CeX

CeX Ltd
Type Private (Ltd)
Industry Retail
Founded Tottenham Court Road, London (1992)
Headquarters Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
Products Electronics, Music, Phones, and Games
Website http://uk.webuy.com/

CeX (the C correctly pronounced as an S) is a second hand goods chain based in the United Kingdom specialising in technology, computing and video games.

Contents

History

CeX was founded by Paul Farrington[1] and Robert Dudani in 1992 and the first CeX store opened on London's Tottenham Court Road in 1992. The company has around 101 stores,[2] In recent years the "CeX" name has moved away from "Computer Exchange" into an acronym for "Complete Entertainment eXchange", however company letterheads state "CeX LTD is trading as CeX Entertainment Exchange" - so the actual meaning of "CeX" is ambiguous.

All stores (excluding kiosks) deal in second hand games consoles and the games themselves, with some stores also offering a number of specialist services such as mobile phone unlocking and disk cleaning.

Store size varies from "Phone Kiosks" which deal primarily in mobile phone trade and have a correspondingly small footprint, to the larger stores, such as Southampton (currently the largest store) spanning several floors and Norwich.

CeX Trading

CeX is a privately owned company. In 2005 CeX began issuing licences for Franchising and as of 2011 is one of the preferred UK national Franchise licences available with more than half of the estate being Franchise stores operated under licence. As a second hand retailer CeX trades with customers offering either cash or a voucher for redemption in any CeX store. A voucher is typically of higher value of the cash trade. A customer will typically receive around 50% cash and 65% exchange of the retail value of the item. Some premium and new release items CeX will offer close or sometimes higher than the as new retail value of the product. CeX has featured in Channel 5's Gadget show and also independent Which magazine reports as one of the most competitive second hand retailers in the UK. CeX offer a full 12 month warranty subject to terms on all of the second hand products the company sells. In the event a customer changes their mind the item can also be refunded to voucher within 48 hours of purchase. Customers are able to trade remotely with CeX through use of the company's online operation webuy.com. Currently customers must register bank, credit card or Paypal details to purchase or trade online with CeX as vouchers are not redeemable online.

Customer Services And Online forum

As of August 2008, all CeX customer services were moved from a phone based system to a completely email-only service, using a secondary domain name of webuy.com.

The forum was moderated by both staff and third-party individuals, yet quite harsh criticism of CeX was tolerated and censored only when profanity or potentially libellous posts were made. The forum was not meant for Customer Service issues, but many posters worked for CeX and issues were sometimes resolved by posting about them. As of 26 August 2009, the forums have been closed, and the CeX community is now encouraged to use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter instead.[3]

CeXFest

Since 2007, the UK-based stores held a staff-only event named CeXFest. This is viewed as an opportunity for company employees to meet from all over the country, and imitates Glastonbury or Woodstock in form and function (accommodation is provided by tents, entertainment by live music).

References

  1. ^ [1] Paul Farrington company obituary
  2. ^ [2] CeX Franchise review
  3. ^ "CeX closes forums after 8 years". 26 August 2009

External links