EB Games Australia & Microsoft Are Happy After All?

xbox360left.jpgYesterday we received a chat transcript that contained comments from a someone in “high position within the EB organisation”. According to the log, EB Games Australia had been left with millions of dollars worth of defective consoles.

The SMH managed to get in contact with Steve Wilson, chief executive for EB Games. According to Wilson, the rumour is nothing more than that – a rumour – a fact we did stress as a possibility in the original post.

Microsoft’s reluctance to comment on the issue did not help quell doubts, and continues to fuel my concerns that something is amiss. If there was no substance to the rumour, there’s no reason to be silent about it.

You’ll note that the SMH story has no comment from MS either.

I’d hate to think that such a situation existed between the two companies, so it’s good to hear that things aren’t as serious as we were led to believe. I’d still like Microsoft to clarify the matter, as the issue remains one-sided.

Oh – one final twist to the story comes from an email I received recently from a former EB Games employee. It’s readable in all its glory after the jump.

I previously worked for EB Games in various Brisbane stores for a period of 3 years. One thing that has always guaranteed returning customers was the 7 day returns policy. The problem with this was it wasn’t always strictly 7 days. Many times I returned items (including consoles) outside of the 7 day period. With consoles, they had a policy that if it became defective within the first 30 days they would accept a return and give the customer a replacement.

When Xbox consoles are returned, Microsoft requires an Return Authorisation (RA) number. However we never got these numbers, and just replaced consoles with new ones. The defective console would then be sent back to EB head office and presumably dealt with there.

I would not be surprised if EB has been accumulating defective Xbox 360’s and are trying to get an enormous refund. In my opinion, EB may only have themselves to blame.

Make of it what you will, folks


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


14 responses to “EB Games Australia & Microsoft Are Happy After All?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *