The following happened to a friend of mine. She posted it in her Live Journal and gave me permission to post it here. No not a friend of a friend or all that jazz.... I actually know this girl personally.
Yesterday, Charles decided to buy one of the new Apple iTouch. Can't blame him, really, they are pretty sweet. So I've mentioned a couple of times to him that I was thinking of getting a new iPod - the 160G black classic that's just been released in time for the holiday shopping season.
Charles met me at a bar to play poker last night, and I was looking at his new iTouch. It's very very nice. Then he said "Oh and I got this for you" and handed me a boxed-up iPod 160! I was thrilled, of course, it was so unexpected.
I was going to wait and unwrap it when I got home, but decided to break into the package right there and then. I undid the shrinkwrap, opened the box... and pulled out a bag of black sand. No instructions, no headphones, no nothing - just a Ziploc bag filled with black sand.
Charles had bought it at a nearby Circuit City - he took it back and got a refund but not before they had tried to exchange it for an 80G iPod, and kept him waiting for ages while they tried to find a replacement.
According to my new coworker Dave, who also works part-time at the Tampa Apple store, this has been happening a lot. Employees at stores like Circuit City and Target (the two he mentioned specifically) are taking the real iPods out of their boxes, replacing them with things like sand, rocks, sometimes older iPods, and shrinkwrapping them again, since they have access to shrinkwrapping machines in-store.
So, if you're buying an iPod this holiday season, be on the look out. I'm just glad I opened it there and then. Can you imagine if someone had opened that on Christmas Day?
Charles met me at a bar to play poker last night, and I was looking at his new iTouch. It's very very nice. Then he said "Oh and I got this for you" and handed me a boxed-up iPod 160! I was thrilled, of course, it was so unexpected.
I was going to wait and unwrap it when I got home, but decided to break into the package right there and then. I undid the shrinkwrap, opened the box... and pulled out a bag of black sand. No instructions, no headphones, no nothing - just a Ziploc bag filled with black sand.
Charles had bought it at a nearby Circuit City - he took it back and got a refund but not before they had tried to exchange it for an 80G iPod, and kept him waiting for ages while they tried to find a replacement.
According to my new coworker Dave, who also works part-time at the Tampa Apple store, this has been happening a lot. Employees at stores like Circuit City and Target (the two he mentioned specifically) are taking the real iPods out of their boxes, replacing them with things like sand, rocks, sometimes older iPods, and shrinkwrapping them again, since they have access to shrinkwrapping machines in-store.
So, if you're buying an iPod this holiday season, be on the look out. I'm just glad I opened it there and then. Can you imagine if someone had opened that on Christmas Day?
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