This is yet another case of scammers defrauding retailers and possibly leaving legit customers holding the bag:

A Girl Bought an iPad at Wal-Mart But Inside the Box Was Just a Stack of Notepads

Do Walmarts have the stock sitting accessible to all, or do they keep them under lock and key like they do everywhere here in Australia?

Aren't these boxes shrink wrapped? Some thief carried around a shrink wrap machine?

This is an old scam: Buy, replace, return substituted item after re-shrink wrapping. (That's why the pasted story mentioned a fraudalent return before the legit customer's purchase, which was discovered on the store doing its own investigating.)

I just did a random search, for example, and here's a scammer caught in 2005:

Shrink-Wrap Scam Foiled | News | Edge Online

Shrink wrap is just part of their "business expenses."

Originally Posted by dhewson777

Do Walmarts have the stock sitting accessible to all, or do they keep them under lock and key like they do everywhere here in Australia?

Lock and key, but they're not shoplifting. They buy, substitute fake goods, re-shrink-wrap before making a return. Stores don't typically open shrink wrapped items, because they think they're unopened. That's the scam. Then some poor legit customer buys the fake rewrapped item and finds the substituted goods. That's why you want to open and check your purchase before leaving the store.

Originally Posted by Kaykaykay

Lock and key, but they're not shoplifting. They buy, substitute fake goods, re-shrink-wrap before making a return. Stores don't typically open shrink wrapped items, because they think they're unopened. That's the scam. Then some poor legit customer buys the fake rewrapped item and finds the substituted goods. That's why you want to open and check your purchase before leaving the store.

That makes more sense. The story made out that the switcheroo was done in-store.

Yes, but in this case it was a birthday present. What parent would open the 'present' before wrapping it. That's the whole point of the present surely?
Unlucky for her but I feel that Walmart should have given the poor girl a voucher for the distress of finding the pads instead of the iPad. I realise its not the stores fault but what is a voucher worth in comparison to lost custom. Nothing.

Sent from my new iPad using iPF

Originally Posted by Hayles66

Yes, but in this case it was a birthday present. What parent would open the 'present' before wrapping it. That's the whole point of the present surely?
Unlucky for her but I feel that Walmart should have given the poor girl a voucher for the distress of finding the pads instead of the iPad. I realise its not the stores fault but what is a voucher worth in comparison to lost custom. Nothing.

Sent from my new iPad using iPF

The store ultimately did right by the legit customer, after it investigated and discovered the previous return.

They can track all returns, because electronics are sold with the serial number on your receipt, and when a return is made, it's supposed to match that number. Of course, the scammer counts on his return being made by matching the serial number on the box, not the iPad. The store accepts the returned iPad box, thinking the iPad is inside. But instead, there were notepads amounting to a similar weight inside. No one realized that till the girl opened her present, which is why she thought it was a joke at first.

Then her mom took the box and notepads to complain to the store, which initially didn't believe her. They figured it out later.

There's a variation on this scam: Some scammers steal packages that are being delivered by the post office, UPS or FedEx and sub out goods, too. In those cases, it's often an inside job involving employees.

Yes, I read that the new connectors are being nicked and customers are receiving empty packages. Nasty shock for them.

Sent from my fantastically, wonderful iPhone using iPF

Originally Posted by Hayles66

Yes, I read that the new connectors are being nicked and customers are receiving empty packages. Nasty shock for them.

Sent from my fantastically, wonderful iPhone using iPF

Lots of creepy people out there, so buyer beware. If you're the legit customer, you have no way of proving that you didn't receive what you bought once you've left the store with your purchase. Even harder with mailed items, because it's not likely that the FedEx guy will stand there while you open your package, providing some kind of witness. A lot of our purchases are made on some kind of faith, and these scammers count on that.