What if you bought a refurbished gadget, only to be suspected of theft? And, then to add insult to injury were cleared but had the gadget replaced with a rival product?
That's what happened to a man in North Carolina, Dustin Waller, who bought a refurbished Playstation 3, which had been reported stolen, unbeknownst to him. The culprit is assumed to be the guy who sold the PS3 to the store where Waller got it, so when Waller signed on to the PS3, detectives tracked his IP address, came knocking, and hauled off the PS3.
When Waller was cleared, he went to get a refund, but was denied since it was against store policy. The store ended up replacing him with — get this — a Microsoft Xbox 360! I mean, when I buy a new console, I've put a lot of thought into the one I want. This would be like losing your iPhone and having it replaced with a BlackBerry, losing a MacBook Pro and getting a Sony Vaio. . . and so on, and so forth.
More interestingly, Waller thinks that the decision to give him back a 360 instead of a PS3 was made by the cops involved — so what do you think: were the cops geeks with a sense of humor, or just clueless about the differences between the consoles?
Figleaves
Giorgio Fedon
Temperley London
I didn't quite understand what the big deal was until you compaired it to loosing a macbook pro and getting it replaced with a sony valo. That's just...heart breaking. Poor guy. I think the cops replaced it with the xbox just to be funny.
1Well that sucks.
2I don't think the comparison is very good since the 360 is way better than the PS3 in terms of games and online activity. But it does suck because now he has to buy all his games again.
3It doesn't matter which is better, it's like having a cheeseburger taken away and replaced with a hotdog. I think it was just cluelessness. I had to teach my mother, over the course of .. my life, how to pronounce Nintendo, mainly that it starts with NIN, not IN. I think he should demand a replacement ps3, unless he's happy with the x360.
4I think the store needs to change their policy. It's their fault for buying a stolen console - and the guy is not responsible for being sold stolen merchandise from them. If I lived in that area, I would boycott that store.
5I think that is ridiculous. He should have been given a PS3.
6I completely agree with soapbox. I would be so disappointed if they replaced my iPhone with a (ugh) blackberry. I completely understand/feel for the guy.
7i don't understand how they can do that. you get what you bought not someone elses idea of a substitution. that sucks and i'd be up there every day until they gave me what i wanted. unless he's happy with his xbox 360.
8Oh my, that's so annoying!
9WHy couldn't the store just give him a new PS3? It doesn't make sense unless they were out of PS3s...
10"so what do you think: were the cops geeks with a sense of humor, or just clueless about the differences between the consoles?"
Either way the store should have given the man what he originally paid for, used or not. The man was an innocent customer. The store was at fault for accepting a stolen item. Therefore the customer should NOT suffer by having an item that he did not want. He should have been offered a refund or a PS3, no more questions asked to him. I think the police put the customer through enough.
And yes, there is a big difference in the game systems. Especially if the man had purchased PS3 games for his console. He surely can't play them on the Xbox 360.
11I wonder if the store even had another PS3 it sounds an awful lot like a pawn shop or another second hand store. Maybe they just didn't have another and they decided that he should at least get something relatively comparable (ie. a game system for a game system). In a lot of places if you buy stolen goods regardless, even if you don't know, you never get any kind of reimbursement or you end up waiting for months for a court decision on value and etc.
12WTF!?!?! PS3s cost more, plus Nyrina's comment about purchased game titles... I'd be fuming. Personally, I would have called Sony and reported the crappy store & their crappier policies, then call corporate HQ for the game store and be like, "If you don't set this straight, I'm going EVERYWHERE on the internet to blast your store, telling everybody that not only do you purchase stolen goods, but you also screw your customers over in the process."
Sigh. Why do people steal? I just don't get it. I bet they didn't even catch the thief.
This, kids, is why it's good to buy new electronics.
13I would refuse to leave the store until they brought me out my PS3. Bring on the lawsuit.
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