WATA damaging games?

[RH | 4,904]

Well, dang.  Wata has 100% for sure damaged my game, and this is insulting.  I have yet to get my copy of Riven back, but check out this back photo of my game (linked from Wata, so hopefully you can see it.)

If you zoom in to the bottom, you will see the shrink wrapping is scrapped.  This is a rated 9.6 with an A+ seal, supposedly.

I'm quite disappointed.  I sent this off last November (2020).  This thread was created before then, and before the infamous round of high-dollar games went for sale on HA that had similar issues, as well as bugs in the cases.

I even paid for the upgraded cleaning because why not?  Well, now, I can see this thing is dusty and some of those particle look like micro-bug bits. It's not in it's case yet, but if it looks like this when I get it back, I will be demanding a refund.  You can't give someone an item dirtier than what they sent in and say you cleaned it, but I'll reserve that anger until it's returned.

I did not take photos of this item before sending it in but I can be very picky with my items and I now really wish I had.  I knew this wasn't a 100% perfect item, but by my eye, the only damage was light scuffing on the shrink wrap that was only visible at an angle and the wrapping has a vent hole but I would have given second thoughts about even buying a game with a scrapped shrink wrapping, much less sent one off to be graded that way.

I had no intention of going back to Wata, but it looks like my fears were justified.  I'm sorry guys, this was my first experience with Wata and even though I'm still waiting to hear when they will be shipping my game, it looks like it doesn't matter much.  They've damaged my game, the grade is a lie and I just can't see how anyone can stand up for these guys.

[GPX | 1,369]

On 12/28/2021 at 4:29 AM, RH said:

Well, dang.  Wata has 100% for sure damaged my game, and this is insulting.  I have yet to get my copy of Riven back, but check out this back photo of my game (linked from Wata, so hopefully you can see it.)

If you zoom in to the bottom, you will see the shrink wrapping is scrapped.  This is a rated 9.6 with an A+ seal, supposedly.

I'm quite disappointed.  I sent this off last November (2020).  This thread was created before then, and before the infamous round of high-dollar games went for sale on HA that had similar issues, as well as bugs in the cases.

I even paid for the upgraded cleaning because why not?  Well, now, I can see this thing is dusty and some of those particle look like micro-bug bits. It's not in it's case yet, but if it looks like this when I get it back, I will be demanding a refund.  You can't give someone an item dirtier than what they sent in and say you cleaned it, but I'll reserve that anger until it's returned.

I did not take photos of this item before sending it in but I can be very picky with my items and I now really wish I had.  I knew this wasn't a 100% perfect item, but by my eye, the only damage was light scuffing on the shrink wrap that was only visible at an angle and the wrapping has a vent hole but I would have given second thoughts about even buying a game with a scrapped shrink wrapping, much less sent one off to be graded that way.

I had no intention of going back to Wata, but it looks like my fears were justified.  I'm sorry guys, this was my first experience with Wata and even though I'm still waiting to hear when they will be shipping my game, it looks like it doesn't matter much.  They've damaged my game, the grade is a lie and I just can't see how anyone can stand up for these guys.

I get your frustration, with the reduced quality and significant delayed grading process. Though without prior photos, it’d be your words against theirs, and I can’t see how they will admit to fault with the issue of “seller product not as described”. 

[RH | 4,904]

1 hour ago, GPX said:

I get your frustration, with the reduced quality and significant delayed grading process. Though without prior photos, it’d be your words against theirs, and I can’t see how they will admit to fault with the issue of “seller product not as described”. 

I'm not going to even try. I am only going to push for a refund if it's dirty in the case, after I had paid for the cleaning service.

I wish I had taken photos, but since I didn't, I agree there's nothing I can do.  Next time (if/when I ship to VGA) I will be taking photos.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

On 12/27/2021 at 9:59 AM, RH said:

Well, dang.  Wata has 100% for sure damaged my game, and this is insulting.  I have yet to get my copy of Riven back, but check out this back photo of my game (linked from Wata, so hopefully you can see it.)

If you zoom in to the bottom, you will see the shrink wrapping is scrapped.  This is a rated 9.6 with an A+ seal, supposedly.

I'm quite disappointed.  I sent this off last November (2020).  This thread was created before then, and before the infamous round of high-dollar games went for sale on HA that had similar issues, as well as bugs in the cases.

I even paid for the upgraded cleaning because why not?  Well, now, I can see this thing is dusty and some of those particle look like micro-bug bits. It's not in it's case yet, but if it looks like this when I get it back, I will be demanding a refund.  You can't give someone an item dirtier than what they sent in and say you cleaned it, but I'll reserve that anger until it's returned.

I did not take photos of this item before sending it in but I can be very picky with my items and I now really wish I had.  I knew this wasn't a 100% perfect item, but by my eye, the only damage was light scuffing on the shrink wrap that was only visible at an angle and the wrapping has a vent hole but I would have given second thoughts about even buying a game with a scrapped shrink wrapping, much less sent one off to be graded that way.

I had no intention of going back to Wata, but it looks like my fears were justified.  I'm sorry guys, this was my first experience with Wata and even though I'm still waiting to hear when they will be shipping my game, it looks like it doesn't matter much.  They've damaged my game, the grade is a lie and I just can't see how anyone can stand up for these guys.

Ack! 

Ick! 

Sorry to see that happen to you! 

Getting that out of the way, it reminds me of my first non-game submission to CAS. They made a bar for my submission that was a bit too small. And because of that, it did damage to the box. Which has me worrying about doing new game submissions with them, as I like their 'floating style' cases.

But despite that, and depending how things turn out for me in 2022, I might be using VGA as well. Even if I have to pay extra for their classic labels.

[inasuma | 1,203]

On 12/27/2021 at 9:59 AM, RH said:

Well, dang.  Wata has 100% for sure damaged my game, and this is insulting.  I have yet to get my copy of Riven back, but check out this back photo of my game (linked from Wata, so hopefully you can see it.)

If you zoom in to the bottom, you will see the shrink wrapping is scrapped.  This is a rated 9.6 with an A+ seal, supposedly.

I'm quite disappointed.  I sent this off last November (2020).  This thread was created before then, and before the infamous round of high-dollar games went for sale on HA that had similar issues, as well as bugs in the cases.

I even paid for the upgraded cleaning because why not?  Well, now, I can see this thing is dusty and some of those particle look like micro-bug bits. It's not in it's case yet, but if it looks like this when I get it back, I will be demanding a refund.  You can't give someone an item dirtier than what they sent in and say you cleaned it, but I'll reserve that anger until it's returned.

I did not take photos of this item before sending it in but I can be very picky with my items and I now really wish I had.  I knew this wasn't a 100% perfect item, but by my eye, the only damage was light scuffing on the shrink wrap that was only visible at an angle and the wrapping has a vent hole but I would have given second thoughts about even buying a game with a scrapped shrink wrapping, much less sent one off to be graded that way.

I had no intention of going back to Wata, but it looks like my fears were justified.  I'm sorry guys, this was my first experience with Wata and even though I'm still waiting to hear when they will be shipping my game, it looks like it doesn't matter much.  They've damaged my game, the grade is a lie and I just can't see how anyone can stand up for these guys.

This doesn’t change the fact your game was damaged but just FYI the pre-grading photos are always pre-cleaning. 

[RH | 4,904]

38 minutes ago, inasuma said:

This doesn’t change the fact your game was damaged but just FYI the pre-grading photos are always pre-cleaning. 

That helps a little. Thanks.