Thought I'd start this thread to vent, and to also hear other fellow geekzoners game trading horror stories. While initially interested in JB HiFi stories, feel free to vent about other retailers too.

As times are tough ATM, and I'm still trying to get my head around having to pay > $100 for a PS3 game, I thought I'd take advantage of JB Hi-Fis policy allowing you to trade 3 games to get a new release one free, so I could get a copy of BFBC2. I checked my current collection and decided on trading Sonic The Hedgehog (lame beyond belief), Brain Challenge, and Tiger Woods 2009 (regrettably, but it was the only other possible candidate I was prepared to give up). None of these were on their exclusions list (updated 2 days prior), so I figured I'd be golden.

I walked up to the counter with my intended copy of BFBC2 and the above three games. The salesperson at JB Hi-Fi took one look at my games and said this shouldn't be a problem. He started tapping away at his POS computer, and stopped when he got to Brain Challenge. Long story short, he said he couldn't do the trade as that one wasn't in their system (which means they've never sold it there themselves). I asked if there was a Manager there that could overturn this decision, but he said the only ones that could would be located in Head Office, which was shut (it was a Saturday). He said I could come in on Monday and try again, but also indicated that my chances of success were unlikely.

I know their trading policy has the catch all text of "All trade game trade ins are at the final decision of JB Hi-Fi", so I didn't really have a leg to stand on, but I still walked away feeling that they hadn't been entirely clear on the games they were prepared to accept. The game in question was purchased new in New Zealand about 6 months ago, so I was a little baffled as to why they refused to accept it. I guess if they haven't sold it there before, they have no idea of its retail worth, and therefore can't tell whether it should be an excluded game or not.

In the end, the salesman said he could give me $38 for the other 2 games. Once again this didn't seem right, as BFBC2 was selling for $108. This would mean that any accepted third game would be considered to be worth almost twice as much as the other two combined. Surely a trade-in offer of $72 ((108 / 3) * 2) would have been more in keeping with the worth of the individual games (especially considering Tiger Woods 09 was by far the best game being traded)? At the very least, it would have been a better gesture on their part, and they may have ended up getting 3 more pre-owned games to sell AND pocketing $36 in a deal where no money was expected to change hands.

So how do you all feel about this policy, and have you encountered other similarly restrictive policies when attempting to trade games?