Bethesda tells fan to smash his collector’s edition Fallout records for a refund

Refunds are common practice in the gaming industry, but refunds most often deal with a singular product – the game in question. It becomes a little trickier when it’s a collector’s edition.

Should a disc arrive scratched, for example, do you need to return the entire collector’s edition, or will the publisher refund the price of the game itself? It depends on the developer, we suppose.

Bethesda are more than happy to refund you for the full amount of a collector’s edition, as long as you can prove that the cool collectibles and trinkets you received are smashed beyond recognition.

In the case of one Paul Watson, having discovered that one of the four vinyl records included in Fallout 3’s collector’s edition had warped during transit, Bethesda was only willing to refund him for the single warped record.

Watson questioned this; rightly so. What good is a four record set if one of the records is stuffed, particularly because you can’t purchase a single record?

A “Special Tactics and Reconnaissance” agent for Bethesda replied with a rather painful request: If Watson was to recover the entire $125 spent on the collector’s edition, he had to smash all four records and send proof of the act via photographs.

Watson did so – while chocking on tears we imagine. His face certainly told the tale of anguish, uncertainty and regret.

https://twitter.com/WalnutSoap/status/695349530712145921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

A horrifying conclusion indeed.

It’s not completely unheard of for a seller to demand a customer destroy their goods to qualify for a refund – it’s a great way to mitigate scams against the seller.

Still, to destroy the entire limited edition seems like a right waste, although he did get his money back.