I didn't buy it from you but you should take it back anyway!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

No intro needed, here's the exchange (this occurred over the phone):

Me: Thank you for calling <games store>, how may I help you?

Sucky Dude: Yeah I've got a problem , I bought a used Xbox 360 from you guys and it damaged one of the games I bought at Walmart and now it won't play. It's got some kind of circular scratch on it.

Me: Well, 360 consoles have been known to do that to games. When did you buy the console?

SD: A few days ago.

Me: Well then you can either bring it back for exchange or a full refund, whichever you'd prefer.

SD: Well what about the game?

Me: Sir?

SD: The game is SCRATCHED. It won't play. Can you exchange that for me too?

Me: You said you bought it at Wal-Mart.

SD: Yeah, so?

Me: We can only do returns on products WE sell, for products Wal-Mart sells you'd have to return it to them.

SD: So you can't do anything about it then?

Me: Not the game, no. Just the console. You have to take the game back to Wal-mart.

SD: Fine. *click*

Part 2

Me: Thank you calling <games store>, how may I help you?

SD: Yeah I called a few minutes ago about that 360 that scratched up one of my discs.

Me: Yes I was the one you spoke to.

SD: Yeah well I called Wal-Mart and they tell me they can't do a return on this game for me since it's opened. So what can you do about it?

(sidenote: I believe Wal-Mart's no return policy on opened games only applies to refunds, not defective exchanges, but I may be wrong.)

Me: I can't do anything about it sir.

SD: But the system you sold me chewed up my game! What am I supposed to do now, getting the system replaced won't help me play my game.

Me: All I could do is have you trade the game in, but since it doesn't work you would only get $6 for it.

SD: $6? That's bullshit, I paid $30 for this game, you think I'm going to let you rip me off like that? Your system broke this game, I think you people owe me a new game.

Me: Sir you didn't BUY THE GAME HERE! If you had, we could help you out, but you bought it at Wal-mart. All we can do is a trade-in, beyond that you'd have to take it up with Wal-mart.

SD: Fine, I'll call Wal-Mart again, but you better have a manager around I can talk to if I have to call you people back again. I will not stand for this kind of treatment.

Thankfully he didn't call back but that's about 10 minutes of my life I wish I could have back.

[Keiara]

What a dick. What part of No did he not get?

We had something similar at my work. I work at a hardware store. Small local chain. Some guy bought something from Lowes and came into our store for a refund

Idiot: I bought this at Lowe's can I return it here?
Staff: No

[El Pollo Guerrera]

For a very short time I used to work for a Radio Shack (well, actually it was a hardware store that had picked up the Radio Shack 'franchise' after the local RS shut down... but still).

The town I live in is a few minutes from the BC/Alberta border, and there was a Radio Shack in Grande Prairie about 120 km away, about an hour and a half drive.

People in BC would go to Grande Prairie, buy something there, bring it to the DC RS and get a refund.

And make 7%, because on refunds we HAD to pay the Provincial Tax back.

(EDIT: There is no PST in Alberta... that's why business' in my town have a hard time...)

Now, apparently the Radio Shack corporation would reimburse the store... but it would take MONTHS to go through.

Eventually the owner got fed up and stopped taking returns. Pissed off a few people but he stood up to them.

Shame he closed a few years later.

[Snowbird]

Actually, and please don't hate me, I think I can see the customers side on this one. Basically, he bought a unit from the store that he didn't know would damage a game and the only way he could find that out was for it to happen, and that happened on his brand new game from another store.

The game isn't defective, the unit that was sold by the gaming store is, and the game was damaged by it. Wal-Mart won't take back a game that's damaged by a customer, and since it was the gaming unit that damaged it, one that he bought trusting it would work, he expects the gaming store to replace it. I might be wrong but I sort of think he's the one getting a raw deal.

As to returning items to the wrong store, bookstores get that a lot and worse, even from people that purchase from mail book clubs. To explain why it's so bad, those books aren't even close to the same quality as those sold in stores, and they don't even have bar codes. I can't count how many people I had pitching fits because I wouldn't take those.

[malmalthekiller]

Speaking as an employee of WM, and a return desk girl as it were:

we can only exchange opened games/dvd/cd's for the same exact game/dvd/cd if it defective. I'm sure if he brought it in and said it was scratched, a manager would allow the exchange.

No fuss, no muss.

What a douche.

[RayvenQ]

I bought a used Xbox 360 from you guys and it damaged one of the games I bought at Walmart and now it won't play. It's got some kind of circular scratch on it.

Yeah, that'd be because you moved the console while the game was still in and playing. Idiot

[Kagato]

Yeah, that'd be because you moved the console while the game was still in and playing. Idiot

Yeah, it's a known problem with the Xbox 360, if the machine is bumped/knocked while a disc is spinning, the disc will end up scratched/gouged (Microsloth got given a hell of a time over this since they KNEW about this problem when the machine first went retail)

Most people I know simply keep their xbox's horizontal to prevent the possibility of the system getting knocked over and thus their disc getting damaged (though that is not always foolproof...)

[wagegoth]

I would have told him to complain to Microsoft.

[elysia]

I can sort of see the customer's side on this one to, he kind of got screwed out of $30 or whatever it was. But I think I would have taken the first "no" for what it was and not asked again or been a dick about it. Besides, if $30 is really all that much to you, don't go buying Xbox 360s.

[NightWatch]

The disc scratching thing happened to my SO. He brought his rockband equipment to a party and this stupid kid kept getting really exuberant about his guitar playing and was jerking the controller all over the place. Everyone kept telling him to quit and he ended up jerking the console right off the counter. Busted the Xbox 360 and put a deep gouge in the SO's disc.

[karma_gypsy]

Some gaming stores can buff or resurface discs ... (I'm assuming CrazedClerk's store doesn't do that) ... and that can help make a scratched disc playable sometimes ...

[NightWatch]

Some gaming stores can buff or resurface discs ... (I'm assuming CrazedClerk's store doesn't do that) ... and that can help make a scratched disc playable sometimes ...

We thought of that.. Now we must overcome our extreme laziness and take it to the disc resurfacing people.

[Kagato]

The disc scratching thing happened to my SO. He brought his rockband equipment to a party and this stupid kid kept getting really exuberant about his guitar playing and was jerking the controller all over the place. Everyone kept telling him to quit and he ended up jerking the console right off the counter. Busted the Xbox 360 and put a deep gouge in the SO's disc.

>< If that had happened to me, I would be invoicing the kid (or the kids parents) for the cost of a new system + game considering he was apparently REPEATEDLY warned not to be so rough with the controller, and as a direct result of his actions damaged the console. But I digress. /derailtopic

[Seshat]

I concur: either the console shop or the manufacturer (probably the manufacturer) is responsible for the damage to the game, therefore one of those should be bearing the cost of the replacement.

The customer used the piece of equipment in the way it was intended to be used - how is it the customer's fault it damaged the game?

[Broomjockey]

(probably the manufacturer)

I'm fairly certain that if you contact Microsoft, they replace discs damaged in that fashion. Just takes a while is all.