This ever happened to you?

[allinon72]

I went to Sears tonight and picked up the C3 reciprocating saw. Got it home, opened it up, and found an older model that was severely beat up. Looks like they closed the box back up with liquid nails

I actually put another one down and picked this one up because the box looked to be in better condition.

 

[mossyboy6]

That *****!

I have actually never seen it for myself, but have heard of it happening.

 

[filtered]

Had that happen to me when buying a framing nailer from Lowes. Got it home and found out it was used. Took it back and got a brand new one, made sure to check it before leaving the store.

 

[canuckian]

Had it happen to me. Bought a Mastercraft right angle drill and got it home only to find out it was all marked up and that the bearings were shot. Took it back but apparently it was the last one they had so I got my money back, went to HD and bought a Milwaukee version. Happy I did because a buddy of mine bought one of the ones i originally bought and it turned out to be a piece of junk anyways.

 

[purplezr2]

Happened with a tool I bought off amazon, it was not the wrong tool, but it had been used. Had it happen several times when I have bought parts from different autoparts chains.

 

[Jay H 237]

Yep, similar thing happened to me.

About 15 years ago I bought a Porter Cable laminate trimmer from Home Depot. The box was sealed and in good condition. When I got it home and opened it up the trimmer was covered in drywall dust and the cord was mutilated, it was just stuffed in the box. On close inspection of the box you could see the flaps were hot glued on one side. Looked like someone carefully opened it, used and abused it, stuffed it back in the box and neatly sealed it up and returned it. It was obvious whoever bought it needed it for a job but had no intensions of ever keeping it.

I really couldn't blame the store either. They had done a very good job of keeping the box prestine and sealing it up so it looked like it was never opened. If you looked it over quickly I could see how a clerk would give a refund thinking it was still new.

 

[OccupantRJ]

They buy a tool, use it until it dies, then go to the store and get a new one, swapping the old one into the box for a refund. That way they get several tools for the price of one. They also go to Walmart, buy a tool to use for one job, then return it as defective. Walmart will give them a refund with no problem.

 

[dodge610]

Went to Sears about 4 months back picked up the C3 quad battery charger got it home to find when I opened the box that it was scratched up and had been used. Took it back to find that it was the only one they had. Even tho it was used it was not abused they gave me 25.00 off the price so i kept it allready had got a good deal on it this just made it sweeter. It has worked just fine and other than a scratch or two got a great deal on it. The only part that ticked me off was the low life that used it boxed it back up and returned it that just is not right.

 

[jwitt]

A few years back I was standing in the check out line at Pepboys. The guy in front of me told the cashier that he wanted to return a socket set. She asked what was wrong with it and he answered "I'm done with it". I'm not sure if he had a lot of nerve or just stupid.

Oh ya, she gave him his money back!

 

[wafrederick]

I bought a battery for my Milwaukee cordless recipicating saw from Home Depot and it was no good,would not take a charge.Took it back getting my money back and did buy a good battery.Looked like the package was opened up at one time.I bought a metric chrome universal socket set from sears one time,look at the 13mm and the 3/8 drive ends on both sides.I got it replaced with no problem.

 

[hllon4whls]

Harbor freight nailgun and recently collision repair parts from an online vendor. HF - I ate it because I bought the nailgun for future use. The online vendor simply sent a new part - no questions asked.

 

[greasemonkey44]

had it happen with car parts pretty frequently
never had it happen in retail; but im pick about what i buy

 

[Need4racin]

Nope but I returned a tap and die set back to harbor **** and they pulled out a magnifying glass and inspected it for atleast 3 or 4 mins. I told them it was brand new never used, and it was never used. She must of been new or I must of looked shady.

 

[Jeeprz!]

I've heard of this happening alot years ago, someone buys a fancy expensive new dvd player, radio, computer etc. with cash, take it home and take it out and put bricks or cans of soup for weight and seal it up tight then return it for a cash refund. I cant recall the last time i returned something that they didnt take it out of the box and check for all the pieces for that very reason i've always assumed. I returned a pc monitor to walmart a few months ago because i decided to get a bigger one, they had to verify the serial before they would accept it for a return.

 

[Coach James]

My dad gave me a Craftsman router a few years ago for Christmas. Took it out of the box and started to adjust a couple things and wood chips and sawdust started to fall out. I took it back to Sears and they gave me a new one. They also apologized and said they had not seen that happen before. The box looked like it had never been opened or hardly even touched.

Coach

 

[csargents1546]

Had it happen all the time when I worked at HD especially in plumbing, people would by new shutoff valves and sprinkler valves, take and put the old one in the box and return them. Got so bad that the returns clerks would call us up each time a vavle was returned since we were getting ripped off so much. To the tune of a couple of hundred dollars a day sometime.
Same place, customer wants to return a USED sewer snake, what is wrong with it, it isn't long enought. Big fat NO. Could not accept the return for sanitary reasons.

 

[Plombob]

Fry's is famous for this. I hardly ever shop there because of bad experiences over the years, and I always examine the packaging.

 

[rsieracki]

ya ive seen it, both on the shelf when i open to inspect before i buy and once i get home becasue i didnt look first...

whats worse is when i return something thats actually defective/broken/used and i see the clerk putting it back on the shelf for someone else to buy

 

[allinon72]

Sears was very apologetic about it today and offered to exchange it with the more expensive one-handed saw. That was great...except they were out of both saws.

How the hell do you run out of these powertools leading up to the busiest shopping time of the year?

 

[Brentocool]

Happened to me at menards. on some under counter lighting. Had old dirty lights put back in the plastic package.They cut the seams with a blade and glued it back together!

 

[billymade]

The thing about Fry's electronics; they actually SELL the returns albeit at a slightly lower price... I also returned tons of stuff there because of DOA pc parts. They have lots of white box things and many would be DOA; yeah... you can get used stuff too, returning things there and the return line is a drag... used auto parts, etc. definitely a issue!

 

[cat06]

yes, with a dehumidifer at Sears, took it back and they exchanged it and then because it had a serial # they went after the person that returned it.

 

[kv501]

Man, after reading this I am starting to rethink my procedure of always picking a box from the back of the shelf when I buy something

 

[Danglerb]

Fry's is famous for this. I hardly ever shop there because of bad experiences over the years, and I always examine the packaging.

Fry's opens brand new sealed returns and checks the contents. Some stores don't especially during the crazy times after Xmas when tons of stuff gets returned.

I've seen outright deceit where junk is put in a box to return it.

Scams where people dig through trash to find boxes that aren't too messed up, and they put in junk and return them.

Most common though, especially in a business setting, company upgrades a PC and puts the old part in the new parts static bag and box and "maybe" puts a postit on the box and sticks it back in the supply room, in case they need it. Same for auto parts, put the old core in the new parts box to return and its gets misplaced.

 

[slipjointed]

Fry's is famous for this. I hardly ever shop there because of bad experiences over the years, and I always examine the packaging.

I've gotten "fried" at Fry's a few times because of this, I never buy there unless I have to.

The thing they do that really makes my blood boil... as an example:

They'll accept a return on a graphics card, and then mark it "open box, tested functional". What they don't tell you, is that they only try to boot the computer and see the boot screen, they never actually test the cards on a running system with drivers... so a card that's totally incapable of running 3D properly gets thrown right back in the box and sold as working.

 

[allinon72]

Things returned at Fry's don't always get a "open box" label...I have purchased a couple things there where the product was fine but something was just "off" about it, like it had been handled before or was a refurb.

 

[wafrederick]

I bought a ratcheting screwdriver set from my Matco tool dealer,the magnet holding the bit in place came out of the longest shank.The set was brand new and luckily it was replaced with no problem at all.The Magnet was not glued in properly.

 

[metaldad]

Man, after reading this I am starting to rethink my procedure of always picking a box from the back of the shelf when I buy something

I'm glad i'm not the only crazy one.