I live in Sydney and have been calling JB Hi-Fi stores in regards to trade-in values of games.

But 1 out of 5 times a guy would tell me that they're not supposed to give out the values over the phone. I'd tell them that I just called you a few days ago and I got the values over the phone, but they wouldn't budge.

Anyways, is there a reason that they wouldn't give these values out over the phone? Why do they expect us to make the trip to the stores all the time? And what's with the inconsistency? Don't they wish to help customers out as best as possible?

I'm just kinda annoyed and baffled, so seeing if anyone's got any insight into this. Does this happen in other countries also?

That's interesting. I've never tried calling them over the phone. I'm guessing it's just a store policy because logically if you have made the effort to go to the store you will be more likely to trade in your games and potentially spend more money on other products.
Out of curiosity which store do you go to?
I go to the Liverpool store as it's very close to where I live.

I goto Chatswood when I trade games in - and I do go often.

So when I make calls I usually choose a different store to call to prevent the same staff from hearing my voice too often.

The reason you mentioned would be lame (they're lame, not you). It's troublesome for customers to just go into the store just to ask a question. And how do we know whether we'd actually want to trade it in if we don't know the value - so there's a risk we might make an empty trip. I just think it's really slack and lazy that they can't even answer that to help customers out. What have they got to lose?!

I know that when I tried EB Games before they said that they can only tell me the value when they've taken a look at the quality of the game. But then I still want to inquire what is the MAXIMUM value I can get for this game. Again, I think it's just stubborn laziness that prevents them from trying. Apparently looking things up on a computer is too much work.

I agree with you in that it is definitely slack and unfair. Though if they can get away with it they will.

To be honest I find that the only trade in that's worth doing at JB is the trade 3 games in for a new game. You tend to get much more value, although you have to check the exclusions list. Doing this I ended up trading 9 games that I no longer played for 3 brand new games and I didn't pay a cent.

Yeah oh well, I guess I'll just bring a list with me when I drop by the stores from now to minimise annoyance.

And yeah, the trade 3 for 1 is definitely one of the better deals to save money.

Hey feel free to add me on PSN. Name: Esquoret

Since you're a PS3 gamer from Sydney too, and I noticed you're in the trophy league too! =)

Probably because if they tell you the shit value you'll get over the phone they know you won't come trade your games in, but if you make the trip to the store and then they tell you the shit value you'll get...its not very likely you'll just leave without trading in your games (because you'd have wasted a trip to the store). 

If a game is over 6 months old good luck even getting $30 for it. 

I assume it's a policy where they can't see your condition of the game and they don't want to tell you that your game that looks like has been dragged over concrete is worth $30 when it should be closer to a $1 because of the condition.

That is a good reason, i hadn't thought of that

I was going to suggest that they don't want you coming in just to trade in, which is what they're assuming if you're calling over the phone, and also guaranteeing that you can't shop around between different stores of the same company

well i dont. know if its the quality things because with games stop they either buy it from you for one specific price or not at all.

It makes perfect sense if you think about it.

If they give you price over prone you can then phone competitor and ask. If they refuse you have to go there then ask if you are unhappy you need to go to competitor and then if competitor offer less go back to that shop. Most people won't care about saving few bucks if it involves so much effort but using economies of scale it makes big diffrence on the shop chain scale.