Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello, this isn't anything major, just something that annoyed me today & I wanted to check to see if I was right to be annoyed :

I live in Chester. Yesterday, I went to Birkenhead to visit a friend. After we parted ways, I had a wander around the shops before getting my train home.
I went into GAME and saw a used copy of "Witcher 2 - Enhanced Edition" for Xbox 360 for a very reasonable £9.95.
I bought if for a mate I knew would want it.

Got back home, opened it up and noticed one of the game discs was missing.

Today, I took it back to my local Chester branch, explained the problem, & asked if they had another copy I could swap it for and, if not, I could swap it for another game of the same value (or get a refund if there was nothing else I fancied).

Was very surprised to be told "No, you'll need to take it back to the Birkenhead branch & sort it out with them as they probably have the missing disc".

My response was basically "Hang on ! This is GAME's mistake, why should I have to spend my time & money travelling back to Birkenhead ?"

"That's out policy" was the basic response.

"Eh ? Well, can you check with them to see if they have the missing disc and, if they do, get it sent here so I can collect it from you ?" I asked.

"No, you'll need to contact them".

I continued to kick up a fuss & the girl serving me eventually went to talk to the manager.
She came back & told me they had another copy in stock and "We'll swap it over this time but you should consider this a courtesy on our part - we don't have to do this".

"Excuse me if I'm not grateful" was my reply "but for a large chain-store like yourself, this policy sucks" (not my exact words but close enough...).

Anyway, I got my exchange in the end, but not for want of trying.
We then exchanged hugs & kisses and wished each other a wonderful day.

Ignoring the last part that didn't actually happen, surely they were in the wrong here ? Weren't they ?

Yes.

I knew it !!!!

Are Game stores individual franchises? If so then they would have a point, but if they aren't (and i'm pretty certain they aren't) then you were right.

Hugs and kisses.

T.

They didn't have to but it's a bit rubbish.

This used to happen quite often when I worked at Game but since it was mainly between the two shops in the centre, it didn't normally matter that people had to go back to the other shop.

You are right though, this was their cock up and they should have dealt with it.

Back in the days when I used to buy things from shops (how quaint), unless the box was sealed I would always check I had the relevant discs before leaving.

I'd normally check second-hand disks for obvious scratches, too.

I thought Game went bankrupt?

Administration does not mean bankrupt.

I would never think to check a disc I had just bought, especially considering how picky my local game store is about checking discs you want to trade in. I would have been really irritated by this as well and it's rubbish customer service.

I used to be picky about the quality of disks I took in but plenty of people I worked with weren't. They'd take anything... Most of our pre owned section looked like it had been in the road.

The man in the local Gamestation used to sort through the drawer to look for the best secondhand copy for me, then he'd run it through the whizzy machine to make it sparkly.

Yeah, this is bad, but not actually much of a surprise.

On the flip side, I recently accidentally traded in an empty Revengeance case (they didn't check for the disc!), and then sold the disc to a mate later.