Tonight I went to Bestbuy to cancel a TV stand that I had ordered to be delivered to the store, I Just got tired of waiting and really did not like the stand all that much. Heather and I decided to shop around and see if we can find something better.
Anyway this little excursion lead me to have a bit of confrontation with another customer who was trying to return an opened copy of Bioshock for the PC. Pretty much everyone knows that you cannot return open software for any reason you can only exchange it for the same software. This prevents people from guying games taking them home making a copy of it and returning it. While still giving the person the ability to the return a game if for some reason the CD / DVD is defective, this has been standard policy for what 15 years?
Anyway this guy would have nothing of it; he got extremely verbally abusive with the cleric, a little 18 year girl who just did not know what to say. He was using well it is not posted that you cannot return software as an excuse, while it is clearly posted in several spots in the store and also the back of the receipt.
Anyway I finally felt sorry for the girl and turned and called the guy an idiot and told him that no store will take back open software. Well he turned on me and started to tell his story to me and how it is not right etc. He claimed he bought the game for his 10 year old son for Christmas and it would not run on his computer. At which point I pointed out that the game is meant for adults and is not suitable for a 10 year old and that they put system requirements on all PC game boxes for a reason.
He then claimed that he computer meet all the specs on the bottom of his box and that he had called Microsoft and he says they told him that they told him to return the game for a refund. I told him there was no way that Microsoft would tell him to do that, since you cannot not return opened software in Canada or the United States. He seemed to cool down after I told him this, I basically caught him in a lie so I asked him about his computer, what where the specs. His response “I don’t know what it is, I bought it two years ago from Futureshop.” So I asked him how did he check the systems requirements on the game if he does not even know what the specs of his computer are, he had no answer for that. I also pointed out that there was no way that game would run on his computer, which he already knew. He then started to spout off how it was stupid that his game would not run on his computer…
Anyway the manager finally arrived and basically repeated that the game cannot be returned and the guy left. The manager and the clerk thanked me for stepping in.
People treating retail staff like crap really does annoy me, just because you are a customer does not give you a right to treat people like crap. I can be a little hard on retail staff, but I never get abusive or belligerent, which this guy clearly was. It was not the clerk’s fault that he did not read the bottom of the box and ensure his computer will run the game. System requirements are one of the reasons why consoles are so popular if it is an Xbox 360, or a Wii game it will run on your Xbox or Wii. You do not have to worry about your graphics card or the amount of memory in your computer. This is also why companies release demo’s of PC games…
{ 4 } Comments
While I agree with your position that no one, sales clerks included, deserves to be treated like crap, I do disagree with the the position that it’s ok NOT to accept software for a return if it’s been opened.
I Think the position NOT to accept opened software/media is aimed to retain sales and nothing to do with copying etc. Personally, I think that if a company is going to invest millions of dollars to DRM protect their software/media, then there is no need to NOT accept software returns. In effect, I cannot copy software, or if I do, then it’s rendered useless because of the DRM technologies, so preventing me from returning it has nothing to do with piracy.
You might argue that DRM doesn’t work and therefore the return policy needs to be in place. Again, the consumer should not that price. If a company decides to place DRM or restrictive measures on their software/media, then that should automatically forgo any rights to prevent people from returning it.
Again, companies don’t want software/media returned, because they know what we all know; there is a very small percentage of useful software/games. How many times have you bought a game, brought it home, installed it, only realize that the gameplay sucked. Too bad, you can’t return it. If you bought a new TV and brought it home and decided the picture quality was bad, you could return it… again and again… until you found the right one. I have dumped hundreds of dollars on games from my kids that are utter crap.
I once tried to return a Gameboy cartridge to Walmart, and I got the story about how they can’t accept it because it’s opened media. A gameboy cartridge is arguably a piece of hardware containing a computer chip on the inside that contains software. So not accepting a Gameboy cartridge would be similar to not accepting my TV becuase it also contains software embedded on a chip. IN the end, the CSR did accept the game, probably because my 5 year old was there with me, with his puppy dog eyes welling up with tears
In short there is no reason not to accept DRM enabled software for returns.
Sean while I agree with your argument in principle, the fact is that games and other DRM products can not be returned. Every store the sells these product clearly have signs posted that games can not be returned etc if they are opened.
I recently purchased my fiancée Heather Dance Dance Revolution II for the Xbox 360 and I am not impressed with the game. The music in the game is really poor in my opinion; I actually do not know any of the songs. But I can not return it, although I wish I could.
Before I buy games I generally read a lot of reviews or download a demo or rent it. There is a lot of horrible games out there. There are also some that are good but extremely short, you could finish it in the any afternoon, I refuse to buy games this short. With Dance Dane Revolution II, I broke all of my rules and I am not happy with the game. Am I annoyed yes, am I going to go and yell at a sales clerk to try to return it no.
There is two reasons why you can not return games the first being that they can be easily pirated. Companies try to employ draconian steps to make it difficult for the average person to copy a game. Gone are the days when you just buy a CD write and make a copy of game, or copy the floppy. However, anyone can go to crack site and download a crack for game or install a mod chip into their console.
The other reason why you can not return games is that people buy a game finish and return it. Most games if you want to could be completed in a month or so tops, so buy game X and return it and get a full refund. This is a bigger issue now since all console games now save on logical storage. So if you have a longer game buy it from company X returns it before the return period and buy it from another store and finish. This would end the game industry, no one would buy games.
When I was in university I went to school with a guy who use to the local music store and buy twenty CD’s take them home and throw them in his CD writer or rip them to a hard drive. This was when CD writers where expensive so they where not all the common. He would then return the CD’s and get a full refund. Are you saying that this should be allowed? Clearly this is extreme case but I know this use to happen a lot and this is why you can not return digital media.
Yes the fact you can not return games, music movies etc stinks but there is reasons for it.
Thanks for posting!
I would just like to mention a recent experience I had this weekend with a purchase of Windows XP Pro which I was recomended by the sales agent at Best Buy. This ran me $299.99 plus tax. I was going to buy this to do a repair install on my Gateway since Gateway is kind enough to no longer supply you with a copy of Windows when you purchase your computer and I needed it immediately to get my computer up and running. Well, stupid me did not realize that I actually had Windows XP Media Center - because the sticker on the front of my computer just says Windows XP and apparently (according to Microsoft you cannot use XP Pro because Media Center is a higher level operating system). But I would like to note in defense of the first guy - I was also told by Microsoft to take this opened piece of software back to Bestbuy - I swear on this and I told the guy at Microsoft that there is no way they would allow this. He insisted they would. I of course called Bestbuy and sure enough - I am now stuck $299.99. I am going to sell it on ebay or something now to get some of my money back and Gateway will send me what I need for another $149.99 ! But microsoft with its foreign customer service and technicians apparently does not know that you cannot return opened software !!!
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