On Friday I bought a new game for my Xbox 360: Blazing Angels. It's a lousy WWII flying game (that could have been easily improved dramatically). I played it for an hour or two before I stumbled across a bug. I couldn't finish this mission because after sinking 2 of the 3 ships I was ordered to sink, the game threw me into a biplane that circled the city while my wingmen pleaded with me to save the fleet. There was nothing I could do. This stupid plane kept flying circles. I tried several times to finish the mission different ways, but always the same result. I jumped on the internet and found that many, many people had the same defect. This is not the kind of bug that happens from a scratch on the disk, it was a bad build that (apparently) got released in some quantity.

The next day, I took the game back to the game store and asked for a refund or a trade for a different game. The clerk smiled and explained that they could exchange it for another copy of the game, but not a refund or different game, it was against their policy. He said they could take it in as a trade in. For half of what I paid for it the day before. He said since the game had been opened, he had no options. He could only issue a refund for unopened games.

I finally said fine, and they reached up on the shelf and gave me a sealed copy of that stupid game. I went to check on my son who was trying to decide which Nintendo DS game he would get in the future. I then walked back up to the counter where the manager was smiling and whispering with the unhelpful clerk. I got their attention and showed them what was in my hands. "Hi, I have my receipt and an unopened game. I would like a refund." They stopped smiling. The manager tried to explain the policy again, but I cut him off. "Yeah, that's a good policy. However it no longer applies to me. I have my receipt and an unopened game. I would like a refund." He said that was unfair, because they had just handed me that unopened game.