Every so often, you’ll hear something about somebody somewhere going into a situation thinking they’re getting an iPad, and coming away from it with the iShaft. Most of the time, it’s because some fool with a lack of any kind of attention span decided to buy the thing from some other fool with a lack of morals–leading to the amusing, if supremely unfortunate, side-effect of fool numero uno walking away with a mirror for the low low price of the going rate for a used iPad. But what happens when the iScam goes corporate?
If you answered something along the lines of Wall Mart gets conned into selling a box of notepads for the going rate of an iPad, then you’re probably the idiot what made it happen. Or your news and my news come from the same place. Whichever. As it happens, the box in question was supposed to be a returned iPad that was packaged in the proper box, professionally and everything, and apparently flagged to just fly right on past any quality control verification at the store in question–because it wouldn’t occur to a customer to maybe try getting a refund on their rather expensive electronic device while still sort of casually holding onto the offending electronic device. Wall Mart initially denied that there was a problem, but when the media decided to start poking around, they figured now might be a fine time to go seeing if maybe there was, you know, a problem. So now they’re reviewing surveylence video to see if they can find the guy what did the return–good luck, if the customer service desk at that Wall Mart’s anything like the ones in, uh, any Wall mart I’ve ever been in. Meanwhile, I’d be putting a rush on that exchange. The warranty on those iNotepads isn’t exactly iron clad.