Gemini73 wrote:Jamo3103 wrote:I decided to give Game another chance a few weeks ago and had a fairly gooseberry fool experience, not really sure why I'm surprised.
I went in and they had both The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush Remastered on PS4, new at £15 each which seemed a pretty good price to me. When I got home I opened up Gravity Rush and noticed the case was damaged and the disc itself had a massive scratch across it. Went back to complain that they'd clearly given me a used copy instead of a new one, but no, they'd unsealed a brand new game, put the box on the shelf (presumably after kicking it around first) and put the disc in a CD wallet (scratching it in the process). Then the manager tried to quibble with me over the returns policy because I'd remove Game's own seal from the box
Got my money back in the end but what a ridiculously stupid idea.
The interesting thing about this tale is the manager quibbling over a return/refund. In today's market retailers simply cannot afford to refuse a replacement or refund in a reasonable time (even if said retailer is in the right) unless the circumstance absolutely calls for it. The majority of high street retailers have caught onto this, (Argos being a good example) but places like Game, who still seem to be under the delusion they're the only place to buy video games, have not and it's very damaging in how customers view them.
It's just another example of why Game, as a games retailer, are heading down the shitter
Yeah, compare it to Amazon who (from my experience) will do absolute anything to make it right for the customer and Games approach is just bizarre. The guy actually working on the till convinced his manager to accept it as he pointed out that I couldn't have seen the scratch until I opened the box, she just came out all guns blazing with "If you've broken the game seal we don't do returns". They seem to let policy overrule common sense, had a similar experience with a click and collect order where they refused to let me collect it because I wasn't my partner, despite having the order number, the payment card and us both having the same address.
Gemini73 wrote:Lagamorph wrote:Gutting brand new games like that is more or less standard practice at a lot of physical retailers that sell games.
Smyths Toys seems to be an exception, but GAME have done it for a long time and Grainger Games were the same.
By rights, any product that has had the seal broken and removed from the packaging is no longer new, or at the most considered a store "demo" and has to be treated accordingly: ie used. Video game retailers should have been pulled up on this years ago but instead it just became the accepted norm.
I generally refuse to buy a new physical game unless it's factory sealed and have done for donkeys years.
Completely agree on this, once the seal has been broken it isn't really new anymore. I'd have thought a dummy box on the shelf would have made more sense, with sealed copies of games kept in the back. It's certainly put me off buying new games from there anymore and I try to avoid pre-owned games from most games shops given the disgusting state they seem to be in half the time. I don't know what the hell the general public do with their games.