Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned for full refund

Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by dehrmann on Friday July 24, 2020 @12:54PM (#23941744)

Is this still true? I recently went to a Walmart for the first time in a decade+, and it was obvious most of the items weren't seconds, they were just cheaply made. Even higher-end retailers with outlet stores have just started making lower-end merchandise specifically for outlet stores.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by kd5bjo on Friday July 24, 2020 @01:04PM (#23941866)

I meant seconds in the sense of second-quality items: ones that wouldn't pass QA for their primary distribution channels, whether that's high-end department stores or their own storefronts.

That's different from secondhand items, which are items that had been previously sold, used, and then refurbished to be sold again.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by linuxftw on Friday July 24, 2020 @01:27PM (#23942138)

Walmart doesn't sell 'seconds' as you might normally consider. They do often receive inferior quality merchandise from their suppliers, often under the same SKU. This is how they compete on price. It's like the mattress business, at scale.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by reaperducer on Friday July 24, 2020 @01:45PM (#23942371)

When it comes to some products, especially the more expensive ones like televisions, certain retailers will get custom SKUs. The products will have a feature added or removed or be in a slightly different color.

The idea is to short circuit the price match guarantees that they heavily promote.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by bdowling on Friday July 24, 2020 @02:20PM (#23942810)

> often under the same SKU.

If the SKU is the same, wouldn't this open everyone up to the problem in which a buyer buys one item from the expensive retailer (better product) and one from the cheap retailer (inferior product), then returns the inferior product to the more expensive retailer (keeping the better product at the cheaper price)?

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by linuxftw on Friday July 24, 2020 @03:56PM (#23943761)

This can and does happen. Though, for most items, the net gain you'll realize probably isn't worth the effort.

Consider this from Walmart [1]. Mobile 1 5W-30. Something I buy frequently, but not from walmart. Walmart's site doesn't list a SKU, but you can see the UPC code from one of the pictures.

Same exact SKU as Advance Auto [2]. The problem? I know for absolute fact that the containers that hold the oil look totally different (and Walmart's online photo does not reflect reality). I don't buy motor oil from Walmart because this is the crap they pull. And it's not like this just recently happened or the manufacturer recently switched. I've compared the containers across years and several states now.

Maybe the packaging is just different but it really is the same oil on the inside. I don't trust Walmart enough to find out.

1: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mobil-1-Advanced-Full-Synthetic-M...

2: https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/mobil1-advanced-5w-30-fu...

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Re:Amazon Warehouse scam: 16TB HDD swapped for 8TB, returned... by sukilot on Friday July 24, 2020 @02:25PM (#23942883)

It's a different SKU, but same product name.

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