Fred Meyer ripoff electronics Dept consumer alert about purchasing software, cd's, dvd's and electronic video games Portland Oregon

The person who wrote this complaint is quite uninformed and acting on emotion rather than common sense.  It is NOT just Fred Meyer who has this return policy, it is every store that does.  The reason being is that this is not a Fred Meyer policy or Walmart policy, this policy is a result of Copyright law.  I work for this company and I work in the returns department.  When a game, movie or any type of media is opened then the only exchange that can be made is for that duplicate title if it is defective.  If your computer won't run it, then you should have checked that before you bought it.  This is not Fred Meyer's fault.

I am a current employee of Fred Meyer, but I also remember back when I was a child shopping at Fred Meyer and I can't remember a time that Fred Meyer didn't have one of the best return policies for a retail store.

I know people who have gotten gifts from people in states that don't have Fred Meyer's and still returned the gifts at Fred Meyer.

It is a well known policy of all retailers to not return electronic items after being open except for the same like item. It is the Music, Video, Gaming industry who has decided this policy not Fred Meyer.

I am a manager with the company in the Electronics department. It has been out stated policy that we will not return music, video, DVD or video game software once it has been opened for a very long time. It is also a fairly standard policy on this type of merchandise. I first ran into the issue when I was a child, and had a video game from a toy store. I opened it, without realizing it was not the title that i wanted. The store's policy was not to give refunds on this type of merchandise.

There are a couple of reasons why this policy is in place. First, it is not possuble to resell this type of merchadise anywhere near its original price once opened. Second, with piracy on all forms of electronic media quite prevalent, it is becoming an even bigger issue every year.

In your particular situation, you should be able to expect that the clerk and/or manager would replace your item with another copy that would work for you.

That said, every store should have it's policy posted in the department and at the counters so that all customers are aware of the policy. It is not our intention to stick a customer with a bad product, and we certainly want to keep the customer satisfied. Under normal situations, we will make every effort to replace any product that is defective, or unoperable with the same title.