This is insane. Gerry Harvey, he of the fire and brimstone statements against importing goods and services from overseas, has just announced a brand new online service that — get this — allows Australian gamers to import games from overseas at reduced prices, minus the GST.
The website is called Harvey Norman Direct Import — it’s already up and running. Gerry Harvey himself is about to be in on a conference call. We’ll update the story with his comments as we get them.
Dr What?
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:29 PMYou mean… That his problem all along was not the importing, but that people weren’t giving him their money!?
Blind Mown!
Mike
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:29 PMIs he the FIRST guy to do this?
Bob
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:30 PMUh, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this a good thing? He’s finally stopped bitching about cheap imports, and has decided to cash in on it instead.
Bob
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:31 PMUh, everything on the website is sold out?
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:32 PMIncluding Gerry Harvey himself by the looks of it.
Bob
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:33 PMHah! Snap! Good one :D
MigratoryToast
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:42 PMHaha! Awesome.
Connor M
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:46 PMBEST!
NegativeZero
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:31 PMDoes the Mark Serrels from the alternative universe this post comes from have a beard?
Vapor
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:31 PMMaybe I’m just blind, but it appears every single one of these games is sold out. =P
Walt
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:32 PMI’m guessing that’s because they have no stock. I’ll stick to rewarding OzGameShop with my business for importing.
Richard Smack Version 2
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:44 PMyou and me both :D. who wouldn’t when you can get 4 games for under $100 shipped on ps3. For christmas i got like:
Dead Space Game PS3 $24.99
Mortal Kombat Game PS3 $32.99
Enslaved Odyssey To The West Game PS3 $17.99
Tomb Raider HD Trilogy Game PS3 $19.99
Angered Catfish
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:31 PMIf you look at the site everything is sold out? But I guess they likely haven’t stocked up yet, well I hope so otherwise OzGameShop is in trouble
Trent Petronaitid
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:32 PMEverything is still over priced though.
Suq Madiq
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:56 PMYep, typical trinest, always complaining about prices, go back to playing another code on your ds.
sharmona
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:46 PMI have no idea what you just said.
brent3000
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:57 PMDepending what postage does the games are almost on par with Ebay etc (Battlefield 3 example is almost the same as Ebay)
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:33 PMWhat the hell? Way to go Harvey, can’t beat them, so you join them.
This is why I don’t shop at Hardly Normal, it’s run by hypocritical idiots.
Adam
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:25 PMI prefer this than if you can’t beat them, Sue them
Richard Smack Version 2
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:42 PMI don’t shop at harvey norman because they are expensive as fuck. Its funny how he claims online is killing them but NO its his prices thats killing him. Look at myer and JB they are in trouble as well and thats because they are expensive as well….. Time to wake up stores Australians aren’t going to take it no more…
Lanky Mikey
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:34 PMPrices look right but they are charging for P&H. Fair enough but if I can get free postage and acquire points through other sites like ozgameshop and game-lane then I cant see myself switching over to another provider.
Sorry Harv (in sultry Catwoman voice)
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:45 PMEven if they were offering points and free postage I wouldn’t change… *Catwoman voice* Too late Harv */catwoman voice*, I had no respect for you before, now you’re in the negative.
Braaains
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:34 PMI assume this is some kind of fake website he’s set up to make some political point about how he can’t compete with imports while still maintaining his luxurious lifestyle and wardrobe full of money hats.
That’s why everything’s out of stock – so he doesn’t actaully have to sell anything at those prices.
Joshy206
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMYeah, I haven’t seen this anywhere before and everything’s already out of stock? I get that it’s before Christmas, but I think it’s more than a little fishy.
Also, thank you for that creepy comment, Lanky. I can’t not see GH as Two-Face now.
Suq Madiq
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:58 PM“money hats” Ah I see he plays TF2 too.
Dmoli
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:35 PMLooks like PC games aren’t a product according to Harvey Norman.
Oh well, guess I won’t be using it for that then.
mr waffle
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:00 PM>2011
>buying physical copies of PC games
Dmoli
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:18 PMI don’t see your point.
Thom
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:40 PMOccasionally I’ll buy physical. The Witcher 2 was well worth the effort for example.
Erebus
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 5:06 PMI buy physical PC games. Its cheaper than the inflated geographical-Steam prices
Cakesmith
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:36 PMMore proof of the coming 2012 apocalypse?
TallBrad
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:44 PMAre you kidding me? This IS the apocalypse.
Blood Apathy
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:37 PMUnless their freight model is really competitive they will fail at this. 60 bucks for a game, plus freight. doesn’t this just bring it pretty much back to store price anyway?
Steve
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:43 PMIt’s $3.95 per game, regardless of how many you order…
Tom
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:01 PMActually no, it’s $3.95 per title. It was on the help page – I was going to go get the source link but looks like its been pulled.
Braaains
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:45 PMNot to Harvey Norman’s store price it doesn’t, that’s for damn sure.
metalisticpain
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:50 PM$120 for Call of Duty Moder Warfare anyone? :P
Scared
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMIf the prices are good (and going off what are there now) I will start ‘importing’ from Harvey Norman.
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:46 PMWhy though? Loyalty to Gerry? He declared his battle against online shopping and grey imports, now he’s caved and realised he can’t win.
Don’t give Gerry money, just buy from ozgameshop like the rest of us. Gerry won’t get it you any quicker.
Robbo
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 11:38 PMIf the prices after P & H are the same then I may consider importing through Harvey Norman as well. Better that my money goes back into the Australian economy than an international one.
Nate
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMGerry Harvey can suck my balls, when Harvey Norman stores sent all the family owned small businesses broke in regional Towns he couldn’t give a stuff, now he wants to do the same to the online stores, he won’t be getting a cent from me, ozgameshop ftw
Shane
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMIf you can’t beat em…
Logical next step for HN and retailers in general.
Shane
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:41 PMAll it proves is what we already knew: that Gerry Harvey wasn’t concerned about the local economy, he was just sore to be largely excluded from cashing in on the video game boom of recent years.
It’s a business-savvy move. At least he didn’t continue to flog the dead horse of GST on imports after the Productivity Commission confirmed it was an impractical solution.
That said, I have boycotted Harvey Norman for other reasons, so won’t be shopping here anyway :)
Daniel
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMNot that I’m planning on using the site but if the games are imported, wouldn’t they be region locked? (apart from ps3 games)
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:48 PMOnly if the publisher has put specific region locking in place. Surely Gerry is not stupid enough to import NTSC games in Australia, a PAL region. All UK imports work fine. If they don’t, you know what… Demand a god damn refund, you’re entitled to it.
TallBrad
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:58 PMThe Help section of the website lists in a couple of places that this is coming from the Republic of Ireland, which is PAL.
buckE182@gmail.com
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMApart from all the games being sold out, they are using UK/EU ratings in descriptions. BF3 on Xbox states “suitable for 16yrs and over”. I understand they are selling UK copies but you would think they would make a point to use our ratings system in descriptions.
Rize
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:40 PMBahahahaha!
This guy is a champion of stupidity!
mchaza
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:46 PMHarvey: Our sales are down, people aren’t shopping at our stores! How can I fix this?
Consumers: how about improving customer service?
Harvey: customer…what now???
Consumers: okay? what about lowing your prices?
Harvey: Are you crazy!!! we only mark up by 1000%, prices are fine!
Consumers: well we aren’t going to buy from you just because you say so.
Harvey: fine then, I will start my own online website, then they will buy from me!
Consumers: But aren’t australians bad for buying online and hurting the ecomony?
Harvey: they are bad because they weren’t giving me any money! my 7 figure annual income has to come from somewhere!.
Consumers: Well we still wont buy from you even with your online store!
McGarnical
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:48 PMLOL at “7 figure annual income”. Underestimation of the week.
Sterling
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:50 PMHe still doesn’t get it…………….. its not the GST that is pushing up the prices, its the greedy regional pricing that makes us buy overseas.
TallBrad
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:51 PMI just love the passive-aggressive tone of this rule off the HMI website:
4.13 The internet can be an unstable and sometimes insecure marketplace. At times the facility to place Orders may not be available, your Order might not be received, may be lost or misdirected, or your Order might be delayed. Except to the extent otherwise required by law (including, without limitation, the Australian Consumer Law), HNI will not be liable to you, or any other person, for any loss, damage, cost or expense suffered as a result of any of the above circumstances.
“The Internet can be an unstable and insecure marketplace…”
Jeez, Harv. Really? You can’t even give us a promise that you won’t lose our order? Or that you will refund us if you do?
Sorry, that crap may carry in a brick and mortar store where I can walk in and yell at your salespeople for being idiots. On the Internet, that’s just an easy out so you don’t have to put any major security/administrative/shipping backup procedures in place.
NotoriousR
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:51 PMPffft. Games still cost more than ozgameshop AND you still have to pay postage AND you still wait as long. See:
http://www.harveynormandirectimport.com/help
Screw that, ozgameshop can continue to take my money.
Glenn
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:52 PMI’ve also just realised, Gerry was the one pushing for GST on all online imports… So his decision on that has completely backflipped now? before he just took to the sidelines but if he’s opened this site that must mean he’s once again opposed to the idea… Unless he plans on being the first place to implement GST into the website so you don’t have to do it through Customs
Suq Madiq
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:59 PMNo, the government called his bluff and told the arrogant old coot that it would be too costly and provide no real benefit, so he has done the only thing he can do well besides complaining; join the online market rather late as always.
JJ
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 3:52 PMIf you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.