Locks of Love

Sunday, September 2, 2012

What is with Retailers!

This may seem a little random, but I was going through some letters and such that needed filing. I came across this letter from Senator Boozman in response to an email I sent him about Walmart, among other retailers, refusal to return digital merchandise that been opened. I was specifically speaking about Video Games in the email to the Senator. 

Here's the story:
I purchased a copy of COD: Black Ops from Walmart. The disk was damaged and would not play in my Xbox. I attempted to return the game and was told that I could not even exchange the game because it was opened. Now this came as a shock and after speaking with several members of management I got them to explain to me that this was due to copyright laws that they were required to uphold. (I tried every Walmart within NWA and they were all either "out-of-stock" or "could not return" the video game. 

I scoured the internet for such laws of copyright and the United States Copyright Office had no law regarding returns of merchandise. I contacted the Copyright Office and spoke with a representative who informed me that there were no such laws in place, and even such an enactment would be unconstitutional (seeing to the who separation of government and business [which I have never been privy to!]). If you would like to look for yourself, here is their website http://www.copyright.gov/

After speaking with an attorney on this matter, I was informed that everyone (except the retailers) were correct; no such law exist. I wanted to give "The Largest Retailer in the World" the benefit of the doubt and so I contacted my local Congressman. Senator John Boozman! The Senator's office is in my hometown, which made my contacting him quite easy. Here is a copy of the letter I received. 

(Some information has been redacted or is missing to protect the privacy of the individuals listed herein. Documents are not to be used in litigation or without the expressed permission of the publisher. Please do not be an idiot!)





Walmart has yet to respond to my inquiry. They continue to stand behind their 'policy' and have continued to keep me from returning the game(s). I wanted to provide this information in the event that anyone else has had this issue. They are in fact, hiding behind some mystery clause of US Copyright Law and violating the right of their customer to an undamaged product. I hope that you have found this information useful. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to comment. Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! 


Corey

2 comments:

  1. Ah, and so it is when we no longer study the art of rhetoric. Remember? It "teaches us to speak fluently on any particular subject." And so the folks at Walmart, not being able to speak fluently on copyright law, merely spout the usual platitude that gets them "off the hook" so to speak. While what they probably meant to say was, "We don't take returns of opened digital media because we don't want someone to make a copy and then return the original, thereby eating into our profits." So much easier to just teach all those poor, little assistant managers to respond with the rote reply of "it's out of our hands. It's copyright law!"

    jmo

    ReplyDelete
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