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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Major Canadian retailers unwittingly sell iPad 2 boxes filled with modeling clay

    By jeff_hughes | Digital Trends – Thu, Jan 19, 2012

    Apparently, Santa brought a few unlucky Canadians lumps of clay over the Holidays. Thanks to a new scam, customers who bought iPads from various retail chains in the country were treated to bags of modeling clay when they opened up their iPad 2 boxes.

    According to CTV News, the scam artists had bought the Apple tablets with cash, removed the devices from the packaging and then resealed the boxes with modeling clay to replicate the weight of the iPad 2; chargers were also replaced with little wads of clay. The fakes were then returned to retailers and put back on store shelves for trusting customers to stumble across.

    At least 24 iPad 2 tablets have been swapped, but retail chains are still investigating the matter. Best Buy and Canadian electronics retailer Future Shop both say their Vancouver stores sold up to 10 clay filled iPad boxes. London Drugs has knowledge of at least four cases, and Walmart acknowledged that its stores were also hit by the scam. Apple Canada has confirmed that they are helping with the investigation.

    The ingenious scam caught the retail stores completely by surprise. Mark Sandhu, the first customer to bring the modeling-clay switch to Future Shop’s attention, was initially treated like a scammer himself. Apple, the local police and Future Shop initially refused to listen to the odd story; however, Future Shop has since apologized, returned Sandhu’s money and given him a new iPad 2 for free.

    Some of the retailers have changed their return policies, and now break the seal on returned iPads to check the integrity of the contents. There’s no word on whether this is happening in the US, but if you buy an iPad 2 in the coming months it might not be a bad idea to check the box before leaving the store with your new purchase.

    Via The Verge

     

     

    This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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    8 comments

    • Joe
      Joe  •  4 mths ago
      The reason they tried to stonewall people at first is because this proves the store is putting returned merchandise back on the shelves and selling it as new, something that's illegal many places. If they weren't doing that, there's no way something like this could happen.
    • Chris2aT
      Chris2aT  •  Collinsville, Illinois  •  4 mths ago
      All they have to do is check the serial numbers on the boxes and shut down the FREE LOADING #$%$!!! Where's that ole' hanging tree when I need it???
    • Steve N.
      Steve N.  •  St Albans, West Virginia  •  4 mths ago
      Every electronic item I have purchased and returned in the last ten years has been opened and inspected by store staff, and in some cases turned on to see if it was damaged; prior to any refund being offered. I came to believe this was standard policy. Besides, you can tell if the original seal has been broken, which gives further cause for the item to be inspected. My recent purchase and return of a unopened tablet is proof that some stores follow strict return policies.
    • Adam J
      Adam J  •  Warren, Ohio  •  4 mths ago
      They did this in the States when the PS2 came out. I worked at Kmart and people would take a brick, put the barcode from the ps2 on it, so you could see it in the box, and return it. Pretty clever actually
    • Kulahptik
      Kulahptik  •  4 mths ago
      lol whoever actually buys apple deserves it. stupid people scamming stupid people. at least it didn't affect any innocents. next someone should replace all of the stupid bieber posters with posters of Steve Buscemi. i can hear the shreeks from here.
    • Tia
      Tia  •  4 mths ago
      Imagine how frustrated that guy Mark Sandhu was! "Apple, the local police and Future Shop initially refused to listen to the odd story"!!! Teach you not to trust Apple -- they treat their customers and business partners like criminals.
    • J
      J  •  4 mths ago
      Ingenious? Not hardly.
      • Evil One
        Evil One 4 mths ago
        "Not hardly"? Really? O.o?
    • Dig G
      Dig G  •  Santa Clara, California  •  4 mths ago
      I want to see the picture of clay inside an Ipad2 box.
     Post a comment
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