I went to pick up Oblivion for PC at Gamestop and the sales guy starts hassling me to buy their $3 insurance policy. When I said no thanks he replied “but it’s a 60 dollar game!” So I should give you more money for a bullshit offer? Makes perfect sense to me! Why in the holy hell would video games need insurance? I’ve never heard of software going bad. I guess it sort of make sense for console games, but only if you treat them like shit. If in the odd case my Oblivion DVD splits in two and is beyond repair, it’ll be in eight years when I’m long bored of it. Now I understand how businesses want to fleece people of as much money as they can, but this is just silly. I want to personally smack the Gamestop guru who thought of this idea.
I like the response other people have given when pressured into “insurance” or a “service plan:”
“Wow, if it’s going to get fucked up THAT easily, I won’t buy it at all!”
All that kind of insurance policy does is insure more profits for the company.
Was the guy really pressuring you that much? What was his stake in it? Did he get commission for insurance?
Adam
What exactly does the insurance protect against? If I were to buy the game and purchase the insurance policy and then open up the game, right then and there at counter, and snap it in half could I then ask for a replacement?
He gets a commission, or he has a quota to make, or both, I’d guess. Managers LOVE to think up quotas and contests for their salesclerks to do. Makes them (the managers) think they’re actually doing something to improve sales and morale.
Tell him that’s why you have a disk burner; for insurance.
Then ask if they accept returns of opened software. 
I have a simple rule: Never buy insurance to cover any loss you can handle personally. It’s always a waste of money.
The price of the extended warrantee is always set greater than the expected cost of repairs over the lifetime of the product. That’s how the retailer makes money. Buying extended warrantees is exactly like casino gambling – the odds always favor the house.
Insurance? That’s a new one. I’ve bought maybe two new games from them in my lifetime (neither of which cost $60), so I wouldn’t know.
Just remember, though, that if a front-line clerk does something annoying, it’s because the manager told him to do it. Trust me, getting husled for insurance on an expensive game is nothing compared to being asked if I have trade-ins nearly every single time I step through the door. (No, I don’t, and if I do, I’ll tell you myself, all right?)
Hustle, push, coax, beg. Just how the American free market is these days.
Of course that’s what it is. And it’s a great scam. If I ever own a software outlet, I’m doing the same thing. Think about it.
How many Pit threads are generated by this “upselling”? Quite a few. But look honestly at the number of Dopers that post that they hate it out of all Dopers. A very small percentage. Most either say no and move on, or say no and it never registers that they’re being pushed to throw away money. Also, the number of Dopers here isn’t a great example of American consumers. i’d dare say a higher rate of Dopers are pissed about this than as a public whole.
“Insurance” is a great selling point. Every day we hear about how important insurance is in almost every aspect of our lives. Beats the hell out of “warranty” when it comes to selling something.
$3 for a $60 game? Mention insurance and a shitload of people’s ears will perk up. $3? A pittance to anyone with the disposable income to buy the games. And an easy 5% profit increase to the store. If you can run a retail store and have such an easy chance at increasing profit by 5% per item just by a clerk mentioning it? It’s insane not to do it! The shopkeepers aren’t in business to protect people from themselves.
Look at it this way. Maybe that $3 would have been used to buy a double cheeseburger or a pack of smokes. In the grand scheme of things, selling the insurance is helping all of us.
I was asked if I wanted to buy insurance for a $4.99 PC CD for IIRC $2 at one of those places. I was shocked that they even asked.
For the most part, yes. That’s pretty much how it works. The store knows there’s an infintessimal (sp?) chance of a person doing this to make a point, but only in very rare instances. No real chance they’d lose money on it overall. Even if 1 in 20 customers did this, you’d be pretty close to breaking even. (What is the profit margin on a game, anyway?) And I doubt you’d get a 5% return rate on intentionally damaged games.
Basically, the apparent low price of insurances and warranties offer the same profit increase that grocery stores get from putting the soda and candy at the ends of the checkout lines. impulse buying.
I don’t really have any sense of dread when I buy a high-end product from Best Buy. I know they’re going to push the warranty or insurance. I also know I’m not going to buy it. Only once did I have it offered more than once. I bought the camera from a different salesman. It’s my credit card, I have the power in the deal. I’ll never understand how people are pressured into buying something from a salesman. I’m always polite initially. If I want to buy something, sell it to me. If you want to sell me something, then realize that if I don’t want it, let it go. I have the power here. If you want to tell me what my best choice is and I know it doesn’t benefit me, quit pushing it or you’re suddenly going to be faced with an asshole you weren’t planning on seeing when you got up this morning.
OTOH, I think it’s a testament to the economy. An easy 5% profit increase for taking 8 seconds for a clerk to mention an insurance policy on a game? Absolute genius.
The guys at EB always ask my daughter and I if we want insurance on our purchases. Generally, for software/games we usually say “no”, but they never keep harping on us, they just ring it up.
I *did *pay $15 for the “insurance” on her Nintendo DS, though. Unconditional return if something goes wrong during the first year. She brought the first one back for a dead pixel on the touchscreen, and EB honored it, and gave her an extension of the insurance for the new unit. Good deal for a handheld game which gets a lot of abuse.
The Nintendo part of this reminded me of a time I wish I could have bought insurance.
2 years ago I had a GB SP. My 9 y/o nephew (at the time) fell asleep playing it and ended up cracking the screen when it dropped to the floor. I had to pay about $50 for an exchange/replacement deal at the Nintendo dealer in Fargo. Had I even spent $40 on an insurance policy when I bought it, I would have gotten a new one instead of the refurbished one.
Note to anyone that buys a semi-expensive electronic unit for a kid. Buy the insurance up to 10% of the unit cost. If anyone will break the thing, it’s a kid. Personal experience has shown me it isn’t always a rip-off.
Huh. I was just at Gamestop this past Wednesday and I didn’t hear word one about any “insurance,” nor did I hear it at my previous purchase two or three weeks previous. Is this a new thing?
A quota yes, a commission no. It’s all stick and no carrot for Gamestop employees.
I used to work in the PC Gaming Industry (sort of), and the profit margin was about 35% in Australasia- the wholesale price of PC game was $50-$60, and the retail price was $80-$100.
Australia’s various consumer laws cover most of the things likely to go wrong with games software and hardware anyway, but EB here do offer a “Game Guarantee” for $3, which is basically “If your game is scrated, we’ll replace it!”. I’m told no-one ever takes them up on it, however, as they’re legally required to do it anyway…
EB has always had a very good return policy anyway, without asking for money. They’ll give you a refund or replacement game if you return it for any reason. Don’t like it, scratched it, finished it within 24 hours, someone else bought one for you too? Just return it within seven days.