Yesterday, we reported that ThinkGeek had sent an unwitting consumer a very clearly "used" Dreamcast console, while advertising them as “new in box.”
Contacting us via email, ThinkGeek co-founder Willie Vadnais reached out to us for comment to both explain and make things right.
"We have no reason to doubt this post," he writes, "and we apologize for it. We purchased these new-in-box consoles directly from a vendor who had surplus inventory. We inspected many units before they shipped, and all were absolutely new. Only the boxes had some wear and tear."
Vadnais points out that this "old" Dreamcast seems to be the exception, not the rule, saying ThinkGeek had received "many, many emails from customers satisfied with their new boxes." The retailer says it has received only two reports of these worn consoles, one of which was our original tipster.
The situation is being taken care of now, with full refunds on both the console and the shipping being offered to both customers. As for the future, ThinkGeek will indeed be selling more of these boxed-Dreamcast gems as available, and it looks like they’re confident that their stock will satisfy customers’ urge for a fresh console.
A full statement, along with the "why, how, and where" of how they got their hands on the Dreamcasts can be found after the jump.
First, a little backstory: We came upon an amazing cache of new-in-box Dreamcasts not too long ago. We had a bunch of units shipped to us to inspect them, and indeed, though the boxes were a little worse for the wear on the outside, the consoles had nary a scratch and even the wire twists that bundled the cables had never been undone. It was like magic--magic that had been hiding in a warehouse, unknown, for years.
So we asked our source from whence these beautiful Dreamcasts came, and they didn't know--could've been a liquidator, or a Circuit City that had closed shop. (Hear that? It's the sound of a plot thickening.)
But we'd seen them with our own eyes and figured it was best to share our discovery with the world. Hundreds were snatched up quickly and squees were heard 'round the internets.
So far we've had 2 instances of not-so-new-in-box Dreamcasts. The individual who received the one reported here contacted us via email (which never appeared in our inbox, for some reason) and Twitter (through which we've taken care of the situation) has already been issued a return shipping label. We're more than happy to refund him for the Dreamcast as well as shipping.
We're very sorry about the whole thing--we never meant to ship used Dreamcasts. We know our customers are smarty pants and could tell if they'd been duped with a stale Dreamcast; we'd never get away with taking advantage of you guys, so why would we try?
And now we have 3 options: 1. Stop sharing the gift of new Dreamcasts; 2. Have them all shipped to us and inspect each one individually and then ship back to the warehouse; and 3. Continue spreading the (mostly) untainted Dreamcast love and working with the very few customers who get lemons.
We hope you'll understand why we're continuing to offer them on our site (when we get our grubby little paws on more, of course). And again, we apologize to the 2 customers who ended up with what appears to be returned merchandise.
--The ThinkGeek Monkeys
Contest:
12:40 PM on 05.20.2009
| 
ThinkGeek is being pretty cool about all this, props to them.
In ThinkGeek's defense, they did say the original email request was never received. While I can't confirm that (for obvious reasons), I also didn't notice their original email response to us either so...
perfect PR at work - and believable too.
but chances are those few bad dreamcasts were returned items to wherever they came from, or were meant to be sold as open items way back when...but they just sat in a pile with the rest when the store went out of business.
I don't get it. People were bashing TG because they didn't check all of the units, and it turns out, they didn't. Their official statement says they inspected "many units", but not all.
"Their side of the story" is: "We didn't inspect all of the shipments, we just got them, and took their word that they were new. We didn't get his customer emails over the course of 2 weeks, and then responded after a popular internet site gave us bad press, a day later".
It's completely logical, but should have been handled earlier, in-house. I understand Chester's point about how they probably didn't get the email, but any normal human being would have emailed multiple times, and called, before submitting an anonymous tip to Destructoid. I've dealt with Think Geek many times in the past, and won't stop ordering from them. It doesn't mean they can't make a mistake.
Do you honestly expect them to open up and inspect all 200 units? I don't. They did inspect a handful of units, which I think is acceptable. I know if you had been in their position, you would not have opened up all 200 units.
I think they handled the situation perfectly. They only received two complaints, which they offered full refunds for.
@Diverse:
Where do you keep your time machine? The issue was reported yesterday, and ThinkGeek issued a public statement today. That's a phenomenal response time.
Yes, I do. If I was in their position (a reputable company), and my source "didn't know where the Dreamcasts came from", then yes, of course I would check all of them. To inspect as little as 200 units myself would take 4 hours, which isn't even half a workday. Only inspecting a sample reminds me of The Office, where I can just imagine Roy and a few warehouse guys just checking a few things in a detailed shipment and going "they're good!" to Michael.
Here is the excerpt from the Dtoid article from yesterday:
A request for a full refund has been submitted, which he hopes will cover costs of the console, shipping and handling charges; after two weeks, he's received no response from ThinkGeek.
Second, it makes no sense to open all of the received consoles before shipment. They are "new-in-box" Dreamcasts, not "opened and shuffled around with" Dreamcasts.
So frickin' 2 out of 200 hundred were refurbs and now ThinkGeek is the devil?
Magnalon and Diverse are just overreacting to nothing. A SINGLE email was lost (probably sent to the wrong place, actually) and this guy NEVER called them (which would have netted him a response on day one). The number isn't hard to find either. It's the first damn thing listed under the "contact us" header. This guy got his refund by contacting them through Twitter. If they responded to him through Twitter, why wouldn't they respond to an email had they received it?
ThinkGeek rocks and seemingly did nothing wrong here and they're STILL trying to make amends. Stop being dicks and actually think for a minute. Not every company is trying to screw you at every turn.
Kudos to them for that.
We don't know how he got that number but that's why people are using it.
And yes, being employed in the service industry (I'm a delivery driver), I know for a fact that there are far more CUSTOMERS that act like dicks to us and expect to be treated like royalty than there are mistakes on our end.