Started off the morning waiting at Best Buy so I could buy a Wii. I got one, yay, that's where the greatness ends...

Later in the day I packaged up my PS2 Slim and Xbox360 Pro to go trade in at a local Gamestop towards a newer Halo360 or Elite.

One of the employees took my systems to the back room to verify that they worked and I decided to watch him verify. When I pushed opened my door to watch him he told I couldn't be back there. I explained that I wasn't "back there" but just watching him from the store floor. He got pissed said I wasn't allowed to see back there and got and literally slammed the door in my face. I tried not getting into a pissing match since I had my son with me so I waited at the counter for him to come back out.

About 10mins. later he comes back out and tells me that my 360 is defective because the disc tray doesn't open and that he can give me a trade-in as defective. I immediately told him that he was full of Blot and I wasn't trading anything in. I started packing up my gear and told him I wanted the store number and his District Managers name since he is supposedly was a Manager there and that I would be contacting Gamestops Corporate Customer Service.

He was giving the expected flak about how he's all mightier than thou because he works in the mall. I stuck to my guns telling him that he's full of it. I told point blank and loud (to make sure everyone in the store heard) my system worked 100% fine last night and today, that he was one took my system in the back, didn't want me to watch and that I thought he may have swapped it out for another system all because he didn't want me to watch him verify.

Then in a moment of almost desperation he grabbed my system and cables out of my luggage bag (because yes I did package them carefully) and told me that come with him to an electrical outlet on the wall. He plugged it in and immediately began pressing the eject button 10-15 times rappidly, you know what happened? It opened! But that wasn't even the best part! As soon as it powered on I got a red ring of death! I said WTF you bricked my system! He started stammering about how it didn't do that in the back and I told him it never did until he messed with it.

He tried changing his tone in telling me now the Microsoft will fix my system for free now that it has the red ring of death. I packed my stuff and left for home.

Got home and immediately looked up GS Customer Service and to my surprise they were open on a Sunday afternoon. I explained the whole story to the CS Rep and to my surprise the Rep was understanding my predicament and was trying to assure me that it will be taken care off. I also explained that when I got home I plugged the system in and that the disc drive opened 20 out 20 times. I proceeded to expain to the Rep that I wanted nothing to do with that store now and that I don't want trade-in credit because I now have nothing to trade-in, all I wanted was a 100% functioning system again, screw the Halo system!

The Rep was helpful and as I explained to him that if I sounded angry that it wasn't directed at him but at the situtation and that the more I thought about it the more pissed I was because I now have a $400 brick sitting in my house. He told me that I should be getting a call from the DM in 3-5 business days and he gave me the DM's phone number if I wanted to contact him sooner. I asked if I should call Microsoft in regards to the red ring and I was told I should wait until this gets resolved.

Vent over...Boy I can't wait till tomorrow.

If anyone wants to know I bought it last November.

Well the important thing is, you told us about it on the internet.

When you work in cust service you're pretty much trained to say that no matter what, hehehe.

Obviously, lotta stores make their extra bit shaving a nickel here and quarter there, usually at your expense. I'm actually somewhat surprised though. Most Best Buys around here have been pretty courteous and behave in a way suggesting that they place your opinion of their place first and foremost.

You probably shouldn't've poked the door open (here, the doors I've seen of theirs are generally not accessible unless you step back somewhere you aren't supposed to in the first place) and it probably provoked him into pulling that cheap stunt. On the other hand, they probably should've had a much more trustworthy policy that isn't susceptible to dishonesty and is openly visible. But still, these sorta incidents suck.

Should be interesting to see what this DM has to say. They're generally trained to deal with such dilemmas where it's the customer's word against a store's.

I'm sorry you had the drama, but this story really reinforces my decision to leave gaming behind.

I have no idea what a red ring of death is and am pretty sure my life is better for it.

and I feel so much better for it, at least a little on the inside.


The cs rep said something like that along those lines too.



can't think of anything to say.

...

This would never happen at a Wal-Mart.

My faithful workhorse Premium 360 'bricked' about four months ago - the first time I called customer services was just before the warranties got extended and the tone was "yeah, whatever" in a foreign accent - plus a demand for £86 to fix it at their leisure. Needless to say, I told them to f*** off.

I then found a newspaper article about Microsoft extending the warranties and called them again - they bent over backwards to fix it, even having it collected and delivered by UPS priority mail. They also said it would take three to four weeks when in fact it took three to four days; it also came back with a free month's gold Xbox live membership and may in fact be a new console in the old plastic case - plus, they now let you keep the hard drive, so no loss of game saves or music...

I'm still really glad I don't buy systems till they cost less than $200

By the time they get that low all the crap problems are over. red ring of death... the fact that thats even happening is ridiculous

I did so research lastnight on the RRD and while dreaded its actually informative. Each port tells of a different issue, just like some PC motherboards. Doesn't make me feel any better about it but at least it can be narrowed down.

I would be in jail for beating that guy unmercifully.

I'd be jailed for second degree.

Well I haven't said anything to that degree here for a reason, I'm waiting till this gets resolved.

Also, bear in mind this is a Microsquash X-Box 360 and we're dealing with Gamestop, the old Software Etc... the Radio Shack of the gaming world. Doesn't surprise me, and I wouldn't doubt that all you get from the CS number and the DM is pure lip service.