How do companies get away with selling products in this packaging and not get sued like crazy? These things are welded shut to the point where you have to have a sheetrock knife to get them open … and even then it’s a chore.
I’ve now got an inch-long gash in my hand from trying to open up the new Logitech EA Sports / Xbox wireless gamepad … and I was trying to be careful with it, because I’ve been cut before. Anyone else have trouble with this stuff, or am I complete klutz?
No, I slice myself up all the time with that stupid, wasteful packaging.
If you cut it with a knife, you risk slashing yourself. If you cut it with scissors, you’ve gotta get through that fucking welded ridge first. Either way, you end up with razor-sharp, spring-loaded edges where you cut it open
I’ve got plenty of scars from them, the most recent from my adventures in opening Xbox DVD Kit and Advanced Scart Cable blisterpacks. They appear to be deliberately designed so that every means of opening them will result in razor sharp edges, and rendering them further openable only with the use of naked hands. It’s like real-life copy protection, but instead of Valve banning everyone who used a single h4x0r3d key, the store security guard follows the trail of blood.
Man invented tools to get around this sort of thing. I have box cutters for just this purpose. Of course if you have “gamers hands” nothing will save your delicate skin. :D
All to deter shoplifting, unfortunately. Same protocols spawned the “box gutting” practice in most game retailers, where they pull the actual game media out and hold it behind the counter, so shoplifters can’t do it themselves. Then the underpaid retail drones have to make sure they put the right CD or cartridge or whatever back in the box, and the purchaser has to make doubly sure before they leave the store, or risk an angry trip back to exchange for the right game.
I had to return something once that came in one of those frigging things… when they asked for the box/packing I dumped out a bag of ripped pieces, chunks of plastic and assorted torn crap that was the result of opening it.
haha, they took it but seemed perplexed when I told them it was the only way to open the damn thing up.
The Rainbow Grocery Outlet around the corner from my house is selling GC controllers for $10, $15 with a copy of BMXXX. I was very tempted, but decided against buying them because they came in the very packaging of which you speak. While 4-player Destroy All Monsters is tempting, my knuckles are worth more to me than a cheap controller.
I had to take back a defective Wavebird once. Unfortunately I didn’t destroy the packaging with my bare hands so the pile of plastic I gave them wasn’t that impressive.
Yeah, cut them where it’s sealed. You usually only have to cut two sides and you’re in business. I think the problem is, like everything in this world, that instant gratification sends people’s brains away on vacation.
Sometimes the edge isn’t big enough to cut off with a scissor, or sometimes the plastic’s too tough for ordinary shears. Even then, sometimes you still have to pry the packaging apart with your hands, and there can be jagged edges involved.
Having been sliced before, I tried to be pretty careful opening this controller. It wasn’t an instant gratification scenario. I trimmed off several of the edges, but the way the thing was sealed, I still had to pull it open. Part of it snapped and sliced my hand to the point where I had to wrap it up with gauze to keep stop the bleeding.
Eh, I’m not calling anyone whiny. It’s not optimal. But having worked in an EB and seen how stuff gets stolen, the plastic is definitely better. It might even be better environmentally (if it were recycled) but I dunno about that.
I cut along three edges and use the fourth as a hinge. You have to cut below the hole on the top edge because that’s welded too. Works pretty well, but the edges are still evilly sharp. When I got my GameCube and periperals I had about a half dozen of those packages to open, and I got cut at least once.
