Gamestop and refunds.

Zephyrius

My brother bought a new copy of The Gunstringer from our local Gamestop (which despite all the horror stories, is staffed by a pretty decent bunch) out of the money he got for his 12th birthday last week. He got home and took out the disc only to find that it had a laser burn on it. It wasn't a full circle like you would get if you moved the xbox while the game was inside it and running, it was in an arc and it was about a quarter of the disc's circumference in length. He put it into the xbox to see would it work and in spite of the game loading after roughly 30-60 seconds a message would come up about it being unreadable.

Naturally this wasn't his fault so I went into Gamestop with the game and the receipt to get it sorted out. He wanted me to get a refund so he could buy something else with the money instead but the staff insisted that they could only give me an exchange, store credit or leave me trade it in at horrible value. I insisted that I wanted a refund and they said that they had no proof that the game was damaged before we opened it. It had been sealed in plastic wrap so there was no way of knowing before it was opened. For all they knew we could have done it ourselves by accident. I argued that I had arrived 30 minutes after the original sale was made, in that time my brother had gotten home, seen the damaged disc, tested it to no avail and I had made my way in. It was extremely unlikely that a game would have been damaged in that way within 10-15 minutes of purchase. I also pointed out that with any laser burned discs that I have seen, the damage is always perfectly circular and the circle is always full with not even the slightest gap. My xbox is also on a stand under my television, there is simply no way it could have been moved.

After another 30 minutes of fruitless arguing and requests to speak to the manager (which were constantly refused, no reasons given, this member of staff simply said "No") I left. After doing some research online I have come across many posts where people have said that Gamestop have a policy against returning new games once they have been opened, regardless of damage. These posts were all based in the US though, surely trying that is against the law here?

Can anyone steer me in the right direction or give me some advice about what I can/should do? The sooner I can get this sorted the better.

Cheers lads/ladies, thanks in advance for any help given.

Del2005

Your entitled to the 3 Rs and the shop gets to choose not you. They are Repair, refund, replace.

You'll need to go back to the shop and ask for a replacement or refund. Not sure how you can proof that the damage was done pre purchase though. You may need to write a letter to them to get them to take the game for inspection, to see how it was damaged.

If you still get no luck then you'll need to go to the Small Claims Court

Zephyrius

I had a feeling that it was a violation of my rights but I wasn't sure how to get around them. That member of staff was pretty adamant about it but I will go in again tomorrow to see if I can get a different person to try and help me out but I expect it to be a lot harder due to the amount of time that has passed (it was bought on Friday). I already have sent an email to them explaining the situation and hopefully I will get a pleasant surprise with their reply though it isn't likely. I got in contact with a friend of mine who was the Assistant Manager in a Gamestop in another part of the county and according to him due to it being "policy" they don't have much choice in the matter. Most of time if a disc was damaged they would just exchange it and send the damaged copy off or give them store credit.

The issue is the child wants a refund so he can choose something else. It's getting bad when you can't return a damaged product. I don't know how they could inspect it to see when the damage was done. It isn't scratched, it honestly looks like a laser burn but it doesn't look like any laser burn I have ever seen and I have seen a few in my Uncle's house from when his son was a toddler, he often bumped into the xbox when it was in a vertical position which is why mine is horizontal.

It seems so petty to go to the Small Claims Court over €50 but this kind of crap can't be tolerated. I hope it doesn't go that far. Guess I'll have to try to divine a way to prove that the damage was there before I purchased it.

Thanks for the advice bud!

JimsAlterEgo

he is not entitled to a refund, they are perfectly within their rights to insist on an exchange.

TheInquisitor

Thats correct he is entitled to a repair then replacement then refund . In that order. You are not entitled to a refund unless the other avenues have been exhausted. Im afraid you will have to have the replacement

jor el

TheInquisitor wrote: »

Thats correct he is entitled to a repair then replacement then refund . In that order. You are not entitled to a refund unless the other avenues have been exhausted. Im afraid you will have to have the replacement

There is no order of entitlements, and a refund is not subject to first getting a replacement or repair. The retailer simply has to offer one of replacement, repair or refund. In this case, they have offered a replacement, which is as much as the law requires them to do. There is no requirement for them to offer anything more, nor to comply with the request for a refund.

The consumer doesn't have to accept what is offered, but in all cases the offer must be reasonable, and the consumers rejection of any offer must also be reasonable. In this case, a small claims court case would be very foolish. A replacement is a reasonable offer, but rejecting it is not.

Zephyrius

I really had hoped that this wasn't the case. I suppose I'll have to tell him that he can only exchange it or get credit. Thanks for the help lads/ladies.

DublinRescuer

The guys are right... they have to either exchange it or give refund... They sold a faulty product.. its illegal not to give one.. Small claims court will sort it but keep your proof of purchase

Thoie

Out of curiousity, why would the little brother not accept an exchange if he'd only picked that game out 30 minutes earlier?

Zephyrius

He had played the demo and liked it but when the game turned out to be broken I think he was just put off it and wanted to get something else instead. Children's moods can be mercurial as I'm sure most of you know. Had it worked he would have loved it but as I mentioned, he was put off by it not working and decided that he wanted to put the money towards something else. I honestly didn't think that they would refuse a refund on a faulty product. I actually didn't think it was legal to refuse a refund when there was a legitimate reason. Mind you I've had nothing but good service from there for years so this is the first time that I or someone in my family have gotten a damaged product from there.

JimsAlterEgo

Zephyrius wrote: »

I really had hoped that this wasn't the case. I suppose I'll have to tell him that he can only exchange it or get credit. Thanks for the help lads/ladies.

they don't have to even give him credit