Hard lessons about purchases and returns

A box can tell you a lot about a product, but you don’t know if the product is in the box until you open it.

That lesson has been painfully clear to a small number of shoppers who thought they were buying an iPad but ended up with something else.

According to the Consumerist.com, shoppers should open expensive items in the store, in front of the clerk before leaving. In admittedly rare, but costly, situations, what you get when you open the box is not what you paid for.

In January 2013, a New Jersey woman bought an iPad from a major retailer. The box contained a useless display iPad. Complaints all the way up the corporate ladder got her nothing until the local media got involved.

One weird case was a Miami man who in November 2012 says he bought an iPad. The box was full of random items, including a fishing sinker wrapped in white tape.

In Detroit, two separate customers said they received iPad boxes full of notepads.
One clever criminal bought an iPad, took the device out of the box and then shrink wrapped the box before returning it without the device inside. Naturally, a customer bought it had was accused of being a scammer even though she tried to return the purchase minutes later.

The Consumerist advises purchasers of electronics to open the box in the store and see if the device works before leaving.