Chris says he sent his broken PS3 to Sony, which sent it back sans the upgraded hard drive he’d installed, claiming Chris had sent the console to them that way. He fought the callous treatment and received a consolation prize: A game the CSR semi-suggested he could sell to help pay for a replacement drive.

He writes:

Two days later I receive a phone call from one of their Senior Customer Care Representatives. He reiterated what had already been said about the service center denying ever receiving a drive. I explained to him that it was definitely in the package and that I had already been told the notes regarding my service request were “confusing” by another CSR. He admitted they were confusing and said he would go back and listen to the recording of the original call to find out if he needs to retrain the CSR.

However, he would not offer a replacement hard drive or a partial refund to purchase another drive. After pressing the matter with him for about 15 minutes over the phone, he agreed to send me a first party title of my choosing which I was “free to do what I wanted with.” He was basically saying, sell the game, buy a hard drive.

I agreed to this, seeing that it was the only resolution in sight. I now have a copy of Modnation Racers in the mail heading my way (I owned every single one of their other games..)

I thank everyone for their comments and urges to go through with the EECB. I was nearly ready to simply drop the case and suck up the $40-50 loss of a drive. Instead, I invest another 45 minutes into it and received a resolution.

Chris might be able to liquidate the game to come close to paying for a new hard drive, but that won’t make up for all his lost data.

His experience serves as a reminder that it’s risky to return a hard drive — especially without backing up your data — or anything else along with your broken console and expect to get it back. This isn’t to say Chris messed up. He was hesitant to send his hard drive in the first place, but a CSR said he needed to do so.

Previously: My Repaired PS3 Came Back Without A Hard Drive

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