Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

With the increase to $60 a year normally($120 for 2 with NO discount, really?), Best Buy should be focused on trying to attract new customers to pony up the cash for a subscription. But when regular consumers can pay only $15 for a year at Gamestop and still get their physical magazine, 10% off on pre-owned and a 10% bump on trade-ins it seems like less and less of a good value to grab the GCU sub at Best Buy.

Sure. You have the 20% off new games and you do have the welcome packets(when/IF they get sent out on time), but even those have been nerfed. Gone is the B2G1 coupon on NEW games that would stack with Black Friday pricing, replaced by......nothing. Even the 20% discount wasn't working initially on Black Friday with sale prices, which was disappointing and infuriating, since we paid for that discount in the revamped program.

Now with @Gamer going away with this month's issue, we're reliant on the bi weekly or so coupons that EVERY Gamer's Club member gets and within the last couple of weeks those have been reduced down from three coupons to two the last couple of cycles. 

So what's left? We do get the 10% on game trade-ins still. But that's only IF we constantly remind the employees we're GCU and to click the little button to check it off to give us the bonus. Not to mention the fact that the trade values as of late make Gamestop's look generous by comparison and the lack of trade promotions besides the requisite 50/100% ones and the infrequency of them make wanting to trade at BB just not worth it anymore.

As I said at the beginning of this, you want to add features to attract new customers and retain current ones, not take them away while jacking up the price to 4x what a program cost prior. 

Hopefully you guys can find a way to bring back @Gamer and the sometimes awesome coupons(not the last couple of months sadly) as I feel that GCU needs all the help it can get to attract new customers.

[#2]

I forgot to mention in the post above that you guys really need to have the marketing department throw out the idea that Best Buy does game trade-ins AND pre-orders in some of the new commercials. With WalMart trying their hand again at the trade-in program and upcoming 3x the trade value promotion next week from Target from their program, you guys really need to get the word out that you take in trades.

Of course, what you also really need to look at is making it so the stores can immediately put out the games for sale once they're traded in just like Gamestop does. If they've managed to do that in most of the country, then Best Buy's legal team should be able to figure out how they've done it and copy that just like admittedly it seems like you guys copied most of their Power Up/Power Up Pro program benefits.

[#3]

I truly do hear where you are coming from on this idea. I would like to hear what others might think about this idea. Remember to vote for an idea if you like it.

[#4]

Fully agree, I think most people have come to terms with the pricing but the whole package has been the problem. If you didn`t offer the $30 or $60 upgrades then there would be a huge decrease in the total paid membership volume. If you`re gonna request $120 upfront then there`s primary requests that have to be met in fairness to the customers; 1- Paid members should ALWAYS enjoy better benefits across the board than free members otherwise what did we pay for? Pre-order bonuses, trade in bonuses, coupon values should either only be for paid members or be increased for paid members. 2- With such a drastic price increase there should be an equally impressive benefits package to warrant the value of the price increase. 3- What new/unique incentives are being put in place to showcase what the $120 is going towards? 4- What is BB`s vision for GCU if everything goes according to plan? 5- When charging $120 are we providing $120 worth of behind the scenes work aka committment to excellence. There`s alot of room for growth but time isn`t exactly on BB`s side & some of the issues are self inflicted. BB you gotta be agressive & "push" the product, you`ve got a real winner a few tweaks will get you back on the right track.

[#5]

After the response I received from Aaron on the main MyBBGC thread I posted(which basically came off as 'tough crap,we changed our T&C and you need to learn to live with it' to me) and the continued lack of ANY response from FutureUS regarding a potential compromise for the loss of the @Gamer sub I was supposed to receive till 2017, I think my decision has been made for me.

I'll keep my GCU membership till 2016 when it's finally due to expire due to having to use or lose that 2 year coupon plus the year I'd already signed up for just a month or two before then, but after that I'm DONE.

That is, unless Best Buy corporate finally wakes up and realizes that for a program to be attractive to consumers it needs to provide the BEST value and not be constantly tweaked and nerfed to maximize profits for shareholders.

[#6]

When I received the coupons for @gamer, I would stalk BB's website almost daily for any drop in price for those games (because they almost always dropped in price at some point over the period of time the coupon was offered. As a subsequent consequence of this, I found myself buying more often since I was on the website each day searching for a price drop that would maximize the coupon I was given. 

So, I think returning the coupons would have me online much more searching for the drop, and buying more from BB.

[#7]

While the magazine was neat I won't deny that the main reason I looked forward to them was the coupons with each issues.  I did read them but with so much coverage in the gaming press now it was mostly older information or previews.

I do subscribe to Game Informer for their exclusive previews they get each month and that is the kind of "hook" that would justify a magazine again in my opinion but it would probally be way to costly to get that setup.

[#8]

Sadly, Best Buy has managed to out Gamestop Gamestop by turning what was a decent program into a steaming pile of manure at this point.

For people who buy games at launch for $60 the price might not be too bad, since they can take $12 off each launch title they buy AND in many cases get $10 back in MyBB points about 2 weeks from launch as a bonus. 

But the massive price increase coupled with them requiring two years worth of subscription to the program as well as them replacing the magazine and it's coupons with the Gamer's Club offers that everybody was getting before for free AND those offers not really seeing many discounts besides the coupons themselves(aka sales during the coupon periods to stack with the coupons) makes me wish I hadn't re-upped when I did and let that 2 year coupon expire.

As it stands, the one time they had a halfway decent coupon recently the game DID go on sale, but not even the coupon discount was applying during the promotional period. I believe I attempted to bring it to the attention of someone on here and was met with what amounted to an 'oh well'.

In other words if you paid to be in this program expect to get the same level of cheery customer service that Gamestop provides their customers. That being maybe a half a give a crap.