The Ballad of Microsoft and GameStop

By: Michael Carusi | July 15th, 2010

I never like to claim victim when I’ve had a bad day, so trust me when I say this is a real act of God occurence in terms of mistakes by video game companies.  The Microsoft rep I spoke to on the phone had never heard of anything like this.  So here it goes.

About two and a half weeks ago, my Xbox 360 got the red rings of death.  This was particularly frustrating, because I had been planning to trade in my Xbox 360 Pro (purchased in 2008) for the new 360 Slim.  As it turned out, pre-orders ran out extremely fast, so I wound up getting my 360 back as soon as my GameStop got a new shipment in.  It should be simple, right?

WRONG.

I bundled up my 360 Pro with far more care than I imagine a lot of people would be willing to do.  I put my two controllers, 20 gig HD, and all of the wires in the box with the console, and proudly put it on the GameStop desk.  Only to be rejected.

As it turns out, Microsoft evidently had taken the sticker off the new console when they repaired it.  The GameStop employee behind the counter claimed that their policy was to only accept repaired 360s if they had a sticker on the back indicating that it had been repaired; this had not come with mine.  The employees behind the counter were reasonably helpful, but adamant; I went home.

Moments later I called Microsoft, and their support rep was pretty nice.  Which didn’t quite excuse the fact that Microsoft’s repair center in Mesquite forgot to slap the repair sticker onto my 360.  The best they could do was offer to send me a proof of receipt within three business days.  Unfortunately, this trade-in deal goes until the 18th.

So I tried working with GameStop again.  I spoke to their manager, who talked in turn to his regional manager, and I was told – politely, in fairness – that GameStop’s policy is to only accept repaired 360s with the sticker, again.  So their proposal?  Ship my console back to Microsoft for another two weeks because of a mistake Microsoft made.

So that’s what happened.  I suppose I could still get $90 off the 360 Slim by trading in my accessories, but the thing is, I don’t want to.  GameStop has effectively penalized me for offering them an effectively new 360 and my business because they can’t bend their policy due to Microsoft making a mistake.  Suffice to say, I’ll be selling my Pro on eBay and purchasing a 360 Slim at the infinitely more reliable Best Buy.

I’m not begging for sympathy, although admittedly venting about this did help.  It just might help people to know that between GameStop and Microsoft, an absolute no-win situation like this that cheats a consumer who wants to spend his own money out of a deal, not to mention alienate him even further, especially in the case of GameStop.

I hope it was worth it, Microsoft and GameStop.