Wal-Mart is beautifully retarded

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:17 am

So, I bought a PSP on launch day and it had dead pixels. I returned it to the Gamestop I bought it and exchanged it THREE times, each time getting dead pixels. Finally, they were fed up with me and told me that I'd have to take it up with Sony if I wanted another one. I did, and Sony said "tough shit, we don't consider that defective." Mind you, I'm paraphrasing.

So, this morning I finally snapped and was calling various stores to get trade-in prices and even tried selling my dead-pixel system here in the trade forum. That is until I remembered Wal-Mart.

Of course I have no receipt, but I figured it was worth a try. I get up to the counter and the woman actually has a little list of all the serial numbers for PSP's sold so far. She pulls my unit out of the box and starts going down the list checking to make sure it had been sold in that store. I figured I was done right there and I'd have to slink out the door in shame, but she says, "OH, there it is!" and puts a checkmark next to the number. I have no idea what happened there but now we're on to the exchange.

She tried to scan it into the computer to give me a return, but the computer knows better. It bleeps and says "Invalid Serial Number" up on the register screen. Again, I figure I'm done, but she calls for a supervisor. The super comes and without even looking at the transaction puts in her code and moves the return along. So, now they've done the return, but when they try to sell me the new unit the computer bleeps again and says again, "Invalid Serial Number... DO NOT SELL." It actually says on the screen in bold "DO NOT SELL."

"Does it know something we don't?" the woman says to her super. "Ah, just put it on a gift card. It does this all the time," says the super.

And so she does. They take the store credit from a unit they never sold, put it on a gift card and used that to trick the computer into selling me a new unit.

AND there are NO dead pixels on this one. Bless you corporate America for your fear of the consumer and your willingness to break all the rules to let some kid scam you.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:24 am

Well, you rip off Wal-Mart, that's where it counts.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:28 am

You were just REALLY lucky the employees didn't look closely. That's not stupidity, just carelessness.

the2bears · Post by **the2bears** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:07 am

I'm 100% your fan for ripping off Wal-Mart! Great story.

Bill

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:12 am

Wal-Mart does 1 out of every 10 retail transactions in the United States. Trust me, they don't give a shit about you, your psp or your scam. You are cattle.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:19 am

^ Moo!!

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:08 am

I'm happy for you, man. It isn't your fault that your PSP was malfunctioning, and you rightly have the right (whatever) to secure one in perfect working condition. Wal-Mart is more likely to exchange the system for a GOOD one than you do. Oh, and maybe the Gamespot didn't exchange for you anymore because they are tight on supplies. I went to one near my school today and they had 'bout nine (down from fifteen yesterday), all preorders. Moral of the story? Buy from the retailer that is most likely to have surplus systems.

And to add a little pizazz to this bored string of praises, I sacked that stupid Gamestop. I got RE3 (8.00), MGS (7.00), and Shinobi (12.00) all in very good condition. Definitely better and possibly cheaper than bidding on Evil bay.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:02 am

Most big retail stores are like this, for example I have returned a number of DVDs to Best Buy that I didn't buy there and they never care about it. My parents got me the Pan&Scan version of Star Wars Trilogy for xmas instead of the Widescreen. Zap, one trip to Best Buy and the problem is solved. Another time some mailorder place sent me the canadian version of a movie (which meant it was in French). Took it to Best Buy, and the problem is solved.

It's really no more than our consumer right to be satisfied with what we buy, and nobody (not even Sony) is hurt by returning it to one store rather than another.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:39 am

Ganelon wrote:You were just REALLY lucky the employees didn't look closely. That's not stupidity, just carelessness.

That's true, but they really do seem trained to go out of their way to do what the customer wants. Which with a retailer like Wal-Mart only makes sense. Their system really should be pretty air-tight if you follow it to the tee. I mean, it's not like Gamestop goes so far as to create a daily list of serial numbers like that, and their computers are also much too out of date to remind an employee that a unit they're returning was, in fact, never sold in the first place.

I'm just glad to finally have a good screen and had to share my lucky tale.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:43 am

Why aren't dead pixels covered by the warranty? It's a manufacturing or material defect. Not your fault especially if it just came out of the box. **** you, Kutaragi.

shadowstar · Post by **shadowstar** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:58 am

Sheesh. Considering how many square inches of LCD panel Sony produces, you think they'd have it down by now.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:58 pm

I've similarly abused their return policy before, but never for hardware, just games. Back a couple years ago the wife pre-ordered Zelda:WW from Amazon, and it got slowed up in the mail somewhere so after about two weeks we called them up and threw a fit. Amazon credited the money back to our account, we went to Wal-Mart and bought Wind Waker, broke the seal, played it etc. The very next day, the copy from Amazon showed up, so we promptly took the sealed Amazon copy to Wal-Mart with the receipt for a full cash refund. So that's how we got Wind Waker for $0. Heck, that's only a few dollars more than what it's worth!

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:26 pm

shadowstar wrote:Sheesh. Considering how many square inches of LCD panel Sony produces, you think they'd have it down by now.

From what a friend told me, the US PSP uses LCD screens made by Samsung, which is worse quality than what the JP PSP uses (JP PSPs uses Sharp LCDs).

Zhon · Post by **Zhon** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:58 pm

SFKhoa wrote:
shadowstar wrote:Sheesh. Considering how many square inches of LCD panel Sony produces, you think they'd have it down by now. :roll:
From what a friend told me, the US PSP uses LCD screens made by Samsung, which is worse quality than what the JP PSP uses (JP PSPs uses Sharp LCDs).

Hmm, it's doubtful that they've clearly separated their LCD supplies - it's possible they're using more than one source (especially when Sony consumer electronics is also out of LCD's for HDTV's) but I doubt they'd separate the sources entirely to supply different regions, they'd probably just mix together.

And however much you rip-off Wal-Mart is just a tiny fraction of a percentage of what they earn - if you buy there even a few times a year, they've probably earned it back. Not to mention that they'll probably push the stuff back to the manufacturer, which won't dare to not take it back.

As for hating Wal-Mart - it may be a reaction to a large corporation, but whether or not you shop there, its existence means your dollars go a lot farther, because both its prices are lower, and its competitors' prices are too, to compete. If prices are lower by 10% - it effectively means you have about 10% more buying power with the exact same amount of income (well, 100/90 times as much, or about 11% more).

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:46 pm

Sony's too cheap to guarantee no dead pixels. AFAIK, the only company that does the guarantee on their LCD products is Samsung. At least it was just a PSP and not a 32" LCD TV or something with 1 dead pixel right in the center.

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:27 pm

Hey that's not a dead pixel...that's what is called a sleeping pixel.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:43 pm

"As for hating Wal-Mart - it may be a reaction to a large corporation, but whether or not you shop there, its existence means your dollars go a lot farther, because both its prices are lower, and its competitors' prices are too, to compete. If prices are lower by 10% - it effectively means you have about 10% more buying power with the exact same amount of income (well, 100/90 times as much, or about 11% more)."

Perhaps its a reaction to the fact that they do things like pay some of their employees such low wages that they have to go on food stamps. And if any dissatisfied employees dare to suggest that their Wal-Mart go union, then they're generally treated by the company like they're trying to set up a local Al-Qaeda cell. There's simply no excuse for treating employees that way, and that may be part of the reason why their prices are so cheap. I'd personally rather they take better care of their employees then give us all dirt cheap prices.

"At least it was just a PSP and not a 32" LCD TV or something with 1 dead pixel right in the center." Yeah, but we're still talking about a $250 product here. And even though I love my PSTwo, I would still NEVER buy the first Sony console release-they ALWAYS have defects. The PSTwo is the most durable model, but that's partly due to the fact that it's the last model of PS2 to be released.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 8:17 pm

You guys are forgetting that nothings gonna be perfect...but Sony sucks for not including dead pixels in the warranty.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:17 pm

I don't buy at Walmart anymore, unless it's absolutely necessary.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 1:21 am

That's very discerning that they don't consider a dead pixel defective. Maybe you should open it up, disconnect a wire or two, then trade it in, and give them the obligatory "Go fuck yourself" on the way out.

shadowstar · Post by **shadowstar** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:43 am

SFKhoa wrote:
shadowstar wrote:Sheesh. Considering how many square inches of LCD panel Sony produces, you think they'd have it down by now.
From what a friend told me, the US PSP uses LCD screens made by Samsung, which is worse quality than what the JP PSP uses (JP PSPs uses Sharp LCDs).

That's odd. I own 2 19" Samsung LCD's and purchased one for my dad too, and not a single dead pixel across all three of them.

the2bears · Post by **the2bears** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:21 am

Brian wrote:Wal-Mart does 1 out of every 10 retail transactions in the United States. Trust me, they don't give a shit about you, your psp or your scam. You are cattle.

If this is a rare event sure, but is it? Who knows? Wal-Mart is well-known for their poor labour practises. They've earned this through treating their staff like crap. Guess what, the staff don't care about Wal-Mart and probably allow tons of this kind of thing to go on, either through ignorance or on purpose. If it becomes common enough, say 1% of sales, you bet they'll start to care.

Bill

Bydo Dragon · Post by **Bydo Dragon** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:04 am

You've probably already seen it, but...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?d ... 3-30&res=l

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:14 am

Dead pixels on US PSP's is a very all too common problem. My guys locally to me have had up to 10 back at Best buy alone. EB customers are always out of luck since they have a preorder allocation, but I know of about 5 people there who want to exchange when stock becomes available.

And lets remember, these are the people that give a crap. There are probably another 100 people who just don't know any better so just accept it.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:26 am

neorichieb1971 wrote: And lets remember, these are the people that give a crap. There are probably another 100 people who just don't know any better so just accept it.

That's a really good point. I think it's fair to say that the average consumer might not recognize a dead pixel at all. The lady at Wal-Mart who did my return was marveling at the thing, telling me how she wanted to get one now that she'd seen, all the while rubbing the screen with her thumb. Oh the horror if they hadn't returned it for me and I would have to leave with that ruined system.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 1:56 am

My wife works at Wal-Mart in the photo lab (which deals with electronics sometimes) and she does returns like that for people all the time. (On purpose, of course). Also, i work at an EB and do the same thing. We really could give a fuck less about Wal-Mart and EB. We just want to make gamer's happy and get our paychecks. Yeah!

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:25 am

There was a reason I never congratulated a friend of mine on getting work at Wal-Mart...

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:12 pm

circuitface wrote:My wife works at Wal-Mart in the photo lab (which deals with electronics sometimes) and she does returns like that for people all the time. (On purpose, of course). Also, i work at an EB and do the same thing. We really could give a fuck less about Wal-Mart and EB. We just want to make gamer's happy and get our paychecks. Yeah!

Must be a nightmare working at EB games....I'm sure you put with all sorts of stupid people, moms with screaming kids (who buy lame crap like Spongbob Squarepants GBA games and makes you die a little inside), the asshole gamer who comes in almost everyday and thinks he could do a better job (like me), and Mr. I-don't-know-what-I-want-so-I'll-just-sit-here-looking-dumb-for-an-hour.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:02 pm

Must be a nightmare working at EB games....I'm sure you put with all sorts of stupid people, moms with screaming kids (who buy lame crap like Spongbob Squarepants GBA games and makes you die a little inside), the asshole gamer who comes in almost everyday and thinks he could do a better job (like me), and Mr. I-don't-know-what-I-want-so-I'll-just-sit-here-looking-dumb-for-an-hour.

Every damn day. The worst is the one million assholes who called up in the last two weeks, made me say that stupid ass long eb phone answering phrase, and then asked me if we - the smallest EB store in the state - had any PSPs.

... No (asshole). We don't have any PSPs (jerkface).

Then i would have to carefully explain it to them that we only got enough PSPs to fill our pre-orders and that we don't know when we'll be getting more because if i don't (know matter how nice i've been) i'm gonna get angrily interrogated by some jerk off who is willing to blow 350 dollars on some dinky handheld and useless crap like a gigantic steel carry case.

Listen, if you've got 350 dollars to blow on video games at any given moment then you need to start donating to small time developers so that we can get rid of this Halo crap and start selling real games again like back in the genesis days.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:25 pm

circuitface wrote: Listen, if you've got 350 dollars to blow on video games at any given moment then you need to start donating to small time developers so that we can get rid of this Halo crap and start selling real games again like back in the genesis days.

Agreed, Halo is the most overrated pile of crap game in the history of videogames. To me, the spirit of videogaming died when the PSX and N64 debuted.