Best Buy Customer Gets Box Full of Bathroom Tiles Instead of Hard Drive

The Consumerist is reporting that a Best Buy customer recently purchased a hard drive only to discover that the box contained six ceramic bathroom tiles instead of the Western Digital drive he had expected. The rub of it is Best Buy is refusing to grant a refund or exchange for the non-existent drive. "The employee and assistant manager were more than willing to help, saying that it happens. So they set up the return and I repurchased the drive and while I was checking the contents to ensure it was a hard drive this time, the store manager came up, took the box from me and said to take it up with the manufacturer. Now to my surprise, I argued with the guy saying that they have already accepted the return and I have now purchased the new one. He said I was shit out of luck. I followed up with the manufacturer today and they said they would get the complaint to the Best Buy Purchasing department. Best Buy corporate said that they stand by their manager's decision."

It happened before.

[by Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me so much of the story of someone I know who back in the mid-90s had a shrink wrapping machine. He bought a CD-ROM drive from some department store, took it home, took the CD-ROM drive out. Then he took a brick and placed it back in the CD-ROM box, srinkwrapped the box and then returned it to the store like it was unopened.

Now can you imagine what the next person who bought that had to go through?

• Customer: "Hi, I bought this CD-ROM drive, took it home and it had a brick in it."
• Store Manager: "Sure it did, where's the drive buddy?"

So thisb fhf could just be a case of someone trying to trick Best Buy and trying to use a grass roots campaign scam Best Buy.

Re:It happened before.

[bluelip (123578)]

Wow... imagine how the guy at Home Depot is going to feel when he finds this whiz-bang-blinkenlights metal brick in his box of tiles.

Re:It happened before.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me about a joke, from my country in the past.

A guy from the local mafia decided he needed a new house. After the construction of his new house was finished, he called one of his best friends to see his home.
When he asked his friend, what he thought, his friend said he was rather impressed. But he didn't like the tiles in the bathroom, they were rather ugly and he wondered how his friend could afford such an expensive house, but buy such crappy bathroom tiles.
The guy from the mafia disagreed. "They are not inexpensive at all. Come with me"
They went to the bathroom again. "Can you see what's written on them?"
And his friend noticed with surprise that all tiles were labelled "Intel Pentium Pro"

Re:It happened before.

[stefanlasiewski (63134)]

imagine how the guy at Home Depot is going to feel when he finds this whiz-bang-blinkenlights metal brick in his box of tiles.

Home Depot only sells two kinds of tile: smashed tiles, and missing tiles. I'm sure this metal brick will be smashed into a million pieces before it even reaches the shelf.

Re:It happened before.

[TheGeneration (228855)]

Clearly the only way we can resolve this (and simultaneously cause major problems for Best Buy) is to unpack our purchases while we stand at the counter to check the contents. I mean, obviously you can't trust Best Buy.

A few years ago I went to the Virgin Mega Store and picked up a CD. I was with a friend and when we got back to my apartment I opened up the CD and inside was a blank CD-R. I took it back to the store and they thankfully exchanged the disc. I think it might have been touch and go there for a moment, but in the end we're talking a few bucks for them to replace it vs. losing my business forever if they don't.

Best Buy apparently doesn't understand this concept, that or they just don't care. Either way, I'm unpacking my purchase completely at the counter before I walk away, just in case.

Re:It happened before.

[eth1 (94901)]

Not quite the only way...
- Always use a credit card... if he'd done that, as soon as Best Buy refuses to take it back, just stand there in front of the manager, call your card customer service, and have it charged back
- Contact your state's attorney general and notify them that Best Buy is fraudulently selling bathroom tiles labeled as hard drives
- Then complain to the BBB just to cover all the bases

Re:It happened before.

[garnetlion (786722)]

grass roots campaign scam Best Buy.

As opposed to all those slick, corporate-funded attempts to scam Best Buy.

This is so easy to prevent

[Solandri (704621)]

FTA:

The employee and assistant manager were more than willing to help, saying that it happens.

If it's happened before, then they must know that an intact shrinkwrap is not sufficient proof of an untampered box. Assuming they have a shrink-wrapping machine in the store, they should open all returned products regardless of shrinkwrap to verify that it contains the original box contents. If it does, re-shrinkwrap it and put it back on the shelf (or send it back to the manufacturer if defective). If it contains a brick, the police can tote the customer off to jail and scammers would be discouraged from trying to do this. It would cost, what, 5 cents in plastic and a few minutes of labor? The important thing is it needs to be a store-wide policy for it to work - you need to know that anything shrinkwrapped on your shelves is direct from the manufacturer or was inspected by your staff to verify it was pristine before shrinkwrapping.

Re:It happened before.

[jamie (78724)]

I had a bad shrink-wrapping experience once.

Back in 1993 or so, I was not only the chief Macintosh programmer for an educational-games company, I was its only in-house programmer and also the main Mac tech support guy. That meant my working on our next game would be interrupted by answering the phone to deal with customer complaints about the last game I'd written. It sounds cruel but it may have helped inspire me to write better software :)

Anyway, I got a really puzzling complaint from one woman who was irate, and had a right to be. Our software had infected her PC with the Michaelangelo virus. She was mad enough that I had to take the call despite it not being our Mac version. It took a lot of calming-down but I was able to make her understand that it was impossible for the floppy disks to leave our warehouse with the virus because we'd shipped the exact same disks to thousands of other people and hers was our first Michaelangelo complaint. But she had taken the disks to her local PC-repair shop and they'd tested positive for Michaelangelo.

So I asked her where she'd bought them. J&B Computer World. Fine. I called up her local J&B and eventually got put through to a manager... after some prodding, it turned out they'd had a Michaelangelo outbreak at their store a month prior. Oh, and yes they did sometimes "test out" the software they resold by playing it themselves. Oh, and yes, they had a shrink-wrapping machine.

I called back our customer with the news and she said she was going to take it up with J&B. I always wished I could have listened in on that call :)

Re:It happened before.

[PopeRatzo (965947)]

Well, let's see: We know that Best Buy has machines for shrinkwrapping, because they wrap their "refurbished" and returned merch. Since the price of a shrink-wrap machine and the hassle and time involved are worth a lot more than the $300 ($300?? what was this, one of the new quantum hard drives?) I place the criminal activity inside the store. It's probably the old "tamper with the shelved merchandise and get a new hard drive" routine, which was popular among dope fiend-retail workers back in the day.

I'm guessing one of the Geek Squad is a tweaker/video gamer who decided he wants a spiffy new hard drive for free. He's probably high as a kite, playing WoW right this minute.

Have you seen who works in Best Buy these days?

Re:It happened before.

[xjimhb (234034)]

"Have you seen who works in Best Buy these days?"

Do you know how their hiring process works?

A couple years ago a new Worst Buy was opening, and I thought I'd apply - looking for a mostly back-room techie job. Went to their on-line application site, answered 2 or 3 questions about my technical expertise, then spent some FORTY FIVE MINUTES on psychological profile crap - you know, "would you rather kiss your car or step on a snake?" questions. Went to their hiring office in the mall, girl looked me up and told me they would NOT be calling me for an interview.

Apparently, based on that test, I wasn't enough of a "cheerful Charlie" which FAR, FAR outweighed any tech skills I might have possessed.

Haven't bought a thing from Worst Buy since them.

Re:It happened before.

[Hal_Porter (817932)]

If I had the catalog handy, I'd be quoting you prices right now.

I wouldn't buy a shrink wrap machine off someone who already owned one. They could sell me a box of bricks shrinkwrapped into the original shrink wrap machine box and then spend the money on heroin. Vermin bastards. If I ever start a religion the penalty for shrink wrap crime would be to be shrink wrapped to death on a cross.

Not that you could trust the people doing the execution come to think of it. God damnit.

Re:It happened before.

[Cajun Hell (725246)]

Also, are you implying that today you CAN return software with the shrink wrap broken? I find that surprising, but I haven't tried to return software in a long time.

I tried returning software a few months ago, but ibiblio.org wouldn't let me upload the damned unstable Gentoo packages back to the ftp server. Bastards!

Re:It happened before.

[Paradise Pete (33184)]

Lord knows salesperson incompetence is a believable story at Fry's.

A few weeks ago I was in Fry's looking for a laptop stand. I asked a clerk and he said "You mean the kind you put coins in?"

I didn't know how to answer that.

Re:It happened before

[gnuman99 (746007)]

It is theft and scam. I hope Best Buy tracks down the assholes that are doing this and pass the "costs" down on them + a nice visit to police station in cuffs + nice fine and restitution.

This is actually a case *for* unique ids like RFID to be implemented everywhere. At least that way you would be able to track down the asshole that stole from Best Buy and the guy in question. Now it is still possible, but will take time. I'm sick and tired that Best Buy should "eat it". The thief should be the one that eats the damn tiles.

As for the guy that ended up with garbage (if BestBuy didn't do the right thing, as they didn't seem to),
    1. file a police report
    2. chargeback credit card
    3. contact drive manufacturer and report that the drive in question was stolen -- this at least voids warranty on the drive
    4. if new drive is not handed over by Best Buy (show them police report), add to the police report that they stole your new drive
    5. if Best Buy continue to not hand over the drive, sue them for selling you a brick (small claims) + taking money for it + ALL your time you lost + court filing fees. Just do not exaggerate your time - judges don't like that.

Unfortunately, theft like this hits us all in the pocketbooks all the way from customers up to Best Buy shareholders.

As to parent, I don't know what "people" you hang around with that "do this all the time". Sounds like a bunch of assholes to me.

Re:It happened before

[SkyDude (919251)]

As for the guy that ended up with garbage (if BestBuy didn't do the right thing, as they didn't seem to),
5. if Best Buy continue to not hand over the drive, sue them for selling you a brick (small claims) + taking money for it + ALL your time you lost + court filing fees. Just do not exaggerate your time - judges don't like that.

Unfortunately, one can't sue for time in small claims in the US. A small claims action is designed to replace property value. A plaintiff will never be made whole in small claims court.

IANAL but have been a plaintiff.

Re:It happened before

[Embedded2004 (789698)]

What the hell are you talking about?! How hard is it to take a look inside of the box to make sure it's actually a harddrive?

Are you stupid? Do you look through everything you buy to make sure it's exactly what it's labeled as? I sure as hell don't open my cereal boxes in the store just make sure I'm really getting cereal.

Re:It happened before

[UncleTogie (1004853)]

Ever seen them try to verify your address? I've never been asked for my driver's license. It's pretty easy to fake that info.

Agreed, and I've never given them my real info. *I* know I'm not ripping 'em off, and so feel no reason to jump through hoops clueless suits create.

Somewhere, in a marketing database somewhere, sits:

Elmer Fudd
22 Acacia Avenue
San Antonio, RI, 90210

Re:It happened before

[NaturePhotog (317732)]

Dear Mistuh Togie,

I'm glad I finally twacked you down. I've been getting endless junk mail related to prowducts I've never purchased. I got a restwaining order against that pesky wabbit, but the junk mail still kept coming.

May you wot in hell.

sincerwly,
Elmer J. Fudd

Re:It happened before

[Belial6 (794905)]

What you are missing is that the store did in fact refund the persons money. The person then purchased a new hard drive. The store manager proceeded to commit a robbery by seizing the persons property without their permission. The property that was siezed was a hard drive. The transaction concerning the tiles was over and done with in a legal fashion.

To use your analogy, if you showed me a picture of Tower Bridge, and delivered the London Bridge, (Yes, even though I am an America, I do understand the difference. ;) ) and when I called you on it, you told me that sometimes this mistake happens, and delivered the Tower Bridge, there would be no breach of contract. Of course, if after the transaction is over, and the correct bridge has been delivered, you turned around and seize the Tower bridge from me, and told me to take it up with your corporate headquarters, you would not be in breach of contract. It would be a simple robbery. OK, not simple. It is a bridge after all, but it would still be robbery.

The issue here isn't that the store refused the return. The took the return. The real issue is that after the guy bought a real (presumably) function hard drive, the manager of the store approached the customer, and seized his property. That is robbery.

Re:It happened before.

[Oliver Wendell Jones (158103)]

As an ex-BestBuy employee I know a little about the fraud that goes on in that store. During the brief holiday season that I worked there, Packard Bell had a promotion (if that gives you any idea how long ago this was) that you would receive a free OEM-bagged Sound Blaster card with the purchase of every system. We had a case of 100 Sound Blaster cards behind the counter that disappeared overnight.

One of the employees discovered that when you climb the ladder up to the stock area up above the shelves, there are no security cameras to keep an eye on you, so here's what you do... Get a case of printer paper and carefully slip the plastic bands off that hold the box shut. Remove the reams of paper inside and place them on the shelf for sale. Tear open hard drive boxes, sound card boxes, software packages, anything you want and toss the remnants around and pack the contents inside the now empty printer paper box until it's completely full, then replace the lid and plastic bands and carry the box down the ladder and put the box full of "paper" on the back of the shelf behind several boxes that really contain paper. Come to the store on your next day off and pull your box of "paper" from the back of the shelf and pay $19.99 for it and walk out of the store with several hundred dollars worth of gear. You got the BestBuy!

This stupid employee came over to visit my brother and told him (in front of me) how he managed to get away with it and just assumed (incorrectly) that I wouldn't mention it to my manager or the store manager the next day. The store manager told me that they suspected him but didn't know how he was doing it and after hearing how they confronted him and told him that they were giving him one last chance to return the stolen items or they would call the police. His reply was something to the effect of "go ahead, if you had any evidence you would have already called the police." And then they kept him employed!!! They did not fire him!!! He quit on his own a few weeks later when he realized that he was under constant supervision and wouldn't have an opportunity to steal again.

Re:It happened before.

[TobyRush (957946)]

My wife and I purchased a comforter set at Target that included the comforter, bed skirt, and two pillow shams... except after getting it home, opening it, and putting it on the bed (it's a queen-size bed, so getting the bedskirt on is not a quick and easy process) we realized that one of the shams was defective. I took the bad sham back to Target and asked the customer service drone if she (or I) could just replace it with one of the shams from another set. She was sympathetic, but explained that The System would not allow her to do that; that I would have to return the entire set and swap it out for a new one. I didn't bother to explain how much of a pain it would be to pull the bedskirt and everything off, repackage it, etc., etc., and how gee, it would sure be nice to buy something and have it actually meet a certain standard of quality, etc., etc., since I knew that I was not up against this drone but against The System.

So I told her I would be back in just a moment... I went to the shelf, pulled off a matching set, and went to customer service to pay for it (just for the pure thrill of having her witness the whole transaction). Took it out to my car, swapped out the shams, and brought it back to the customer service desk. "I'd like to return this comforter set--" I says to her, "it has a defective pillow sham." She refunded my money and I went home with my nice new, non-defective sham.

Re:It happened before.

[reddburn (1109121)]

Women know. When you find one who moves in, you will soon learn. You will also learn about the pillows that you aren't supposed to use for sleeping, and the blanket that sits on the foot of the bed, only to be removed at bedtime and replaced the next morning. You will learn about towels that nobody except for "guests" may use. Ditto plates and silverware. Occasionally, candles will fall into this category. When this woman moves in, you will often find yourself nodding as though it all makes sense, if only to ensure that you will get to continue to have sex.

Re:It happened before.

[192939495969798999 (58312)]

If you think you'll continue to have sex just for that, you must not have lived with her for very long.

Re:It happened before.

[Fieryphoenix (1161565)]

Oh, we learnt them English. Learnt em real Old School. Then they came back and we learnt em agin. The Canucks'll say different, but its all sour grapes on their part. Ayup.

Retail theft, and not the kind you're thinking of.

[PockyBum522 (1025001)]

This is absurd. From reading TFA it sounds like the best buy manager took his new hard drive away from him. This is absolutely criminal. I hope best buy learns from this after they get posted all over the internet. Oh wait, they just did! If you don't want to give your customers service then you really shouldn't be accepting customers. Also, shouldn't this be "Your rights Offline?"

Re:Retail theft, and not the kind you're thinking

[darkmeridian (119044)]

In this situation, just take it up with your credit card company if you bought using your credit card. Otherwise, you're in trouble, no?

Incidentally, that's why I buy everything I can (except for low-cost stuff) with my credit card. If I'm unhappy, I can complain. More importantly, I can threaten to void purchases. The threat of voiding purchases via your credit card, in my experience, is more useful than actually voiding purchases. The only time I've actually had to follow through on the threat was when hotels.com charged my card but didn't reserve a room for me. Hotels.com refused to cancel the payment because I hadn't given them enough warning. (Ha!) I couldn't get the CSR droid to give up, so I just reserved a new room at the same hotel (for a lower price) and then voided the hotels.com purchase.

Most of the time, though, your credit card company will be on your side, especially if you are a high-value account that buys lots of stuff and have a high credit limit.

Re:Retail theft, and not the kind you're thinking

[daeg (828071)]

This is why I use Amex exclusively and do not shop at stores that do not accept Amex. I have, unfortunately, had to use the Amex privilege several times to get merchants to cooperate. Amex has always been grand -- on one horrible purchase that a merchant refused to refund, Amex credited the charge but didn't void the transaction, so the merchant got paid. The merchant subseuquently refunded my purchase, and even after I alerted Amex that they had given me a few hundred bucks for free, the service rep told me it was all taken care of and it was my lucky day. That's pretty damn sweet considering most credit card companies are the root of all evil.

Re:Retail theft, and not the kind you're thinking

[Seumas (6865)]

First of all, how do you prove that you didn't just stuff the box full of crap and try to exchange it so you could wind up with two drives for the price of one? It may be legitimate and the blame may be at some point in the supply chain at or before Best Buy, but how does one prove it? And how do you - as a retailer - not end up with a bunch of morons returning boxes that they've stuffed crap into, as well?

It would seem the only reasonable thing to do from this point on is to open a box and make sure your item is in there before leaving the store. That's what I intend to do after hearing enough of these stories. If you haven't left the store, then they can't put the blame on you and you can return it right there.

Re:Retail theft, and not the kind you're thinking

[cayenne8 (626475)]

"The person this happened to should file a complaint with the state Attorney General. By giving him a box of tiles instead of a hard drive, Best Buy is committing fraud."

Well, maybe at first, however, in TFA, I got the idea, that BB had already accepted the return, and the customer had bought and paid for a NEW harddrive and had that in hand.

The manager then took the drive from his hand, etc. Now, if the customer had a drive and receipt...I would think what the BB manager did to him was plain and simple theft. I'd contact the Atty General about that.....

yep!

[jkinney3 (535278)]

Sounds like Best Buy. With all the great press they get on/., why do people still go there?

Re:yep!

[griffjon (14945)]

I presume most /. types go there to do this: http://xkcd.com/272/ [xkcd.com]

Re:yep!

[moderatorrater (1095745)]

It's why I tend to grab all hardware at Compusa. As every time I've had an issue their extra warranty has resulted in a shiney new piece of gear replacement immediatly. It's a bit further then BB, but the more horror stories I hear about BB the less I go there.

"I was tired of North Korea's harsh penalties for being a citizen. That's why I moved to Iran!" ;)

Western Digital or bathroom tiles?

[jollyreaper (513215)]

Keep the tiles; they're more reliable.

Chargeback

[IndustrialComplex (975015)]

If you purchased with a credit card, can't you issue a chargeback?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback [wikipedia.org]

Granted it is only wikipedia, but it does list 'failure to issue a refund' as a reason for a chargeback.

Was it an open box item.....

[yoder (178161)]

that didn't get checked upon return? If not, then I'd have to be as doubtful about that return as the manager was.

And the worst thing is...

[tomknight (190939)]

...they'll somehow find child pornography on the tiles.

Don't Shop at Best Buy?

[morari (1080535)]

I mean, seriously. Any time I'm in there it's nothing but a bunch of assholes trying to shove sales down your throat, sign you up for credit cards, etc. No one that works there ever knows what they're talking about either, so unless you're completely ignorant, they usually are of no help if you do happen to have questions.

I guess the one positive thing we could say is that at least the Best Buy employees don't drool on themselves within customer eyesight like RadioShack ones. :P

You Americans and your Crazy Laws

[igb (28052)]

In the UK, and it's similar in most of Europe, we have the Sale of Goods Act. If a business sells things, it is responsible for those things being of merchantable quality. If they're not, it's the vendor's problem. Yes, he will then back that responsibility off to the manufacturer or the wholesaler, but the issue is his problem. I'm constantly astounded by the shambles the US gets into because so far as I can tell the retailer adds precisely no value: if he sells stuff that doesn't work, he can just wave his hands and pass the problem off to the manufacturer.

If I buy something and it doesn't work, I take it back to the store and they replace it or repair it. They can then take it up with the manufacturer, or not: I don't care. Repair is a high-stakes game, because if trading standards believe that they're doing it to delay, or that the failure was unreasonable, they vendor has a problem. SoGA protection is a movable feast, but applies for at least a year.

Re:You Americans and your Crazy Laws

[140Mandak262Jamuna (970587)]

The problem is not the laws. It is essentially Best Buy claiming that there is no proof that the box they sold had these tiles. It is possible that this guy took the drive, put some tiles in and claim this is what was inside the box. On the other hand, a scam artist like that would not create a hue and cry and issue stop payment order to American Express. The store should have used some judgment. Most stores actually track the purchase/return history of every credit card used in their store. Recently Walmart puts people who return merchandise too often in a watch list and restrict their "no-questions asked return policy."

My guess of what happened: Someone orders the drive, gets it, removes it repacks it with tiles. If this guy has access to shrink wrap machine, he reseals the package and gets full refund. Store thinks the package has not even been opened and restocks it and sends out again to this honest customer.

Given the numbers and bar codes and the tracking they do, BB should be able to find out who ordered and returned the drive and pursue that scammer. To prevent the recurrence, BB should use shrink wrap with its logo and other counterfeit proof shrink wrap.

Obligatory

[Psychor (603391)]

Receiving those tiles must have driven him up the wall.

Where's the verification?

[Paeva (1176857)]

This story has been published in the Consumerist and now on Slashdot without either publication checking facts and looking for at least talking points from Best Buy itself. As far as I'm concerned, this story may yet be true, but all I can safely assume is that someone took some pictures of bathroom tiles wrapped in newspaper next to his HDD box in the hopes of scamming Best Buy out of a second drive for free or perhaps just defaming them as revenge for something unrelated. I agree with the columnist in the Consumerist that if this fellow does want to take the issue seriously he should file a complaint for theft and/or a consumer complaint with the Attorney General's office. Up to now, all we're doing by disseminating this story is continuing to feed the anonymous-libel monster.

Solution?

[Reason58 (775044)]

Think of this from the store's point of view for a moment. Should they just go on good faith? What's to stop tens of thousands of people from buying anything they want and coming back with am empty box demanding their money back? Once word of Best Buy's honor system policy gets out they would be bankrupted by scams.

When I was a Best Buy Manager ...

[by Anonymous Coward]

I was a customer service manager for a Best Buy in Houston, TX for a little over a year. Best Buy Store #291 - "The PowerHouse" Galleria. This store did incredible revenue. My specialty was dealing with overtly horrible Best Buy politics on a daily basis. I sat in on numerous Geek Squad and Home Installation meetings where Management would tell the service sales people to increase their service revenue "by any means necessary." I kid you not, I saw employees express concern about the prices and methods of invoking cash from vulnerable customers, and the management would repeat itself by saying, "by any means necessary." I saw an employee charge a customer $59 to "diagnose" her computer when a CD was stuck in her CD-rom drive, when all he did was pop it out with a paper clip. I saw more horrible Best Buy policies than you could imagine, and I made a good living for a year of my life, trying to negotiate comprimises between customers who had been ripped off bluntly, and Best Buy's corporate ladder, to try and salvage any sliver of dignity that company could possibly salvage, and this speciality of mine only lasted until I'd expressed my concern to the corporate level enough that they realized it would be easier to push me out of their store than it would be to address the concerns that I brought to their attention with regard to their return, exchange, and serviec policies. Being on the inside of that place blew my mind. As for their "service plans," they use the rock-bottom dollar lowest-bidder service centers that broke as many things as they repaired, if not more. Seeing this bit on /. reminded me of the days I spent with customers who were literally crying infront of me because of how this company had wronged them. I'm not saying don't shop there - frankly I could care less and I still buy the occasional item from Best Buy out of sheer convenience, but stories like this one never surprise me, in the sense that Best Buy's business model is to make money by any means necessary.

Let's all just avoid Best Buy.

[Enahs (1606)]

My mom made the mistake of buying a service plan for her Toshiba Satellite.

She asked me to pick it up for her at the Carbondale, IL store (dead HD, laptop still under warranty) and after they'd left me to cool my heels for 20 minutes, had me sign paperwork, etc. they handed me the, paperwork, old HD (in case she chose to send it to Toshiba for data recovery) and then stated that they "weren't sure" if the OS installation fee was covered by the service plan and wouldn't let me leave with the computer unless I paid $130(!) for OS installation (Toshiba recovery CD) and that if (IF!) they found that it was covered, I would be refunded.

I called her (I had places to be right then) and she called the store manager, corporate, etc. and after 1.5 hours decided they could waive the fee if I was willing to wait for them to REPLACE THE DRIVE, a wait of 1-2 HOURS. Well, no, I wasn't willing to wait, so I left. Shortly afterward she received a call that the recently installed drive was WIPED and the computer was ready to be picked up.

I'm going today to pick up the computer. My bet is that either 1.) they'll conveniently "forget" that they were waiving the fee, or that 2.) they've lost either the old HD or the entire computer. Bets, anyone?

No frickin' way would I buy a computer from Best Buy. DVDs and CDs, sure, and maybe hardware with decent factory warranties, but not computers, and if I were dumb enough to, I certainly wouldn't take it to the store for warranty work! I've heard too many horror stories from other people who've ended up spending the same amount of money they'd spent on their hardware, only to have to wait for half a month for a computer just as bricked as it was when it went in.

Best Buy and Geek Squad is about as crooked as the crookedest used-car dealership.

I also had this happen to me at BB

[EvilSS (557649)]

I purchased a sound card a few years ago, got it home, opened it up and there was an old Jazz drive and 3.5-to-5.25 bracket inside. Lucky for me, I had some leverage when returning it and did get my exchange. When the CS rep started giving me trouble about it I threatened to return the $3,000 in merchandise I had purchased in the prior 30 days.

When I got the new box, I noticed the shrink wrap was different. I always check the shrink now and often will open it after I purchase it while still at the register. I also NEVER buy the first item on the shelf, but go to one farther back.

He said, they said... customer is alway right...

[dpbsmith (263124)]

Best Buy has no way of knowing whether the guy is telling the truth. But it doesn't matter.

Unless they want to have their sales slowed down by every customer insisting that a salesperson open the box before the customer leaves the store... and plugging in it... and testing it... and initialling the sales receipt... which would add about half an hour to an hour's work time to every sale... they've got to believe the customer.

At least the first time.

If they've got records that show that this customer has been repeatedly returning items, each time claiming that the factory-sealed box had worthless contents, that's another matter... but one that should be handled by legal process.

There is no set of circumstances under which what Best Buy allegedly did was appropriate.

P. S.

When she was in college, my daughter once bought an item from L. L. Bean. UPS delivered it, not to my daughter, but to the front desk of the dormitory, and got an signature that wasn't my daughter's signature and that couldn't be identified. My daughter called UPS. UPS insisted there was nothing they could/would do, they'd delivered the package and got a signature. She called L. L. Bean. They said, "Oh, that's too bad, we're sorry, we'll send another one out right away." L. L. Bean made several customers for life that day.

Open the box in the store

[Guppy (12314)]

Bought a shrinkwrapped All-In-Wonder video card at one of those big-box stores, opened it up, and found an ancient ATI card from years ago inside. Either they re-wrapped a returned card and sold it as new (not legal), or there was an inside job by an employee.

Fortunately for me, the manager let me return it (I had never returned anything I bought from them before, so maybe that helped). Nowadays, whenever I go shopping for computer parts (or small-and-pricey things in general), if the box doesn't have a transparent window or some sort of manufacturer's seal (beyond shrinkwrap, which is too easy to re-do), then as soon as I pass the checkout counter, I tell the cashier that I'm going to take a peek inside. I step back a little so I don't block the next customer, and I open the box right there before exiting the store.

Re:Similar incident

[heroofhyr (777687)]

I had a similar experience last spring. I purchased a sack of manure from the gardening wholesaler and when I got home and opened the bag it was full of F# documentation.

Re:Dumbasses

[Firethorn (177587)]

I think that you overestimate the influence of /.ers.

We're not even 1% of the population, and while we might make 10x as many purchases as the rest of the population, we're still a small portion of BB and such's customer base; We're too likely to buy our stuff online from places like Newegg and tigerdirect.