt to hide this spill, I have said this already but, its getting fucking ridiculous.  I am sure in the states closer to the oil spill people are more aware, In the north-east US its like a passing knowledge of the spill.

Even Sarah Palin is getting in on the action, From her twitter account she posted

So..because BP, subcontractors & govt screwed up WE get punished w/energy tax that jacks prices & kills jobs & opportunity?Nope,wrong answer about 4 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Hey wackowoman of the west. .. we’ve not forgot your little comment.
http://www.youtube.com/v/iolgiIvfV-0&hl=en_US&fs=1&

another comment from sarah on her facebook page.

Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.

We need permission to drill in safer areas, including the uninhabited arctic land of ANWR. It takes just a tiny footprint – equivalent to the size of LA’s airport – to tap America’s rich and plentiful oil and gas up north. ANWR’s drilling footprint is like a postage stamp on a football field.

Uhh drilling platforms have the same footprint ..  Not to mention the SECOND bp spill thats currently in the state of alaska as we speak. So ms palin .. the sane people of America would like to say a big fuck off to your drilling on land is safer with ….

On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after “procedures weren’t properly implemented” by BP operators, say state inspectors “Procedures weren’t properly implemented” is, it seems, BP’s company motto.

Few Americans know that BP owns the controlling stake in the trans-Alaska pipeline; but, unlike with the Deepwater Horizon, BP keeps its Limey name off the Big Pipe.

Its just funny, has she not looked at the window at “russia” lately  to see a spill from BP in her OWN backyard? I know the Alaskan spill is much smaller, but how is it “Safer”?

The state of gaming.

Ever had one of those days where you look at something and say hmm.  Well, I’ve been doing that for about a few months.  For awhile Now I’ve been wanting to spread out my gaming more than just between the WII and the PC.  Both platforms in my opinion are suffering from bad development and bad companies.   Well, After long thought and wondering if I’d be better off with a Bluray Drive for my PC or Some other upgrade I finally decided against both and went with the black sheep of the decisions.

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Time: Top 10 most dangerous foods. ORLY?

Every now and than I find an article that just makes me go WTF. It starts off .

Top 10 Most Dangerous Foods

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement on Feb. 22, recommending the labeling and possible redesign of hot dogs to prevent choking deaths among children. Here’s a look at 10 risky foods

So it basically starts off as “Since hot dogs killed some amount of people, Here are foods that we think are dangerous and cause controversy. but the list gets rather silly. Here’s tonight’s top ten list…. (seriously with the foods they include David letterman should announce this one. Bold Stuff is Comments by me.)

Eat at Your Own Risk

1. Hot Dogs:  Common sense issue. CHEW YOUR FOOD!
2. Fugu: blowfish? are you kidding me. how many times in your life do you eat this one?
3. Ackee: Random Food that You’ve likely never eaten
4. Peanut Panic: This shit answers itself. Notice its Peanut Panic and not nut allergies.
5. Leafy Greens: does not belong on list- wash your damn food first , I know this doesn’t work for restaurants. Unless of course its killer tomatoes.. than run
6. Not Exactly Sweet as Pie: Rhubarb… And this one gets the stupid award. Eating  the leaves can lead to poison but the article misstates a certain issue. You’d Have to ingest 11pounds of it in order to die.
7. Tuna Tremors : You can stop sucking on broken thermometers and start eating tuna!
8. Cassava: This one I’m leaving alone.

9. Coffee: Coffee…… Really? Just wait for it.. Lets pour on the stupid, From the article “. In 1992, McDonald’s had some trouble when 79-year-old grandmother Stella Liebeck of New Mexico sued the fast-food company because a scalding cup of 170° coffee caused third-degree burns over 6% of her body, including her thighs, buttocks and groin. Liebeck was awarded $2.86 million (the amount was later reduced in a settlement).“
10. Mushrooms: No no lets go back to 9 , everything else on this list is either, use common sense, or stupidity.

The Fact they even put coffee on the list and the reasoning is beyond me.  But, what they point out coffee for being dangerous is ridiculous.   Say! Lets open this scalding hot coffee between my legs! Yes. that’s the idea you want to bring to your readers.  I know… this was before the time of the whole cup warning thing.

Every coffee cup sold these days has that warning, Call it common sense but, apparently some people don’t have it.  Who knew that hot coffee was hot? Shit whats next Water is wet? I know I’m being a bit angry with this one and yes someone did get severely injured.  But to put a warning out on coffee being one of the most “Dangerous” foods.  Also “Leafy Greens” What is the times trying to do make everyone so neurotic over food that they end up in a Psych ward? They go out of the way to explain how ZOMG bad these things are but do no explain what good these things do.

In this article there is an AMAZING amount of disregard for any sort of good practice in writing. Half-asses sources half truths and willingly causing fright. Also most of the issues are from the retail side of things as in bad preparation, questionable practices and such. Not many people are going to be going “Honey LETS CUT SOME BLOWFISH TONIGHT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

As Far as the times. They wonder why print is going out of style like the dinosaurs.

EA … Its not in the game anymore and the PC and the $$$$$ (for .99 cents you can buy the letter z in this post)

EA for years has been known for abysmal games of poor quality, although they have improved in some matters but, its really false positive in my mind.

Sure there are a handful of good games from EA as of recently – Crysis, burnout paradise,the sims 3(I guess) *orange box doesn’t count because its a repackage from steam

Continue reading →

MovieStop gets stranger.. (possible employee reply)

While sitting here and realizing i’ve not updated in ages , I decided to check my comments sections, It was kind of funny .  I noticed a Comment sitting in moderation for my moviestop post that I had posted over a year ago. I had an problem with MovieStop, and after a few emails the situation was corrected, I thought it was spam until I decided to read it.

March 26, 2009 at 11:50 am

Policy is, if you reserve a movie they match the lowest “ADVERTISED” price. This means there has to be an in store advertisement stating the lower price. They do not match every price because they sell used movies which are always lower than any other store’s new prices. Sounds to me like you are one of those customers that all retail employees hate to have to service. You think that you should get the best deal even though the policy is different than what you want. Maybe step down from your high horse and come join the rest of us on planet earth.

Maybe I’m on a High horse maybe I’m not, but this comment is basically an attack,  let me break this one down.

  • Policy is, if you reserve a movie they match the lowest “ADVERTISED” price.

From my previous post: Before Leaving the Moviestop lot I had checked the window to see that there was a Large sign in yellow with black large letters “GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES”. When i had asked regarding this sign in the front of the store windows the person claimed that there was an asterisk in the sign on the front of the store. Checking the sign again there was No asterisk no Limitation no claim to see in store for details Nothing noting of any policy of what this person had spoke of.This item was new, and the price I saw was ADVERTISED, It was  in the best buy flier for the same week.

  • This means there has to be an in store advertisement stating the lower price.

See above

  • They do not match every price because they sell used movies which are always lower than any other store’s new prices.

That’s a given but, I purchased this product new.  generally used products fall under different rules which are printed in stores (Or at least gamestops that I’ve been too).

  • Sounds to me like you are one of those customers that all retail employees hate to have to service. You think that you should get the best deal even though the policy is different than what you want.

Now your getting a little snippy here, As far as being hated by retail employees, I don’t think so, Now i’ve been nice up to this point. I’m sure a lot of gamestop/moviestop employees are not like you, Hell I know my gamestop/moviestop managers and they know me but,you are a gamestop/moviestop employee In richmond, VA area, who has no  clue what went on and are assuming the customer is always wrong, I never believe the customer is always “right” but, there is a happy medium.  That right there is the first sign of bad customer service, Secondly I pointed out the sign issue, most states have laws saying they are bound by what the sign says unless its a grievously bad error, also by the federal trade commision .

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations. Under the Federal Trade Commission Act:

  • Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
  • Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
  • Advertisements cannot be unfair.

But to get this kind of treatment almost a year later is kind of low, I’ve been mostly nice through this post but if MovieStop employees really think they are god to obviously which you think you are, you need to really sit down and think! How do i want my store to be and how can I keep people coming back to my store. Not find a post on the internet and bash the person because what you believe is right, quite simply you need to educate your customers and educate your self and CORRECT problems when you see them, If you store has a sign that says

“GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES”.

But, the sign only refers to preorders, The sign is incorrect! You need to correct the sign because the sign says quite different from the actual given “policy”.  A better sign would be

“GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES ON PRE-ORDERS: See inside for details”.

After this I think moviestop is on the shitlist again.

Wii have a problem with Media? Media Thinks your Wii is going to kill or injure you….

Recently I’ve seen alot of news on how the wii “injures” people and at first I was going to ignore it but, Instead of going away its just grown into the flavor of the month of Media trying to scare people.  Reading this article is pretty hilarious on its own because of how badly its sourced and the numbers they are coming out with. anyways on to the goods.

The article starts in huge letters

Wii puts 10 in hospital a week

Wow…. so they bait you with that. what the hell is the Wii doing beating people down who play Xbox? Its very interesting how an inanimate object is “putting” people into the hospital.

The growing toll has prompted NHS doctors to warn of the dangers. Wii-itis sufferers usually have excruciating pain in the right shoulder or knee.

The Toll? WII IS ON A RAMPAGE!!!! LOOK OUT ITS GOING TO CAP YOUR ASS! no, seriously this bugs me because usaully the people ending up hurt by the wii are either playing like jackasses or have no concept of moderation. They fail to state the conditions leading up to whatever caused the injuries, in most cases the Game system did not cause the injury the person caused the injury themselves by not following instructions,  reading further…

A rheumatology consultant said: Most are admitted after playing the tennis and running games which involve sudden movements and violent tendon stretching. Dr Dev Mukerjee, of Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex, said: There has been a 100 per cent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis.

I don’t know about this it sounds like a load of bullshit to me,  Tennis maybe , Running ? What the hell? Even with wii fit it tells you not to slam down on the board, so again this comes back to the person playing the game. I’ve seen some people who play the Wii and use crazy amounts of force or movements while playing, When you play the wii you dont have to swing the controller like your hacking an axe through a tree, using fairly slow movements can actually acheive the same results as swinging like a madman.

Thinking about it further something about this article stinks badly enough to think a landfill with used diapers is nearby and someone is just trying to get there 15 minutes of fame, my logic is the numbers dont play out. Think about this for a moment, This asshats are just playing with numbers to make them look alot worse than they are.

10 People a week get “injured”, in 52 weeks that means only 520 people get injured in a years time. Given the population of the world. Your chances of getting “injured” by the Wii beating your ass in any given day is  0.0000077%, There something seriously wrong with this. This doctor is Should not even be considered remotely useful. if you really think about this

the odds of you getting injured by your Wii is

1 in 12,884,615ish

Lets look at the odds of things than your  Wii Injuring you and see how retarded this article is for all its worth.

  • becoming president: 1 in 10,000,000
  • dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000
  • dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564
  • dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000
  • winning the lottery (single state): 1 in 18 million
  • being struck by lightning: 1 in 2,650,000
  • killed in an airplane accident: 355,318 to 1
  • asteroid colliding with Earth in the next 100 years: 5,500 to 1
  • becoming an astronaut: 12,100,000 to 1
  • drowning in the bathtub: 693,000 to 1
  • dying due to a shark attack: 300,000,000 to 1

The news networks and various blogs are Picking up the story and focusing on the injury end, where the statistics speak for themselves. its all Silly medias fascination and irresponsibility with scaring people with stuff that is next to impossible to happening and the fact they blame the machine rather than the person is just poor writing on there behalf.  From the articles i’ve found theres no stated sources, no actual facts, No history, and no clues to the actual cause of this.

Attack of the Christmas part II

Two days ago I posted about the Christmas Creep well, Today I went to mall to discover unfortunately how bad how the Christmas Creep was. It’s not a creep anymore. Its the christmas War on Holidays, the casualties so far .. Halloween, Thanksgiving and anything inbetween. From the front lines which I’ve personally witnessed and My friend david whom was overwelmed at the scene and cried on sight..

Corporations are destroying Christmas, People are already starting to be worn out of the meaningless push on wanting consumers to buy useless shit for christmas.

I dont mind so much about the week after thanksgiving for Christmas, but NOW? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO go away get out.. GTFO…