28/01/2015

They replied back!

Even though the response was not that useful, it was by far the best response I've received so far from a big company. A personalized letter from an actual person in my mail box. Thank you, Sony. Too bad I still need to sell the second anniversary model for a pornographic amount if I want to keep up collecting for the next months...
Read More »

21/01/2015

The rants are over

I'm done with those rants about the limited PS4. That was a waste of time. My console will finally arrive tomorrow, unless that mistake Sony made with the address delays delivery even further...

So... soon I'll resume taking more pictures of my newer stuf with those n00b backgrounds I so much enjoy :D
Read More »

PS4 Anniversary, the dirty way. F*** the police!

So, since my only chance to buy a PS4 20th Anniversary Edition over here was to enter one of the auctions that ended for a minimum of 855,00€, I was motivated by a friend to ignore my principles as a collector for a minute and do the exact same thing I complain about: reselling. Yes, that thing I hate. I'm being as hypocrite as those who entered the auctions "just to help charity and not to buy the console..."  - or nobody, to make it short.

I've bought two models from those auctions, I'll put one of those on eBay and I'll ask enough money to hopefully pay for both, or at least just make sure I just end up with less 500,00€ out of my pockets to match the true price of the console. Well, to be honest I only bought one because nobody was allowed to buy two, so I made someone buy the second console for me. Sorry Sony, it was either that or nothing. I couldn't afford a single unit for 800+ without any return, being unemployed and such.... I couldn't even use my credit card to pay for a single auction because mine doesn't have a monthly limit that high. So now I have a dept to clear, which I will, after selling my second unit.

Right now I care as much about selling on eBay as Sony cares about people like me, especially if they live in a small, "nobody cares" country that is completely dependent on Spanish residues. Because that's what the Portuguese market is all about: the majority of the big global companies are always based in Spain (because profit), they add "Iberia" to their name in order to include this country as an appendage (because more clients), then they send to us whatever isn't too successful there with all the information, costumer support and websites in Portuguish. And they act as if they were working very hard to provide to our market... Pretty much like Nintendo and Ubisoft, two companies that love to bring titles to our country with Spanish covers and subtitles. Thankfully, the majority of big UK stores and websites are very open to international costumers and sell cheaper, so it's usually a win-win situation and a great alternative to our weird market. There is at least an exception called (irony mode) Square Enix. That one's a tiny little company, so small and powerless it doesn't have the ability to send their exclusive stuff to more than a bunch of European countries... the poor fellows! (/irony mode). They remind me of how things were over here about 20 years ago.

Heck, we are probably the last country to get these anniversary models. They come from Spain, which got them one month earlier with the same auction procedure. The console was supposed to be shipped within 48 to 72 hours after payment being made according to the terms and conditions I had to agree with in order to bid. However, I paid 10 days ago and the console was only shipped yesterday... If I hadn't payed within 48 hours I'd miss the auctions I won... but after they have the money, terms and conditions no longer bother them so they can take as long as they want... Rules are for the weak.

Not to mention Spain got 350 consoles, almost 9 times as many consoles as we got, even though the country only has 4x more population than Portugal. A a result of that greater number in Spain, they ended about 100 euros cheaper.  In 2014 Sony's SE Vice President Neil Armstrong said Portugal was the most important market for PlayStation. But what's the point of that anyway?  This was another proof that it means sh*t!

I'm starting to blame my ancestors for successfully defending this country against the Spanish invaders a few hundred years ago. With stuff like this and incompetent political leaders to make things much worse, I seriously believe we'd be happier if this was also part of Spain. This last paragraph was enough to upset many people so I'll shut up for now. Even less visitors from now on, heh?
Read More »

09/01/2015

Aaaaannnd... it's an auction! A huge rant!

It's a fact that I've always had a terrible temper and sometimes look like an upset kid. Well, here's another one of my rants. Like the girl from Frozen said, I'll just Let it go, Let it go, Can't hold it back anymore."

I'm totally pissed at Sony Portugal. After all, there are 40 20th anniversary PS4 models available for this country... but  they are currently being auctioned with a starting price of 499€. This led me to write a complaint letter to SCEE. If they read the letter, there's a very slim chance they'll see this message. But seriously, I'm so disappointed I don't even care. Experience tells me one thing: the bigger they are, the less they care about their supporters. This is not a small company like Ghostlight that replies to every costumer. Giant companies have more important issues to worry about rather than paying attention to overseas letters from insects.

First, the UK executive came up with that speech saying Sony was upset about the sales on eBay. Yet, Sony Portugal decides to do the exact same thing going on eBay: auctions! And they probably have permission from the UK to do that. If I were to place a bid, I would always have to pay above the R.R.P. In the UK, many consoles were sold between 20 and 400 GBP and money went to charity. But people in Portugal have only two ways to obtain this console: either pay absurd values on eBay, or pay absurd values on Sony's auction... This means you either need to be rich or have plenty of money. To the "people who love the brand the most", they say... yeah right... That's pure BS.

But wait! Money goes to charity! Cool, isn't it? (irony) I'm such a mean guy, it seems so wrong to complain instead of worrying about charity. (/irony). It happens that the part of me that helps charity is substantially different than the other part of me that just wants this console. And 99% of the people who mix the two things together and claim they buy the console for charity purposes are just big, fat, hypocrites. I don't need to receive anything at all in order to donate to Charity, and even if I did buy the console from one of those auctions, I was virtually just paying for the console and not donating anything on my free will.

Getting this limited edition model already caused me quite some stress and now it's definitely impossible to find one for the RRP. Thank you very much, Sony Portugal, well done! And here I went through all the trouble to get all the Portuguese Limited Editions in order to support you, knowing they are worth nothing compared to the English versions (which I've had the chance to get instead...). You can't imagine how regretful I am now. Amazon UK is now my only friend for anything related to PS.


Read More »