120 Gb drive is GO!

Got my 120 Gb drive installed and ready for Wednesday. It was a bit of a nightmare though...

I decided to trade in a bunch of games at CEX to purchase one of their pre-owned 120 Gb drives. They come with 12 months warranty, so I figured that was as good as a brand new drive. I checked the website and noticed that Bedford had one in stock and was within striking distance of me so planned to get it from there. I originally planned to trade in enough stuff to get a memory card, back up my saves and then trade in my 20 Gb drive towards the cost of the 120 Gb drive. However I quickly realised that it would be easier to get a transfer cable and drive and then trade/sell my drive later.

I purchased a cable from the CEX website (£3) but then discovered that Bedford had sold their only 120 Gb drive. CEX had plenty to sell on their website so I decided to post off my trades to get credit against purchases from the website... or so I thought!! I duly packaged up my games and posted them off (which cost me £6-odd) and waited for confirmation from CEX. Checked my account at the CEX website after a couple and they had received and tested all the games and were happy. This was where I realised that rather than crediting any on-line account and allowing me to purchase with that credit, they were in fact posting me a credit note! If I wanted to use this against the website I had to place an order with a credit card and then contact them to tell them I was sending a credit note and then post them the credit note by recorded delivery!!!

Realising what a total faff that would be I checked the website again hoping that either Bedford or Luton would get some 120 Gb drives in stock. No such luck, but I did notice that Watford apparently had several. As I can get free train travel on certain routes I decided to jump on a train down to Watford Junction with my credit note, which I did yesterday. I arrived nearly an hour before the store opened but busied myself in the local shops.

When I (finally) got into the store I realised why some people are so reluctant to use CEX! The Luton store is quite bright and clean, the Bedford one a bit less so, but still not too bad. This, however, was a dingy, grimy, poorly lit hell-hole! I wanted to get in and get out intact and fortunately I did, with my new 120 Gb drive. Got myself home and hooked up the transfer cable and about an hour later all was good.

Looking forward to Wednesday and installing FIFA 09, Gears of War, Halo 3, etc.