Nothing quite like spending $500 and opening up your mint iPad 2 box to find a giant piece of clay. At least it wasn’t coal right?
A number of Canadian consumers thought the same thing this holiday season after some sneaky scammers returned a number of iPad 2s with clay replicas in the boxes instead of iPad 2s. The total number of iPad 2s swapped is as many as 24 all at Future Shop, Best Buy, Walmart and London stores.
Future Shop and Best Buy claim scammers swapped up to 10 devices out at their locations with, Walmart investigating another 10, and London Drugs acknowledging four instances. Obviously customers opening their iPad 2 boxes to find clay were rightfully dismayed, and even worse concerned how retailers would react to them returning a box filled with clay.
Dayna Chabot purchased a clay 32GB iPad 2 at a Walmart in Langley just south of Vancouver and was refunded her money within 20 minutes of speaking to a manager. However, Mark Sandhu, who purchased his clay iPad at a Future Shop, claims Future Shop management treated him like a criminal when he tried to return his fake device to Future Shop. Sanhdhu has since been given a full refund, but only after taking his story to CTV.
Best Buy and Future Shop have changed their store policy in response to the scam and require users returning devices to open up the packaging to make sure all the components are present before accepting a return. Common sense is apparently not emphasized at these institutions.
Personally I’ve had had the experience of seeing an open-box iPad 2 purchased from Best Buy returned because after inspection the device was obviously more than an open-box floor unit. The iPad 2 had extensive scratching on the back, and on the screen, and was sold for only $20 cheaper than a brand-new iPad 2. Somehow that seems a little ridiculous.
Anyone here ever been bit by the fake item retail bug or shady return policies?
Source: CTV
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