If you're a media hype sucker like me and you're going to go buy Halo 3, and if you're also a SHINY METAL TIN sucker like me (no apologies, metal tin casing is awesome), make sure to open up your copy of Halo 3 in the store, in front of the cashier.
I went to Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #1231 for the 12:00am release event tonight becauseI love the mixed smells of desperation & unwashed nerd they didn't require you to pre-order and I was bored. Fortunately, this particular Wal-Mart is so damn big that I had the game open before I got from the electronics department to the exit, so I saw that the disks were loose in the case, scratched, and rattling around before they could blame me for it. (Thanks to ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
5hmoo for the link.)
I took the package back to the cashier, who swapped it for a new copy. I opened this one in front of her, same deal. The disks were scratched and rattling around in the case. This made the cashier very upset. I opened a third one, with her bitching loudly about how I should just go home and try it, because she's got tons of scratched games and they work fine and I can just bring it back to any Wal-Mart and she wasn't going to open any more. This third one was damaged, too. She insisted that I keep it, no refunds, no more exchanges, and if it didn't work after I got it home and tried it, I could take it to the service desk at the front of the store. I told her that I believed the service desk would refuse to refund if I took scratched media home, because they would believe that I was the one who scratched it. She opened her mouth to reply to this, then closed it again.
Now, in this package only one of the DVDs is essential (the game disk). You can play the entire game just fine without the second DVD, which is just self-congratulatory making-of advertisements like you'd find on a 2-disk movie DVD. I didn't really care about it except on principle, I was buying the limited edition just because I like shiny metal cases. Since the point is to play the game, and in the end the bonus DVD and the metal box the special edition of the game comes in just aren't important, I was willing to just return the special edition and get the regular, slightly cheaper single-disk normal edition. At least this way I could make sure I got a game that would play without any problems.
At this point, I had a conversation with someone I believe was the manager of the department (he sadly was wearing a blue izod shirt with a red alligator, and had no name tag) that went something like this:
Me: "Look, just give me one with a good game disk. We can swap this for a regular edition, I don't even care that much about the extra stuff. The first one I opened was in better shape than this third copy."
Manager: "I can't refund you for open media, and I can't keep opening these up. I've only got 7 left."
Me: "It's not my fault they're defective in the shrink wrap."
Manager: "I understand that, but once these are open I can't sell them."
Me: "For $75, this had better be perfect, but it's not. The DVDs are scratched and I won't accept that."
Manager: "Once these have been opened, I can't sell them."
Me: "You shouldn't have sold these 3 copies anyway, they're all scratched and defective."
Manager: "I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "Wouldn't you rather know that they're defective before they go home with customers? Are you telling me you'd rather not know if you're selling a defective product? Every one of these we open that's scratched isn't in saleable condition anyway."
Cashier: "you don't know it's defective! You haven't plugged it into the player and tried it!"
Manager: "I can't sell these once they've been opened."
Me: "So you're telling me you'd be happier not knowing if these 3 open copies were scratched, and instead you'd rather they went home with customers who may or may not ever get around to returning them when they don't work?"
*Manager starts to nod, catches himself, stops.*
Manager: "I don't know what to tell you."
Before I could continue on our merry-go-round of circular argument, another customer came up and exchanged his copy, because it was also scratched. He left without opening his new copy, but his returned copy only had a scratched up extras disk. For those keeping count, that makes 4 open copies of the game, 3 of which are scratched on both disks, 1 of which is scratched only on the disk nobody cares about, so we had an out. Even so, I was persistent to the point that they opened up an XBox 360 there in the store, and we tested out the best-looking of the bonus disks from among the 4 copies. They acted the whole time like it was this HUGE ordeal I was putting them through for nothing. After establishing that it at least started up, they kicked me out.
I'm pretty pissed off. Wal-Mart Corporate's going to hear about this tomorrow, as will The Consumerist, for all the good it will do me to tell either of them. I mean, it was pretty cool of them to open a 360 so we could test out the disk before they kicked me out, but if the product is sold as new, I should get it in new condition.
I dunno, what do you think? Am I being unreasonable? I mean, we're talking about what's probably only a cosmetic flaw in a luxury good, and I'm trying to keep some perspective here. it also seems like they were willing to meet me halfway by testing out the disks and proving that they at least boot (although with optical media, that's really no guarantee of anything other than that the disk boots). But goddamnit, if you're acting like you're selling new, undamaged product, don't get upset at me when I point out that it is in fact damaged. I'm not the one who shipped you potentially defective product, and I got treated like dirt because I wouldn't just suck it up and go home.
I went to Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #1231 for the 12:00am release event tonight because
5hmoo for the link.)I took the package back to the cashier, who swapped it for a new copy. I opened this one in front of her, same deal. The disks were scratched and rattling around in the case. This made the cashier very upset. I opened a third one, with her bitching loudly about how I should just go home and try it, because she's got tons of scratched games and they work fine and I can just bring it back to any Wal-Mart and she wasn't going to open any more. This third one was damaged, too. She insisted that I keep it, no refunds, no more exchanges, and if it didn't work after I got it home and tried it, I could take it to the service desk at the front of the store. I told her that I believed the service desk would refuse to refund if I took scratched media home, because they would believe that I was the one who scratched it. She opened her mouth to reply to this, then closed it again.Now, in this package only one of the DVDs is essential (the game disk). You can play the entire game just fine without the second DVD, which is just self-congratulatory making-of advertisements like you'd find on a 2-disk movie DVD. I didn't really care about it except on principle, I was buying the limited edition just because I like shiny metal cases. Since the point is to play the game, and in the end the bonus DVD and the metal box the special edition of the game comes in just aren't important, I was willing to just return the special edition and get the regular, slightly cheaper single-disk normal edition. At least this way I could make sure I got a game that would play without any problems.
At this point, I had a conversation with someone I believe was the manager of the department (he sadly was wearing a blue izod shirt with a red alligator, and had no name tag) that went something like this:
Me: "Look, just give me one with a good game disk. We can swap this for a regular edition, I don't even care that much about the extra stuff. The first one I opened was in better shape than this third copy."
Manager: "I can't refund you for open media, and I can't keep opening these up. I've only got 7 left."
Me: "It's not my fault they're defective in the shrink wrap."
Manager: "I understand that, but once these are open I can't sell them."
Me: "For $75, this had better be perfect, but it's not. The DVDs are scratched and I won't accept that."
Manager: "Once these have been opened, I can't sell them."
Me: "You shouldn't have sold these 3 copies anyway, they're all scratched and defective."
Manager: "I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "Wouldn't you rather know that they're defective before they go home with customers? Are you telling me you'd rather not know if you're selling a defective product? Every one of these we open that's scratched isn't in saleable condition anyway."
Cashier: "you don't know it's defective! You haven't plugged it into the player and tried it!"
Manager: "I can't sell these once they've been opened."
Me: "So you're telling me you'd be happier not knowing if these 3 open copies were scratched, and instead you'd rather they went home with customers who may or may not ever get around to returning them when they don't work?"
*Manager starts to nod, catches himself, stops.*
Manager: "I don't know what to tell you."
Before I could continue on our merry-go-round of circular argument, another customer came up and exchanged his copy, because it was also scratched. He left without opening his new copy, but his returned copy only had a scratched up extras disk. For those keeping count, that makes 4 open copies of the game, 3 of which are scratched on both disks, 1 of which is scratched only on the disk nobody cares about, so we had an out. Even so, I was persistent to the point that they opened up an XBox 360 there in the store, and we tested out the best-looking of the bonus disks from among the 4 copies. They acted the whole time like it was this HUGE ordeal I was putting them through for nothing. After establishing that it at least started up, they kicked me out.I'm pretty pissed off. Wal-Mart Corporate's going to hear about this tomorrow, as will The Consumerist, for all the good it will do me to tell either of them. I mean, it was pretty cool of them to open a 360 so we could test out the disk before they kicked me out, but if the product is sold as new, I should get it in new condition.
I dunno, what do you think? Am I being unreasonable? I mean, we're talking about what's probably only a cosmetic flaw in a luxury good, and I'm trying to keep some perspective here. it also seems like they were willing to meet me halfway by testing out the disks and proving that they at least boot (although with optical media, that's really no guarantee of anything other than that the disk boots). But goddamnit, if you're acting like you're selling new, undamaged product, don't get upset at me when I point out that it is in fact damaged. I'm not the one who shipped you potentially defective product, and I got treated like dirt because I wouldn't just suck it up and go home.
