UPDATE: Now a star of HUKD’s BitterWallet blog – www.bitterwallet.com/selling-used-stock-as-new-is-it-really-fair-game/23867. Still pondering whether anyone at Game would actually give a damn if I emailed them. Meh, I have 80 items to list before the day is out, so…
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Ignore anything I said about forgiving GAME.

See image 1, shots taken from product pages linked to from my order. One single order, purchased together, two of each, all six of which arrived together this morning. Note the quite obvious “New” text. They’re still for sale as such if you wanna look. Also note Pre Owned games are listed seperately (with Yellowy Orange purchase links / text) so you don’t get them mixed up.

And image 2. What the wonderful team in Basingstoke actually send you, as they arrived other than the removal of a couple preowned stickers to open two cases. So that kinda gives away where this is going… To be fair, they’re not terrible condition, but far from what I’m sure most people would expect. And yes, that is a rubber band holding one disc inside a manual, for reasons I feel best remain unkown.

Reasons not to CC this to pr@game.co.uk, Peter Lewis, Lisa Morgan, whoever the hell’s in charge at Basingstoke and every consumer group going? Not many, right now… I think I’ll start with Alex. I’m sure he’s seen worse.

EDIT: Though I should add a few points as there’s already interest in this.

1. Previous to this, most “New” stock I’ve ever received from GAME online (aka GameStation / GamePlay) has been factory sealed in original plastic wrapping.

2. Although every game in this order was purchased at the same time, each was packed and shipped individually. Which means six seperate times at which someone decided the above was suitable to send out as “New” stock.

3. GAME’s definition of New may vary, with ex store display stock (stuff you would buy “New” instore) being an obvious inclusion. The above could all come under this, but could just as easily be returns, or pre-owned stock. Regardless, it’s not what they normally send when you purchase “New” (or never used to be anyway).

4. Some interesting tidbits from GAME’s T&Cs:

Under “Cancellations and Returns Policy”:
… you may only cancel your order if:
(i) in the case of new software the items are as new, in a saleable condition, unused, undamaged and still in the original sealed packaging;

So, erm, if it’s not OK for me to return them to you like this, why is it OK for you to send them to me as such?

And, just thought I’d bring this up again, under “Pre-owned Items”:

Most pre-owned software … is fully tested.

I will personally write a £250 cheque to the first GAME employee who can prove to me that even 10% of software (and I’m doubting any) is “Fully Tested”. By this I mean, all “software” – that is digital files on the media – is tested to be 100% readable. Preferably on destination hardware, though it’s not a requirement, TBH even I read-error test on a PC where I can. In my experience, they’d at best just examine scratches by eye, but possibly (at lease in store, and from my own experience purchasing used optical media) don’t even do this.

And before anyone bothers, no, booting default.xbe / a menu screen and one WAV file for loading music by putting a disc in to a console and turning it on does not constitute fully – “adverb 1 completely or entirely. 2 no less or fewer than: fully 65 per cent”. Go figure. OK, 65% of the game can be readable. I never made it to disc 3 of FFVII anyway. Well, not for 6 years at least.