PS4 Launch day has come and gone.

Exciting! Unless your PS4 comes broken from Amazon.

I preordered it the second I could during the press conference and lo and behold the thing comes busted. It started up after a few restarts, tried to update, then would just pulse the blue light over and over again endlessly. No matter how many times I took out and then put back in the HDD, nothing.

So, I spent a long time on hold with Sony, waiting and waiting, with their crackly waiting music. During that time I scrolled through the PS4 support forums. During that search I stumbled across a post from someone claiming something interesting. He claimed that he had gotten through to Sony, and they told him to take his PS4 to the Sony store and they would replace it on the spot for free.

I didn't believe it.

Until someone else posted that they did the same thing. Or at least called and the Sony store confirmed this. So, I called my closest Sony store (an hour and a half away). The person was confused at first, but told me to hold on, and lo and behold I could bring it in no problem.

So, I rounded up some friends and hit the road. I got there and this is where it got interesting...

The person doing the exchange informed me that this is something Sony had foreseen coming and planned for. They realized there were units having problems and shipped extra units to some Sony stores for this purpose. But he also said they were not announcing this. People had to call the store and ask and find out. Curious? I think so.

If it were not for that one post in that one forum that I stumbled across, I would still have a dead PS4 instead of a brand new one that seems to be working wonderfully.

He also said he had five amazon dead PS4s, a Meijer one, and a WalMart one. So it doesn't seem specific to any retailer.

When he brought out the new one it was in a special box that seemed to be rushed shipping to be specific for replacing dead ones. It made me wonder if was ensured to be working. I had him start up the thing at the store just to make sure. He had the cords already set up at the station to test it so I am assuming I wasn't the only one who had requested it.

It seemed interesting to me that they had set up this fail safe without telling anyone. They probably didn't want a rush of people getting replacements, instead limited it to those who cared the most to call the store.

They also had 10 systems still left for sale.

The sales rep was super awesome and understanding about it. I wish I had gotten his name so I could thank him. He was happy that Sony had taken care of this as well.

It may suck real bad that there are a bunch of bricked PS4s out there, but if you have one and can get to a Sony store it seems like they have the ability to replace them. Just call to make sure.

I'm just glad I have one and it's been working great for a couple hours now. My friends and I are live streaming it here: http://www.twitch.tv/thebrokenhammer playing some games and talking in weird accents from time to time.

That's my PS4 launch day adventure. I hope you all had a better one and are enjoying your PS4s.

I'm seeing rumblings of people finding out about this and going in to get it taken care of. One post on the PS4 support forum said:

So I just went to my local Sony store. The guy said that they had 16 people waiting in front of their store this morning with broken ps4s. He said that the majority of them were from amazon. They said I can come get a replacement on Monday.

Taken from here: PS4 Support Forums

Good to hear word is getting around about this plan Sony has in place. Hopefully everyone can get them replaced quickly.

Amazon shipment was certainly a bit rough. Too little of the air bladders in the box. Got amazon launch day edition, 24 hours still chugging along ok.

I heard the same from my local Sony store. They were replacing units from any retailer, apparently.

I felt more comfortable buying my replacement from them (I sent the original busted one back to amazon) since they said they would give me a new unit to replace my 2nd if it broke.

Now if only Sony had more outlets...

That's actually super awesome. Way to plan ahead.

I chatted with Amazon about the cracked PS4 I have and they said, "In this case, I'll request our inventory to send a replacement to you. They'll get back to you within 2-3 business days." I know Amazon will offer refunds, partial refunds or straight up send you another of the same item. I think Im getting the latter the way the CS guy phrased that.

This doesn't seem strange. Every big product launch does this. Apple for example sends the Apple stores unbranded boxed versions of iPhones so that they can exchange busted ones even if their regular stock is depleted.

@brutushayesosu: Yours came straight up cracked?

my question is did you take the just the console or everything with it ?

It's a brilliant move to hold some stock back to be used as replacements since there will always be a small percentage of defective units when it comes to electronics.

Mine seems to be alright. I know warranties are usually a bad deal but I would have grabbed one if it was offered. I'm hoping mine holds on for a few years.

@sackmanjones: In my state (WA) you need to provide a basic 1 year manufacturer warranty on most if not all retail purchases. (AFAIK, not a lawyer) But everything here comes with the basic 1 year which means if you didn't cause the damage then you don't have to pay for it. You can return or repair the product free of charge to you.

@soulreaveralu:

I would say take everything if you can. If you have something you want to hold on to for which ever reason just ask the store if you can keep it, or call ahead and ask. The biggest issue would probably be taking a bad unit then having to drive back to go pick up some power cord or controller. The best way to avoid that is call ahead and explain the situation.

@mb: It sounds like amazon shipped these things without proper packaging which is rare in my opinion. Amazon is usually great at stuff like that. Regardless there will be a small percentage of defective units but this seems like a bit more than a small percent. Either way Sony fully planned to be not known as the "Ring of Death" side. Or so it seems.

Sounds like Sony thought the PS4 of as a KS.

These are stacking up:

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Launch-Edition/product-reviews/B00BGA9WK2/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

I have seen a lot of twitter and other feeds talking about poor build quality. Did they rush this out the door?

@soulreaveralu: I took in everything. The guy said most people had been forgetting the headset. I played it safe and repacked the entire thing back up. He gave me a brand new packaged one.

I just heard of someone else on my campus who got one from amazon and it was broken. It's sounding like a factory thing. It'd be nice to find out what happened. Some people are getting them from amazon and they've been great, other people not so much. I saw a post on the PS4 support forums that an intern at Foxconn was claiming sabotage of PS4 at their factory. I honestly think it's a factory thing. This is far too wide spread to be a shipping thing.