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  • Return Scammers

    OK, these guys come in the store and buy a couple games and a controller, along with warranties for the two games. No biggie so far. We show them the disks (they're in great shape), they agree to purchase them. Transaction goes through, they leave.

    Ten minutes later they show up wanting to return the games. We take a look at them and they're scratched all to hell. There's no way these are the same disks unless they took steel wool to them in that ten minutes. Then we see something that makes us certain they're different disks.

    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was recalled due to an ESRB rating change from M up to AO. (We don't carry AO games.) They re-released a new version of the game that was truly M rated under the Sony and Microsoft "Greatest Hits" and "Platinum Hits" labels. These labels have a red background on the PS2 logo and a platinum on the Xbox logo, so the disks are easy to tell apart.

    We gave him a Greatest Hits GTA on PS2. We don't carry anything else. The disk being returned was not printed under the Greatest Hits label. Hence, it was definitely a different disk. There was no way to prove the other disk was different, but it's easy to put two and two together. We refused the return, and they went and got the correct disks and returned those when they figured out their scam wouldn't work!

    The sad thing is that if they'd just gotten the warranties when they first got the games (and kept their receipt), we would've had no problem getting them new disks right off the bat. That's what the warranties are for! You get the warranty, you've got a year of protection. Anything goes wrong, even accidental damage, bring back the disk and the receipt, and you get a replacement game.

    And I'm definitely tired of seeing people abuse their games in general. I'm very picky about trade-ins and quick to charge a refurbishing fee. Take care of your stuff! (We wave the refurb fee if you got that warranty with the game for. After all, that's what they're there for. Get the warranty, no worries.) And I really can't understand why people just toss their cases for DVDs and games. CDs I can understand, CD jewel cases suck. But DVD cases are durable and compact, and protect much better than putting them in a giant binder or, even worse, on the floor. Then they complain when I charge the refurb fee. "I can't sell this game. It's not in usable condition. So I have to refurbish it, which costs money, money which I charge you so you'll take better care of your stuff. If you want to avoid the fees in the future, don't mistreat your stuff."

  • #2
    I feel for you. My brother, who's about as dense as a neutron star, has never quite understood the concept of "put things back where they belong." This applies to anything resembling a CD.

    And then he gets angry when his games break.
    Desk-On: Apply directly to the forehead.
    Desk-On: Apply directly to the forehead.
    Desk-On: Apply directly to the forehead.

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    • #3
      I lent my XBox to my mom's exchange student last year. Oh god, I was so pissed when I would come in and find every single game out of their cases and stacked everywhere. Little turd.
      He'd do the same thing with any movies that I'd lend to my mom and sister. I'm so glad he's gone.

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      • #4
        This customer I had tried to return a copy of GTA: SA about a month ago, no receipt. They said they "just bought it an hour ago". We check the system and sure enough, it was the pre-rerated one, which had a price of 1000.00 (the price is over-inflated when discontinued so no one tries to buy a copy that might have been missed). The last copy was sold about two weeks before the rerate, so we said "no can do, the last copy of that version we sold was almost a year ago, so we are not doing the return."
        I AM the evil bastard!
        A+ Certified IT Technician

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        • #5
          That's why my Dad and I never let my brother ever touch our cds. He has no idea how to take care of them. Always leaving them face down and stuff.

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          • #6
            I used to leave a game or two out of the case when I was younger, but my brother put an end to that (my head still hurts )
            KAHN: I thought being smart person in Texas set her apart.

            KAHN: If my girl doesn't wrestle, I'll show you who put the sue in Souphanousinphone!

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            • #7
              Quoth CanadaGirl View Post
              That's why my Dad and I never let my brother ever touch our cds. He has no idea how to take care of them. Always leaving them face down and stuff.
              actually face down is the right way to put a CD down on a surface if you have to do it.

              a scratch to the face can be filled, ground, or buffed out

              a scratch to the foil side is always destructive and permenant
              DILLIGAF

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              • #8
                The best way to place a CD is back in it's case. Putting it anywhere else is just asking for it.
                I've lost my mind ages ago. If you find it, please hide it.

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                • #9
                  Quoth Lehk View Post
                  a scratch to the face can be filled, ground, or buffed out

                  a scratch to the foil side is always destructive and permenant
                  Technically, there is no foil side to a CD. CDs are something like three layers...

                  Top of CD (picture, label, you know, stuff)
                  ___
                  Metal (where the info is stored)
                  ___
                  Plastic (clear so the laser can read through it, obviously)
                  ___

                  Scratches in the plastic can be buffed out, using a Disc Doctor or similar equipment, and the laser will be able to read the data again. Scratches don't entirely stop the laser when it's reading, it just throws off the angle of incidence of the light so it reads the wrong part of the data.
                  (Go Science! Never thought I'd use the term 'Angle of Incidence' again.)

                  However, sometimes scratches are irreparable (sp?) And Disc Doctor type devices do NOT work so well on old PlayStation games, as they tear away the black security layer on the underside, making the game even less playable. But, the newer generations of games are fairly safe, I've never tried to use a Disc Doctor on a Gamecube or Dreamcast game, however...
                  *shrugs*
                  "I call murder on that!"

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                  • #10
                    Well, back in the old days. (I worked with CD manufacturing to distribute software in the early 90's) There was a foil layer above the "data" layer because the "data" layer wasn't reflective. Not to mention writable CDs.

                    They used to be so sensitive, that just using sharpies to write on the top of the CD will "fade" through and ruin the CD.
                    I've lost my mind ages ago. If you find it, please hide it.

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                    • #11
                      I had a problem with something stuck to the top of a CD (It was food I think from eating while reinstalling). and I tried to scrape it off. It scraped off the picture, and you could see right thoguh the CD O.o

                      I also had a problem with what looks l,ike 'oil spots' on one CD... you know, concentric rings of rainbowish iridescence that shows on the plastic side. Not sure about those.

                      My stupid brother used to say you wipe toothpaste over the plastic side to fix scratches. It never worked and my CD is still not working.

                      What's the SAFEST way of cleaning say, water droplets or something off a CD?
                      Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Horsetuna View Post
                        I had a problem with something stuck to the top of a CD (It was food I think from eating while reinstalling). and I tried to scrape it off. It scraped off the picture, and you could see right thoguh the CD O.o

                        I also had a problem with what looks l,ike 'oil spots' on one CD... you know, concentric rings of rainbowish iridescence that shows on the plastic side. Not sure about those.

                        My stupid brother used to say you wipe toothpaste over the plastic side to fix scratches. It never worked and my CD is still not working.

                        What's the SAFEST way of cleaning say, water droplets or something off a CD?
                        I've always used a very soft cloth exactly the same as I use to clear my glasses.

                        I have CD's from the time when they first came out in the 80's and play perfectly fine. My kids on the other hand are sometimes lucky to get a weeks play out of one. When they whine about it I tell them they can spend their money to get another one because the one I bought for them wasn't respected enough to take of. If I can keep the same 10 CDs on a farm tractor for several years without damage I would think that just about anyone can care for one in an indoor environment using the supplied packageing.
                        Bow down before me for I am ROOT

                        Preserving precious bodily fluids sine 1952

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                        • #13
                          Quoth Juwl View Post
                          Technically, there is no foil side to a CD. CDs are something like three layers...

                          Top of CD (picture, label, you know, stuff)
                          ___
                          Metal (where the info is stored)
                          ___
                          Plastic (clear so the laser can read through it, obviously)
                          ___
                          the plastic above the foil is supposed to be thinner because the plastic on the bottom has to be a certain thickness to meet the CD specs, and the disc can't weigh more than a certain amount (this is why stick on printable labels are bad to use)

                          the DVD specs have improved on this by allowing enough material on the disc to protect both sides equally (and to allow dual sided discs)

                          the foil USUALLY is not bare but the plastic protecting it on a CD is thinner. some really crappy CD-R's did have the foil bare or close enough to bare that it would sometimes peel off if the disc got too hot
                          DILLIGAF

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Juwl View Post
                            Technically, there is no foil side to a CD. CDs are something like three layers...

                            Top of CD (picture, label, you know, stuff)
                            ___
                            Metal (where the info is stored)
                            ___
                            Plastic (clear so the laser can read through it, obviously)
                            ___

                            Scratches in the plastic can be buffed out, using a Disc Doctor or similar equipment, and the laser will be able to read the data again. Scratches don't entirely stop the laser when it's reading, it just throws off the angle of incidence of the light so it reads the wrong part of the data.
                            A scratch on the top/label side of the disc is almost always bad news. I was once tasked to recover as much as I could from a CD that had both data-side and label scratches. None of the scratches by themselves were particularly bad, but the data layer is much more vulnerable from the label surface of the disc. It took 2 weeks and some complicated Knoppix-fu to save it, and the only machine that would read the disc was a ten-year-old HP. Had the label side not been scratched, my machine would have gotten it no problem.
                            "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                            "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Horsetuna View Post
                              I had a problem with something stuck to the top of a CD (It was food I think from eating while reinstalling). and I tried to scrape it off. It scraped off the picture, and you could see right thoguh the CD O.o

                              I also had a problem with what looks l,ike 'oil spots' on one CD... you know, concentric rings of rainbowish iridescence that shows on the plastic side. Not sure about those.

                              My stupid brother used to say you wipe toothpaste over the plastic side to fix scratches. It never worked and my CD is still not working.

                              What's the SAFEST way of cleaning say, water droplets or something off a CD?
                              I've done pretty well with something in the Windex range (when plain warm water didn't do the trick), or even mild dish detergent.

                              DH recently tried the toothpaste thing on a DVD (I was freaking out about having to pay the library for it, since I didn't think they'd believe that I'd had it checked out for a month and only just gotten around to watching it), and it worked, greatly to our relief (I was ready to try the Disk Doctor, and DH was having heart failure about that idea).
                              "Crazy may always be open for business, but on the full moon, it has buy one get one free specials." - WishfulSpirit

                              "Sometimes customers remind me of zombies, but I'm pretty sure that zombies are smarter." - MelindaJoy77

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