Beware of System Requirements – Holiday Video Game Shoppers –
Last weekend, I purchased a video game for my grandson at Best Buy. My experience in shopping there was less than pleasant, starting with difficulty in getting assistance, then buying a game that two days later I found out required hardware far exceeding my grandson’s computer, and ending with learning that Best Buy does not take returned games under any conditions.
Unfortunately, my grandson doesn’t have a very good grasp of what computer hardware specifications mean and I wasn’t attuned enough to check this out AND I was totally unaware of the fact that they had such a stringent no-returns policy.
Upon contacting the store to see if it was possible for them to make an exception, I was disappointed both with the store manager who was completely unsympathetic and with the corporate customer relations department who was slightly more so and tried to placate me by offering me a $25 gift certificate as a “way to meet you halfway.”
The reason why I’m writing about this in my blog is that I think this is something that you should be aware of as you are shopping this holiday season. Maybe I’m naive. We never have problems playing things on our office computers but I realize that kids often get the hand me downs and don’t have the capacity that up to date games do.
There – I’ve forewarned you. Pay attention Grandparents and Parents! Don’t buy a video game that requires a more powerful computer than what your kids or grandkids have!
Since this was written, I received a second response from customer service at Best Buy and an additional gift card, making our loss net zero. Even though we came out okay financially, this message is still relevant: be careful when selecting video games. 1) Don’t open the package before you re-read the system requirements and match them with your system, or your kids/grandkidss’ system. 2) Take your complaint, if you have one to the corporate office. Local managers have no control over corporate policies. If you ask them to deviate, they will not usually be able to do so.
Beware and happy holiday shopping.
