Girl gets iPod for birthday, finds rocks inside

[Hard core Rikki]

Rocks found in place of girl's brand new iPod... twice

Nearly every teenager either has an iPod or wants one. There are a few exceptions, but the vast majority of teens sport (or pretend to sport) Apple's wildly-popular digital audio player. So imagine yourself, for a moment, as a 14-year-old girl in your first year of the exciting, terrifying, and unforgiving world that is high school. It's your birthday and all you really wanted was a brand new iPod. You unwrap your gifts fervidly and you hit pay dirt. The iPod you wanted—no, you needed! You open the packaging with great anticipation, only to discover that there is no iPod. Only rocks. Not even good rocks, or iRocks, just rocks. This scenario unfolded recently in the life of a 14-year-old in Texas.

It turns out that the parents weren't merely mean, and to our knowledge the kid didn't have it coming. And we must say, rocks are a much better prize than, say, rotten meat.

It turns out that this iPod was replaced with rocks somewhere before the sale. Like any consumer would, the family went to the Target store where the "iPod" was purchased in order to replace the non-music-playing rocks. Apparently, Target's return policy for customers using their Target cards is to issue store credit only—despite the family asking for their money back, it was rocks or store credit, period. Unfortunately, the store in Fort Worth had no other iPods. The employees did, however, call around to other area Target stores and found one that had the product in Grand Prairie, 20 miles away.

The Grand Prairie store's employees, perhaps unforgivingly after hearing the sob story, insisted that the new iPod had to be purchased before opening it. The family finally agreed, purchased the iPod, and opened in in front of Target employees. Again, the box that should have contained an iPod contained rocks. The woman once again asked for her money back, but again was denied. She then, according to the article, had her daughter pick out other items in order to use the store credit.

So far, Target hasn't been apologetic—its employees were following store policy and the company is "looking" into the matter. It seems likely that both stores get their merchandise from the same distribution warehouse, and that is most likely where the problem lies. Bets on whether or not Apple intervenes before this gets resolved?

Imagine if it happened with a deluxe PS3 Someone could've gotten stbbed like a fewl

[skoreanime]

Wow . How can they not refund her when she opened the box, which was sealed from my reading, right in front of them and the product wasn't there?! No way I'm shopping at Target if they happen to come to Canada... .

[Solid_Snake]

I could have thrown those rocks to those employee for fooling their customers and even not returning the money

[emwearz]

Dude, im gonna buy a ipod, then take it out, fill it with sand and return it, buy something on store credit and pocket the ipod...oh wait I hate ipod...

[Linktothepast]

That is what happens when you have ipods playing rock music i guess... damn realistic.

[Coolsvilleman]

Two boxes in a row? Statistically impossible! This wouldn't make sense unless every box contained rocks in which case the distribution center should be shut down.

[ozzgx4]

thats not right, they should have done a refund- especially if its happened twice!

[Hard core Rikki]

How-to deal with stuff like that for angry, screwed consumers

[ozzgx4]

thats quite helpful

[Vanit]

Originally Posted by skoreanime

Wow . How can they not refund her when she opened the box, which was sealed from my reading, right in front of them and the product wasn't there?! No way I'm shopping at Target if they happen to come to Canada... .

The summary above is slightly incorrect in its facts. They bought the iPod with a discount credit thingy, and since they didn't pay cash they weren't entitled to a cash refund.

[ozzgx4]

now THAT makes sense
cuz i was wondering how they didnt get a refund.

[Leiw]

That whole thing just sounds too fûckïng weird...

[ready2rumbelX]

This story doesn't surprise me. Here in Nairobi, we have guys on the street who tell you "bwana (meaning 'sir/mister'), I have a nice phone for you, brand new Nokia model". So, you look and inquire to the price. The guy obviously tells you it's half of what it's worth.

So, thinking you've struck gold, you reach into your pocket to get the cash. In the meantime, the seller has also reached into his pocket, putting the phone away as to 'not attract attention'..........so, you hand the cash over, he gives you the phone from his pocket and the transaction is done.

A few seconds later, the seller has vanished. Now you're checking out your new phone...only to see that it doesn't switch on. So, first instinct is to check if the battery is inside......low and behold, you open that thing up.....there's either a metal plate or mud......it's a complete dud.

The guy shows you a phone that works, that's true. But he then places it in his pocket and whips out another one that looks JUST like it, but it's a model phone.....

.......people, I tell you....

r2rX

[Linktothepast]

Originally Posted by ready2rumbelX

This story doesn't surprise me. Here in Nairobi, we have guys on the street who tell you "bwana (meaning 'sir/mister'), I have a nice phone for you, brand new Nokia model". So, you look and inquire to the price. The guy obviously tells you it's half of what it's worth.

So, thinking you've struck gold, you reach into your pocket to get the cash. In the meantime, the seller has also reached into his pocket, putting the phone away as to 'not attract attention'..........so, you hand the cash over, he gives you the phone from his pocket and the transaction is done.

A few seconds later, the seller has vanished. Now you're checking out your new phone...only to see that it doesn't switch on. So, first instinct is to check if the battery is inside......low and behold, you open that thing up.....there's either a metal plate or mud......it's a complete dud.

The guy shows you a phone that works, that's true. But he then places it in his pocket and whips out another one that looks JUST like it, but it's a model phone.....

First of all that cheap scum thing happens everywhere. The difference here is that they talk about a store, and not a traveling sales person. Someone between the provider and the store stole them and replaced them with rocks. The weird thing is why the store didn't give their money back, and that is answered above. If any store would steal their costumers so bluntly, they would have so many sues that they would be out of business in no time.