Day: March 8, 2006

Heidi and I went to Clancy’s Fish Pub in Fremantle for “trivia” last night.

The host was great. He was quite entertaining (although a little manic) and would lay into anyone who was taking the event a little too seriously (and irritating everyone else). The questions were well-balanced and everyone won something (we scored a pack of marshmellows and a dessert).

Heidi noted that the event was run by Fame Trivia, which is the same group that runs trivia nights at a bunch of places in Sydney. They train quiz masters and everything, so that defines a certain standard.

Conclusion: A good night out.

Over a week later and we’re still waiting on our air conditioner.

Thankfully it’s been fairly cool recently. Oh wait a minute, it hasn’t! In fact, it’s been stinking hot and today it’s humid as well (although admittedly not as hot).

Here’s a brief timeline of events that may make you reconsider buying large items from eBay:

• February 13: Win bid and inquire about shipping costs.
• February 20: Finally get shipping costs and pay immediately.
• March 8: Unit still hasn’t arrived. Last possible day given 10 day maximum (3-4 days expected) shipping.

We probably wouldn’t so be irate if there weren’t such big delays in communication; 7 days to get a shipping price!? Plus, our recent e-mails have gone unanswered. Who knows what is going on…

Although almost unheard of on eBay*, we’re definitely giving negative feedback.

* Seriously, I’ve seen people give neutral feedback with comments like “sent to wrong address 2 weeks late”.

After my last post on the Gameboy micro, some of you might be wondering why I avoid EB like the plague. Well, it’s due to a little something I like to call “The Zelda Collector’s Edition Scandal” (aka. “EB blantantly milks money from its customers”).

When Zelda: The Wind Waker first came out in Australia it was bundled with an exclusive bonus disc containing both Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and Zelda: Majora’s Mask and sold for $99.95 (RRP). On launch day at EB games across Australia, there were amazingly none in stock! However, there were plenty of “second hand” versions selling for $99.95 without the bonus disc, and the bonus disc was being sold for $49.95 “second hand”.

All this on launch day! Did they seriously expect us to believe that there were people who bought the game before the store opened and immediately returned it at the less-than-25%-of-the-price that EB will give them just so that EB could sell the game for 150% of the RRP. Bastards! Absolute Bastards! I remember other people complaining about it at the time and a quick google reveals a couple more reports.

Do yourself a favour and buy online or from local franchises like Game Traders (they even get import games in!). If EB does have something at a good price, you can make use of the “lowest price guarantee” offered by many other stores (eg. Big-W, Target, Kmart).