OT- Shopping in hard economic times just got harder
in2dadark
as mine went to lunch today. So, I picked out a 29 dollar magnavox and
when I got home it looked like it was repackaged. The cord was not
wound up and the foam in the box was broken up. And the case of it
even looked like it had been used.
It didn't work. So, I took it right back. As I was going back I just
figured walmart took it back from someone else and 'they' sealed it up
and put it back on the shelf. When I got to walmart customer service
they said the serial number didn't match the box; And they asked me to
step aside and wait and let the next person go.
So, finally she comes back and says will give you an exchange for the
same one. I said, no I want a refund, I'm getting a different one. I
said 'if I had done something wrong I would take your offer'.. They
relented but not without treating me like I just scammed walmart.
I'm going to have the store (every store) open the box or I'm going to
open ANY sealed box of ANYTHING I purchase from now on before I leave
the store and make sure it is what should be inside. Someone probably
sealed it up real nice and took it back as unopened and they didn't
open it to see what was inside.
The one that was in my box was from 2008. They could have called the
police and accused me of something. That would have been good because
I could have then sued them when I proved I had no other unit in my
home..
Beware,
Oren
I had about the same thing happen at a Best Buy (years ago). I bought
a new WD hard drive. ($$) Got the perfect looking shrink wrapped box
home, open it up and found some old aged HD drive in the box.
Went directly back, paper in hand and explained what it was. They did
exchange the item with no hassle.
Musta been an inside job that someone had the tools to shrink-wrap the
box.
At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing, after I opened the
box. The drive was older than the one I was replacing.
mm
I bought an auto-air-AC power supply for a laptop at bestbuy.
It was barely rewrapped, and plainly had been opened. I think the
price was marked down. When I got it home, one of the tips was
missing. I returned it but not because of that. That tip I didn't
need.
They took it back with no problem. Didn't reopen it.
Probably the guy before me bought it and stole a tip, then returned
it. Or the guy before him stole the tip and the guy just before me
returned it because a tip was missing.
Oren
wrote:
I pay attention to boxes that are re-wrapped (discounted/tagged -
those in shopping carts that block the aisles) by some means, like
tape or such. The one experience I had with my disk drive looked like
a pro wrapped it up in factory :-/
mm
I figure they must have shrink-wrap machines at these stores, for
cases like, A customer at the store opens something to read the
instructions. Doesn't buy it. Should they really have to send it back
to the factory or the refurbish place and then sell it for less.
It's fair to reshrink it if that's all that happened, but it sound to
me like much more happened, a guy who works in the store put in his
old harddrive and kept the new one and then reshrank it. So now
they'll have to keep the reshrinker locked and a log of everyone who
used it and for what. Or maybe only one person will be allowed to
reshrink.
The Daring Dufas
In hard economic times, people will scam anybody. I think it's a part
of human nature that rears its ugly head when money is scarce.
TDD
dadiOH
It's not the economy, it happens *all* the time...good times as well as bad.
In my previous incarnation I was a photographer. It was common for young
women to go buy a new outfit for a photography session and return it
afterward. Ditto for high school proms.
A large percentage (most?) of the people see nothing wrong with chiseling a
bit as long as the victim is big and impersonal...stores, insurance
companies, IRS, etc.
--
dadiOH
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Nate Nagel
I won't buy anything from my local Sears that isn't in a sealed box
and/or I can inspect all the parts on the spot. Had a heck of a time
there when I'd bought a fairly expensive set of shop-vac attachments and
found that half of them were missing. Unfortunately there's enough
shameless criminals that shop there to make it a normal occurrance. I
thought this was supposed to be an "upscale" area? Guess the "upscale"
clientele doesn't shop at the Sears tool department.
nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
Doug Miller
>A large percentage (most?) of the people see nothing wrong with chiseling a
>bit as long as the victim is big and impersonal...stores, insurance
>companies, IRS, etc.
Smitty Two
<fc8e1fef-a770-4961...@v25g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
in2dadark <in2d...@yahoo.com> wrote:
My friend in China says everyone there *always* opens anything they're
about to buy in a store, exams it carefully, plugs it in and makes sure
every single feature works. They don't trust anybody, and for good
reason, because any one of them will cheat you if they get the chance.
It's just a cultural difference.
Imagine going into an Apple store in Beijing and opening up a computer,
plugging it in, making sure the keyboard works, making sure the mouse
works, making sure the internet connection works, checking out all the
software, etc. Now, Apple would take a return if something was
defective, but they're the exception, and the people there don't
understand that. In China, there really is no such thing as a warranty.
You pay for it, it's yours, period.
Jim Elbrecht
-snip-
>A large percentage (most?) of the people see nothing wrong with chiseling a
>bit as long as the victim is big and impersonal...stores, insurance
>companies, IRS, etc.
I don't know what the percentages are- but I read an article yesterday
telling of a UK priest advising his flock that it was
OK to shoplift from big stores.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/8425420.stm
He misses the whole moral issue- and says that the cost it passed on
and spread out amongst a great number of people.
His archdeacon disagrees.
Back to the OP- I can sympathize with him *and* the store. There
are so many scams going on now they have to be on their toes.
Jim
Jim Elbrecht
wrote:
Great minds and all that-- I just posted a different link to the
same story.<g>
Jim
Smitty Two
Nate Nagel <njn...@roosters.net> wrote:
> >
>
> I won't buy anything from my local Sears that isn't in a sealed box
> and/or I can inspect all the parts on the spot. Had a heck of a time
> there when I'd bought a fairly expensive set of shop-vac attachments and
> found that half of them were missing. Unfortunately there's enough
> shameless criminals that shop there to make it a normal occurrance. I
> thought this was supposed to be an "upscale" area? Guess the "upscale"
> clientele doesn't shop at the Sears tool department.
>
> nate
The "upscale" people are the crookedest of the lot, IMO. They think the
world owes them even more wealth, so they cheat, lie, and weasel, and
snivel they're way out of it when they get caught. At least a low-life
crook knows he's a crook. The wealthy just figure they're "entitled" to
rip off some shop-vac attachments.
We had a guy here who bought himself a seat on the city council, after
he inherited a multi-million dollar business from his father. He was
doing a little yard work and broke a handle on his lopping shears. Went
down to Ace Hardware, and they were asking $18 or some such for a
replacement handle. So he swapped the price sticker (this was pre-UPC)
to save himself $10. Got through the checkout OK and was detained in the
parking lot by security, who'd witnessed the switch.
At least he had the decency to resign from political life in shame.
Rick Brandt
Hold on a second. Someone scammed Wal-Mart by returning an old used item in
a new box and you are bent out of shape that they were suspicious that you
might have done so? How does that follow? Couldn't they see the halo over
your head? How could the clerk behind the counter NOT suspect that you
might be the one pulling a fast one?
Someone at Wal-Mart dropped the ball when the first return was not opened
and inspected. Perhaps doing that is company policy and on this rare
occasion somebody screwed up. If it is policy to check a returned item
doesn't that make your story sound fishy? By refusing to accept an exchange
for what you were originally trying to purchase you made yourself look even
more suspicious. How does somebody scamming Wal-Mart out of something
suddenly make your original purchase decision change? The offer they made
you was more than fair.
Sued them? Well you can sue for anything, but they had zero obligation to
give you anything back much less a full refund.
Jules
> I had about the same thing happen at a Best Buy (years ago). I bought
> a new WD hard drive. ($$) Got the perfect looking shrink wrapped box
> home, open it up and found some old aged HD drive in the box.
Yeah, I had that with a DVD at walrus-mart - perfectly shrinkwrapped,
those security stickers on the case, but no DVD inside when we got it home
and opened it. Had one hell of a job returning it (didn't help when the
manager who told us on the phone to come back and they'd exchange it had
then 'conveniently' gone on a break by the time we arrived!).
Apparently they'd seen it before a few times with different titles, so I
don't know where they do the shrink-wrapping but I guess it happens at
that point and by the time it gets sold the person responsible is
untraceable.
Moral is to open everything in the store that's wrapped and check
that it is what it says it is, I suppose - but that's difficult when it
holds up other customers in the line...
cheers
Jules
HeyBub
>
> Musta been an inside job that someone had the tools to shrink-wrap the
> box.
>
I've got a shrink-wrap device. It's like a Xerox machine, once you have one,
you wonder how you ever lived without it.
Maybe once a year I find the item I bought is not appropriate to the task I
had in mind. It's so much easier to put everything back, shrink-wrap the
contents, re-apply all the stickers, and return it.
You can shrink-wrap all manner of other things: food for the freezer, a
collection of parts for the gizmo, small dead animals, collectable items you
want to preserve (books, trading cards, coins, baby teeth, etc.).
dadiOH
> My friend in China says everyone there *always* opens anything they're
> about to buy in a store, exams it carefully, plugs it in and makes
> sure every single feature works. They don't trust anybody, and for
> good reason, because any one of them will cheat you if they get the
> chance. It's just a cultural difference.
Not a bad one either. In Mexico there is always a hot socket neaby light
bulbs; stick a bulb in the socket (screwing in not necessary) and if it
lights you know it is good. Here, some kid would sizzle his finger and the
lawyers would be pouring out of the woodwork.
The same sampling concept works for foods in a jar too: how does one know if
you like Such & Such brand of strawberry jam? Answer is, open lid, srick in
finger and sample. Seen it done 100s of times; I never did that but I did
open to see if the surface looked disturbed; not too effective with jam but
works for peanut butter.
BTW, I never found Chinese to cheat more than any other group.
benick
"Jim Elbrecht" <elbr...@email.com> wrote in message
news:u054j55pibk6dkq3p...@4ax.com...
So true...SWMBO is a manager at Walmart and the scams NEVER end....The big
one now is shoplifting items and returning them for money or Store Credit on
a gift card....Sometimes they steal it at one Walmart and return it to
another , sometimes at the SAME store even...Now how many returns you make
are kept track of.....So if you return alot of items EXPECT to be questioned
about it and possibly asked to leave and not come back......Sucks that they
have to do it but what are they supposed to do....Soon EVERYTHING will have
built in chips that will have to be deactivated when cashing out or there
won't be cashiers and whatever you take from the store will be automatically
deducted from your account.........
benick
"dadiOH" <dad...@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:RdnYm.103483$Vq3....@newsfe04.ams2...
There are CARTLOADS of womens clothes returned daily at the Walmart my wife
works at...LOL....Most have been clearly worn....Raises the prices for the
rest of us.....
Jules
> The same sampling concept works for foods in a jar too: how does one know if
> you like Such & Such brand of strawberry jam? Answer is, open lid, srick in
> finger and sample. Seen it done 100s of times; I never did that but I did
> open to see if the surface looked disturbed; not too effective with jam but
> works for peanut butter.
Heh, I was just complaining to the SO the other day about those safety
seals they put on jars of anything these days - I can never get the
damn things off and usually resort to stabbing at them with a big knife.
I'd much rather no seal and just to take my chances that nobody had messed
with the product in the store, TYVM.
Steve
Last year I bought a "new" electric water heater from Home Depot still
in the box.... Got it home and noticed the inside plastic wrap was
not all the way up and over the heater.. Didnt think too much of it
and proceded to install the heater. When all done installing and
filled I turned the breaker on and nothing happened... Long story
short after numerous calls back to the Home Depot, they did help me
diagnose that one of the heating elements inside may be defective.. I
shut the breaker off and drained the heater and lo and behold the
bottom heater element was in fact defective... In fact it was burned
right off!!!! Apparently someone had bought the heater took it home
and somehow screwed up in installing it and burnt up the element and
boxed it back up and took it back to the store. Then the Home Depot
people put the box right back on the shelf and I got it...
Steve
ps They did give me a new element without charge to put back in and
it has since been working fine.
in2dadark
> In article
> <fc8e1fef-a770-4961-8c90-d971ca596...@v25g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
>
> - Show quoted text -
I'm opening EVERYTHING from here on out.. The next one I purchased I
took it to the CS counter and made sure 'they' opend it and looked at
the serial # on the unit and compared it to the box. I said 'if this
one is bad I'm taking IT back as well and I don't want any more
problems'...They obviously refunded my money because they know there
could be another way that unit got in there, ie someone bought one
swapped their old, nonworking unit and left the new remote, sealed it
up and returned it.
in2dadark
> In article <hgt16g01...@news4.newsguy.com>,
That's the thing for me. I've worked in financial services here in Fla
for over 20 years. I can't get myself even close to an issue like
this. Our DOI fingerprints us and is pretty strict; And new companies
won't deal with you if you're involved in any kind of monetary
deception. I have no reason to want to do it either. When I was at
the counter I was joking with a young lady that was next in line and
trying to stay reasonable. But it could have gotten ugly. I don't like
being accused of something I didn't do.. Who does..
I could never understand people like you mentioned. When you have
enough and are doing ok there is no reason to steal. If I were hungry
it might be another story.
in2dadark
>
> - Show quoted text -
My decision changed because there were very few of these DVD players
to choose from from the beginning. The box I chose was actually in the
best shape of the 3 or 4 that were remaining. And the one I chose was
a trojan horse.. The second one I purchased they had a ton of. Just
better odds. They shouldn't have accused me. I told them what happened
and they knew good and well it could have been doneby someone else or
they would have flat out refused me...
Accusing me of something THAT lame is outrageous. It has the serial #
right on the box.. Any moron could figure out that returning an open
box with a unit with a diff. serial # was not going to pass muster. I
never imagined the item I was returning wasn't of the same model year
or serial #. I did think it was used and repackaged though..
Red Green
news:331ff225-f4be-497a...@26g2000yqo.googlegroups.com:
Condoms? Depends?
mm
wrote:
But there you go. If you start with a sealed box and inspect all the
parts, it's not sealed anymore. So they have to have a reshinker to
rewrap the stuff or someone like you won't buy it.
>there when I'd bought a fairly expensive set of shop-vac attachments and
>found that half of them were missing. Unfortunately there's enough
>shameless criminals that shop there to make it a normal occurrance. I
>thought this was supposed to be an "upscale" area? Guess the "upscale"
>clientele doesn't shop at the Sears tool department.
One way to be upscale is to "save" money on tool purchases.
>nate