Best Buy swaps hard drive for bathroom tiles
BEST BUY has given a punter bathroom tiles instead of a hard drive and have refused to give him his money back.
According to Consumerist Magazine, a bloke called Sam bought a Western Digital 1TB hard drive from Bestbuy.com for in-store pick up.
When he opened the box when he got home he found that there were a few bathroom tiles and no hard drive. The tiles were fairly useless as they were an off white colour and there weren't enough of them to do the bathroom. Their data storage ability was limited and certainly not up to a 1TB spec.
The manager at Best Buy said that Sam should take the matter up with Western Digital and that he was not going to issue a refund.
Best Buy's corporate office said that they stand by their manager's decision. Western Digital said it was Best Buy's problem and nothing to do with them as the box shipped with a hard drive when it left its factory.
Sam has told American Express to stop payment and visited to the local consumer affairs department. He is also trying to see if he can get Best Buy investigated for fraud. After all, flogging something as a hard drive when it isn't should be against the law, even in the US.
Consumerist has told Sam to throw the book at Best Buy including filing a police report. In the meantime if you are thinking of buying something from Best Buy it is probably best to open the box to see if you are getting what they tell you they are selling.
More, along with nice pictures of the tiles, here. µ
Share this:
Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
... weren't there similar stories about people purchasing iPods but upon opening the box finding nothing but a few stones instead of an overpriced mp3 player?

I seem to recall it was Best Buy also...
Sounds like all retailers need a better policy to prevent this. I once bought a DVD and the case was empty when I opened it at home. We need more clear boxes like they do with some graphics cards and network cards.
when i used to work there, we had 4-5 "hackers" come in every day and try to return old crap in new boxes. "hey sir, i need to return my 400 dollar videocard, it is not compatible with linux -> soooo, why did you put a radeon 7000 in the box" It's quite absurd how many people try this stupid trick on a daily basis, looks like this person succeeded, and made off with a free 1 tb hdd... unfortunately, its' the customers that lose, not bestbuy.
... is a rather big problem for retailers. The earlier reports involving the iPlod were from Target, but I've been to some stores that actually wave a metal detector over employees that leave the store for the day or meal breaks. And they were in fairly affluent suburbs of Chicago.

Unfortunately most of the burden falls on the consumer - I am always suspicious at stores of boxes that appear to have been opened. Nothing good would seem to come from them being opened by someone other than myself.
I remember hearing about people buying PS2s and returning then, minus the playstation, but plus a phonebook spraypainted black. Best buy sucks for stuff like this.
My guess is that someone bought the drive, took it home, swapped the tiles, and returned it to BestBuy. Maybe a BestBuy employee is in on it in order to clear the return clerk, but it is definitely BestBuy's problem. You'd think BestBuy could check their records to see if that drive was previously returned and by whom.
This happened to me before at FutureShop and is most likely an inside job. Since the little workers in the stores can open the boxes and repackage them with the plastic and heater gun in the store, they can swap things in and out without their managers knowing. Just make sure to check the plastic on the boxes. If it feels a little crispy, then it's not the original manufacturor's packaging. Shame on the store for scamming the consumer!
I bought a PS3 from my local best buy in roseville,Ca. When I got home to test it, it would not work at all. I took it back to have the manager of best buy tell me they would not take it back or exchange it do to the money they would loose! He suggested I talk with sony. I hate this company and have not shopped there for 9 months and never will again in my life.
@Greg Williams

It was a woman who bought an iPod at Walmart which had the rocks in it. She apparently received another iPod - Rocks edition the second time.
My Dad went to Best Buy and spent $35 on a gift card to give to my wife for her birthday, and we have the receipt to prove it. We went to the store and the card didn't have any money on it. We haven't been able to go back to the store with the receipt, but I'm sure gonna raise a huge stink if they don't fix it. With a newborn baby, it's not like we can just pop out to the store anytime we feel like it.
Best Buy belong in that group of modern companies who believe that the most cost effective way of dealing with customer problems is shafting that customer. I've been burnt there, and now I won't deal with them or any other company that doesn't have a clear chain of command (responsibility). (The giveaway at Best Buy is that everyone's uses their first name, you can't find out who's in charge.)

There are lots of places to buy stuff from. Best Buy aren't particularly cheap and there's nothing they sell you can't get elsewhere so why bother? Let natural selection do its thing.
Seems to me that's a tricky business, sooner or later someone isn't going to take that laying down.
In fact I'm amazed (american) people do, if I got a box of tiles I expect they'd have to get the cops to drag me away, and then there would be severe damage to the shop not long after..
I mean who's going to droop away after getting tiles? now really.