Slashdot Mirror
Fake IPad 2s Made of Clay Sold At Canadian Stores
SpuriousLogic writes in with a link to a story about some Canadian consumers who thought they were getting an iPad 2 but instead got the makings of the world's oldest tablets. "As many as 10 fake iPad 2s, all made of slabs of modeling clay, were recently sold at electronic stores in Vancouver, British Columbia. Best Buy and Future Shop have launched investigations into how the scam was pulled off. The tablet computers, like most Apple products, are known for their sleek and simple designs. But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest 'tablet devices.' Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions and resealed the original Apple packaging. Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun told CTV that individuals bought the iPads with cash, replaced them with the model clay, then returned the packages to the stores. The returned fakes were restocked on the shelve and sold to new, unwitting customers."
... unfortunately, they couldn't manage to find any fingerprint evidence.
Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores.
Huh? I've never had a problem returning electronics. Software, on the other hand...
and now both NPD and Nielsen are saying that iOS has erased the market share lead that Android had.
Oh are you talking about this submission from bonch?
bonch writes
"A Nielsen report states that the launch of the iPhone 4S helped Apple close the marketshare gap with Android, raising them to 44.5% compared to Android's 46.3% in December, coinciding with an earlier study by the NPD group. Apple sold 35 million iPhones last quarter, with the iPhone 4S making up 57% of those sales. RIM continued its decline but still outsold Windows Phone 7, which came in at a measly 1.6%."
Link to Original Source
Come on bonch, we know it's you, there's no need to post anonymously.
Maybe apple is trying to introduce its new cuneiform based programming language to the Canadians first!
"thought they were getting and iPad 2" how about AN iPad2?
They don't have real techs only sales people.
They used to have real techs but they where passed over for people who can sell and up sell / rip people off no you don't need the laptop setup, $100 HDMI cable or that $30 USB cable. But the people who do push that carp get more hours then the people who know what they are doing and tell people that on line you can find much cheaper cables that are just as good.
Mom always said that you should look inside the box before buying anything.
Really? Nobody has made the "clay tablets" joke yet? You people are slipping!
Nothing to see here
The staff should have been checking the boxes upon return, to make sure that everything was OK. Add to that, they should have definitely been checked before outting them back on the shelves for other poeple to buy! It's either useless staff or really sloppy company policy.
But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest 'tablet devices.'
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
2012 B.C.
I would of written shelve, to!
Yeah, I stole it from the comments over at the article source. Too good not to share.
The battery life was better.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I think you might be confused about the definition of the word "shill".
I've heard that there is another archaic meaning to this word, but I haven't seen it used in any sense other than the modern sense.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
First off- sellint the cheaper stuff your store sells. Not so bad. Selling the stuff you can buy online? No wonder you aren't on the payroll. I run my own tech company and we 'rip people off' according to you. I'm not going to say we sell $100 HDMI cable that costs $1 to make. However we do charge 20x the price of some items. This is a business after all and I have no problems doing it. I don't advise people to get the i7. I do advise most people to get Atom systems and charge them plenty Possibly more than best buy. However we also provide better service and software (not that propritary crap).
I used to work at Futureshop.
They definitively 100% care more about ramming a 30$ printer cable down your throat with a $60 printer then they do about customer service. Everything about their training program is designed to make you seem friendly and build customer trust right before you start hitting them over the head with the extended warranties and Monster cables.
I once got pulled into the managers office for a compliment from a customer. I sold him a Ben-Q burner that was cheaper and better then the Sony equivalent (which cost $100 more and was slower), and said so plainly when I did it. After I rang up the burner he asked to talk to the supervisor, so I paged him up to the counter where the customer proceeded to tell him how awesome of a salesman I was for saving him that money and ultimately deciding to sell him WHAT HE NEEDED rather then what could have potentially made us the most money (we got massive kickbacks on the Sony shit).
The moment the customer walked out of the store, my ass got hauled into the store manager's office and shafted like you wouldn't believe. No extended warranty this. No accessories that (accessories? like a $35 IDE cable?). Suddenly my good-to-great rating numbers are shit and they're threatening to can my ass if I don't start playing scum-ball with the customers, like everyone of their other salesmen.
I quit 2 weeks later. I only ever applied there to help people with technical shit, and I couldn't even do that.
-AC
Thankfully, the EULA's short and easy with only 10 items, but it still has you signing over your life.
They don't even need real techs, the inspection doesn't have to be done in house... although that might make things more effective depending on the volume of returns.
I returned a router to staples the other day (It was working, I just wasn't pleased with the software on it / performance). The girl asked me what was wrong with it, and I explained that; however a co-worker said it doesn't matter what's wrong with it, it has to 'go back' anyway, just write down 'dead'. Whether 'back' is to some distribution office where knowledgeable people inspect things, or more likely, back to the manufacturer to reflash it, I don't know.
Anyway, had they just slapped it on the shelf, the next buyer would have been in trouble, seeing as the IP and password was no longer the default...
That's Quagmire !!
This is precisely why packages should only be sold as refurbished and/or repaired items, not full-price "new" items. You never know why a device was really returned -- it should ALWAYS be opened to inspect the contents and verify that there are no missing parts or pieces.
I blame the stores for a bad process designed to maximize profits.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
1. Get 10 people together, everyone buy an iPad on the same day (maybe over 2 days). 2. Take the iPads home, remove iPads, replace with clay. 3. Return the iPads claiming you found clay in the box when you bought it. 4. Receive new iPads, sell on eBay. Same net effect, 10 iPads. But this way you don't have to try and reseal the box in a convincing way, and you don't have to get the store clerk to take back a box of clay.
Is that "The returned fakes were restocked on the shelve and sold to new, unwitting customers". How'd that logic go?
Customer: I paid for an iPad and got some clay
Clerk: Ok thanks. I'll just put that back on the shelf
http://www.gibby.net.au
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/12/selling-refurbished-goods-as-new-may-be-common-among-australian-retailers/
Simply put: it serves these people right for buying apple products! Short and sweet.
Read TFA. The packing was, from the face of it, not opened. This product was returned as if it were unused.
But who says that this is a result of people buying iPads, taking iPads out of box, putting clay in box, resealing and returning?
It could just be 14 associated people bought iPads, then went back and said "Hey, I bought this iPad and all that was in my box was this piece of clay!"
Either way, if you have recently bought an iPad in Canada, and you have some clay around, bring your clay in for a refund!
paintball
Where is the OP getting his information? Nearly every major retailer in the US allows you to return iPads. They may shorten the amount of time in which they can be returned from the normal return period, but that's not even close to the same thing. For example, Best Buy gives you 14 days to return an iPad. I purchased an iPad 1 from BB a few days before Apple announced the iPad 2, so I took it back and had no trouble at all. I didn't purchase any special investment protection or warranty programs either.
"It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money in this kind of organized way."
Poor Future Shop. The thieves made it sad :(
Seriously, though. This whole "corporations as people" thing has gone too far...
Hello. I think my iPad has been bricked.
Have gnu, will travel.
Am I the only one disappointed that they didn't even scratch the outline of the thing onto the modelling clay? Damn, scammers are lazy these days. I was hoping to see something painted to look like an iPad, but obviously I expect too much from today's con artists.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Well, I also once worked at Future Shop. In one year I made it from warehouse helper to merchandiser to #2 salesman in the Computer Department (That was when we all waited to get the first Pentium class PC's in). I was the #2 salesperson because I took my time with the customers and told them to call me at the store if they have any questions about the product. Sure enough, a few months into this I got hauled into the managers office, told I was not selling enough extended warranties and that I spend too much time on the phone helping clients. Then he went on to tell me that I can be the #1 salesman and that I have 2 months to reach that goal (or else?).
Here is the thing: Back then I made $40 in commission on a $2000 DELL system and $60 on a $149 extended warranty. Well, who would pay to extend a three year warranty to 4 years for a PC that will be obsolete by then? I never bothered to push on that. $14 printer cables had a cost of $1 and my commission would have been $5 on it.
So you see where the incentives are. Forget customer service, expect you wallet to be raped.
I still shop at Future Shop, but I research what I want online, find out the SKU and walk into FS, grab a salesperson, give them the SKU, pay and leave.
Couldn't they trace the serial number on the returned box, match that up to the iTunes account used to activate the missing iPad, and nail the perps that way?
Elbonian made iPad?
insists on opening sealed boxes when I return things. Because of these scumbags. Just amazing.
This doesn't surprise me one bit. People have been buying expensive equipment at Home Depot, such as compressors or generators, using it for a day for the one task they needed it for, and then returning it for a full refund. Or buying something at Home Depot, taking it home or just out to their car, removing the replacement parts they needed, and returning what's left for a full refund, hoping the staff don't conduct a part inventory of the box contents (which they seem to almost never do).
I've seen a brand new compressor out of the box at Home Depot with *mud* caked on the wheels, and I've lost count of the number of times I've bought something there only to get it home and realise that parts are missing from the box.
Frankly, I'm surprised this thing with the iPads didn't start happening a long time ago. People are ugly.
Wonder if any of the customers were named "Moses"?
These weren't fakes -- they were iPad shaped dreidels
Undoubtedly knowing apple each tablet has to have a hardware id/serial number. They will undoubtedly be able to deduce the ipad id's from the boxes. Then just track down the missing iPads and find out who sold it to them. Just follow the money. I would also wonder if the tablets/packages had any fingerprints.
Come on, you DID get a tablet.
You didn't see Moses returning his now did you?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Your argument is unconvincing. Just say "we charge a premium for the convenience of brick and mortar instant gratification" and be done with it. Bonus points: "Unlike Amazon, we have a physical retail location and have to keep the lights on."
"This is a business after all" sounds like the dipshits selling water for $100 a case to 9-11 first responders. 20x markup is bullshit. Your industry is predatory and will eventually die when all the people too stuck in their brick and mortar ways to use Amazon of fdisk die off.
Computer shops are universally a rip-off run by people too stupid to understand the economics of a reformat vs. registry hacking malware removal orgy, or too cynical to explain as much to the customer. Every other service they provide is better provided by Radioshack.
Your counter-argument is "our customers would throw away their computer and buy a new one if we/Geek Squad didn't exist" and I would argue they would be getting a better value.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill
Take the noun meaning based on this and "verbize" it.
Posting anonymously because my Aunt works for Future Shop.
I have a similar story from the customer side. Bought my sister a nice all in one 5 disc CD stereo with cassette back in the days when such things were not cheap, because my aunt worked there I got a slight discount. Two weeks after Christmas it broke. The Radio and cassettes were fine but the CD's wouldn't play, figure it was within the month so back to the store for a replacement right?
Wrong, they made me send it for warranty repair.
So I sent it off for repairs again and again over the course of the next year. It was obvious it was a defective unit, it had been repaired a half a dozen times in the first nine months and it was getting ridiculous; I got to know the manager by name I'd talked to him so much. The answer was the same every time, warranty repair. It didn't matter that my aunt worked there and that she was kind of high up the chain, she couldn't override the directive from corporate and she was just as stuck as I was.
Finally got it back the last time and it went for 3 whole months before it broke again, four days after the warranty expired. I was livid, my aunt was livid. She took me down there personally and really threw her seniority and position around, basically putting her neck out for me and damn near losing her job over it. They begrudgingly gave me a new stereo, a cheaper model with a three disc changer that sounded like crap, and made it abundantly clear that the only reason they were doing this outside of warranty was because my aunt worked for them and that if there were any problems with unit I had to deal with the manufacturer directly.
I should have fought to have a comparable unit, I had the one I wanted all picked out, but I didn't want my aunt getting in to anymore trouble so I talked it over with my sister and we both agreed to just let it go. Surprisingly the stereo lasted her 10 years, she accidentally dropped it during a move otherwise she'd still have it, and never had a single problem with it.
But I learned a valuable lesson that day. Future Shop is great for CDs and DVDs and the odd game, but I will never buy a single piece of electronics from them that costs more than seventy five bucks because if it breaks I've effectively lost that money.
They are not "fake", just old-school....really old school.
Table-ized A.I.
Where did you find that definition? I've never know "shill" to mean anything like that. The definition I have is "an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others." They work with con men to give them an air of legitimacy.
Canadian BB and FS stores have a 30 day return guarantee on everything but software, 14 days on computers.
Something similar happened when I worked at FS, someone gutted a 360 and returned it, only to be sold to another customer
because the idiot at the customer service desk didn't check the system.
True, but then again, is it fair to the store that has to lose basically the profit off the sale because they have to market it as "open box"? Think about it - they have to sell it at a lower price because it could've been used, and if it's not low enough, everyone would just buy the brand-new-from-factory box over an open one.
In fact, it's this reason why stores have restocking fees. Effectively, the loss they make by doing it open box is taken from you, the customer (mark it down 10%, charge you 15% restocking fee, the 5% is kept as profit).
Sure, you can justify 15% as a "you should've done your research" fee, but then again, when your significant other buys you the wrong thing as a gift...
Finally - in Canada, most stores do this. Even Apple stores. I've purchased several products and returned them sealed and they accepted it. I never want to have to return anything to a US store, with all those restocking fees, even a computer parts store (been hit there as well).
But thanks to these bastards I'm no longer going to be able to enjoy these priviledges. (OTOH, maybe I can score a brand new item at discount because it had to be checked).
Also, these guys would have to be really good at shrinkwrapping. Apple products are shrinkwrapped quite unusually (but in traditional Apple fashion, very neatly). Most products are done by putting the product on the film, wrapping the film over the top, and sealing the three sides.
For Apple products, the shrinkwrap has the corners cut off (basically the shrinkwrap appears pre-cut for the item and the edges are sealed like a clamshell of shrinkwrap.). It's one thing I've seen of Apple products - they lack the traditional shrinkwrap "ears". It's really quite a nice bit of attention to detail that Apple is known for. Even if you're not a fan, inspect some shrinkwrapped Apple products (iPad, iPhone - iPods are plastic clamshells, and Macs are cardboard box with seal). It's really an impressive piece of work when it's gotta be mass produced.
My store started taking returns Dec 29. On Dec 30 we were told by BBY Canada HQ to open any shrink-wrapped tablet, ipod, iphone/blackberry/android, or laptop. In the past we've had people try to return computers missing RAM, HDDs, or even completely different (and old) models inside their new shipping box, and occasional attempts at re-shrinking items.
Best Buy's return policy is 14 days on most items. Computers, including tablets, that will be sold as "Open Box" get sent to Geek Squad to have the data wiped and hardware checked.
The OS on the Claypods is more pliant than the Apple iOS.
The reason she asked is because by using it it becomes a health hazard to anyone else and therefor the store has to return it to the vendor for refund where one assumes it is destroyed. By not admitted you had used the product you've put someone else's health at risk. Congrats, you're an asshole.
Well, I can't speak for Future Shop in general, or for this specific location, but I can say with certainty that your statement as a general sentiment about Best Buy's practices is false.
You see, I happen to work at Best Buy, and funny thing...I'm one of the people tasked specifically with testing every piece of returned electronics to make sure:
1) Whether the unit functions, so we know whether it's defective and needs to be repaired, or was simply unwanted and can be resold,
2) If it doesn't function, if the problem is a hardware defect or accidental damage,
3) If the unit inside the box matches the item sold (you wouldn't believe the number of people who will try to pass off a cheap dvd player as a more expensive model, and there are occasional knock-off items)
4) Ensuring all accessories are included.
And when corners are cut, it's always for the sake of the customer. For example, during the holiday season when there are huge lines and we're just trying to get everyone handled as quickly as possible. Most of the time, though, we try to check out every device that comes through the Customer Service counter. Just earlier today, I had to have one of the CS reps decline a retrun because the customer was trying to return a DSLR without the included battery.
One odd, only tangentially-relevant bit: you'd also be surprised how many people lie about why they're bringing products back, even when they don't have to. If the device works and you're within the exchange period, you can return it for absolutely whatever reason you want, but many people seem to think that you have to have some sort of reason to bring it back. All too frequently, the items are being returned simply because the user does not know how to operate them.
Really, though, it's easy to hate Best Buy. I used to hate it before. I mean, why not just get stuff cheaper online? It's not that painful to wait a few days for shipping. But after working there, I came to realize something: the store doesn't target people like me as customers. The true target are for people who don't personally have enough knowledge about electronics, and want some sort of guidance (even if it's from a salesperson). Prices aren't that far off places like Wal-Mart, but the difference is that in Wal-Mart, all you get is a checkout teller, and you're lucky if they know the first thing about electronics. Best Buy salespeople might try to push accessories on you, but at least they have to know the products in their department and can offer at least a little insight into purchases for those who are less technologically inclined.
Specifically, I work in Geek Squad. You and I might be well-informed computer nerds, but there are an astounding number of people who come in, not to try to get repairs, but simply to ask easy questions. "What do you think of this software?," "Is this a good brand?," "Can my device do this?," "What does this mean?," etc. These people are the reason we exist. Not every family has a convenient daughter/nephew/grandson who's a nerd that they can go to for all their tech inquiries.
Oh, and don't blame Best Buy for Monster Cables. We're not the only ones who sell them, we're not the ones who set the MSRP (though, I suppose we could always choose to undershoot the MSRP for something closer to the store's cost), and we do offer alternative brands at more reasonable prices. But if someone comes in, who already associates the high-priced Monster brand with high quality, it's not like we're going to refuse to sell it to them. If you insist that you have to have a technician come to your house to hook your blu-ray player up to your HDTV with that single HDMI cable, why should we argue? Personally, if anyone asks about in-home PC service, I usually try to steer them into bringing the unit into the store (I'm sure my boss would throw a fit if he knew that), but some people are downright afraid of disconnecting and reconnecting all the cables on their desktop and are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to have a repair tech come to their home and fix everything. If that's what you want, we're not going to argue, and if it's really that helpful a service to offer, then we'll gladly help out.
I don't advise people to get the i7. I do advise most people to get Atom systems and charge them plenty Possibly more than best buy
You're missing the point of the parent. I don't have any problem if you carry USB cables for $50 and sell them to people who need a USB cable. What I have a problem with is the sales people who will flat out lie to some old lady and tell her "No, that $5 USB cable is no good. For this ass-kicking laptop you just bought you're going to need this one sitting right next to it which is 100% identical and sells for 10x the price."
This thread is shilly.
I'm thinking you should open electonics boxes at the register, before you leave the store; to avoid being the victim in such a scam, and having the store claim you're the one who switched it.
Or packaging with clear windows, at least.
Except this one from the summary:
But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest 'tablet devices.'
Not according to Apple's Patent lawyers.
Looking at the photo of the clay tablet just makes me think I would have at least tried to get creative with the scam. You know, like trace a scene from Angry birds onto the clay before putting it into a box. Or maybe something like words with friends. These scammers are way too lazy.
This reminds me of a scam a friend's brother used to pull where he'd go to Best Buy, purchase a video game, open the little fold in the plastic with a razor, take the disc out, then return the game. I'm sure he's not the only person doing it, and I always wonder what happen when you're the person who thought you purchased Call of Duty but instead received an empty box that you now have to return to the store.
As far as them not believing the original customer with the clay iPad till a few more people came back, couldn't they have seen that the item had in fact been returned at some point prior to him purchasing it or do they not keep track of that information for "unopened" purchases?
I'm really confused: First they say "Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. ", then they talk about how the scam was pulled off by returning items (or.. uhm.. returning the boxes without the items). Which is it?
It's illegal to accept stolen property, knowingly or not.
And just how many prosecutors would nail someone who paid a fair price on eBay for an iPad?
It's illegal to accept stolen property unknowingly only because the police, rightfully, got sick of hearing: "I didn't know it was stolen! I swear! I just thought it was a really good deal! The fact that he sold his stuff out the back of a box van with no retail packaging seemed totally legit to me!" Those laws are meant to inhibit feigned ignorance as a defense, not to promote prosecution on every single Receiving Stolen Goods case the police can drum up.
Despite what the ACLU and libertarian types around here think, most prosecutors have official discretion, common sense, and common decency. They're not going to bitch slap you for saving $40 on something that turns out to be stolen unless they think you knew it, or at least bought it under circumstances that damn well should have given you a clue.
The only shill I've seen around here recently is Bonch and his myriad of sockpuppets. It's easy to spot them, just watch for any first post that is posted at the same time as the story and that praises Apple while flaming Google or Microsoft. The story doesn't even have to be about Apple, but the posts will all try to steer the conversation towards them.
Normally when you return something, you have to fill out a form (at least at the stores I've been too) and have to show ID (which is recorded on the form), so if a customer returned a clay ipad, it should be easy(ish) to backtrack the customer throught the forms.
But who isn't to say the person didn't do it himself? $700 is high enough for people to go through such lengths (like going to the police etc) to make it look like they didn't do it themselves, enough conartists out there..
I used to steal crap and return fake stuff. I'm talking along time ago though.
TurboGraphix 16 games came in a CD case. We'd buy a game, put in a empty cd case, shrinkwrap the game back up, and return it for another game.
While what we did was wrong, the store should of check it to make sure it was there.
Fast forward 20+ years, and people are doing this still?
Listen shit for brains retailers. If someone returns something, you need to check it out and make sure it's actually there. Shrinkwrap machines were easy enough to get access to in the late 80's and early 90's and it's now 2012.
Honestly, I like this plan, 'cept for 1 thing. It's way too easy to leave fingerprints in clay.
Be seeing you...
shill [shil] noun 1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc. 2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty. verb (used without object) 3. to work as a shill: He shills for a large casino. verb (used with object) 4. to advertise or promote (a product) as or in the manner of a huckster; hustle: He was hired to shill a new TV show. Origin: 1920–25; origin uncertain Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
World English Dictionary shill (l)— n slang a confidence trickster's assistant, esp a person who poses as an ordinary customer, gambler, etc, in order to entice others to participate
etc.
Wow, actually your definition is the one that is incorrect. Perhaps you are shilling for someone...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
He pulled it out of his rectum, the birthplace of all great shill ideas.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
They were everything an Apple product must be:
1) Stylish (it had to have been if it looked like an iPad enough to get people to buy it)
2) Easy to use
3) An appliance, not a computer
Those are the real ones...
Thats why in the UK the store HAS to deal with it - and that early in would be a straight swap, or a refund - your choice.
Later on you can have repairs but if it fails a number of times you are again given a new one or a refund.
This! Consumers have a responsibility of due diligence - I'm fine with selling a drive at and alarming mark-up if a consumer is happy to pay for it. Likewise, retailers using true predatory practices, such as telling a consumer that a 100 dollar power cable will give sharper DVD playback than a kettle lead would, should be actionable under consumer law.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
iPad for one of the world's oldest 'tablet devices.'
I wouldn't call iPad such one. As even Star Trek Next Generation had tables on TV and most Sci-Fi fans are familiar of tablets from there.
And Apple had Newton long time ago and Apple invented PDA (the "smart part" of the smartphone)
My sympathies. I have the exact same tale to tell - just replace "Futureshop" with "Radioshack"
Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions and resealed the original Apple packaging.
What must have happened is that the words "after having been opened", or "without displaying a fault" (or both or similar) have been deleted from the end of the first sentence. Just one of the hazards of old media.
"Myriad", not "myriad of".
Anyway, I see you remembered to log out this time GreatBunzinni. Well done.
and $60 on a $149 extended warranty.
Which really tells you what a $149 extended warranty is worth - $90 cash to the store, probably $50 cash to the insurance company, who probably spends $25 administering the program and taking profits. Average payout on a $149 extended warranty $25. Your odds are better in a Mafia run casino.
Byron used "myriad of". So did C.S.Lewis.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'm glad someone figured that out :-)
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Am I the only person that opens their new toy before leaving the store? Unless of course it has that impenetrable plastic shield packaging, because I don't carry scissors with me so I can open it without slicing my hands open trying to cut it with my knife.
I8-D
Curses! The League of Shills will not be pleased!
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
They make next to no margin on laptops. They make the majority of their money selling accessories, extended warranties and such.
And here's how I found that out. They had a 'door crasher' deal on a laptop a couple years ago, a dual core AMD for a really cheap price. They only had about 10-20 per store, limit 1 per customer, etc. I showed up early and waited for the store to open in order to get my hands on one of them.
I was one of the first people there. The salesman starts giving me the whole spiel, "do you need any accessories? No? Let me tell you about our warranty. You know new power adapters are like 200 bucks, right?" I declined repeatedly, he kept insisting and I eventually lost my patience - "PLEASE don't try to sell me anything else. I just want the laptop. Nothing else. No accessories, no warranty, etc"... At this point, the salesman - who also turned out to be either the store manager, department manager or some other "position of great importance", lost his patience 100x worse and completely flipped out at me. I can't remember the intimate details of the conversation, but here were the major points he made:
- The store doesn't make any money selling a bare laptop, and it's not worth their time to even talk to someone who wants to buy a bare laptop.
- The laptop's a piece of shit anyway, and it's probably better off in the hands of someone who can afford the fucking warranty.
- The store doesn't have that many of these in stock, and someone else will buy it with the warranty.
- They legally don't have to sell me anything.
- Basically, get the fuck out.
And he had no issues whatsoever explaining this to me, quite loudly, in a crowded store - there were lots of eyes on him when this was going down. I (loudly) apologized for not being able to finance the guy's cocaine habit and walked out of the store.
Clay (ipad) tablet commands you!
That doesn't make it right though.
C.S. Lewis fiddled with kids, but that doesn't give me carte blanche to hook up with 9 year olds.
I bought my wife a netbook from Future Shop (I know, two mistakes already in this sentence, but she wanted one) a couple of years ago, and they gave me the choice between the display model or their last remaining unopened one. I took the "brand new" one. Got it home, only to discover that it had most definitely been opened before, because someone else had already created a profile and locked it with their password. There were also a couple of cables in the box that weren't supposed to be there for some reason.
The moral of the story is never buy anything from Future Shop. Apparently they had just taken the return and shoved it back out there without even checking if it had been opened. Why would the customer returning it lie?
I believe you're referring to Lewis Caroll (/Charles Dodgson). CS Lewis may have been a born again bore, but as far as I'm aware his only crime against kids was mediocre Christian allegory?
Oh dear, I am mixing my Lewises up. Sort of like how I'm always wondering which is a Lewis Acid and which is a Lewis Base. At this point in my career it should be obvious!
Yes, CS Lewis was the whole "Jesus as a Lion" and "Women will always let you down" story.
GreatBunzinni actually sounds a lot like twitter (the crazed anti-MS poster, not the web service). Back in the day, twitter maintained numerous sockpuppets to hold forth on all manner of paranoid insanity. Could this be another? The mystery deepens!
I think these we real non-functioning IPAD's at some point, it's just that people CANNOT acknowledge the fact that they may be broken out of the box so the 'It's made out of clay" is the more plausible reason.
reallllly read it. It was meant to be a joke.
I'll quote it just so you don't have to scroll: Shill n. A person who extols opinions and viewpoints that cannot be sufficiently easily refuted by their opponents
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
This happens all the time. I have heard of floor tiles being returned rather than xboxes etc... When stuff like that happens it is either one of two things:
1) Staff that are lazy, inept, untrained, overworked that do not bother to check product. I would hazard every story has a policy that says they should.
2) The product was actually stolen by lazy, inept, untrained, overworked, and underpaid staff in the first place, and blamed on an "unchecked" return.
More common is that staff at best buy, futureshop, etc... are mostly people getting paid very little that know absolutely NOTHING about the products they actually sell. There are exceptions of course, but it is not the rule. (in many cases they really don't care either, just a temp job)
One common thing I have heard of is you go and buy a 500$ high end PC video card. Install it in your PC. Take your old busted ass 30$ video card, and package it back up. Return it. A) Likely they won't even check it, see above, and B) Even if they do, they will have no idea what they are looking at. They will see something in there, that sort of resembles a video card, and call it a day. Then resell it to some smuck who now just paid 500$ for a 30$ old video card. Hopefully they can tell the difference and can return it. Problem is, now THEY are the ones trying to pass off an old video card for a 500$ one... Brutal eh?
If you really want to get complicated and make it tougher for them to check, many enthusiasts use custom cooler, or water blocks etc... So what you do is remove the stock heat sink off the 500$ video card (which now a days covers almost the entire card), and stick it to your busted ass 30$ old card. It is now hidden behind a massive heatsink that looks like the exact picture on the box. Staff looks at heat sink, looks at box, calls it a day.
Anyway I am not suggesting that anyone should do any of this stuff, only that I am sure that it does happen. Yet another reason I would never buy anything like that at any of those types of stores. A good PC store will almost always have the item for cheaper anyway. They only people who do shop, are those that don't know any better, or perhaps those than can't wait a week for delivery and need it today (I bought an external drive to backup a failing system once, as I could get the item in 5min as opposed to a week, I way overpaid for it however).
Most fun salesman I ever dealt with at Futureshop offered to give me $80 off a device if I would agree to buy the $60 protection on it, since despite the overall savings, he gets no grief for discounting the item if he sells a protection plan.
Sad.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Friends don't let friends buy hardware at Futureshop. To be fair, I often tell people to go browse Futureshop to see things in person, but don't buy it there.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
It's an accidental leak of the new E-Clay tablet technology that will be in the iPad 3, of course :)
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
This.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
What happened was Future Shop greatly increased their customer service sometime in the 2000's. Probably sometime after the dot-com bust.
Prior to that, it was just awful at customer service, then something happened and post crash their customer service actually increased (they were actually friendly and willing to exchange and such).
I don't know what happened, but they did go from being one of the worst places to shop to being actually decent. The purchase of Future Shop by Best Buy (Canada) actually happened a few years later.
As for buying computer parts - most of the stores remind me of the old Future Shop days. If you can get a return/exchange, you're lucky. Especially so if they only ding you 15% restocking. And forget it if you buy a product that someone returned fraudulently - they assume you did it and you're out the $500.
Interestingly, though, online shopping isn't that big with Canadians - sure it's growing, but the retail selection at Future Shop/Best Buy Canada is a lot better than down in the US. Probably because Amazon sucks in Canada (books, CDs, DVDs, and even less selection of electornics than Future Shop/Best Buy) so there's no real online megaretailer to buy stuff from. Plus prices don't tend to be wildly better than retail - once shipping and taxes are factored in.
Perhaps it's also why Future Shop/Best Buy Canada are doing much better than in the US.
The payout is higher than that because they don't give you anything in return! They pretend they'll replace it if it breaks, and lie to your face about what's covered, and then they don't cover it. The CBC did an under cover thing trying (and failing) to return damaged goods. "But your sales person says it covers accidental damage like being dropped" "No sir he did not, he would not say such things, it only covers manufacturing defects that you can prove were not exacerbated by your own actions in any way shape or form" "We taped him, actually" "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY STORE" Now I did manage to get my 1 year old Nomad Jukebox MP3 player replaced on extended warranty, because it just stopped turning on, but I understand that that was an exceptional case because on average they honour about 0 replacements per year ;) But that was what, 2000? I'm sure things have gone downhill since then.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
1. Buy from small stores like NCIX whenever you can. You may pay slightly more but you get better service and support small/medium businesses. Put capitalism at work, vote with your dollars.
2. If you must buy from a big corporate store, look up the product you like on the Future Shop website, then go to London Drugs and ask for a price match. So far I've had very good service with London Drugs, same with everybody else I know.
Should be outlawed. They are NOT new.
I got burnt like that once, Bought what looked like a factory sealed video card. Got home and found it to be a used card of a different model ( much older, junk. ) in the box.
I had paid cash, so i had to threaten to sue them for fraud to get them to refund my money. Afterward, and off the record, they admitted to not checking returns at all and having a machine to reseal them.
Now, i never pay cash for stuff like this, or i open the box before i leave the store.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So that's why the only app on my tablet was "Enki Birds"!
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
That's okay, I had a (drunken) Future Shop manager type pick a bar fight with me because he remembered me as "that guy who caused all my car stereo reps to quit". What did I do ? I educated them.
I bought my first car stereo from Future Shop, and it was very mediocre, mostly because their sales guys know little, and their installers even less. Still, I met a really nice sales guy who shared my passion for music, and we stayed in touch. Being an obsessive geek with golden ears, well I set out to learn all about sound reproduction over the next year or so, and ended up replacing much of my car stereo with lesser-known brands. I even bought a cheap high-current amp and replaced a few components inside to make it awesome for a third of the price of the name-brand offerings. So then one day, I'm at Future Shop buying a game or something, and my buddy the sales guy asks about the stereo he had sold me. 5 minutes later, he's gazing at my custom setup with the DIY touchscreen head-unit (Linux powered!), and playing a few choice pieces of music to show off the result. Over the next 3 months, I helped him assemble a similar kit for himself, teaching him some basic acoustic theory along the way.
At some point, he mentioned the only reason he stayed at Future Shop was because he got everything at cost, which is a huge savings, especially for audio components. Hey I did the same thing with computers so I can relate. That's great, except FS didn't carry any of the new gear I was using, it all came from pro audio dealers and specialists like Parts Express, and it was often cheaper than the stuff he could get through his staff purchasing options. So he quit and got a better job somewhere else, and the other audio freaks followed suit over the next few months, once they realized the shit job no longer yielded any fringe benefits. Good for them!
Where things got messy is when the initial guy started a side-business selling and installing stereos. He plundered his old customer base from FS, but ultimately the manager felt this was all my fault. He lost a bunch of loyal staff, and his sales took a nose dive, I can understand why he was upset. Years later, he walks into my friend's bar, recognizes me and decides it's a good idea to push a 330lb guy around on his home turf. I didn't hurt him much, but the police report was enough to get him suspended and soon fired. The best part of it all is he's now managing an A&W in the nearby mall, so once in a while my buddy and I will stop by for a burger and a laugh.
Looking back, the only good purchase I ever made at Future Shop was my first DVD burner. It was a Pioneer DVR-A03 and cost about $1000. I took the extended warranty with it, so for the next five years I always had a top-of-the-line DVD burner. It would wear out, or in one case die from a bad flash, and FS would replace it with the latest and greatest. I went from 2x to 8x on that one purchase, and when my last Pioneer died, new ones were down to $100 or less. It was definitely worth the $70 warranty :)
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The stupid thing is that it is easy to check returned goods.
If that takes too much time, then look at the original receipt. Bought with cash? Open it up regardless of the shrink wrap. It's not like the stores can't re-shrinkwrap boxes.
The store has only their own staff, or their training regime, to blame for their losses here.
What is sick is how they assumed the person coming in with the clay tablet was trying to scam them until it happened elsewhere. But this is the argument for opening the product within the store itself when you buy it. And always buy on a credit card, you've got some recourse against shitty retailers then.
I used to incorrectly spout that as well. Turns out myriad can be used either way (adjective or noun).
I a friend, I've known for 20 years.
When I met him he worked at Fnac, that's a book-cd-electronics chain of shop in France.
He worked there for ten years, doing every kind of low level jobs: cashier, working in the warehouse or at the store counter or at the items withdrawals.
You wouldn't believe me if I told you all kind of way he found to get items out of the store: computers, consoles, projectors, cameras, dvd packs, whatever could be sold in store.
Even more than that: money!! In the form of store coupons.
His home was ENTIRELY filled with items either coming from Fnac, or from items bought with these coupons that could be used in the other Printemps-Pinault (Le primptemps, la Fnac, La redoute, Conforama etc..).
The fridge, the home-cinema with the projector complete with 5.1 system, the Stearo sytem with high end Cabasse speakers, the hundreds of CDs and DVDs box-sets, the sofa. Almost everything, expensive or cheap, came from these coupons.
He once recently admitted to me the amount worth of coupons he "diverted" alone was in the 6 figures area. It lasted for ten years before he quit cause it was getting bigger and bigger.
That was between 1993 and 2003, and he told me over the year they improved the security and checks.
But the guy IS smart in his way, he could outsmart any kind of things they tried in the various shops he worked at.
I can't imagine there not others like him unleashed in stores across the world....
I know fore of fact when he worked in the stocks he was taking itmes out of their boxes, and put all kind of things back into them. Once he was exhilarating cause he saw a customer bringing back a video-projector he replaced with a brick...
I can't imagine there not others like him unleashed in your Best Buy, Target or others.. I know HE wasn't there.
Meanwhile in China, as many as 10 people buying modeling clay were outraged to find iPad instead of the clay they purchased. They are further outraged by the fact that Art stores do not accept returns on clay.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
There must be SOME weight differences, detectable by strategically positioning a fulcrum under the retail box & noting the effects on the position of the box.
(It's better that X-Raying it... & cheaper...)
However, Apple customers can't tell real iPads from ones with feet of clay. Literally, or metaphorically.
You are wrong. English grammar experts all say that both ways are correct.
In fact the noun form (myriad of) is the original and more correct form in the English language.