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Bought iPad 2 at Target and literally got a box of rocks!
- Thread starter Epictatus
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That's why I pointed out the story is a bit more believable if an item was bought as an open item. It is much less credible if it was new (and typically the attempts are on new items).
My statement shows how unlikely it is because at my store these attempts were stopped. The customer service people arent retarded.
If anything slips by it may be a subtle thing, but they are certainly not going to return a bag of rocks.
It is extremely rare that a big ticket item like a laptop or something were returned sealed. 99% of laptop returns are because it was too slow, they couldnt figure out how to use it, or something is wrong with it.
I'm never going to be able to call somebody "Dumb as a box of rocks" anymore without thinking of this thread. 
Ha! that's wild. Could it happen? I'm not sure.
I can tell you what happened to me in the fall of 2009! I bought my kids a brand new Nintendo Wii (or so I thought) at the Montreal Future Shop at the Forum... Anyhow I got home went to set it up and it was a clearly used unit! LOL the unit was yellowed and scratched, I took it back to the store right away! the sales clerk tried to give me a hard time, I was completely apalled, but the manager noticed all the serial numbers on the unit matched etc, and Wii's are not shrink wrapped so who knows what happened there.
Anyhow.. strange but maybe possible??
I can tell you what happened to me in the fall of 2009! I bought my kids a brand new Nintendo Wii (or so I thought) at the Montreal Future Shop at the Forum... Anyhow I got home went to set it up and it was a clearly used unit! LOL the unit was yellowed and scratched, I took it back to the store right away! the sales clerk tried to give me a hard time, I was completely apalled, but the manager noticed all the serial numbers on the unit matched etc, and Wii's are not shrink wrapped so who knows what happened there.
Anyhow.. strange but maybe possible??
I don't see why so many are giving the OP such a hard time. People steal all sorts of things. I don't see why someone might not have got their hands on some plastic and a machine that seals it around boxes making it look like it hasn't been opened yet. Imagine if you got your hands on the industrial plastic and the machines that shrink wraps packages. You could easily pull multiple of these stunts and turn a healthy profit, especially if you are buying everything cash and can't be tracked.
Come to think of it, if you worked at places that had such machines, and there was no careful supervision, you could easily abet in such crimes.
Come to think of it, if you worked at places that had such machines, and there was no careful supervision, you could easily abet in such crimes.
There is a reason why people are giving the OP a hard time.
Is is possible? Yes.
Is it likely? No.
Is it possible that the OP/buyer is trying to scam Target out of a free iPad? Yes.
Is it more likely? Yes.
Just because you choose to give the OP the benefit of the doubt doesn't mean everyone else should too. Given the alleged circumstances, it looks sketchy to me. I prefer to have a little more facts and evidence instead of jumping to conclusions.
Something very similar happened to me once. I bought a Velociraptor hard drive from Best Buy. While I didn't get a box of rocks, I brought it home, opened it up (it was sealed, mind you) and inside was an old 200MB IDE hard drive. I immediately took it back, and after arguing with multiple people (including the store manager and corporate over the phone), I was denied any kind of refund. I was also accused of doing this myself by the store manager in front of other customers. It took a letter to the Consumerist (which they posted on their front page) to get it noticed by Best Buy "customer relations", who finally agreed to give me a gift card to cover what I paid for the hard drive.
What was really great is before they came back with the gift card, I filed a claim with my credit card to get the charge reversed. They contacted Best Buy, who informed them I was attempting a scam, so MasterCard sided with them. Thanks for the purchase protection, guys.
Anyway, I guess my point is, there are always two sides to a story, so while this on the surface looks fishy, anything's possible.
What was really great is before they came back with the gift card, I filed a claim with my credit card to get the charge reversed. They contacted Best Buy, who informed them I was attempting a scam, so MasterCard sided with them. Thanks for the purchase protection, guys.
Anyway, I guess my point is, there are always two sides to a story, so while this on the surface looks fishy, anything's possible.
Definitely a fake. Chinese people don't write words like the ones on the card in the picture. Clearly you looked for images on the internet that contained these words and copied the typography.
Why all of the disbelief?
It could be fake, it may have been done in the USA, etc.
Personally, I don't believe all quality control will check every single box.
Maybe I would be more skeptical if I had not had something similar happen to me.
When FedEx delivered my iPhone 4 to me, I remember thinking the box was pretty light. The FedEx lady then shook it around some and said, I don't think this is what it should feel like. She should now she had been schlepping them all morning.
I opened it in front of her and it was completely empty then we say the ripped area where someone had managed to get into the box without breaking the seal.
I took many photos and she gladly showed her badge and called her boss (she sure as heck didn't want to get in trouble either).
I had someone at FedEx tell me that I was pretty much lying because it is impossible anything like this could happen at FedEx and it must have been the Chinese.
Riiiigggghhhttttt.
So... do I think it is plausible that someone took the iPad, re-shrinked it and put it back on the shelf? I absolutely do. But I think it was more than likely a Target employee. From having worked in retail before more theft happens internally then externally (or at least the stores I worked at).
It could be fake, it may have been done in the USA, etc.
Personally, I don't believe all quality control will check every single box.
Maybe I would be more skeptical if I had not had something similar happen to me.
When FedEx delivered my iPhone 4 to me, I remember thinking the box was pretty light. The FedEx lady then shook it around some and said, I don't think this is what it should feel like. She should now she had been schlepping them all morning.
I opened it in front of her and it was completely empty then we say the ripped area where someone had managed to get into the box without breaking the seal.
I took many photos and she gladly showed her badge and called her boss (she sure as heck didn't want to get in trouble either).
I had someone at FedEx tell me that I was pretty much lying because it is impossible anything like this could happen at FedEx and it must have been the Chinese.
Riiiigggghhhttttt.
So... do I think it is plausible that someone took the iPad, re-shrinked it and put it back on the shelf? I absolutely do. But I think it was more than likely a Target employee. From having worked in retail before more theft happens internally then externally (or at least the stores I worked at).
I especially enjoyed the shape of the note enclosed with the rocks.
Now THAT took some time and thought.
Now THAT took some time and thought.
I have little doubt that properly executed, Apple could sell a few million nicely-packaged rocks.
Update
[UPDATE - March 20, 2012]
My coworker told me this morning that she went back to Target yesterday to return this item per instructions by Apple. When she bought the iPad 2, it was sealed in plastic and had no reason to believe there was anything wrong. Upon visiting the return desk, she said she was approached by Target security and was essentially interrogated for about an hour. At first she said they were very rude to her. Security said they had records of her buying iPads in our area and returning them (which is not true). She had never been to that Target store, nor had she ever purchased an iPad before. These tactics were obviously used to intimidate and flush out an actual thief. After listening to her story, and seeing her demeanor, it became apparent to security that she was not guilty of any wrong doing. She returned the iPad at the Target store of the original purchase and was told she had to purchase the iPad at another Target as they were sold out.
And a big thanks to all the people here at MacRumors who have accused me, the OP, as some type of schemer. This incident happened to my coworker, not me. I thought you all might enjoy this story as I thought it was hilarious seeing the rocks taped so well to the inside of the box. I have ordered my own 3rd generation iPad from Apple which is going to be delivered on the 22nd.
Again, my purpose in this post was to share a funny story with you all. I'm perplexed by the amount of degenerates who have nothing better to do but to cast aspersions on new members of this forum. I am embarrassed to call myself a member of this community.
[UPDATE - March 20, 2012]
My coworker told me this morning that she went back to Target yesterday to return this item per instructions by Apple. When she bought the iPad 2, it was sealed in plastic and had no reason to believe there was anything wrong. Upon visiting the return desk, she said she was approached by Target security and was essentially interrogated for about an hour. At first she said they were very rude to her. Security said they had records of her buying iPads in our area and returning them (which is not true). She had never been to that Target store, nor had she ever purchased an iPad before. These tactics were obviously used to intimidate and flush out an actual thief. After listening to her story, and seeing her demeanor, it became apparent to security that she was not guilty of any wrong doing. She returned the iPad at the Target store of the original purchase and was told she had to purchase the iPad at another Target as they were sold out.
And a big thanks to all the people here at MacRumors who have accused me, the OP, as some type of schemer. This incident happened to my coworker, not me. I thought you all might enjoy this story as I thought it was hilarious seeing the rocks taped so well to the inside of the box. I have ordered my own 3rd generation iPad from Apple which is going to be delivered on the 22nd.
Again, my purpose in this post was to share a funny story with you all. I'm perplexed by the amount of degenerates who have nothing better to do but to cast aspersions on new members of this forum. I am embarrassed to call myself a member of this community.
Your misguided sense of being so certain that returned items never make it back on the shelves reminds why I avoid interacting with retail employees as much as possible. It must zap the brain working in that environment.
The people who get away with this are not idiots like you so naively assume. Here is an easy-to-believe scenario: someone walks in and buys iPad, after making small talk with clerk or sales person. They immediately go out to their vehicle, swap the item, and re-shrinkwrap to factory new. Within a few minutes they are back in the store, beaming that they just found out their wife purchased them an iPad for their anniversary. Store personell sees it as being a waste to open a product that barely left the store so it goes back into stock.
Again, don't be so sure all thieves are as dumb as you think they are. You only caught the dumb ones.
I won't even get into how often crap like that can happen by the employees themselves. You do realize that inventory loss due to employee theft is much larger than shoplifting right?
http://www.jrrobertssecurity.com/security-news/security-crime-news0024.htm
Michael
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Enough.
The boys at Gawker saw this thread already, passed on it, its not going to happen.
BJ
Some friends also had a very similar thing happen several years ago at Best Buy in Sausalito, Ca. The guy's dad bought them a video camera as a wedding present (back when when pre-HD models were still $500 and up), and when they opened the box there was an older, well used video camera in its place. My friend brought it back and was blatantly accused of trying to scam them - within hearing range of other customers. The fact that he has dark skin probably didn't help matters any. I don't recall the exact details of what it took to make it right, but it involved hours of going step by step up the chain of command in the corporation, and the whole experience was completely humiliating and demoralizing.
Needless to say, they vowed to never set foot in Worst Buy (his words) again. With this in mind, I would definitely open any high-dollar item on the spot to avoid this sort of nonsense. What ever happened to "The customer is always right"?
I am sorry you were treated like this. I'm shocked and disappointed by the membership here as well.
Michael
Remember the days when Palm had the hot items.....
I went to BB (the electronics retailer) to purchase the Palm Vx on launch day. Bought it during lunch time, did not have time to open until after getting home late in the day. The box contained rocks but it was so late that BB was already closed. Went to BB the next day and the store manager was skeptic (but professional). He later returned with an opened box that had an actual unit in it. He said he had to open five boxes (others also contained rocks) until he found one with an actual unit.
Moral of the story, open your box before leaving the store.
I went to BB (the electronics retailer) to purchase the Palm Vx on launch day. Bought it during lunch time, did not have time to open until after getting home late in the day. The box contained rocks but it was so late that BB was already closed. Went to BB the next day and the store manager was skeptic (but professional). He later returned with an opened box that had an actual unit in it. He said he had to open five boxes (others also contained rocks) until he found one with an actual unit.
Moral of the story, open your box before leaving the store.
