Fallout Fan Told To Destroy His Special Edition To Get Refund
Bethesda recently came out with the Fallout 3 soundtrack on 4-disc vinyl, and superfan Paul Watson was first in line to get one. However, when the records finally arrived, Paul opened the box to find one of them was missing from the package.
He called up the company to see if he could get a refund. “Sure,” they told him, “if you can provide photographic evidence.” He did, and he later checked his bank balance to see…..a refund of $25, or one-fourth of what he had paid for the whole set. They had only given him back the cash for the record they didn’t send him, and there was no way to buy them individually!
Paul wrote Bethesda’s customer support again to complain. The E-mail he got back said this:
“You only showed that one of the records was damaged so we refunded you for that damaged record. If the other records are similarly affected, please provide photos. However if they are not affected and you still would like a full refund for the product, please follow the instructions below for this limited edition item.
- Destroy the other records
- Provide photos of the damaged records
“Once I get those photos I will happily refund you for your order. Thank you and have a wonderful day!”
Yes, Paul had to literally break his new records in half, and only then was he refunded all of his money. The twist: Paul also works for the website Eurogamer, who leapt at the chance to document Bethesda’s insanity for everyone to see.
A representative for Bethesda later contacted Eurogamer to explain that whoever told Paul to bust his records worked for ThinkGeek, the company that runs their online store. “We are following up with ThinkGeek as it is not the kind of service we want folks to experience from our store.”