Remember when store return policies were laxed?

[ddaniels]

Since I started this thread I'll add my trip down memory lane. It was around '84 or '85 a friend of mine had a C64 and his dad came up with the idea of going to Toys'R'Us and each of us purchasing as many games as we could. He gave us each something like $300 plus dollars to spend. The goal was to take them home, copy them and return them. Keep in mind this was at a time when Toys'R'Us had a return policy where you could actually open a game and return it for a full refund no questions asked. As dumb as this sounds we ended up returning all of the software to various Toys'R'Us stores throughout the Chicagoland area to make it look less suspicious rather than returning it all to one store. LOL. Try to buy a game today, open it, and return it even a few hours later and the best you will get is store credit. I swear we must have just squeezed in this trick before they wised up. For the record that was the only time we did that as it was a hassle. If I remember correctly one or two of the games wouldn't allow us to copy it due to better copy protection. I wish I could remember the program we had for copying games back then.

 

Do you guys remember when store return policies were laxed?

Edited March 19, 2010 by ddaniels

[ddaniels]

Just a thought on my above topic. In defense of Toys'R'Us I could see how their return policy with Commodore 64 software was laxed. Considering in the early 80's they sold cartridges for Atari, Coleco and Intv and wasn't until maybe '82 or '83 that they started to carry disk based games like Commodore 64. Toys'R'Us probably didn't have a huge flood of returns on the cartridges because back then who or how was anyone copying them. They probably didn't start to see the flood gates open on returns with games until the C64 became more available.

 

Just my thoughts. I wonder when they actually started to change their return policy on games? Anyone work for Toys'R'Us back in the early 80's?

[Ransom]

Yeah, I remember those days.

 

My parents bought me a ColecoVision, Expansion Module #1, and all the launch cartridges at Toys 'R' Us in 1982. A month later, we brought it all back, got the money back, and bought an Atari 5200 and the launch cartridges. A month or two later, returned it all, brought the money to Macy's and got an Atari 400, games, and some accessories.

 

Those were the days!

 

I remember buying my first NES game at Toys 'R' Us and they opened the box up and stamped "No Refunds" on the inside of the flap. I was shocked, and more than a little pissed that they were ruining the box (which even at that time I considered part of the game and something to keep). Not too long after, they started just printing it on the receipt IIRC.

[+jsmith73]

I wish I could remember the program we had for copying games back then.

 

 

I remember using a program called "Fast Hack'em" to copy C64 software... It was a competition in my neighborhood to see who could get the most pirated software.

 

Sound familiar?

[Emehr]

I remember buying a Sega Master System (with Hang-On/Astrowarrior) from Venture, playing it, then returning it because I was jealous of everyone else playing Super Mario Bros, Zelda, and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

[Pyromaniac605]

I hate store credit and the worst thing is if you buy a $100 game and try to return it even on the same day without a recipt you get like $5 store credit and thats just bull****.

 

-Darren-

[Curt Vendel]

Please - I remember a couple of friends from High School -- they bought disk drives at Toys R Us, took the mech's out of the plastics, put some black paper over the opening where the disk mech was and glued a bricked inside and returned it for a full refund --- talk about scam-o-rama... probably the reason why returns are so heavily scrutinized by all retailers these days.

 

 

 

Curt

[S1500]

I bought a game at Software Etc(used), and their "return for any reason" policy, after 20 years, was STILL in effect.

[Pyromaniac605]

I bought a game at Software Etc(used), and their "return for any reason" policy, after 20 years, was STILL in effect.

mybe i should see whoever owns the rights to the colecovision now and see if he will accept my warranty slips.

 

-Darren-

[DrLove0378]

Yes, I do remember that Toys R Us used to allow returns on opened video games. (After all, how would you have copied a cartridge back then?) We bought Bad Dudes for the NES, and found out it was f***ing HORRIBLE! So we returned it and bought P.O.W. instead. I found out later that it was based on an arcade game of the same name, and the original had simultaneous 2-player gameplay (unlike the NES) -- thereafter, I considered the NES version a bit of a disappointment. But it's at least playable, unlike *cough*Ikari Warriors II*cough*...

[Pyromaniac605]

*cough*Ikari Warriors II*cough*...

Oh no DrLove has a cold.

 

-Darren-

[thrax]

By the mid 80s most stores where i lived didn't allow returns on "software" type media. The few stores that did only allowed an exchange of the exact product in the case that your box had a defective disk.

[Herbarius]

Sorry to disturb you but shouldn't the thread title either read

"Remember when store policies were lax?"

or

"Remember when store policies were tightened?"

Edited March 28, 2010 by Herbarius

[+wood_jl]

A few years ago a guy from work (pretty much a moron) had a "Super Bowl Party" and "bought" a new bigscreen from Best Buy (Anchorage, AK store). Had everybody over for the drunken affair, then took the TV back a few days later. He bragged he never had to even come up with $1 because it was a credit card transaction. It had never occurred to me that anybody would be inclined to do such a thing; I just can't imagine such motivation....WHY?? Then I noticed (later) that electronics retailers (I think it included Best Buy but I don't remember exactly which ad now) had a different return policy, temporarily altered for around the time of the Super Bowl. One can only conclude the moron from work wasn't the only one doing this.

 

About the only time they relax the return policy is right after Christmas. I haven't tried to return anything under these circumstances in about 10 years. About that time, I did have a small portable Walmart television I bought for games, etc. I left it new in the box for months before trying it (fool) and it sucked; static displays like game backgrounds would cause the picture to turn dark for some reason. I tried to take it back but it had passed the return window. Fine. I repackaged it and waited until Dec. 26th and they took it back without a receipt, no questions asked. There was the longest return line you'd ever seen and they had tables set up with additional clerks to process all the returns.

 

(edit for typos; still learning)

Edited March 28, 2010 by wood_jl

[chuckwalla]

I'll never forget.

First off, one of the two C64's my Dad bought when I was in Jr. High blew a couple of chips because of that crappy power supply Commodore made and he did the old quick swap for a new one at Toys R' Us (after the second one blew I think he felt a little guilty and ended up buying another one without the 'return' ). He was really PO'ed at Commodore, wrote them a nasty letter, and then built a mega heavy-duty power supply that was probably worth more than the computer itself.

On the software front, I remember buying a couple of games for the C64 at Toys R' Us and tried to copy them (one I remember was Pinball Construction Set), but the software manufacturers had started to adopt copy protection and I was unsuccessful - but kept them anyway because they were decent games. I also remember a few kids in the neighborhood who brought over dozens of floppies that included hundreds of games and utility programs including a bunch of disk copy programs which generally did the job .

Yea, the retailers & manufacturers caught onto the 'defective swap' practice pretty fast, they must have really been caught off guard in the beginning. Can't blame Toys R' Us for manufacturers errors though.

Those times were awesome though, growing up during the beginning of consumer home electronics I used to admire people who were old enough to work and were able to buy every game, game system, computer, and electronic game and gadget that came out every year when I had to BEG my parents to buy me a single game for my birthday!

[Herbarius]

I'll never forget.

First off, one of the two C64's my Dad bought when I was in Jr. High blew a couple of chips because of that crappy power supply Commodore made and he did the old quick swap for a new one at Toys R' Us (after the second one blew I think he felt a little guilty and ended up buying another one without the 'return' ). He was really PO'ed at Commodore, wrote them a nasty letter, and then built a mega heavy-duty power supply that was probably worth more than the computer itself.

On the software front, I remember buying a couple of games for the C64 at Toys R' Us and tried to copy them (one I remember was Pinball Construction Set), but the software manufacturers had started to adopt copy protection and I was unsuccessful - but kept them anyway because they were decent games. I also remember a few kids in the neighborhood who brought over dozens of floppies that included hundreds of games and utility programs including a bunch of disk copy programs which generally did the job .

Yea, the retailers & manufacturers caught onto the 'defective swap' practice pretty fast, they must have really been caught off guard in the beginning. Can't blame Toys R' Us for manufacturers errors though.

Those times were awesome though, growing up during the beginning of consumer home electronics I used to admire people who were old enough to work and were able to buy every game, game system, computer, and electronic game and gadget that came out every year when I had to BEG my parents to buy me a single game for my birthday!

 

I don't get this story. Didn't they have warranty back then?

[doctor_x]

Please - I remember a couple of friends from High School -- they bought disk drives at Toys R Us, took the mech's out of the plastics, put some black paper over the opening where the disk mech was and glued a bricked inside and returned it for a full refund --- talk about scam-o-rama... probably the reason why returns are so heavily scrutinized by all retailers these days.

 

 

 

Curt

 

this was common with modems - especially the USR's as they all looked the same.. i remember people would buy a 288 and return a much older 9600 or 14400... ehh..

[Herbarius]

Please - I remember a couple of friends from High School -- they bought disk drives at Toys R Us, took the mech's out of the plastics, put some black paper over the opening where the disk mech was and glued a bricked inside and returned it for a full refund --- talk about scam-o-rama... probably the reason why returns are so heavily scrutinized by all retailers these days.

 

 

 

Curt

 

this was common with modems - especially the USR's as they all looked the same.. i remember people would buy a 288 and return a much older 9600 or 14400... ehh..

 

I wonder how much of these stories are actually true. I've heard rumours of similar things happening right here in my home-town about low-price computers which were sold by a discount chain (the first time they did that, since then it's a yearly event - well not the thing with the bricks, but the cheap PCs themselves )

Edited July 15, 2010 by Herbarius

[scotty]

Living in Cleveland, a friend and I went to Kings Island when the Nintendo 64 was a hot system. We got our hotel, and they wanted like $6 an hour to play the in-room system. We went to WalMart, got an N64 and a couple games, and took it back before we headed north.

 

Another deal I made out on.... Right at the beginning of the crash, there was a discount store going out of business. They were selling 2600 carts from $4.99 each. I bought quite a few, and took them back to the bigger department stores and got like 20-25 each for them. I would never do it today if I could, but as a 14 year old kid, I made some nice coin that summer.

[H.E.R.O.]

EB Games had a lax policy for the first few months I worked there (around 1999) on computer games only then they finally tightened up the reigns on that racket. Could you imagine if 2600 PacMan came out when stores had a "box opened even exchange" policy? There'd be riots, methinks.

[Mike 01Hawk]

Ah good times.

 

My story:

 

Now mind you this is early 90s before the time of instant YT Video Reviews and what not. So a lot of the games bought were shovelware crap. Anyway, I abused the crap out of this policy with PC software at places like Babbages, Walmart, and Best Buy. My excuse was always "I couldn't get the software to work on my PC".

 

The two games that come to mind are http://www.mobygames.com/game/labyrinth-of-time Thank GOD I was able to return that piece of crap. And the other was http://www.mobygames.com/game/critical-path which I actually beat in like 1 day, and then returned for a full refund.

 

I remembering being visibly PISSED when the mall store (I forget the name) started to crack down in the mid 90s. I tried to return Star Trek Interactive Technical Manual (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGpln8L9M4) after messing around with it for a couple days and getting shot down

[OldAtarian]

Living in Cleveland, a friend and I went to Kings Island when the Nintendo 64 was a hot system. We got our hotel, and they wanted like $6 an hour to play the in-room system. We went to WalMart, got an N64 and a couple games, and took it back before we headed north.

 

Another deal I made out on.... Right at the beginning of the crash, there was a discount store going out of business. They were selling 2600 carts from $4.99 each. I bought quite a few, and took them back to the bigger department stores and got like 20-25 each for them. I would never do it today if I could, but as a 14 year old kid, I made some nice coin that summer.

 

I have to call BS on this one. How can you buy something from one store, like KMart, and then return it to a completely different store, like Macy's, with no receipt from that store? Even if you bought it at one KMart and returned it to a different KMart they would still want to see your receipt and wouldn't refund you more than you actually paid. Another thing, department stores aren't pawn shops. They don't just buy things from people who come in off the street. Even if they did, why would they have bought the stuff from you at a markup? Wouldn't they have just sent one of their own people to buy out the store that was going under and cut you out completely?

Edited October 24, 2010 by OldAtarian

[jetset]

So...we're reminiscing the good old days of software piracy?

[Spoon]

EB Games had a lax policy for the first few months I worked there (around 1999) on computer games only then they finally tightened up the reigns on that racket.

 

I remember this, as well. They would take back any game for any reason whatsoever so long as you had a receipt, but it had to be within seven days of buying the game. So if you bought a game and didn't like it...money back. If you bought a game and beat it in a week...money back. If you bought a game and had your pet gorilla defecate on it...money back.

 

I bought a ton of games there because of this policy (at the time, both Software Etc. and Wal-Mart were bears to deal with), and the only one I ever ended up returning was a used copy of Suikodan since it would crash about ten hours into the story. But like any policy which gives people the benefit of the doubt, it got abused to no end and they eventually had to do away it.

[madmax2069]

Doesn't gamestop allow you to return a game as long as its within a certain period of time (i think its like 14 days) no matter if its opened or not ?