Game - Won't swap fault game, purchased yesterday

its_okay

Yesterday my brother (who is 15) purchased a brand new copy of the Little Britian game for the Playstation 2.

He came home and put it in his playstation (which he has had since December 2005) and it would not load, he tried it a few more times but each time it would not load.

My Mum decided to ring the branch of Game that the game was purchased from, and they tried to blame it on the age of the Playstation 2, they then tried to blame it on the colour of the disc (the back of the disc is purple, which are apparently more prone to not working on "older" machines). They then said, if we took the game back they would check it out and exchange it if it wasn't scratched.

So today my Mum took the game back with the recipt and explained the situation, the girl took a look at the disc and said she could not exchange it because it was scratched (1 very minor line, we had not noticed until she pointed it out) and they "wouldn't have sold a game in that condition", so my Mum reiterated what she had already said and told her, the game had been sealed up and put in the playstation but would not work.

The girl then became quite nasty with my Mum, so my Mum asked to speak to the Manager, and the girl replied that she was the manager. My Mum told them she was not happy with the way she had been treated and the girl told my Mum that if she did not leave the shop they would call the police to have her removed!

Obviously I am absolutely appauld by the way they treated my Mum, but I'm not sure what we can do now? I know they are always warry of refunding and exchanging games/dvds/cds etc, but all we wanted was to swap the game for the same title again!

Has anyone been in this situation before with Game? Does anyone have any advice what we can do?

Thanks for reading

RibenaBerry_2

Write to the head office. Tell the whole story (including the excuses that they tried to fob you off with) and demand an exchange.

Alternatively, go back into the shop and see if someone else is on the till. Explain that you want to speak to the manager. If it's the same girl, restate your argument. If she wants to call the police, fine, they won't be very impressed with her. Be polite but firm. On the other hand, there may be a different manager on shift and you might get a better result...

hollydays

Bad experience,but not unusual for Game to take this sort of stance.Facts are,if goods are (see Sale of Goods Act) Not fit for purpose, you are entitled to a refund at the very least,assuming you have your receipt or proof of purchase.
However,I know nothing about gaming so I will leave it to others to comment on their allegation the disc was scratched.

I dont know what the verbal exchange was between the two of them.I know if it was not threatening or aggressive the Police would take a very dim view of being called to throw you out,but it is private property and she should leave if requested to,if she had refused they could use force to eject her.Thats not really the job of the Police though,and appalling if the story is as it has been told.

I would suggest this young lady probably wasnt the Manager,but a stand in who had let the authority go to her head.You could find out by contacting head office and asking for the name of the Manager ie miss or Mr...However it also wouldnt particularly surprise me if she WAS the Manager,because of other stories about Games tricky and poor Customer Service.

woohoo_postingid

Also, please be aware that you have heard this 'second-hand' and were not there yourself.

I'm not saying that your mum was lying or anything like that but sometimes things do tend to get out of proportion when stories are re-told after an event

hollydays

woohoo_postingid wrote: »

Also, please be aware that you have heard this 'second-hand' and were not there yourself.

I'm not saying that your mum was lying or anything like that but sometimes things do tend to get out of proportion when stories are re-told after an event

Thats so true.

Idiophreak

I used to work in HMV and handled a lot of games returns in similar circumstances...some thoughts:#

1) are you sure it's only one small scratch? We used to get some come back in *bad* condition (imagine you span it around 100times on a bed of nails...), so we were generally quite leniant on this sort of thing.

2) Are you sure your mum made it clear that you only wanted to swap it for the same game? We'd treat this quite differently from how we'd treat someone asking for a refund.

3) Did your mum do anything to provoke the angry reaction from the girl? I had a lot of abusive, *chavtastic* people trying to palm all kinds of junk off on me and never lost my rag like that...If she really didn't do anything to provoke it, a complaint to HO is def in order.

It just seems a strange bunch of events to me - if someone brings back a game, bought yesterday, claiming it's faulty and they want to swap it for the same game...I don't see why that would be a problem - game themselves will return it as faulty anyway, so it's not like they're losing anything...I certainly wouldn't have thought it was worth the manager arguing about.

As to *why* anyone would want that game in the first place, I have no idea

hollydays

You forget HMV is reputable though,unlike some other companies (not naming names) ahem

Idiophreak

hollydays wrote: »

You forget HMV is reputable though,unlike some other companies (not naming names) ahem

yeah, good point, actually...

well, make that HMV *retail* is reputable...

MrsBartolozzi

I apologise as this turned into a bit of an essay....

Well, for what it's worth, I used to work in Game, before they got rid of the 10 day exchange policy etc, and certain managers were jobsworths even then. I still see old colleagues and they tell me that the area managers are very strict now because Game are losing money seeing as Gamestations are everywhere now and a direct rival.
I would definately at least give HO a phone, whenever a customer has been unhappy in the past (and often with no real reason eg the returns policy is clearly stated and they didn't read it) customer services are very nice and let them get a refund/exchange etc. I would certainly also report the member of staff, unless the rules have changed, a store manager has to be at least 25 years old so perhaps she was a deputy, and you could go in to speak with the store manager, who should, and usually will, hear your case and offer you an exchange. Failing that ask to phone customer services instore, on the store phone and almost as soon as you speak to CS they tell you to pass the phone to the manager and you will probably get results! ( many customers who were blatantly trying it on and "chavtastic" as Idiophreak nicely put it get instant results and even an apologetic letter this way!)
Oh and the big problem with PS2s and the failure to read the purple or blue discs is with the very old ones (from the first 2 or 3 waves of production)- yours is barely out of warranty (Dec 2005), and this fault is supposed to have been fixed.
If you can get the disc tested on a friend's ps2, or even instore (why you were not offered this I don't know), and it still does not work it is a faulty disc and armed this might help with the exchange.
I HTH,
MrsB

its_okay

Thanks for the advice everyone, we did try to ring their customer service number but we were on hold for 15 minutes and i got bored and hung up.

I know hearing the story from my Mum's point of view, but I know what she's like and I don't believe she would have been intimidating or threatening at all. She felt quite upset about the whole insident, and I think she does deserve and apology from what I've heard.

Either way I certainly won't be purchasing anything from them again, I just wish i'd have been there so I could have possibly handled the situation better.

hollydays

Your mum has a great son