Rage Quit In Real Life

We buy used games cheaply and resell them. I’m standing by the counter and I can see a woman walking angrily towards me. Once she reaches the counter, before I can say anything, she throws a game onto the counter, shouting.

Customer: “You scammed my kids!”

A bit taken aback by this, I pick up the game and ask what she means.

Customer: “You sold my kids a broken game!”

I look at the game and see that it is a pre-owned copy of FIFA 09 for Xbox 360. This took place in 2012, so these older versions of the game are sold for half a dollar. I am prepared to give her a refund or a replacement with or without a receipt, but just to investigate how this might have happened, I take a look at the disc.

The Xbox 360 is notorious for causing circle scratches from even small vibrations to the machine — even just walking past it while it is on the floor could cause the laser to kill any disc inside — and it is one of the first things we are told to look for when purchasing pre-owned games from customers. This disc has a clear circle on it, so I get a pretty good idea of what has happened.

In order to calm the woman down and avoid this happening again, I start explaining:

Me: “Oh, I see what has happened. I will help you, but you see this scra—”

The woman explodes, out of the blue, grabs the game out of my hands, throws it onto the floor, and spits on it, giving me a death glare before running out of the store.

Stunned from the sudden outburst, I stare at the spit-covered game case and slowly start picking it up. As I stand up, I see the woman rushing toward me again.

Customer: “GIVE ME BACK MY GAME!”

Confused, I hand it over and watch as she rips the disk out of the case and starts trying to break it in two.

Customer: “I AM GOING TO BREAK IT SO YOU CAN’T SELL IT TO ANY OTHER KIDS!”

After a few moments of effort, she only managed to bend the disk, gave up, and threw it on the floor again, storming off a final time. All the while, I was trying my best not to burst out in laughter over the ridiculous scene.

I guess she just had a lot of pent-up anger she needed to vent, embarrassingly so, at someone she didn’t know.