Walmart Store #5054 Walmart Christmas Gift Ripoff Jacksonville Florida
On December 15th, 2007, my wife purchased an Acer Aspire 5520-5912 a Walmart store with our area, as a surprised Christmas gift for me. On Christmas day, one of our traditions is to video tape the opening of all gifts. So with camera rolling we proceeded to open all gifts. At last it came to the surprise gift. We read all the information on the box and then opened it up to reveal the computer. Imagine my surprise when my new Acer laptop ended up being an IBM ThinkPad (used, broken, no hard drive) and the ac adapter was from a Sony PSP (which I do not own).
On Dec 26th my wife returned the unit to Walmart and was immediately accused of switching the laptops. She then asked to speak with the Store Manager "Gentle Raines". He said he would do some investigating and get back to her. Well, that didn't happen!!!
The next conversation that she had with the Manager he stated that the merchandise left the store "sealed" and that no one at the store did anything wrong. Well...I don't know of anyone that opens a surprise gift before it's time!! My wife then stated that we had the incident captured on video tape. The reply "it does not matter". Again he would not accept the merchandise in return.
Well, I've filed a dispute with the credit card company and now awaiting the results. I believe I have made my last purchase at Walmart!!!
Frank
Saint Marys, Georgia
U.S.A.
5 Updates & Rebuttals
Larry
West Sacramento,California,
U.S.A.
How to get a free laptop
#6Consumer Comment
Thu, January 10, 2008
A person has a broken down IBM Thinkpad. He purchases a new Acer laptop at his local Wal-Mart. He takes the Acer home, pulls the new laptop and accessories out of the box, and then puts the Thinkpad in the box, along with some other old components he has lying around. Then he returns to Wal-Mart with the old junk inside the Acer box and tells the know-nothing minimum-wage employee working the return counter that he has decided against the Acer.
The totally clueless employee opens the box and sees a laptop and other accessories inside. The customer is refunded his money and the broken Thinkpad in the Acer box goes back on the shelf. The customer now has a brand new Acer laptop and all of his money. Eventually some poor sucker will get stuck with a Thinkpad in an Acer box and everyone will accuse HIM of trying to pull a fast one.
Suggestion to Frank: File a police report and have them find out who the Thinkpad was registered to.
Larry
West Sacramento,California,
U.S.A.
How to get a free laptop
#6Consumer Comment
Thu, January 10, 2008
A person has a broken down IBM Thinkpad. He purchases a new Acer laptop at his local Wal-Mart. He takes the Acer home, pulls the new laptop and accessories out of the box, and then puts the Thinkpad in the box, along with some other old components he has lying around. Then he returns to Wal-Mart with the old junk inside the Acer box and tells the know-nothing minimum-wage employee working the return counter that he has decided against the Acer.
The totally clueless employee opens the box and sees a laptop and other accessories inside. The customer is refunded his money and the broken Thinkpad in the Acer box goes back on the shelf. The customer now has a brand new Acer laptop and all of his money. Eventually some poor sucker will get stuck with a Thinkpad in an Acer box and everyone will accuse HIM of trying to pull a fast one.
Suggestion to Frank: File a police report and have them find out who the Thinkpad was registered to.
Larry
West Sacramento,California,
U.S.A.
How to get a free laptop
#6Consumer Comment
Thu, January 10, 2008
A person has a broken down IBM Thinkpad. He purchases a new Acer laptop at his local Wal-Mart. He takes the Acer home, pulls the new laptop and accessories out of the box, and then puts the Thinkpad in the box, along with some other old components he has lying around. Then he returns to Wal-Mart with the old junk inside the Acer box and tells the know-nothing minimum-wage employee working the return counter that he has decided against the Acer.
The totally clueless employee opens the box and sees a laptop and other accessories inside. The customer is refunded his money and the broken Thinkpad in the Acer box goes back on the shelf. The customer now has a brand new Acer laptop and all of his money. Eventually some poor sucker will get stuck with a Thinkpad in an Acer box and everyone will accuse HIM of trying to pull a fast one.
Suggestion to Frank: File a police report and have them find out who the Thinkpad was registered to.
Wilson
Walnut Creek,California,
U.S.A.
I want to see the video of the opening of the wrapped laptop computer present.
#6Consumer Comment
Thu, January 10, 2008
This story does not sound right. I have purchased two laptop computers in my life, a refurbished HP 17" DV9000 from a reseller merchant off of eBay, (on which I am currently using to write this comment) and a new IBM ThinkPad from Fry's Electronics, and I can tell you that both the internal box packaging usually fits the computer and associated peripherals including CDs and power adapters.
I highly doubt the Walmart store in Jacksonville or Walmart Corporation is substituting used broken computers for new computers. I would think the store employees would steal the computers rather than open the boxes and replace the insides with used computer items. I think someone may have placed an Acer laptop box with the broken used IBM ThinkPad inside the store, but why would anyone do that? Take a look at the sealing tape on the Acer box. Does the sealing tape look tampered?
Frank, I would love for you to post your wife's video on youtube so we can all see the actual opening of Acer laptop. Your story MAY be true, it does not make sense.
Robert
Irvine,California,
U.S.A.
Some suggestions
#6Consumer Suggestion
Thu, January 10, 2008
Unfortunaty your dispute with the credit card company probably won't work. Those boxes are factory sealed and unless you can prove that was returned or some how switched they will probably side with Wal Mart. You also can not blame Wal Mart unless you do have proof that they in fact did switch out the laptop.
The Video Tape does not matter, unless you had a video tape of the package from the time she bought it. They could claim that it was switched between the time she bought it and it was wrapped up. I am not saying you did this, this is just what they would claim.
Now, if the dispute fails you may be able to try a few other things. Hopefully you still have the receipt and the box and the old IBM
All Laptop boxes should have the S/N of the Laptop that is supposed to be inside. This along with your receipt should be proof enough of the purchase of the Acer. If your receipt shows the same Serial Number even better. If you have this proof of purchase you can file a stolen property report with your local police department. After all it was technically stolen.
They should then contact Acer and IBM to see if either the laptop's serial numbers have been registered. If they have they can require Acer or IBM to provide the contact information of those people. As that would be a very good chance that they are the ones who performed the "switch".
I don't know if this would actually work, but it is something you might want to look into.