[bootlegga]

Quote:

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.

"Customers don't expect to receive this kind of product from Future Shop, so it's a very serious matter and something we are addressing right away for anyone who has been impacted," Chun told CTV British Columbia. "It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money in this kind of organized way."

The scam was first brought to CTV's attention by a victim of the crime, Mark Sandhu. Sandhu says after purchasing what he thought was an iPad 2 for his wife for Christmas, he tried to return the clay, only to be rebuffed. "Maybe the way I was dressed, I don't know," he said. "She made me feel like I'm trying to scam them out of $700. I was the one getting scammed."

Sandhu contacted Future Shop's head office, Apple and local police, but no one believed his story. Future Shop has since apologized and given Sandhu a full refund along with a free tablet--a real one.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow ... 33489.html

[DrCaleb]

The next scam: Buy an iPad, put some clay in the box, take it back and exchange the clay for another iPad.

See how many times you can do this before they start opening iPad boxes.

[saturn_656]

Aren't they supposed to inspect returns before they restock them (and pay out refunds)?

Lazy retailer.

[ShepherdsDog]

here, when you buy electronics they are taken out of their packing and booted up in front of you, then repackaged.

[herbie]

They were resealed. You can make a pretty convincing shrink wrap package using a blowdryer and Saran Wrap.
We actually did that marketing a computer game in the early 80s. Hand wrapped a couple hundred and gave them out to computer stores.

[Bruce_E_T]

ShepherdsDog wrote:

here, when you buy electronics they are taken out of their packing and booted up in front of you, then repackaged.

Right. I thought that was standard procedure.

I think the store is at fault here.

[herbie]

Or a couple useless employees. I've had one take "returns" for shit we didn't even sell. Some lady comes in yelling about a mouse failing after a week and they give here a new one, because she's being an asshole. I look at the mouse when told about the incident and it's got a fucking RadioShack/TheSource brand name...

And when we returned a wedding gift electric wok that didn't work many years ago, while one employee explained we could only return it and replace it with the same thing, I watched another repackage and put the broken one back on the shelf for sale.

[Mr_Canada]

The box being resealed certainly would cause a grey area. If it looks like it's never been opened and is still brand new, I can see why they just re-shelved it, thinking the customer just changed his mind.