HMV disc protection for a quid

Today I bought the xbox 360 game Dead Space 2 for someone from HMV. Ohe thing that HMV does, like virtually everyone else that sells games is that they don't give you a sealed game. You take the box from the shelf and give it to them. They pull out a plastic bag of a drawer that contains the booklets and discs and just shove it in the case.

I've ranted about this numerous times around the internet. I think it's awful. Games are expensive and they're selling you, for top price, a disc that has been fingered by numerous people and it will possibly even be scratched and you get it in a case that looks like a used game box because it's been handled by so many people.

I simply refuse to buy games from brick and mortar shops because of this. But in this instance time was not on my side so I had to buy the game from a shop and not online.

This is when I found out HMV has a new offer. For £1.00 you can get your disc protected by some sort of disc repair scheme. Now that seems like a good idea after all it's one pound to apparently ensure your disc is protected for life.

But as I mentioned they don't sell you a sealed game. There is a good chance the disc will be scratched before you even get to play it once. In fact where is their incentive to protect the disc? It's in their benefit to abuse the disc and once you have been burned a few times you then give in and pay the extra pound for the disc repair scheme.

I wouldn't accuse them out and out making it a company policy to mess up discs to get you to pay the extra pound but again I see no reason for them to be careful and it just seems convient not for them to now have a new fee to protect you from something they can do wrong. I shouldn't have to pay extra for their mistakes.

I don't have sympathy for companies that are struggling when they pull questionable tactics like this. I would hope more people will get tired of shops selling unsealed games and boycott them as I do. Having to buy yet another game from a physical shop has yet again strengthened my beliefs to boycott shops that do this.