And you bring up a good point for how the terms are used. I would try to discuss this further, but it is illegal for me to do so, and therefore, you are breaking the law!

Yeah, I see your point.

While saying it’s “illegal” or “against store policy” ultimately lead to the same outcome, there is a different attitude for saying one or the other, and differnent emotions that come into play. For example…

“Sorry Sir, it’s against store policy, I cannot sell this to you”.
What I hear – Sorry sir, I can’t sell you this because the manager will fire me.

“Sorry Sir, it’s illegal, and I cannot sell this to you.”
What I hear – Sorry sir, you are trying to break the law.

But in all honesty, I’m not trying to be a hater at all, just stating my opinion, I hope nobody took it the wrong way =)

It wasn’t my intention to make it sound like the guy’s story is completely false.

My stance is just that it really doesn’t matter if the best buy employees said it was “illegal” or if they said it was against store policy. No matter which term was used, it is the EXACT same situation of a store not allowing the guy to purchase the game, regardless of what terms people want to throw around for their reasoning.

I absolutely agree that it is ridiculous for retail employees pretend to hold authority and invent their own little reasoning to back up store policy/suggestions, such as saying things are “illegal.”

The point I was trying to make is that I had a hard time siding a person who is obviously angry and uses insults and derogatory comments towards employees throughout his story. A person who doesn’t present themselves in a calm manner throughout a situation instantly loses most of their credibility. Anger causes people to exaggerate certain parts of their story when they tell it to somebody else. Trust me, I know.

And to Billie’s comment of “we cannot determine that his comments are false based on what “our” Best Buy reps tell us.”

You misinterpreted what I was trying to get across. I only added my contact’s (NOT a rep in any way, but just a person who has worked at Best Buy for several years. He is in no way an official anything.) statements for people to understand what the actual Best Buy store policy is if they were unsure. It was not meant to make the guy’s story false.

Sad thing is I’ve even heard the managers where I work make this same type of mistake before…so it’s not entirely unfeasable, however since it is coming from an angry kid’s point of view, it’s really all up in the air to me.

I work in sales, I’ve had a large number of customer service jobs. I was even a manager at my local GameCrazy. What the associates at this Best Buy did was shitty. Plain and simple.

I went to Wal-Mart with my girlfriend and we both got carded for buying a R rated movie (we are both 26 – I guess we still look 12), I asked why, if I was buying why would she have to show her id? The lady at the register said it was “illegal” if she didn’t. Of course there is nothing illegal at all, it is only store policy. We of course didn’t make a big deal, but it is annoying that this clerk used “the law” to get us to show our credentials, rather than stating that it is store policy.

Also, I asked my Best Buy contact about the part of the story where the writer says:

“The manager earlier told me that I can’t use the old video game I originally had in hand because it was deemed under ‘penalty.’”

He told me that Best Buy never, ever does that. And he’s worked there for around three years.

But please, somebody correct me if I’m wrong about anything.