EB refuses to return stolen games to victim

Recently, the EB Games store at the Gulfview Square Mall mistakenly purchased some stolen merchandise. The way it handled the situation has landed that store in the ABC Action News Hall of Shame.

EB Games still insists it will not refund Michelle’s money. If she wants her money back, the company said, she can go through the legal system and get restitution from the thief.

EB Games may be a billion-dollar company, but when you mistreat a loyal customer over $87, you end up in the Call for Action Hall of Shame.

Here’s a picture of the lovely gamer who’s stuff was jacked:

http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2004/01/040129hallofshame.shtml

Edit: Hmm, this is a month old, sorry if it’s already been posted.

Thats just stupid, I hope the State ( since EBbroke the law) and that lady sue them.

Well, I certainly won’t be conducting any business with EB games anymore…

I never liked the attitude/policies of the local EB and its workers anyway.

Well EB has a point. Why should they pay when someone else stole some games? They can give them the name of the thief, since they have to take records of who sold them the game in for such reasons.

Why should EB pay?

Oh, I dunno, maybe because THEY BROKE THE LAW.

Despite the basic unfairness of all this, there may be a bigger issue here. Under state law, all merchants who deal in secondhand goods are required to hold those goods for 15 calendar days before selling them. The law is designed specifically to prevent the sale of stolen goods, and prevent situations like this.

Neighbor Wayne Welsh said that’s exactly why the confessed burglar took the merchandise to EB Games.

“They don’t check and he knew they didn’t check and he knew that was a safe place to unload the goods,” Welsh continued.

See? There’s a state law in place that requires a “re-sell” waiting period to prevent this sort of thing from happening, a state law which EB games summarily broke.

Furthermore, the statments of the first thief demonstrate the effect of EB games’ disregard for the law (and the reason why such a law would be created in the first place): because they don’t check, because they’ll just turn right around and sell the goods, thieves know they can “dump” their stolen goods there and be clean away. Like the classic “chop shop” in auto-theft lore.

The point is EB games broke this law in order to make a little extra money. The point is they are thieves, too.

Man, i dont know how many games i’ve traded in with a huge “PROPERTY OF BLOCKBUSTER” sticker on them. The EB people are too stupid to notice.

LockeJV refuses to return stolent time to victim

I was going to say “It’s the thiefs fault, he should pay for it!”, but now that I’ve read the 'mandatory 15 day wait before selling stuff" part, giving the games back is the least that EB can do. And at least sell her a PS2 at half price.

At least the EB at my place isn’t completely stupid. At least theres one informed person there (at least thats my impression)

Kaiser beat me to it.

There are two crimes here, and two different criminals.
EBGames who sold the games before the fourteen days had passed, and the thief who stold the game in the first place. Don’t confuse the two.

Aren’t there laws against buying stolen merchandise in the first place?

That would be the 15-day waiting period before selling preowned material. If it’s discovered to be stolen, I guess it has to be returned or somesuch (not 100% familiar with that law). Kinda hard to check if it’s stolen off the bat.

Originally posted by Sinistral
Aren’t there laws against buying stolen merchandise in the first place?

Only if you realize it is stolen.

Well I admit that most EB employees are stupid. You should see who they hire. A lot of them, like my boss, follow the rules when it suits them. However as far as taking back the games with the Blockbuster sticker and such, that doesn’t really matter because the person more often than not bought the game and traded it in. EB is just trying to become MS with the game industry.