Hoodwinked by a Retailer; What Did You Do?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Customer Robin Crowley’s experience made me recall the time I bought a new video game for a gift, but was left with only an empty box when the package was opened later.</p>

<p>In Crowley’s case it appears that the Target Department Store in Canada has thus far chosen its words carefully when asked why a used Apple AirPad was sold to her as new, sealed box and all.</p>

<p>When I found out about the empty video game box, I immediately returned to the Video game shop, an independent retailer. I didn’t have the game with me because I had sent it over 3,000 miles away to a toddler relative as a gift. I know that there are unscrupulous customers who switch, steal and fraudulently demand returns and refunds. But the store owner refused to even reasonably discuss the situation with me. He seemed not to have a care in the world when I told him I would absolutely reverse the credit card charges. All it took was a letter to VISA and they credited my account right away. From then on, I made such purchases from major national retailers only. Of course, in Ms. Crowley’s case, she did deal with a major retailer; Target.</p>

<p>What did you do when you opened a box and didn’t find what you paid for?</p>

2

<p>The only time this has happened to me was with a Burger King when I was a teenager and I found a roach in my burger box. They absolutely treated me like I was lying and trying to get free food. Why would I want free food from there!!! I still assume it was an employee but still…</p>

3

<p>Apparently, scammers have taken to re-shrink-wrapping boxes after removing or replacing the contents and then returning the apparently unopened shrink-wrapped boxes. At least one major electronics store around here will open any returned boxes (even if still shrink-wrapped) to verify the contents before issuing the refund (they then re-shrink-wrap the boxes and reshelve the items with disclosure and price discount).</p>

4

<p>A few years back I bought TurboTax at Costco - it was an empty box (this was when it was a CD). I went back, told them, and they gave me a new one with CD included.</p>

5

<p>You should fight them. Take it higher and higher until you get what you deserved.</p>

6

<p>I have had it happen at times over the years,in general the higher end the retailer the most solicitous they are. Years ago I bought an amplifier from one of those famous retailers with “Crazy” prices, and when I got home I found a cheap, no name amplifier in the box instead of the middle of the line high end amplifier (nakamichi is anyone cares). When I took it back, the store manager accused me of lying about buying a high end amplifier, that I must have bought the cheap one then came back to scam them out of the high end one, only problem was someone must not have told the sales associate to botch the receipt, that stated the exact model I bought, then he tried to claim I had the good one and was scamming them for another of the high end unit (which told me he knew darn well they were scamming customers), and then he had security throw me out of the store. I got the charge removed from my Amex (Amex told me they had had a number of problems with that merchant), I then called a cousin who worked in the DA’s office in NYC, they got involved with consumer affairs, Amex let me know not to worry and they had dropped their account with the merchant, then suddenly I got this call from someone in their customer affairs, apologizing for the ‘mixup’, wanting to ‘make it right’ (they were willing to sell me another unit for 10% off the price) and that they told the store manager to give me a personal apology or else (never got one, and the sleazeball was working there long after this), and I told them where to stick it in several different languages…place later went out of business and several members of the family who ran it went to jail for all kinds of fraud and not reporting income…</p>

<p>The other big one I remember, not fondly, was the auto arm of a certain famous retailer. where I had gotten work done on the car we had at the time (the reason I went there was it was convenient, we had only one car, I could take it in on Saturday and wander the mall where it was while they worked on it). Besides the usual scam, pressuring me I needed this and that (best was a catalytic converter on a car with 20k miles on it, whose check engine light mysteriously came on while being serviced, that when I traced it turned out to be a wire ‘mysteriously’ came off the O2 censor on the exhaust), finding out they stripped a lug nut, you name it. I had some of their famous “lifetime” shocks that used to die at around 10,000 miles, and they would claim to replace them I would have to replace other things…last time, they claimed I needed new springs, meanwhile they never checked it, I guarantee that, my car was parked where I had left it, and checking springs means making measurements on concrete, which they didn’t do…didn’t get my struts, I ended up doing those myself, but I became a filer on a class action lawsuit that ended up with major penalties against the chain of auto stores. I had an interesting conversation with their regional manager, who at first tried to convince me I didn’t know what I was talking about (until I explained my automotive background and knowledge), then admitted that the lifetime parts thing was a loss leader, that basically they would sell you the idea there was a lifetime guarantee, but basically they would make you do all these other costly repairs to get it, that otherwise they would lose money on them…my only hope is that the retailer I am talking about finally goes down for the count, they have been on life support for many years now <em>blah</em>.</p>

7

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<p>I have yet to have a bad customer service experience at Costco.</p>

8

<p>I bought an XBOX game as a gift a few years ago for one of my boys and found it empty. Promptly took it back to Sam’s Club and they gave me a full refund and were very apologetic.</p>

9

<p>Musicprnt, I know the electronics store you’re talking about and I remember when the company leaders got what was coming to them, legally speaking.</p>

<p>It seems to me that the “empty box” scenario, or the ‘wrong item in the box’ circumstance can be readily exploited by a crooked retailer, leaving the duped customer in the lurch. One can always ask the Credit Card issuer to reverse the charges, but I suspect that crooks may be willing to fight to the last breath to hold on to their ill-gotten cash.</p>

10

<p>I also know the electronics store you’re speaking of. I worked at a benefits consulting firm and was tasked with trying to get that company better/cheaper medical coverage with an insurance company. I sent out a Request for Proposals. One of the insurance companies called me to tell me that the electronics store would lie to insurers and only add employees to the coverage when they had a claim. So instead of insuring and paying premiums for the correct number of employees, they were lowballing them and only paying for folks who had claims.</p>

<p>I’m surprised they didn’t fire employees who had claims! Or maybe they did.</p>

11

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<p>I would not be surprised if the actual crooks have long since gotten away with the scam*, leaving the victims (the retailer and the subsequent customer) to fight over who gets stuck with the losses.</p>

<p>*As described in post #3: crook buys an expensive item, removes it from the box, fills the box with worthless stuff that weighs about the same, re-shrink-wraps the box, then returns the apparently-unopened box for a refund. It only works if the retailer is not suspicious enough to check that the returned box includes the correct contents (which is probably most retailers).</p>

12

<p>Everyone is being so respectful by not naming them. Crazy Eddie, people ! Why be nice to them. Or is it that you just don’t want to speak ill of the dead? Crazy Eddie bilked everyone they could, in every way they could. They went to jail for lying about manipulating the stock price. Nasty, nasty people. </p>

<p>A friend of mine bought a tv at Crazy Eddie’s and because she’d heard of issues, she opened the box right there in front of the clerk - and found the box contained a large brick, and no tv! Not much they could say. Jail was definitely where they belonged.</p>

13

<p>Complain on the internet. Write a review on a heavily frequented website.</p>

<p>I have had good luck so far. A lamp that didn’t work I took back to Home Depot. When the second one also didn’t work, I asked for a refund and they gave me one. </p>

<p>When I was a little girl I received a pull string talking doll who spoke once, then went mute. My mom boxed her up and sent her back with a heart strings tucking note and we got a replacement within the week.</p>

14

<p>I’ve heard they respond very quickly to twitter tweets!</p>

15

<p>Not hoodwinked but in the days when it was apparently easier to find a phone number and speak to a person at Amazon, I had them overnight me a copy of an AP review book that my daughter needed to study for an exam. I had ordered it in sufficient time and they shipped it via USPS but it never arrived. When I called them, I was told to go to the post office to ask about the delivery as their records showed it reached my local post office. Well my local post office could not help at all so I called Amazon back and said that had I wanted to drive to my local post office and put money in the parking meter to chat with my postal clerk(s), I could just have easily have driven a bit longer and gone to a shopping mall and bought the book in either B. Dalton or Waldenbooks I even could have driven further and bought the book in Barnes & Noble along with any of the other books I was planning to get. Review book delivered overnight, no shipping charged to me.</p>

16

<p>My mom used to run a candy store and we sold Perugina chocolates in boxes. We used to open one up once in a while and partake. One day, opened a box, and it had gotten bugs or something and all the chocolates, inside the individual wrappers had gone empty/moldy/dusty. Don’t even remember other than it was gross. Opened more boxes, same story. Surprisingly, we never had anyone come in and report their box of chocolates being bad but did wonder how many romances had been broken up by the giving of a moldy box of chocolates.</p>

17

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Uh-- watch out if you do this. Have you seen this? [Online</a> company fines couple for negative review - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/couple-fined-for-negative-review/]Online”>http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/couple-fined-for-negative-review/) Of course the stupid company is getting even MORE negtive publicity for fining the customer for writing a bad review. But according to what I heard on the radio on my way home, more companies are putting in their fine print that you "agree’ to that you wont do anything that can adversely affect their corporate image.</p>

<p>My favorite “wrong item” story involves renting a VHS video (remember them?) for DS#1 when he was little. I forget what the video was supposed to be (some Disney animation perhaps) , but it turned out to be an x rated film from the “back” part of their store!! We didn’t see the movie when he first popped it into the VCR, but he came in inquiring why the people were doing exercises in the bed!! :eek: :eek: Ran REAL FAST to get that out of the VCR!</p>

18

<p>i kid you not - when I was very little, my parents…or was it my uncle?..gave me a doll for Christmas called “Little Lost Baby” or something similar to that. I opened the box on Christmas morning and there was nothing in it. (I was pretty little, so I don’t remember this.) My dad said there was a lot of commotion, as there typically is on Christmas morning with three very young kids, so they didn’t notice right away. Then they realized I was just sitting there silently looking at an empty box.</p>