Man Buys Computer From Best Buy, Opens Box To Find Wooden Blocks

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: Queasy
Sounds like the guy deserved to get arrested. He threatened to kill an employee and kept yelling and swearing even after cops asked him to stop.

If i juts stole $1300 from you would you not do the same? The only diff. is this happened in a larger outlet, not a one to one person.

Sorry but he got ripped off, and by the tune of $1300 I be pissed as well.

Yes I'd be pissed but I'd probably stop short of threatening to kill someone and disobeying a policeman's request. All he's done is cost himself more money now.

 

[tboo]

I bought two hard drives from Best Buy several years a go. Both were shrink wrapped & when I got home & unwrapped them one didnt contain a hard drive, but an old car stereo eq. I then took a closer look at the shrink wrap that came off the box & noticed that the wrap was thicker than the wrap off the box that had a hard drive. I also notice the edges where the plastic is sealed together was sloppy & crude-definitely not a factory wrapping job. Needless to say I wasnt happy & went back to BB-they replaced the drive but treated me like I was guilty.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Another reason why i do not shop at best buy.

Why, because they arrest you when you threaten their lives for trying to scam them?

Please. You honestly believe this guy was trying to scam BB? If anything, BB scammed him.

Not even an amateur scammer would be so invested in their mark that they'd go to jail to pull it off.

 

[ultimatebob]

I feel bad for this guy, but he made a LOT of mistakes:

1) He should have paid with a credit card, so he could have filed a dispute with the CC company.
2) When Best Buy refused to give him a refund, he should have SHUT UP AND LEFT, andt then called the local District Attorney's office. Those "consumer help" lines that the local TV stations do are also great.... Not only do you get your money back, but you also get to give Best Buy a ton of negative publicity for your trouble

 

[bernse]

Originally posted by: her209
Can you tell when a piece of wood was cut?

QUICK! SOMEBODY CALL GRISSOM!!

 

[Kelemvor]

Should have just disputed the charge with his CC company.

 

[SKORPI0]

Originally posted by: tboo
I bought two hard drives from Best Buy several years a go. Both were shrink wrapped & when I got home & unwrapped them one didnt contain a hard drive, but an old car stereo eq. I then took a closer look at the shrink wrap that came off the box & noticed that the wrap was thicker than the wrap off the box that had a hard drive. I also notice the edges where the plastic is sealed together was sloppy & crude-definitely not a factory wrapping job. Needless to say I wasnt happy & went back to BB-they replaced the drive but treated me like I was guilty.

That's why Western Digital begun putting their HDD in clear plastic packages. Same with some video cards. At least you can clearly see what you're getting. Hopefuly manufacturers will find a way to show products in bigger packages like a computer.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Reel
When I bought a computer there, they insisted that the Geek Squad plug it in and verify that it works and run through the Windows first run steps. I would imagine that is standard policy making this case fairly hard to believe.

It is. I work at Best Buy in the Computers department. A free functionality check is offered on every new PC purchased, if the customer wants it.

Apparently, this guy decided not to take advantage of it.

If the box's seal was intact, sounds like the manufacturer had an employee in the shipping dept. pull a fast one and he now has a free PC. Crazy story, all the way around.

 

[Kilgor]

I've had that happen to me twice at best buy. the first time it was a video card the next was a game. now I don't leave the parking lot without checking my stuff. I'd rather buy online any way.

 

[CravenTacos]

hell when i worked for best buy, we had this happen at least 3 times i can recall. people buy a random expensive product, steam the factory tape off the bottom, repack it with something of the same weight, and return it. 99% of the time the customer service people just return it, even though it's corporate policy to open certain items up on returns. most managers discourage this though, since they're losing margin on a product as they'll have to sell the examined item at a loss due to being an "open item". I remember we busted this one guy who tried to return a brick in a new receiver box, but the weight distribution was way off despite the seals being "intact"

oh, and as far as the geek squad doing a "free instore setup" on each and every PC, the tech bench used to get revenue for each PC they tested but since they quit the store doesn't push it any longer. Usually, they just scan the barcode for the setup so it gets tracked, but it only gets done when the customer reuqests it or if they are paying for an install of some sort.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: Reel
When I bought a computer there, they insisted that the Geek Squad plug it in and verify that it works and run through the Windows first run steps. I would imagine that is standard policy making this case fairly hard to believe.

It is. I work at Best Buy in the Computers department. A free functionality check is offered on every new PC purchased, if the customer wants it.

Apparently, this guy decided not to take advantage of it.

If the box's seal was intact, sounds like the manufacturer had an employee in the shipping dept. pull a fast one and he now has a free PC. Crazy story, all the way around.

BS. Then you slimy BB people go into the you need a firewall, we can do that for only $400 etc... bs. More pressure to buy the warrenty, etc... NO THANKS. That and I sould not have to have my system checked out, it should be what it is. Unless you are admiting, like we all know, this happens a lot more then the news sees.

And as you can see by not only the story I found but others here have been burned first hand by BB with items in the box not being what they are supposed to. Heck I have pranked people by taking a hair blow dryer and opening boxs and replacing items to mess with them. Trust me, my firend was ticked when his $300+ stereo he paid for was only a dual knob $20 deal. So it is very easy to do.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: eelw
More likely some person bought the computer and returned a box full of wood. Why no one checked it before accepting the return and putting it back on the shelf, who knows???

That seems like the most likely situation. If he was trying to scam the store probably wouldn't have gone off like that.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: jjones
I wouldn't be surprised if his story was true and that it came from the manufacturer filled with wood. Employees pack those boxes and people do sh!tty things some times. Some guys is probably laughing his ass off over this, and a few dollars richer after he sold the unit on eBay.

So some factory worker put wood in a box instead of the computer, smuggled the machine out of work and then sold it on eBay?

 

[thirdlegstump]

Damn. This is almost exactly like the story where some guy bought a computer at Best Buy and found the box full of wooden blocks!

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: grrl

Originally posted by: jjones
I wouldn't be surprised if his story was true and that it came from the manufacturer filled with wood. Employees pack those boxes and people do sh!tty things some times. Some guys is probably laughing his ass off over this, and a few dollars richer after he sold the unit on eBay.

So some factory worker put wood in a box instead of the computer, smuggled the machine out of work and then sold it on eBay?

It could very well be the manuf, but, I'd wager it was was an employee.

If it was a return, they could easilly track who returned that model PC to the store recently and do some investigation that way. Even if 1 person returned it, and they claimed to NOT have put bricks in there, Best Buy would be guilty.

Anyway, I've heard enough bad best buy stories that if I buy anything from them (or anyone really) I open the box before I leave the store. If I bought an expensive computer, I might even take it out and check the contents. Not that I should have to do that... and that's why I rarely shop there, but, dang, that sucks.

 

[Jmman]

I bought a 9800 pro video card a few years ago at Circuit CIty and I got it home and it was an 8 mb voodoo video card. Needless to say, I took it back and they gave me a new one no questions asked. BHest Buy does have responsibiity for this, but the guy did get out of line. If this happened to me I would sue Best Buy in a heart beat......:|

 

[Pepsi90919]

NOBODY SAYS WOW JUST WOW

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Wow...just...wow.

I'm never again leaving the parking lot of a Best Buy without verifying the boxed contents of a purchase.

Best Buy Manager Dave Hammond said he doesn't know for sure whether this is a case of a customer trying to trick the store, or an actual instance of a computer box containing only wood.

"Anything is possible, but we do offer a service of having it looked at when you buy it and he didn't take advantage of it," Hammond said. He referred any other questions to corporate public relations.

Yeah how much does Best/Worst Buy charge for this Service??

 

[ajf3]

Same thing happened to me at Staples.

Bought a 16x DVD... ended up returning it - it WAS shrink-wrapped, but it had a coffee stained old CD-ROM in there. Kinda embarassing since tou don't really have any proof that it wasn't you.

 

[whistleclient]

i hate best buy, especially their big bouncer guys at the door that try to intimidate me into an optional receipt check.

 

[Nick5324]

Disclaimer: I only read the first post in this thread. When I read the story, I wasn't surprised at all, not in the very least. I am known for hating best buy for their propensity to lie to their customers and provide the worst customer service, yet be hugely successful. If this happened to me, I would've reacted in a similar manner. Is it correct to blow up on the girl at the CS counter, probably not. However, after she says "there?s nothing we can do for you", you would think to ask for the manager. Since BB managers are always "in a meeting", that is worthless. Even getting a hold of one would likely get you a "nothing we can do" response. I hate this store, if you shop there; it's just a matter of time before they get around to screwing you over in some way.

Is it possible that the customer is trying to scam them... yes. However, since this type of problem and other deceptive practices seem to hover around bestbuy like flys on sh!t, I think it's just another example of why everyone should avoid this store like the plague.

Edit: cavemanmoron makes a good point, this "service" may involve a charge, why should I have to pay for this? Can you imagine an ad for this "service" in store: "For only $15, we'll check your purchase from us to make sure you aren't getting ripped off." I realize that the store manager is referring to the "service" of unpacking the computer and making sure it is in good, working order, which you could argue is a service that demands a fee to be collected. However, he is pretty much saying "Hey, you didn't pay to have us check it out, so therefore you took the risk that you'd get something other than what you bought." Even if it is free, I shouldn't have to have an item "checked" to receive my purchase.

 

[CocoGdog]

I purchase a Dreamcast game before, I believe it was Soul Reaver, and came home to find a Promo Music CD. It was probably an employee who switched it. Best Buy refused to exchange it for me citing that I could've done the swap myself. Just look at what you buy at the store first, i.e, have them open the box or cd in front of you to see that it hasn't be messed with by anyone else.

 

[CocoGdog]

Also, why did the reporter list the guy's full address? That's shady.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: Trygve

Originally posted by: Reel
When I bought a computer there, they insisted that the Geek Squad plug it in and verify that it works and run through the Windows first run steps. I would imagine that is standard policy making this case fairly hard to believe.

I bought a printer there last month (demo) and they'd said that it had been checked out and tested thoroughly. It didn't work at all when I plugged it in, I took it back, and it turned out there was an inch-and-a-half plastic "Mega Blok" building toy jammed into the mechanism. (Picture at http://www.trygve.com/blog_2005_09.html#05)

It may be that the Geek Squad has some younger employees than I'd presumed.

LOL The geek squad cracks me up. Do yourself a favor and take your computer to a real tech to get it fixed, Geek Squad is gonna do the same thing anyways, may as well cut out the middle man.

 

[lrad50]

wow, makes stuff i saw at target a few years ago nothing