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Returning fake stuff at stores?

anamznazn

anamznazn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2005
211
0
Philadelphia, PA
Something just boggled my mind earlier at work today. I was talking to my co-worker how his friend bought some RAM at circuit city. I'm not sure how much memory it was, but he kept it and returned it with a lower amount of RAM and got his full money back. It's obvious that the store didn't check for this. I was wondering what's the store's screening process for return items? Do they even check if it was the right item? Oh, I'm not sure if he paid with cash or credit, but does it even matter and could they ever get back to him?
 
If it was credit they could probably get him, but cash is pretty much untraceable. As for the dishonest returning, that's just despicable... how can anybody that does this sleep at night... perhaps he at least told them it didn't work so some innocent person isn't swindled.
 
I've never done that but I've done similar. I've exchanged a broken mouse to CompUSA that I bought offline.

One time I bought Starcraft battlechest from Media Play (remember that store, it was awesome) and then went back and returned the player's guides(media play carried books!) it came with, which basically made the game free.

Eh, not ethical I guess... This was when I was really young and had no money, which doesn't make it OK, but whatever.
 
To the op, most places won't take electronic parts back once open. They may let you swap for another of the same thing, but not get your money back. The store must have had a newer employee.
 
i could understand how a store may not check a computer for "as new" RAM & HDD, etc. on return but just purchasing the RAM alone and not checking it on return is a major blunder. Regardless, it's very wrong and just as bad as shoplifting. I hope the RAM Gods call his ill gotten goods to an early demise.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
What matters is that your coworker's friend is an unethical twunt. Regardless of anything else, karma's a bitch. Don't get on a plane with him.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Now think of the guy who happens to buy the returned goods and THEN tries to return it! You may want to call the store to let them know. Either way, if the store chooses to purse it they should have your friends info. They usually require an ID for returns.
 
It's jackasses like this that make products cost more. Retailers know about these things and price their products to absorb the losses. In the end, we all pay for it.
 
anamznazn said:
Something just boggled my mind earlier at work today. I was talking to my co-worker how his friend bought some RAM at circuit city. I'm not sure how much memory it was, but he kept it and returned it with a lower amount of RAM and got his full money back. It's obvious that the store didn't check for this. I was wondering what's the store's screening process for return items? Do they even check if it was the right item? Oh, I'm not sure if he paid with cash or credit, but does it even matter and could they ever get back to him?
Click to expand...

They'll catch on and trace it back to him.. especially if he paid via check or credit.

Tell your coworker to quit being a thief.
 
Your friend is a thief, he isn't just returning false items, he is stealing from the store. If he is paying in cash then it is virtually untraceable, and will probably get away with it. The worst part of this situation is the poor guy that buys the returned RAM and gets significantly less than what he thought he was purchasing, and he may not even notice it. Depending on how often he does it, and how much RAM he is stealing, then he could be robbing the store of thousands of dollars. I would find a way to rat him out, I know that he is your friend, but if he has done this more then once, then he is potentially guilty of grand-theft and could be charged as a felony count. I would at least talk to him and attempt to straighten him out.
 
People who do this stuff don't care. My ex-roommate stole thousands of dollars from Subway a month when he worked there. He had a menial job making sandwiches but skimmed off the top by not ringing up just about every other order and pocketing the money after the customer left. This enabled him to work minimal hours and sustain his half of rent and bills and have season tickets to the Mavericks and so forth. I turned his ass in to the cops, provided a written and verbal statement, and contacted the owner of that Subway and had him catch the guy on tape, but the cops still didn't do anything.

Anyways, didn't mean to divert, but the point is that people like him won't learn. Especially if they continue to get away with it. But why do you the think the return to jail rate is so high for criminals? Because they don't learn/change. They get out and go right back to doing the same old things hoping that this time they won't get caught, or at least that they'll get some money and fun out of it before they do.

I cut all contact with that roommate and have avoided all attempts to get back in touch on his part. It's not worth it. Nobody needs a friend like that. Even if you think they're nice and you have fun together and it's just this one thing about them that bothers you, that one thing is not a small factor. It's a huge part of their underlying character and not easily changed, especially not for a friend. When it comes to money, these people would rather have the cash than a conscientious friend telling them to stop. Keep that in mind.
 
I love how people defend, large, soulless and faceless international corporations.

With no real point other than sounding highly moral and pleasing themselves.

Equating the typical, run-of-the-mill return "scam", to those who have no will to keep themselves from a life in prison, is a bit of a stretch.
 
Sdashiki said:
I love how people defend, large, soulless and faceless international corporations.

With no real point other than sounding highly moral and pleasing themselves.

Equating the typical, run-of-the-mill return "scam", to those who have no will to keep themselves from a life in prison, is a bit of a stretch.
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In my particular example, the analogy holds. My roommate had a father in jail most of his life, drug dealer for a brother (multiple arrests), and was himself constantly getting arrested for outstanding warrants, though to be honest those were mostly for unpaid speeding tickets. His thought process was that it was better to never pay them and hope to not get caught again, but if he did get caught he had no problem spending the night in jail in order to negate or at least lower the fine due. You can see the fine upstanding quality person that he is, right?

He didn't just steal from one job one time. He stole from multiple jobs over multiple years all for selfish purposes. I would have overlooked it had he been in desperate need of the money for something serious in his life, but this guy was stealing to purchase sporting event tickets and take out random girls from myspace in the hopes of getting laid on the first date so he could move on to the next girl. People like that don't deserve our pity or understanding just because they stole from a "faceless international corporations". They deserve a prison sentence.
 
Stealing...theft...

or

Misdirection...retribution...

?

There are no more Mom n Pop stores. Only corporations, and personally, I could care less about them and all their money.
 
Sdashiki said:
Stealing...theft...

or

Misdirection...retribution...

?

There are no more Mom n Pop stores. Only corporations, and personally, I could care less about them and all their money.
Click to expand...

The problem is, what makes you think people who steal like the OP's "friend" and my ex-roommate care about whether they steal for a corporate conglomerate or a small family store? They don't. They just want what they want and they'll take it where they can get it. In the end, everybody loses.
 
Some stores do check. He'll get caught eventually. In addition, stores will change their policy if they are seeing certain kind of fraud repeating.

In some countries they would cut off his hands for theft.
 
My mate took the sticker off a small mellon and put it on a big one so he got a big mellon for the price of a small one. I dont think he does that much and its only fruit, it aint thousands of pounds worth of cars, so I dont really care, as far as I am concerned, he can do what he likes.
 
Sdashiki said:
Stealing...theft...

or

Misdirection...retribution...

?

There are no more Mom n Pop stores. Only corporations, and personally, I could care less about them and all their money.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting, though, that these souless corporations hire real people for menial wages. And if the public is screwing the corporations over, they'll balance that by screwing over their employees at the bottom.

So yeah, you may not care about the corporations, but I'd rather not do something that causes someone who's barely scraping by to lose thier job becuase the guys at the top would rather let them go rather than lose their bonus.
 
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