If you saw what we got, you would have perhaps been as glum as us. It’s like the world was in our hands, but in the most dilapidated condition.
Yesterday, we received our copy of Halo 3: Limited Edition from the local dealer, here in Mumbai, India. When the game reached our headquarters, we saw the disfigured “Halo 3: Limited Edition Box” (Yes, you read it right), which looked as though a bullet had gone through it!
As can be seen in the above image, the box is stamped, clenched, and totally ramshackled. Beat this, it’s a metal box and NOT a cardboard one. The seal too is torn. And it doesn’t end there, the main game CD was also loosely fitted. The pressed box made it really tough to remove the art work book from it.
We thought about taking this matter to task and got in touch with Microsoft heads and also with the dealer themselves. And as they say “the middleman” gets the brunt of it all. Torn between the two, where the maker claims that this is perhaps the “only case” that they have known of and the dealer trying to prove that there were several other copies which were in a similar state.
We called up the dealer in suburban Mumbai, from where we had bought the Halo 3 Limited edition, mind you, that we had already paid Rs. 2510 under the Halo 3 pre-order scheme by Microsoft. He said that he had only one copy of the Limited Edition. So we went all the way to this shop to take a picture of the only remaining ‘damaged’ Halo 3 Limited Edition copy.
This is the exact conversation and scene that took place between the dealer Mr. Kishore, the MS man Gaurav and us of course:
Mr Kishore: We received 15-to-18 copies of Halo 3, which includes the Standard and Limited Edition. Out of these, there were 5 Halo 3 limited edition copies and all were in a crunched state. Out of the 5 copies, 3 were sold, 1 has been purchased by GameGuru.in and the last copy is bought by Anil Kapoor’s son, Harsh Kapoor (all smiles on this one!).
He added, the box is damaged but the CD is perfect. The copy that GameGuru.in received had a cover with the seal code broken.
The dealer told GameGuru.in that immediately the copies should be returned the exchange. I am ready to tell anyone including Microsoft that all the copies that I received were in bad state. But the CD inside the cover is perfectly in good state. I even clarified with the other owners, they confirmed that the CD is alright but the Box is damaged.
Gaurav from Microsoft comes to check whether the CDs are crunched or proper. He said that Microsoft wouldn’t ship damaged goods…This is in-transit damaged good…when the CDs were delivered; the complaint should be made immediately so that the dealer or the company will exchange it.
As you can see from the pictures, the box is damaged, ours was much worse.
Perhaps we may be an isolated case, but all we can say is “Why Us”??? Do we love Master Chief lesser than the others…No ways! And trust me, neither was the money that we paid to the dealer “damaged”…then why did the damaged copy of the Halo 3: Limited Edition only reach us?
Luckily the CD works fine, and is not scratched. One may argue that we shouldn’t be judging the book by its cover or rather the game by its box, but we are sure no one would like to own something in this condition. Imagine you getting the most amazing monitor in the world with a few scratches and blemishes on the frame.
Gaurav confronts that when GameGuru.in noticed the damaged. They should check all the CDs that the dealer before arriving to a conclusion that the CDs are damaged. If GameGuru.in hasn’t seen all the 5 crunched packets then how can the journalist of GameGuru.in drag into the conclusion that Microsoft has delivered the broken parcel of Halo 3 limited edition?
But the dealer himself has quoted that all the CDs that were given by the company were in bad state. However, the CD inside the box is perfectly proper.
Mr. Anand, the head of Microsoft India did follow up on the entire issue very well. But at the end of it all there was only one thing that he had to say is that “GameGuru.in blew the issue out of proportion” Well, may it be! Mr. Anand also said that the dealer should have gotten in touch with the dealer for the replacement, which the dealer claimed to have but didn’t get any response on the same. He further added that this thing happens during transit and we shall be sent across a replacement. So the conclusion of this story stays pending till the time we get one….!