CCL Messageboard

Want to hear a story about an idiot?

I just went to trade in a game at Best Buy. The girl at the customer service desk asked me if it was pre-owned. I said yeah, but I bought it new. She then tells me that it's not pre-owned then. I'm taken aback at that and I explain: "Yeah, I bought it new, and then I used it. Which now makes it pre-owned." She says, "No, that's new."

I asked her if there was a manager or something I could talk to, and she said she was the customer service manager at that time. So I just gave up frustrated and told her I'd come back tomorrow.

OMG, what a freaking moron.

Got similar stories of your own?

Ummm correct me if I am wrong but usually the trade in is a LOT more for a New item as opposed to a used (pre-owned). So why didnt you just agree it was new and get full value.

I'dve told her she needed to give me more $$$ for it then since it's "NEW"....

I don't think they're actually allowed to take brand-new games as trade-ins. I brought in a sealed game to GameStop once and they told me they couldn't accept. So I started opening it, and they said that wouldn't fly.

Sounds to me like she was asking if you had purchased it pre-owned.

Technically speaking, it wasn't pre-owned yet. If Best Buy would have accepted the trade and then put it up for sale, it would be pre-owned. Since nobody owned the game before you bought it, it wasn't pre-owned, therefore Best Buy wouldn't have been taking a pre-owned game in on a trade.

That's teh way I see it anyway. The Best Buy lady was right.

So then you two are telling that you really think they only accept games that were bought in pre-owned condition? Come on now.

I have to agree. She was asking if you'd purchased the game new, or if it was already a used game when you purchased it.

And most places won't buy or trade in an unopened game. There's too great a chance the game was stolen and being fenced. :)

No. I'm making no assertions as to what her reasons for asking the question were.

I'm telling you that you misunderstood her question and got into an argument with her about semantics. If you do go back tomorrow, you are going to get the same question. "I bought it new" would be a very clear way to answer the question to everyone's satisfaction.

Swift, that is exactly what he said. The girl is an idiot.

No, there was never any confusion as to whether it was an unopened or unused game or not. She was saying it didn't matter if it was used by me or not, that since I bought it new, it's still new regardless if I used it or not. There obviously wasn't a seal or shrink-wrap on it.

She was saying that for it to be pre-owned, I had to buy it pre-owned to begin with.

Exactly.

I don't understand the problem then. It's not pre-owned until you no longer own it.

If you had left it at "new" instead of diving into a semantics argument with a clerk, neither of you would have gotten confused or frustrated. I'm not saying your end results would have been different since I have no idea what trade-in policy at Best Buy is. Just saying your frustration was (at least somewhat) created by you.

Um, wow. You're for real.

No, that's not correct at all. It's only new if it's unopened and unused. As soon as you open it and use it, it's pre-owned. The same way a car is used as soon as you take it off the lot. There is absolutely no question about that. There is no way in hell the confusion was caused by me. By that logic, nothing could ever be pre-owned because it was originally bought new.

Might as well just sell all my games as new. I'll give the customers that explanation as to how it's not pre-owned because I still own it, and see if that flies with them.

I agree Doom. 100%. And on top of it you come here to vent and run into the same argument!

Let's run with this car analogy for a minute.

I drive my 2009 Maxima onto a lot. It's clearly not new. If I got to trade it in, at some point they'll ask, "Did you buy it new or used." I'd say new. I'm the only owner ever. When I take the new car I've purchased off the lot and it has 9 miles on it because it's fresh from the factory, it's my new car. It's never been pre-owned. I bought another new car.

Now, the video game...

You take your video game to Best Buy. It's clearly not new since it's been opened. You go to trade it in and the girl asked something akin to "Did you buy it new or used." You'd say "new." You were the only owner ever. When you take the new game you've purchased out of the store in the wrapper it's your new game. It's never been pre-owned. You bought another new game.

It's not until the dealership or Best Buy refurbs a car or game that it's now ready to be put up for sale as a pre-owned item. You were talking about a status in the future when she wanted to know about the item's history.

She asked "if it was pre-owned." It wasn't. You were the only owner. No one owned it pre-you.

Sorry, I have to agree with the store clerk. She said "pre-owned", not used. There's "owned" and "pre-owned". "Pre-owned" indicates it was previously owned by someone else before you.

You can call the Best Buy help desk, they'll probably tell you the same thing.

It's not the store clerk's fault, that's their policy.

Wow, you guys amaze me that you actually are on the store clerks side.

But wasnt it?

When you buy a car or a game from a store "THEY" own it and you technically become the second owner. If they dint own it you could simply walk out with out paying since it was unowned. Once you purchase a new product it is declared used, if opened or used in any manner that utilized it.

Now not sure I am siding with Doom since I wasnt present for the conversation and could have simply been 2 people misunderstanding what the other was saying.

But the game was pre-owned, it was previously owned by the person who sold it to BurningDoom.

I can't believe you people are actually debating this. This is a very simple matter.

This isn't a matter of semantics like Swift is trying to conscrew this into. They don't sell "New, "Pre-Owned", and "Used" games. They only have 2 categories: "New" (in the shrink-wrap and unopened), and "Pre-Owned" (already used).

Obviously the game wasn't new. It was opened, it was used.

I have been gaming for a very long time. Longer than a lot of other gamers have even been alive. Never EVER have I once been to a store that did trade-ins and was told I had to be the 2nd or 3rd owner in order to trade it in (until now that is). That's ludicrous. You don't have to know Best Buy's policies to know that she was being an idiot about it.

People are debating it because words have meanings. And pre-owned and used in this context are not interchangeable. Regardless of how much you want them to be.