I just picked up an XBox tonight.

I got it from EB.

They sell 3 versions:

Used
Refurbished
New.

I said I wanted a new unit and was thusly charged $199.99

When I got it home and hooked it up, there were save games on the hard drive for Outlaw Golf.

The box was sealed and the xbox unit had plastic wrap over it.

Is this normal, or did I get a used or refurbished unit instead of a new one?

Take it back and get a new one. New Xboxes don't have games saved on them already. Probably not refurbished either since refurbished Xboxes have the hard drives reformatted. I'd say it was used and put back in the box cleverly by the buyers and returned as if unopened. They should replace it for you no problem.

"We got hosed, Tommy. We got hosed."

Sounds like you should take it back. I don't own an XBox, but it's pretty obvious that there wouldn't be savegames on the hard drive of a new unit. I would get a refund and go to another store if I were you, maybe someplace like Best Buy that doesn't even sell used units.

sounds like it is either a refurb or used system to me. When I got my new xbox from Target, there was just a round sticker over the flap where you open up the box. And there should be a sticky sticker on the top of the xbox itself that covers the green round xbox logo.

xl

Thanks for the posts.. I thought it was a bit odd that there was save games already...

I'll be taking it back tomorrow and getting a new unit from them.

Someone must have did a good job then.

The box sticker was unbroken, and the sticker on the xbox itself was there....

What makes you think the second unit will be new? Maybe it'll be another used unit, but they'll remember to clear the hard drive on this one and you'll never know. You should take your money elsewhere.

But BestBuy takes back returns as well.. Who knows if they don't just put back returned units on the shelf and sell them as new.

I;m not gonna call EB before I go.. just show up, explain and say I want another new box. I'm pretty sure it was a weird occurance and wouldn't happen again.

Why am I not surprised that it was EB?

Don't think Xbox doesn't take some returns, and sell them new as well. We did it in my department when we didn't feel like putting a stupid "Open Box" sticker on the damn thing.

Go to KB, we don't sell used stuff at all. If it gets returned we send it back. At least that's how we do it in my store. My guess is it was a unit that the employees at EB took home to "demo" and they didn't remove any of the stickers knowing they'd still need to sell it. I see the employees at the EB in my mall carting systems back and forth from home to work all the time, it's hard to guarantee anything there hasn't been used by someone.

~Scheherazade

Totally take it back!

Many retail stores have shrink wrap machines.

When I used to work at EB during high school I was able to take home not only games but systems/add-ons as well (Sega CD for example). We would just shrink wrap them and put them back out.

A similar thing happened to me at Toys R Us long ago when buying a Playstation. I went through the checkout, then over to the little window where they give you your stuff. The guy behind the window handed me a fairly well beaten PS box. I looked at him, looked at the box, then promptly began opening it right there. Inside was:

1) On the top, where the controller is held, was a controller. Was it in the nice little blue wrapper? No. It had the cord wrapped around the center, and was sitting loose in the box. There appeared to be some sort of greasy substance on the buttons.

2) Removing the controller and lifting the flap showed the PS just sitting in the box with the AC and connections. No plastic, no "manuals", no twisty ties keeping things together, just loose. There were grease marks on the PS cover as well.

I was shocked that a company would try and pass this off as new! I called the little window man back over, and told him to give me a NEW Playstation, as that is what I had paid for. For a split second he started to say that they did not sell returned merchandise, but only got out "We don't se..." then saw I had the contents of the box open on the little counter.

There were a few times that I've gotten games with saves on them (Metroid 2, Super Mario All Stars, both from Babbages), but that was just silly!

The plastic on the xbox is a little different than shrink wrap, it's just there to protect the finish of the machine in the box. But I can defenitely see it still able to be played with the plastic on, but I imagine this also isn't good for the xbox. I'd defenitely take it back and demand my money back, not just let them pawn off another one on me and keep my money. I'd say it'd help them learn a lesson, but they'd just sell it to someone else. And like people have said, who's to say you won't get another used one that they just remembered to delete the game saves off of.

~Scheherazade