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Play.com Shutting Up Shop

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-20953357

 

Online retailer Play.com is to shut down its retail business becoming a marketplace only from March 2013.

 

The Jersey based company blamed the move on the ending of Low Value Consignment Relief allowing items less than £15 to be sold to the UK VAT free.

 

The company is making 147 staff redundant in Jersey as well as 67 in its Cambridge and Bristol offices.

 

Play.com will be more like a shopping centre with the move, no longer selling directly to the customers themselves.

 

The Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) loophole was shut by the UK government in April 2012.

 

In a statement Play.com said: "Moving forward we are intending to focus exclusively on our successful marketplace, which is our main business area, and to phase out the direct retail part of our business."

 

In September the States of Jersey said about 400 people had lost their jobs elsewhere in the island because of the end of LVCR.

 

I haven't used them for years now, much prefer Amazon, but I know quite a few people who still use them.

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Goddammit! Another retailer with its lifeline cutoff :(

 

Used them quite a bit myself (been a while since I used them last, but I still frequented the site)

 

Very sad news. Amazon have precious little competition now (as far as generalist online stores go)

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Keeping an eye for sales now.

 

Play used to be awesome price wise.

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Just ordered something from there today! Mind you it was from the marketplace and i cant remember the last time i ordered something that was direct from them. I always check both amazon and play to compare prices and just generally go for the best offer. This time play won out, but they are both great with different products. Hope this continues to be the case.

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Play haven't been the same since they started allowing users and other sites to sell stuff on their site, I don't really like the feel or atmosphere of it as a website anymore.

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Just ordered something from there today! Mind you it was from the marketplace and i cant remember the last time i ordered something that was direct from them.

I was going to say that. Last few times I went on it all seemed to be marketplace stuff and I'm always dubious about ordering using that, even on Amazon.

 

Tis a shame though, they had good prices back in the day...

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If the shipping was better I might have used them more. They were a bit unreliable for game preorders. Preordered movies and everything else seems to arrive quicker than the game do for some reason. Have Amazon Prime now so just use them. Amazon price matches Play anyway.

 

Play haven't been the same since they started allowing users and other sites to sell stuff on their site, I don't really like the feel or atmosphere of it as a website anymore.

 

They haven't been quite the same since Rakuten took over.

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I stopped using Play.com years ago when they started taking ages to dispatch and used slow shipping methods.

 

While their shop closing doesn't surprise me....their marketplace remaining open does. They only accept a very limited range of items. Surely they'll have to massively open op their categories?

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Keeping an eye for sales now.

 

Play used to be awesome price wise.

 

Play use to be the best for CDs, DVDs and some times games. Best pricing, fast dispatch and quick arrival. Then it got popular, then it got bought out and by then it had all gone tits up.

 

I find amazon are faster now and are starting to have similar if not better pricing.

 

It's a shame, because Play.com use to be my got to website for all my physical media. Bastard government, ruin everything.

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Play haven't been the same since they started allowing users and other sites to sell stuff on their site, I don't really like the feel or atmosphere of it as a website anymore.

Interestingly it seems this is all the site will be now. I agree, moreso than amazon I found it hard to find the stuff that would come straight from play, and sometimes you're looking for a respected retailer for a little security.

 

However, Play.com made it's name with its free delivery. Nobody else did that (we're talking at least 10 years ago) and they did it well.

 

They always had their flaws though, returns were difficult, finding contact details for complaints was made very difficult. More recently they became painfully slow.

 

With a bit of luck and the right approach they could've really boomed. Well, the big names behind it are probably millionaires (Rakuten bought it for a cool £15 mil), it's only the 200 employees we should feel sorry for.

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Shame!! I used to use Play.com a lot. Their monday madness deals on memory cards, games and Bluray's etc were brilliant but like a lot on here have said it's not been the same for a while. Since around April 2012 actually!! Another online retailer Amazon does not have to worry about anymore. Sorry for the people who have lost their jobs 400 plus 147 from Play, that's about half of Jerseys population. And to the 67 job losses over here.

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I used to use Play a lot a few years back, at the time they offered free shipping to Ireland when Amazon didn't and the product price was usually cheaper on Play too.

 

But the last time I ordered something from them, I think a year ago now, it took a whole to get to me after it was shipped, someone (here) mentioned that they had changed whoever it was they did their shipping with and it was slowing everything down to a crawl.

 

I then found out Amazon had last year opened a dispatch warehouse in Dublin and do free shipping here too so have done any online orders in the last year with them and not looking back :)

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*Slow claps Cameron*

 

I'm just waiting for his next policy where he retains the right to just stop people in street and take the shirt off their backs.

 

Not used for a while but just looking at my order history, there's over 100 items there... highlights include:

 

05 Nov 2003

£32.99

Star Wars Rogue Squadron: Rebel Strike (GameCube)

 

06 Sep 2004

£8.99

Showtime - Dizzee Rascal (CD)

 

28 Sep 2004

£7.99

Drunken Master (Region 2 DVD)

 

08 Jun 2005

£10.99

Doomsday Mechaniks - DJ Producer (CD)

 

08 Nov 2004

£29.99

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube)

 

08 Nov 2004

£29.99

Paper Mario 2: The Thousand-Year Door (GameCube)

 

07 Jul 2006

£7.99

Hard Boiled: Collector's Edition (5.1/DTS) (Region 2 DVD)

 

09 Sep 2004

£9.99

Big Busty Whoppers And Twin Peaks (Region 2 DVD)

 

Good times.

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ugh that sucks. I use play.com all the time. I guess I know why it was getting harder and harder to find items directly stocked by play.com itself on the site, and instead got a list of independent sellers.

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Only ever used Play a few times, service was alright. Last time i ordered from them, it took forever for the item to arrive. Sad to see them go as i am with all stores online, or offline that close.

 

Here's my complete order list (since 2008)

 

Scart to SVHS adaptor - Ordered September 2008 from Marketplace

 

Ultimate Rambo Blu-ray boxset - Ordered December 2008 from Marketplace

 

Mass Effect 1 and 2 - Ordered May 2011 from Marketplace

 

Had to re-order 2 due to the fact that the item never arrived.

Edited by Jimbob

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My order history contains 206 results! I thought maybe I had ordered 100-120 items, but surely not over 200! (Well, that number is including about maybe 5% cancellations and refunds.)

 

I will miss Play.com from the early 2000s. I used to like them until maybe 2007, when I started using them less. I disliked the fact it was impossible to write to customer support and get a human reply! So in 2012, I only purchased two items from Play.

 

My first order with Play.com:

 

09 Jul 2002

Order no:

5584035

Item price:

£14.99

Party At The Palace (2002) (Region 2 DVD)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 11 Jul 2002

Delivery option:

Free Delivery

 

That performance by Queen and cast of their musical is just... very disturbing. Good, but disturbing, and strange. But also very entertaining.

 

My most valued item purchased from Play.com:

 

20 Mar 2003

Order no:

11861058

Item price:

£8.99

Dark Side Of The Moon (30th Anniversary dual layer CD / SACD) - Pink Floyd (CD)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 04 Apr 2003

Delivery option:

Free Delivery

 

I love quality SACDs!!! This one has been played so much on my music system! The 5.1 mix is great! Now I play the 2011 BD release with its 4.0 quad mix more often, but I love both. I love that Pink Floyd finally released Wish You Were Here on 5.1/4.0 BD in 2011 and 5.1 SACD in 2012, that BD is great too! I guess I am saying, I love surround music when done right!

Edited by are1981

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i'd post my list of purchases but its quite large......

 

but i haven't used it much since it started the market place shit, its like ebay but dodgier! I've had bad experiences with the market place stuff and now just use amazon because its better, Shipping has become so poor as well.

 

Its sad to see the company go, it was a great company, but its a shadow of its former glory

 

thank you for the tax changes tory government!, then again they are all as bad, atleast when we get mad enough Cameron actually passes something into law people want, like defending yourself in your own home

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16 Oct 2006

Order no:

78246255

Item price:

£11.99

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: The Complete Series (Region 2 DVD)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 17 Oct 2006

Delivery option:

Free Delivery

Delivery estimate:

3-5 working days

View order details

 

 

29 Sep 2005

Order no:

51722239

Item price:

£24.99

Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Nintendo DS)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 30 Sep 2005

Delivery option:

Free Delivery

Delivery estimate:

3-5 working days

View

 

Play were fucking gods in their day, and they will forever hold a place in my heart. Although recently they were never really the cheapest for Blu-Rays/Games etc, they still had some excellent deals on stuff like SD cards and gadgets and clearance stuff.

 

Rest in mother fucking peace.

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I still use Play.com. Actually done all my xmas shopping on there this year with no issues. Prefer it over Amazon, find their layout a bit messy... plus usually get stuff cheaper on play.

 

Sad times. Used them since the days of when they were play247.com (13 years ago?). I have given them so much money. My first order was Mad Max trilogy box set on DVD :D

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I used to use them all the time but in recent years not so much, usualy the odd sale item now and again. Tis a shame though I bought my first DVD's from them in 2003, Ghostbusters 1 and 2.

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I think I've used them once only, so I won't miss them :s On the subject of online (not-games) shopping, I've been using Etsy a lot recently :)

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Only used them 14 times, thought it would be more.

 

First order:

 

10 Apr 2008

Order no:

127952058

Item price:

£9.99

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring Of Fates (Nintendo DS)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 11 Apr 2008

 

 

Most recent and most valued:

 

07 Aug 2012

Order no:

288221940

Item price:

£9.99

Jake Bugg (Play.com Exclusive Signed Copies) - Jake Bugg (CD)

Sold by:

Play.com

Dispatched: 10 Oct 2012

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Seem to remember back in the day that Play.com was one of the few places offering free delivery as well as their decent prices. This was when Amazon's free delivery was only for items over £15.

 

Shame to see them go. So many online retailers seem to be folding, not long ago we lost Choices and Bee.

 

Is the future going to be Amazon, Shopto and supermarkets?:blank:

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I used to use them mainly back in when I was in High School. I always found the shipping bad but then when I was experiencing much better shipping and better prices (ie ShopTo & Amazon) then I just had no reason to continue using them.

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I do remember when I was younger, my parents pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker from Play.com - I was amazed that, not only did it arrive a day early, but it was also the Limited Edition, which wasn't advertised on their site.

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