Not the X-mas gift I expected

G

Gh()st

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Messages
473
:(

Bought myself a gift the other day, and decided to open it tonight to finally make the jump from XP to Win 7.

I spent most of the day getting things prepped, and sat down just after dinner to start on the project.

Upon opening the box I picked up off the shelf at BB, I was greeted with this:

BestBuySSD.jpg


I've been rooked. :mad: :(

Appears someone was able to pluck the retail box internals without marking up the box in a way to make it noticeable. It had the cable wrapping/tamper alarm attached when I purchased it, so I mistakenly assumed BB ensured the contents of the box were intact.

Now comes the fun part of returning it for an exchange. Hopefully the next box will not be missing the primary product.
 
Damn! That sucks! I feel for you having to go the to the returns counter at BB a day after Xmas.
 
Wyxe said:
Damn! That sucks! I feel for you having to go the to the returns counter at BB a day after Xmas.
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Not only that but you're going to hafta explain how the drive wasn't in the box when you bought it.

I'll bet that will raise a few eyebrows! :)

I think there was another thread here @ 30 days ago where the same situation happened.

I take that back. There was a thread on AnandTech where the SSD was switched with a mechanical 2.5" drive. It's here.
 
Ouch, good luck, I hope if worst case hits you have a good bank/paid with credit card. I don't see BB just handing you a drive.

I was hoping that Intel had doubled the size of the drive or something neat like that.

I wonder if it was a BB employee that snatched it or a fluke in the packaging? My guess is they have a line that does the packaging and for whatever reason ti was not verified.
 
I wonder if it was a BB employee that snatched it or a fluke in the packaging? My guess is they have a line that does the packaging and for whatever reason ti was not verified.
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BB doesn't package any retail products and for all I know the drive could have been missing when the box left the factory.

Just wondering......were all those cables in the box....was it an OEM unit or retail?
 
It's beginning to look like if you buy something at BB, open it up and inspect it while you are there in front of them. Sooner or later, it's guaranteed to end in embarrassment for BB.
 
Wyxe said:
Damn! That sucks! I feel for you having to go the to the returns counter at BB a day after Xmas.
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Yeah, that's going to be the bonus P.I.T.A. :rolleyes:

Thankfully the store I bought this from is relatively new, and not in a major retail area, so the foot traffic is going to be lighter than a store near the malls.

Old Hippie said:
Not only that but you're going to hafta explain how the drive wasn't in the box when you bought it.

I'll bet that will raise a few eyebrows! :)
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The best part to going back is I've already met/talked with the store manager about another issue. He had to cancel the sale of a different item, and defer me to another store for an in-stock product. This was for a product on this same sale receipt, so my face is recent/fresh in his mind.

sc0tty8 said:
Ouch, good luck, I hope if worst case hits you have a good bank/paid with credit card. I don't see BB just handing you a drive.
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Purchased with my in-store BB CC to use all my rewards, and discounts.

Old Hippie said:
BB doesn't package any retail products and for all I know the drive could have been missing when the box left the factory.

Just wondering......were all those cables in the box....was it an OEM unit or retail?
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I'm assuming someone with access to the storage area cracked into the box prior to it having the tamper proofing put on, and then being placed out on the shelf.

All of the retail box internals (cables, bracket, literature, etc.) were still inside. This is the "K5" version.

I'll post back about my return experience. Maybe this is a sign I should just stick with XP? :rolleyes: j/k
 
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That happened to me at BB about a year ago. It was a regular hard drive though. The box looked perfectly intact and it even felt like their was something in their, but when I opened it, nothing was inside except a big piece of form. And of course when I went to BB to exchange it, I hate to say it, but they pretty much laughed at me and said their was nothing they could do for me and that I should contact the supplier which was western digital. And of course I called them and they too said their was nothing they could do. Lucky it was only like $60 and of course I used cash. Haven't been in a BB store since. Hopefully you can get them to exchange yours though. Its around the holidays so maybe they'll understand...good luck...
 
Tolyngee said:
So much for chargeback protection in case the manager says you're SOL.
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I was kinda wondering about that but that CC will probably be tied to Visa/MC and federally mandated chargeback laws.

Even if it's not a Visa/MC card, if it's a CC they hafta go with the comsumer protection laws.

The only problem I can see with a chargeback is "all my rewards, and discounts" he used to purchase the drive.....that may screw-up the refund monetary value......somehow.

Should be interesting but I'm hoping for the best. :)
 
Old Hippie said:
I was kinda wondering about that but that CC will probably be tied to Visa/MC and federally mandated chargeback laws.

Even if it's not a Visa/MC card, if it's a CC they hafta go with the comsumer protection laws.

The only problem I can see with a chargeback is "all my rewards, and discounts" he used to purchase the drive.....that may screw-up the refund monetary value......somehow.

Should be interesting but I'm hoping for the best. :)
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Okay, let's look at your statement:

certainty statements - 1 - have to

uncertainty statements - 6 - was kinda, probably, even if, that may, somehow, hoping

Your post doesn't exactly scream "I'm confident!"

If it's an HSBC MC BB card, HSBC will help, but they obviously have a business relationship with BB there, so you're still going to have that hurdle regardless. BB having multiple levels of anti-theft measures on that item will absolutely help BB, too.

If it's just a straight BB card, I think he's going to be SOL if the manager says he's SOL.

Open it before you leave if you're going to shop at BB. Another alternative that helps but is not obviously fool-proof either anyway is film yourself opening it if it's at home. If you buy a 47" tv and take it home and you open the box and it's got rocks, the video would help your case quite a bit.

If you're worried about this with on-line purchases, assuming it isn't just left on your door (that then becomes an issue between the retailer, UPS and police potentially then though obviously if something happens), open it in front of the delivery person (though they might not want to wait around, but refuse to sign for it if they won't) while you film it, or pick it up from the office and open it there before you leave with it.

Somehow this is becoming more and more common lately, but the hassle can be avoided before it happens if you take this extra step. And yes, even years ago, when it was items I cared about, etc, especially if I was worried about damage, it got opened inside the office before I left and it even got to my car.

(I've gotten UPS to agree something odd is even happening locally in my area. I can order same items, same place, same time, ship it to my place and a place just a few miles away, and have the packages somehow arrive in quite different conditions on a regular basis. Even they agreed the mishandling of it has to be local, and very local at that. Driver or loader. Box at my place pristine, box two miles away crushed and filthy. This became a pattern.)


Then again, stranger things have happened. I think the $90 Sony headphones I bought from Amazon a month ago are probably counterfeits, but even I'm not certain. They certainly look and sound like $10 headphones though, which is supposed to be the clue.

Unfortunately the Creative G930s are just crappy G930s. :mad::rolleyes::(:D
 
Your post doesn't exactly scream "I'm confident!"
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How 'bout this.....I'm not a lawyer but I am very intelligent, have been using CCs for over 25yrs, watch consumer CC laws closely and have been thru the chargeback process many times.

My personal opinion is....if it's advertised as a CC they must follow the federal comsumer laws which include chargeback stipulations.

He may not win a permanent chargeback but the store manager has nothing to do with the final outcome.
 
Well,

I got up earlier than usual this morning, *ugh*, to make the trek to the store.

I got there a little after they opened at 8AM. I was 1 of 6 customers in the store. ( 4 of which were already standing in the Customer Service/Geek Squad area)

The customer service associate was very helpful. She was able to process the exchange without any issues. I didn't even have to speak with the store manager. (1. She spoke with him. 2. He was occupied with another customer who seemed about 30 seconds away from going ballistic about his problem.)

They didn't have any in-stock at this store, so she had to create an "OMS" for me to pick one up at a store that did have one in-stock. She even had the other store go grab the box off the shelf, and open it up to confirm over the phone the drive was in the box before I made the drive. (with my verbal agreement that I understood the box would be "opened" when I picked it up.)

10 mins later I was walking out of the 2nd store with merchandise in hand.

IMAG0528.jpg


***whew***

That was much easier than I expected. I think the fact it was the day after X-Mas, and that the store manager already had his hand's full with another problem, that made it so easy. I would probably not have been as lucky on getting the exchange approved if it had been just a normal/typical/non-holiday, er... day of the week.

:D
 
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Nice glad it worked out for you. That would have sucked if they didn't replace it....
 
Glad you didn't have any problems. I've NEVER had a problem with BB's customer service. I've heard the horror stories but I've never had a problem and I once had a mispackaged problem with an item, never an empty box though.
 
Along time ago I bought 2x sticks of ddr1 from best buy. Cost me like 300$ total... Get home and they gave me nothing but problems and errors.

Next day I went back to best buy to return/exchange them. They told me those where not the ram that I bought and they did not match what was being sold on the shelf. I'm not sure if someone bought/swapped them or if it was just an error but they refused my refund/echange.

I threw a fit in the middle of the store. They forced me out of the store lol. It took about a month of fighting with best buy corp to get a "store credit" refund. They never asked for the ram back either.
 
Unfortunately, this seems to happen frequently. Pretty easy to shrink-wrap something and return it, minus whatever was in the package.
 
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