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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."
Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores.
Huh? I've never had a problem returning electronics. Software, on the other hand...
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 $30 USB cable. But the people who do push that carp get more hours then the people who know what they are doing and tell people that on line you can find much cheaper cables that are just as good.
Mom always said that you should look inside the box before buying anything.
The staff should have been checking the boxes upon return, to make sure that everything was OK. Add to that, they should have definitely been checked before outting them back on the shelves for other poeple to buy! It's either useless staff or really sloppy company policy.
Yeah, I stole it from the comments over at the article source. Too good not to share.
I used to work at Futureshop.
They definitively 100% care more about ramming a 30$ 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
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
Hello. I think my iPad has been bricked.
Have gnu, will travel.
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?
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.
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.