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."

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

[PockyBum522]

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?"

Was it an open box item.....

[yoder]

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

Seriously

[Kierthos]

Why do companies do shit like this?

Any possible praise (ha ha) a manager would get from corporate higher-ups for following this policy is going to be more then offset by all the bad press and lost sales because of any customers who are turned away by hearing of this story. It takes a lot of effort to get new loyal customers, much less effort to retain loyal customers, but it's exceptionally easy to piss them off to the point where they won't come back.

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

[darkmeridian]

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.

More Best Buy Shenanigans.

[dmacleod808]

But seriously, how does one prove that BEST BUY was the one at fault? Goodwill towards customers only extends so far when battling fraud.

I side with Best Buy here

[Grishnakh]

I'm sorry, but I have to side with Best Buy on this one. Here's why: Best Buy has gotten tons of bad press here on /. and other places for years now for crap like this. So as far as I'm concerned, anyone shopping there deserves whatever happens to them. It should be no surprise when you get screwed over while shopping at Best Buy, so it's your own fault if you go there and get screwed.

As they say, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Meh

[Simple-Simmian]

People still shop at this crappy place? You can get better buy at your local white box store or new egg.

Where's the verification?

[Paeva]

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]

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.

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

[cayenne8]

"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.....

Re:It happened before.

[je ne sais quoi]

Hah! My guess is that's close to what happened here, except that the guy in the story is honestly getting filched, I bet Best Buy is selling him a hard drive that had been previously returned, but the sales clerk accepting the return didn't bother looking in the box, thereby not realizing the box contained tile instead of a hard drive. It also sounds like some Best Buy manager wasn't making his sales target so is deciding to boost his apparent profit by not issuing a return. An auto parts store manager I used to work did the same sort of shenanigans when he was in trouble, the store went out off business about six months after I left. They don't call it "Worst Buy" for nothing though, this just adds to a long list of reasons to look everywhere else first.

One problem with this theory however is that the newspaper is dated 09/16/07 whereas the WD claims the hard drive was manufactured 09/04/07. With only two weeks lead time, that might put the date of the switch at the factory rather than the store, but I don't know, could they even get their merchandise out the door that quickly?

I had a problem with this similar to this

[PJ1216]

I bought a wireless mouse/keyboard combo (LogiTech brand) that was a returned product (i didn't even notice it was a returned product until customer service was inspecting it). I opened it up and it had the wrong brand keyboard/mouse in there. some third party i had never heard of. at first they were refusing to replace it. they kept saying they can't accept the return because its the incorrect product inside. i said, thats all well and good, but i'm not leaving til i either get the same product or a refund. they were unwilling to help and i kept complaining saying i'm not going to lose approx. $50 because one of their employees was too lazy to check their returns. the customer should never pay for an employee's mistake. this is one of those cases where people forget that the CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. why are they always right? because a majority of the time, they are. You *always* give the customer benefit of the doubt. If you don't, most of the time you're turning away honest customers who will no longer shop with you and you therefore lose a lot more money as opposed to the cost of that one product. sometimes you'll scammers, but the only reason they thrive is due to lazy employees who don't check to ensure the contents are correct. it shouldn't matter if it looks unopened or not. they should always check (unless its blister packaging... thats *much* more difficult to fake). eventually they gave me a replacement product because it was way too complex of a scenario to just get a keyboard and mouse. plus there were a bunch of people on the customer service line and it was completely obvious that everyone can hear me complain that they were essentially charging me $50 because they hire lazy employees.

Re:Dumbasses

[magarity]

The bad publicity will cost them hundredfold of what they gained from not giving the customer what he should have gotten
 
And if word gets around that they'll trade boxes of tiles for hard drives, how much will it cost them? I feel for the guy but if I were running a store I'd have to be skeptical and not unquestioningly and immediately accept returns like this.

Not a dime.

[DogDude]

It won't cost them a single dime in bad PR. Why? Best Buy sucks. Always has. Most big box stores are equally sucky. Everybody knows this. The people who still shop at those places are looking for what every other red-blooded American wants: CHEAP! Those people don't care about service, quality, reputation, where their money is going, etc. If they can get it cheap, they're going to continue to buy as cheap as they can, damn the consequences.

Re:Dumbasses

[Firethorn]

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.

Re:yep!

[Anonymous Coward]

1. That is very funny in a "ha ha only serious" way. Its a very good metaphore for both stores. 2. I would prefer to live in Iran over North Korea every day of the week and twice on Sundays. In Iran you at least get to eat.

Bought it @ Best Buy

[TechNit]

Friends don't let Friends Buy @ Best Buy...;-)

Clear packaging?

[Eccles]

Is it that much more expensive to do some sort of clear packaging? Ugly from a recycling standpoint, perhaps, but if the package had a clear window to the objects inside, it would be a lot harder to disguise crap as quality.

And perhaps vendors should also weigh the returns. Shrink-wrapped items should all weigh within about 1% of the standard, other items within a few percent.

Re:Looking at this from the other side.

[Akaihiryuu]

I have to agree. We don't know the whole story here, so I'm going to just take TFA at face value for the purposes of this argument and assume that's exactly what happened. Years ago, back around '92, I used to work at Meijer. I'll save my rants about how horrible of a place that is to work for another time, suffice to say it sucked. But anyway, that's offtopic. I worked night shift in the toy dept, which also carried all of the videogame consoles. I still remember what happened...it was Saturday, Dec 26, 1992. They called my department up to the service desk to get our returns. The store opened at 6am, and I worked 11-7:30 at that time. So this was maybe 6:30 or so, half hour after the store opened. Of course, as you imagine on the day after xmas, there were a LOT of returns. They were calling us up there every 15 minutes or so to get them. I was done with my nightly stocking, the morning shift people had just come in, so I said I'd go up and get the returns. When I got up there, there were 2 carts of returns waiting for me (we often got stuff in returns that we didn't even sell, but that's another matter entirely...this place was a lot more generous on returns than Best Buy)...but there was also an irate-sounding customer, the customer service desk manager, the night store manager, and the store manager. This guy had a SNES box and a receipt dated 3 months earlier. He was swearing up and down that he bought it as a gift, and it was never opened until the day before. (I stood up there behind the counter "sorting" my returns so I could observe.) As the story goes, the kids unwrapped it, opened the box, and discovered that the system was missing. The controllers, instructions, power supply, etc were all there, but no console. He was obviously just trying to "return" it for an exchange that had the console. People kept saying no until it got up to the store manager, who also said no. He said "I can understand how you must feel sir, but try to look at this from our point of view. How do we know you didn't just take the system out and then bring the empty box back? Don't you think someone would notice that the box is a lot lighter than it should be?" Now at that time, we sold a lot of those systems. Is it possible that he got one with the system missing? It's vaguely possible, but not very likely...they were kept in a locked case with the overstock on top of the shelf (16 feet up). A lot of things were stolen from that place, but in the entire time I worked there I never found out about any game consoles missing. Sure they were overly generous with their returns, but they did (at least the entire time I was there) check to make sure that returned items actually had the product inside. The boxes for SNES's weren't shrinkwrapped either, so it would've been very easy to check it (in fact they did check it). Is it possible that an employee or someone in receiving stole the system out of the box? I guess it's possible, but not very likely. I can't really say I would've done any different in the store manager's situation. However, the Best Buy story has one detail that makes it different...the people who had the authority to accept returns already said they would do it, and then the manager has to walk up in a Bill Lumburgh way and then grab the new hard drive out of the guy's hand that he had already bought? The transaction was complete at that point...if the manager grabbed the new one from him after he paid for it, that's theft, pure and simple. If everyone had said no to the return and it got up to the manager and he said no too, well that's a bit different from the way it appears to have been handled according to TFA. So at least from what I'm getting from TFA, Best Buy is definitely in the wrong, and the guy should file a complaint with the state attorney general, at the very least. If the manager touched the guy in any way when he grabbed the drive, the guy might be able to get the manager up on charges for aggravated robbery.

Re:You Americans and your Crazy Laws

[morgan_greywolf]

The problem is not the laws.

Exactly. There are all kinds of consumer protection laws in the United States. Some vary from state to state, but basically there are implied warranties of merchantability and such. In addition, there are laws to protect consumers against price fixing, price gouging, retailer fraud, false advertising and so forth. See this article about consumer protection laws [nolo.com] for examples and details..

Re:It happened before

[gnuman99]

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.

This is so easy to prevent

[Solandri]

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:And it will happen again.

[epee1221]

Like software, even though it's illegal.

That's an interesting conundrum. I've got this piece of software I bought that came with additional contract terms wrapped inside the box. It is my understanding that if I don't like these additional terms I am free to reject them, cancelling the sale (i.e. I return it for a full refund).

Simple solution, credit card

[Tweekster]

Tell the manager: "Fine I will be calling my credit card company and denying authorization for that charge"

It is now the stores problem.
And mastercard can throw its weight around

Best Buy made TWO mistakes...

[Qubit]

It seems like a lot of people are focusing on Best Buy's first mistake, selling a hard-drive box filled with ceramic tiles, rather than Best Buy's SECOND mistake, taking a item away from a customer AFTER he had purchased it.

We don't have enough information to determine who put the tiles in the box, and the customer might have done it himself. Okay, sure. But look at the actual words in the article concerning the replacement:

"I [went] back to Best Buy and voiced my complaint. 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.

If a person returns an item and the store takes that physical item away from them and replaces it with another physical item in return, the second that the transaction is complete, the customer OWNS the replacement item and any person -- store employee or not -- who tries to take it from them is STEALING.

If an employee believes that the customer tampered with the first item, then they should call the police and report the customer for fraud or for falsifying returns, or (so simple it's mindboggling) refuse to accept the return! However, once an employee accepts the return and gets to the point of putting the physical replacement in the customer's hands, I feel as though a judge is going to be sympathetic to the customer and say that he has a right to retain that physical item.

Not even did the manager take back the hardware, the manager physically removed the box from the customer's hands... a good lawyer might even be able to bring the manger up on assault charges.

Re:It happened before.

[TobyRush]

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

[Embedded2004]

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

[anagama]

Aside from a contract (I pay $X to WorstBuy, WorsBuy gives me Y widget), there is also an implied warranty of merchantability, e.g., if you buy a hard drive, it should function as a HD; if you buy a hammer, it will work as a hammer.

The problem here is that the HD is probably worth $40-$120 -- the cost of a suit is much higher so WorstBuy basically knows they can do whatever they want.

I've proudly avoided WorstBuy for the last four or more years. I suspect this guy is going to join the rest of us who won't set foot in that bastion of evil.

Re:It happened before

[letxa2000]

I'm sick and tired that Best Buy should "eat it". The thief should be the one that eats the damn tiles.

Agreed. But if Best Buy is accepting returns without looking inside the box to verify that there is a real product inside it, it becomes Best Buy's responsibility. If I buy something from Best Buy and I get home and the box contains something else, I absolutely positively expect Best Buy to "eat it." It's their fault. They should have inspected the contents of the box before accepting the return, and definitely before putting it back on the shelf for another victim to purchase.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:This is so easy to prevent

[Rodyland]

or was inspected by your staff to verify it was pristine before shrinkwrapping

Problem is, that involves trusting your staff to do the right thing... which seems to be part of the problem.

Although I guess one could require staff to process the return on the inventory computer system, creating an audit trail, but without a UUID on each box you can't take a box that has been fraudulently returned and figure out which staff member(s) have been involved in the return. And of course that does nothing about staff that could take a box off the shelf and steal the contents and then re-wrap the box themselves....

Re:It happened before

[Benaiah]

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.

This would require effort on behalf of Best Buy.

Re:This is so easy to prevent

[pla]

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.

You also need to know that you can trust your employees for that to hold any water. When you specialize in low prices (seriously though, do these massively-overpriced stores only prey on people who've never actually seen that newfangled intarweb thang?) by paying your staff a pittance, you can't trust your staff, period. They have nothing to lose (they know most stores won't press charges for internal affairs due to the PR).

Solution? Open everything (over a certain "willing to eat the cost" value right at the counter. If possible, test it out (obviously not possible for a HDD, and for electronics, I would advise against opening the static bag until ready to install). That way, you not only know you have the desired product, you can ask the clerk to throw away the massive amounts of packaging for a tiny object.

Re:It happened before.

[iminplaya]

I guess we shouldn't expect Best Buy to hire bosses who now how to work a sting. They were pretty dumb to confront him instead of having the cops waiting in front of his house when he tries it again. I would think that would provide plenty of probable cause to go in and collect the rest of the stuff. But then why should the managers care? They're a bunch of nobodies also, and could be doing the same thing. Which segues to my second thought, be careful of who you snitch on. It can just as easily put you into a bad position.

Re:It happened before

[UncleTogie]

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

[billcopc]

In a pile of scattered text, puns are sometimes our only outlet. Would you prefer that the store be referred to as "That fucking retarded crook-harboring scamshop Best Buy" ?

WorstBuy it is.

Re:It happened before

[anagama]

"That fucking retarded crook-harboring scamshop Best Buy"

Sad thing is, that doesn't even scratch the surface of how bad Worst Buy really is.

Re:It happened before.

[reddburn]

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.

this guy's either a moron or a thief

[i_b_don]

Who's the moron who takes ownership of a hard drive that clinks like a bunch of tiles!? I mean, WTF? You'll initially believe that it's just a hard drive, but when you shift the box and it goes "clink clink", you'll think, "shit, this hard drive is toast" without even opening the box or getting more than 10 steps from the store.

This guy is totally scamming best buy and using us to try and put pressure on best buy and get a second hard drive for free.

What bullshit. The tiles were wrapped in newspaper! Only a complete dumbass wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't a hard drive.

and BTW, I *hate* best buy.... but i hate the type of people who would do this more.

don

Re:It happened before.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.
You keep saying you but I think you mean I. That says a lot more about your relationship with your wife (or lack thereof).

Re:It happened before.

[eth1]

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:Not commission.

[lazy-ninja]

your right that the employees are not on commission. But, management definitely makes bonuses based on low return numbers...etc. Anything that has to be written off as a 100% loss is an ouch for their nice bonus.