[quote name='Indiana'][quote name='JediSB'][quote name='BigDirty']Actually these "Factory Fresh" carts that are seen on Ebay are pirate carts.[/quote]
Not always true. I work at a Gamestop in Louisville KY. We have an EA distribution center here. For a long time we were having the same lady bringing in tons of copies of EA game CDs and carts, never in the box. She even brought some of the games in a few days prior to the release date. But they were never in the box. The EA rep that came to talk to us informed us that the games were being stolen off the delivery truck. The games get pressed and are then sent to the distribution center for packaging. These people were stealing them off the truck, before they got packaged.
So the games could be real games, but stolen before they hit the packaging plant. They'd still be stolen though.[/quote]
That's great to know that you guys were intentionally buying stollen merchandise! :shock: So did EA get all your stuff ceased by the FBI or Police? It is illegal to sell stollen merchandise.[/quote]
No we weren't. We couldn't prove it. It was our word against hers. We suspected that was what was going on but couldn't prove it conclusively. But we notified EA immediately as soon as we grew suspicious. They didn't do anything about it for a long time. Almost a year, in fact. Even before EA came out, we wouldn't accept games that were being traded in prior to release date. But apparently other stores in the area were. When we refused to do so, the lady was stupid enough to show us a receipt from another store where she had just traded in another copy of the same game at a different place. Apparently she was hitting all the stores in town. It was after that that I contacted EA myself (I'm just a part-time Gamestop employee) through their headquarters, not the local distribution center management. And within a week, they had reps visiting us at the store.
It was only after EA finally came out to the store that we knew exactly what was happening. And shortly after that the lady stopped coming in with EA games. The EA rep didn't think the lady trading in the games worked for EA but knew someone that was getting them off the truck.
We let all of our area stores know what was going on and we won't accept trades from this woman anymore, although she has stopped coming in anyway.
Trust me, we hated every time the woman came in because we had a hunch what was going on, but until you can prove it there's nothing you can do. And EA apparently didn't care, as they waited almost a year before they did anything about it. There was no reason for EA to charge us with anything as we were the one's trying to help stop it. They were extremely grateful that we let them know what was going on.
The odd thing is that when they did come out we told them how long it had been going on. The guy from the local center said he wished we would have let them know sooner. The store manager told him she had contacted several people a the distribution center several times and nothing had been done. You should have seen the look on his face, embarrassed in front of his superiors. I'm glad it has come to an end though.
