CEX and why is sucks: a Primer for Beginners"

Definition of a business- the coordination of people, products and equipment to ensure a smooth running, consistent and highly profitable business organisation and 100 percent total customer satisfaction.

What were after here is your thoughts on the people ,products and equipment.

Ever had an arguement or been poorly treated by the staff? Found the products that supposedly under go thorough inspection before being offered to the public to be of an unacceptable quality? Or maybe youve travelled a long way to find that, although theyve promised you on the phone that they will buy your goods, the 'till system is down or out of cash'?

Well whatever your experiences, list them here or pm me. I intend to create alist of the experiences (I say experiences and not problems as I will fairly record anything sent to me) for anyone unfamiliar with this company to refer to.

My personal opinion is that it should join the ranks of the NGF Bible.

Take it away people!

How does this business work? Where is it? Is it one store location?

Thanks for starting this thread!

The business model they use is a standard 'we buy, sell and exchange'. Supossedly they dont refuse any items offered, although someone here is bound to say otherwise.

They have around 10stores in the Uk only, and have not opened any since one of the founders died. It started as a little back street shop that was more run like a market stall, with employees tattily dressed, smoking and drinking beind the counter and generally not tococerned with the music they played or the language they used. I think 7 stores are london based with 1in watford, birmingham and leeds.

Typically, items are bought in at a standard 50 percent cash, 66 percent exchange value of the price they would sell the item for. Rates vary, especially on retro stuff, where rather than review the pricing, they seem to focus on just droping the rates.

Saturn stuff is currently at 25 percent cash, 33 percent exchange. A example of how flawed this is is that you will get 16 pounds for your copy of radiant silver gun on the saturn as it sells in their for 65 pounds.

Neo prices where the first thing I reviewed when I started there as they where clearly all over the place. Markof the wolves, 575 pounds, last blade 275 pounds, and US ninja masters 190 pounds. Once done, the neo goodness kept on flowing. 2 months after being there a guy from leicester sold in his collectionof 82 carts, 3boxed machines, 6 joysticks and 4 memory cards and got a respectable check for 6000 pounds, which he was happy with. At first, all the stock we had were 7 sam 2s (60 pounds each, changed to 20 pounds after price review) and a sam 3.

After that you couldnt stop the turn over of neo products for dust! MVS and AES collectorswhere happy whilst control of prices where inour hands, and then came the intrusion of 'a pricing department'. This is when all hope was lost where good deals and negotiation where concerned. Customers were unhappy that we couldnt be flexible or price match, shortly after that I left.

Comments I remeber around this time include 'Mark, fuck neo, DVDs are the bread and butter here' as well as 'who the bloody hell gave you permition to price change mark of the wolves from 450 pounds to 350???!!!!!'

Then there wasthe classic 'leave it at this price, we will try to see if we have a chance to review the data in a year or so'.

This should give a jist of what life was like on the other side of the counter, so come on guys, lets hear what youve all got to say.

<small>[ August 05, 2003, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: kyo geo ]</small>

This is a great idea,typing up as we speak as such be ready soon.

@Bobak,the stores are around several big cites around the UK.The one we mainly talk about is the London,Rathbone Place,which sells loads of Neo games and retro gear.And the rest is history,they rank up there as the English NGF,not as worse,but still need to sorted out and the public need to be told more.

EDIT:Cheers Kyo Geo,thats how it works,the store anyways.CEX need to imporve thier service more,ain't a bad shop,sells some good stuff,but they need to sort thier staff out.

<small>[ August 05, 2003, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: corbo 2 ]</small>