I bought a switch game from BigW. It came unsealed and the game cart is missing. The padded envelope does not look like it has been tampered with.
Will I get my money back if I return just the casing? It's hard to explain why the cart is missing.
I bought a switch game from BigW. It came unsealed and the game cart is missing. The padded envelope does not look like it has been tampered with.
Will I get my money back if I return just the casing? It's hard to explain why the cart is missing.
Nothing. No seal or whatsoever. This is annoying. In fact i bought two but in separate orders. One to keep one and one to play.
The second copy came shrink wrapped. I might open it just to be sure the game cart is in there.
What are your real options besides contacting BigW?
Making an OzBargain post and being told to contact BigW
OzB should develop a chatbot for these kind of post patterns.
Hoping to see anyone else has such experience and chances of getting it refund.
I could return by post and not face any front staff in store
Ic.
Honestly tho, you aren’t planning on telling BigW, that (random) people was able to refund to rationalise why they should refund to you?
Just tell them what happened, and what they can do about it and your options? You don’t appear to be a go “nuclear” tactic person if you are asking us here.
Otherwise a chargeback if all else fails?
What a nightmare !
Re the unsealed copy perhaps explain there is no blue and white sticker neither any evidence of sticky residue I’d imagine it would be an uphill battle perhaps even lodging a claim with fair trading after contacting BigW if you get no where, maybe find out the specific store it came from and request proof of stock of cases vs cartridges as they’ll have an extra cartridge in the drawer if they’re honest, either way use this “request” as proof with fair trading if need be.
With the sealed copy, shine a light through the bottom of the case and look for the black cartridge but also look for the rectangle divots where the gold contact strips are or film yourself opening the packaging.
To them it might seem sus to buy a game, claim the cart is missing and then want a “refund”… why don’t you ask/push them for a replacement?
Play the angle that you didn’t get the game and you want the game and if they hint that you kept the “missing game”, just tell them that you have no need to have 2 copies of the game if you were just sending back an empty case.
Ordering a game and sending back an empty case and asking for a “refund” might just appear to them as if you took the game and then saying you didn’t get it and want a refund to get a free game, because, let’s face it, Nintendo games are dear as poison.
It wouldn't be too unexpected if the Big W employee who was packing your order either put an empty display case by mistake in the envelope, or else stole the cart & sent you the empty case.
One would hope that Big W has proper systems in place (like security cameras) to check if this was what happened, but I don't have a lot of confidence in Aussie retailers.
As others have mentioned, instead of immediately demanding a refund, you should contact customer services first & tell them what happened. They would then do their own internal checks & (hopefully) send you a replacement.
I always make sure that the game is in the box when I'm just about to leave the store. So I can go back in case something is wrong.
I've had a similar experience when purchasing a Switch Game from Big W, except the case was missing the DLC Code.
I contacted Big W via their Facebook Messenger and they sorted everything out for me (asked for photos and had the store call me to confirm the information, etc).
Thank you
BigW are really annoying in that they unseal games and sell them as "new" (they're not..) but it's also a thing here where Switch games don't come sealed from factory too. They usually add a blue sticker on the side to close it once they put the contents back in. Did yours have this?
Either case, you'll have to give it a try by contacting them. If no joy, try another one till they do but it's understandable how this could be looked at from the other side too.