Sean bought an Xbox 360 at Best Buy, took it home and it did what Xbox 360s tend to do, never mind that it was a redesigned Xbox 360 S model. He took the insta-broken console back to the store, which was sold out of the 360s. An employee called a nearby Best Buy that had plenty of 360s in stock, but that location refused his exchange because it was saving consoles for a sales event.

He writes:

I went to the store to personally appeal the quite frankly ridiculous notion that I can’t exchange my 360 S lemon because they want to hold the inventory for an upcoming advertised event—corporate told all Best Buys: these are not for sale until the “event” goes live. I spoke harshly with the manager on duty at the store, pleading that my 360 S is broken, I want an exchange, and that he is denying me my exchange because the 360 S is running in a Fourth of July ad (two days away) and corporate told them to keep that inventory intact.

He said yes, and that is precisely why he’s not honoring my exchange. For nearly 20-minutes, I dished out every argument I could muster, but it didn’t change anything. His ultimatum? You can be the first one in line on Sunday morning, when the ad runs; you can do your exchange then. Wow, and he was actually smiling like “he got me.”

Needless to say, I went home furious—broken 360 in hand.

Infuriated, Sean complained to Best Buy’s customer service and eventually got another store to purchase a console for him at the warehouse and use that for the exchange. An employee told him to keep it quiet because what he was doing was against protocol.

Sean didn’t listen.

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