Colleen’s mom bought her a thoughtful and frugal gift: a Zumba game disc for her Xbox that came from Gamefly’s selection of used games. She never got to play it, though, because it arrived not working. That’s not a problem, though, because you can always send defective items back. Right?

My poor Mother bought me a used Zumba Fitness ‘game’ disc for my XBOX 360 Kinect from GameFly.com. She did so in order to maximize my gifts, as used games are less expensive. The game won’t even load – when you put it in the machine it’s stuck on the home screen and no matter what you try it won’t go further. I contacted them and said that the disc they sold my Mother was broken. They said that I could return it but would incur an 80% restocking fee. How can this company restock a BROKEN disc – that obviously means they plan to sell it to someone else and what company charges an 80% restocking fee? This can’t be legal. My poor parents have also tried calling them and they refuse to do anything about selling a broken disc to us.

I’ve reported them to the Better Business Bureau and am waiting to hear back from them. I feel like this company took total advantage of an elderly couple that was just trying to do something nice for their daughter.

It makes sense for a used game company to charge high restocking fees: after all, you could order a game, play it a fre times, and return it for a refund if you really wanted to. All of the documentation we could find says that Gamefly does even exchanges for defective games, though.

Interestingly, Gamefly did change their minds once the family filed a better Business Bureau complaint. Colleen updated us:

When I filed a claim against them with the Better Business Bureau they promptly refunded the full purchase and shipping amount and supplied a prepaid shipping label to send the game back to them probably so they can sell it to someone else and not refund their money.

GameFly is based in California; we don’t know where Colleen lives, but recommended that she contact the attorney general of the state where she or her parents live.

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