When it arrived, it was clear the packaging had been opened (which I expected), but:
- the toilet seat had signs of handling
- it didn't work when installed
- the previous purchasers return note was in the box. IIRC they said the reason for return was that they changed their mind about wanting it
My guess is that they bought a replacement on Amazon, and fraudulently sent back their old non-functioning one in the new packaging.
Amazon gave me a refund without fuss.
A Q/A person to validate a range of products for authenticity (or at least more so than now) likely costs more per hour.
They have their supply chain so efficient, it's likely very cheap for them to move physical items across the globe.
If only 5 items an hour are bad returns, that's $4 per item identified.
It's likely cheaper to have you, the customer, do the valuation because you might not even realize the issues... And if you do, you might be too lazy to return it. Which further let's the value of hitting a validator.. so the employee would now be to probably find twice as many bad returns per hour for the company to break even.
I thought the money I saved for so many months was lost. But alas, I was finally playing Quake deathmatch in glorious 3D after some heartache.
He would go out and buy a new card, gently open the wrapper so that it could be melted back on with a heat gun, remove the card, replace it with something of similar weight, and reseal the package with a heat gun.
One time I ruined the wrapper on him and he had to take the item to Blockbuster. He made up some BS about it being a birthday gift that the wrong child opened and he needed to use the cellophane machine. It didn't work, and Best Buy wouldn't accept his return. That was one of the last times I saw him use that trick.
I also saw him sign up for a store credit card using someone else's social security information. His plan was to get approved, buy a TV, and then shred the card. Luckily for whoever SSN that was; their credit got denied on the application and he was unable to steal a TV.
Sorry to hear your Best Buy horror story, or to think that I saw that stuff go down. On the bright side my family member no longer engages in those types of transactions and mostly flies straight these days.
No judgement here. Pretty much everyone has done or is related to someone who does some sort of crappy thing(s).
“Swappy swaps” LOL
I decided to check the model number and sure enough, it was the previous model. Someone had obviously ordered the new model (presumably because the new one gained support for Apple HomeKit) then stuffed their old one in the box and done a refund through Amazon.
Amazon handled it fine and I got a replacement that was correct but now I'm pretty skeptical of how Amazon processes the returned items they place up for sale again.