RossMAN Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 http://nwitimes.com/articles/2005/10/06/news/top_news/c4fb0fe99248647386257092000509a4.txt Cops: Best Buy shopper threatens employeeMan said he purchased $1,300 computer, found only wood inside box BY KEN KOSKY [email protected] This story ran on nwitimes.com on Thursday, October 6, 2005 12:31 AM CDT VALPARAISO | A Best Buy customer threatened to kill a female employee Tuesday after complaining that he purchased a $1,300 computer, only to find wooden blocks inside the box once he got home. According to police reports, the customer came to the store to make the complaint, but became enraged after being told nothing could be done for him. Police said the customer ignored two requests to leave the store, telling the manager, "What are you gonna do, big guy?" Police were called to the store and arrested Brandon Papadatos, 27, of 788 S. County Road 400 West, Hebron, on charges of disorderly conduct, trespassing and intimidation. He faces up to four and a half years behind bars if convicted of the charges. Papadatos told police he purchased the computer Monday and went home to discover the box contained only blocks of wood. Papadatos told police he called Best Buy and was told to come to the store on Tuesday. He arrived at the store at 91 S. Silhavy Road about 8 p.m. Tuesday. He told police he spoke to employees at the customer service desk and was told nothing could be done. Police said Papadatos became angry. Police said they arrived to find him pacing and yelling, "This is a bunch of (expletive)." Police said they asked him to stop yelling, but he continued yelling at employees. Police said Papadatos admitted he threatened to kill an employee, but said he didn't mean it. Store employees told police Papadatos admitted the box's seal was intact when it left the store, so if wood was inside the box, it came from the factory. Police took Papadatos to jail and took the box of wood into evidence. Best Buy Manager Dave Hammond said he doesn't know for sure whether this is a case of a customer trying to trick the store, or an actual instance of a computer box containing only wood. "Anything is possible, but we do offer a service of having it looked at when you buy it and he didn't take advantage of it," Hammond said. He referred any other questions to corporate public relations.
mugs Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 This happens all too often... people need to learn to open the box right then and there. Best Buy needs to train their employees to recognize the difference between a computer and WOOD. This is particularly common with high end video cards... people replace them with ethernet cards. Best Buy needs to train the employees at the customer service desk to recognize the difference!
89MustangGX Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Not the first time I've heard of this. Either employees swiping the stuff and replacing with bricks or wood -- or other customers do it and return them that way.
grapico Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 my guess is some stock boy with access put wood in it knowing it would probably get overlooked getting sold with all the ruckus going on and he'd be home free, or somebody had already returned it like that and got by, but could just be some guy doing a scam. bb should have atleast said they will investigate, or...he could have put it on an AMEX card, they would have took the charge off . as one poster said... it is kina common to do swap jobs like this with computer games and parts, lots of times they just restock it.
alimfp Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 I agree with mugs, open your items before you leave the store (after purchasing though). You know how you go to return something and they look inside as you come in and then mark the box (with a sticker)? That's to prevent theft.. well, you have to prevent the other ways of theft (from yourself) as well. Still, he didn't handle it as well as he could have. Yes, I would have been upset, it's a LOT of money. BUT I wouldn't have went ape sh*t like he did. I would have been the one calling the police before anyone else or anything big happened.
BLKFRI Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 That same kind of thing happened to me 2 years ago at Best Buy with a Black Friday Doorbuster DVD burner. The item in the box was not the item. Neither Best Buy, the manufacturer, the police, my credit card company, or Best Buy HQ in Minnesota would help. Finally after 6 months of letter writing, talking to China, Minnesota, San Jose, sending faxes. filing court papers, the BBB finally resolved it and I received a full credit, letter of apology, and the item. Now I always open the box at the counter. Sealed or not.
LafnGirl Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 That stinks you had to go thru so much work, but good thing you kept following thru. I would have felt SO violated!
alimfp Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 That stinks you had to go thru so much work, but good thing you kept following thru. I would have felt SO violated!Erm, you said "you" twice in your reply - do you think the OP (original poster aka RossMAN in this instance) is the person who went through this? Just curious. Your reply confused me.
coolsteel Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 The guy went too far, threatening to kill an employee? Said in jest or not that simply isn't acceptable and not the way to get your money back.
Mara Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 This guy went to far but I'm thinking if he were scamming he would have backed down before managing to be arrested. Sounds like he was ligit and just so pissed he couldn't control himself. Wow I guess I'll be opening stuff I buy there first now Mara
Popo Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Some people have anger management issues. Did your read that the guy could end up spending four and a half years behind bars? The government has no common sense. People who molest children don't get much more time than this. Why should he have to go to prison at all? He didn't harm anyone... a threat to kill someone is almost never to be taken literally. They screwed him, he obviously has mental issues (can't control his anger), so now the government is going to step up to rape him without lube. Thanks for making my neighborhood safe from people who scream at incompetent Best Buy employees with this "justice," court system!
grapico Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 yeah no jail time for him, put all the cutters and shovers in jail instead for a great 2006 BF, the tax money to hold them will be fine b/c I will save even more on my BF purchases.
no one Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 I had the same thing happen with a Video card. ; ( Someone swapped it with a really old one. I had to call the BBB because they would not believe me. I open all high ticket items in the store now : )
laffnatu Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 WOW!! unbelievable. I have never thought about this happening. I will start opening them too before I leave the store. I would be ready to if that happened to me too. He doesn't deserve jailtime. Anyone would have gotten upset if they had spnt that much $$$$ and find something like that.
BFJedi Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 My brothers bought my dad and stepmom a Sony digital camera for Christmas at WalMart last year. When they returned home they realized Wal-Mart sold them an empty box. Luckily they raised such a stink and were able to convince the store that they sold the box to the display model. They got a refund and went to a different Wal-Mart to buy a box that actually contained a camera. They got lucky! In this day and age I am surprised the store believed them.
KhakiBoy Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Bummer. It definitely does happen. You get this a lot with the after Christmas returns. People will try to return things with a different item in the box, or with just bricks or something. That's why when I worked at BB all holiday returns were opened, even if it looked like it was sealed. It's also why techs are supposed to inspect returns of many items. As a tech, I always hated that. We had computers lined up that needed worked on but I couldn't get stuff done because I had to keep going over to customer service to inspect a return...make sure it's the right product and everything's in the box. But I knew why they did it that way.
VonnegutFan Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 This happens all too often... people need to learn to open the box right then and there. Best Buy needs to train their employees to recognize the difference between a computer and WOOD. This is particularly common with high end video cards... people replace them with ethernet cards. Best Buy needs to train the employees at the customer service desk to recognize the difference!THAT HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!!!!!! I bought a video card in one of the chain stores and inside was an old dusty 28.8K modem! But the store took it back...People will go to any lenghts... This box was perfectly sealed too... No sign of tempering. Now, however, there are those little windows that display the serial number and the cashier needs to input it in the register at checkout to prevent this form occuring.
VonnegutFan Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Oh, and just to clarify, this happened in 1997, when this particular store had a very liberal return policy... Oh, the good old days.
LafnGirl Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 That same kind of thing happened to me 2 years ago at Best Buy with a Black Friday Doorbuster DVD burner. The item in the box was not the item. Neither Best Buy, the manufacturer, the police, my credit card company, or Best Buy HQ in Minnesota would help. Finally after 6 months of letter writing, talking to China, Minnesota, San Jose, sending faxes. filing court papers, the BBB finally resolved it and I received a full credit, letter of apology, and the item. Now I always open the box at the counter. Sealed or not. :fryingpan Yeah, I see what u mean. I was speaking of the above and should have been more specific.Visa fraud department just call me to verfiy my purchases. There is a charge from ARCOT SYSTEMS made on the same day I ordered BB Toshiba online. They listed it as "professional services" . It was only for $1, but could it be they charged all of us $1...you think? Did anyone else get this charge?
fairydustcrissy Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Visa fraud department just call me to verfiy my purchases. There is a charge from ARCOT SYSTEMS made on the same day I ordered BB Toshiba online. They listed it as "professional services" . It was only for $1, but could it be they charged all of us $1...you think? Did anyone else get this charge? Usually when there is a 1.00 charge, its not an actual charge. its usually just a hold. Maybe your local video store or something. They do that every so ofter (6 mo, year, whatever) to make sure the CC# you give them is still active. But if its still there next week, may be worth pursuing.
fairydustcrissy Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 hmmm...maybe not the video store, but here is a link to Arcot ststems, and what they do.http://www.arcot.com/
peachysquirt21 Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 This reminds me of a incident that happened at my Target store. A person I know who use to work there said one day a lady was trying to bring back a sewing machine. They opened the box & in the box was the lady's old sewing machine. Of course she didnt get a refund. I cannot believe people do this stuff. I could never do anything like this. Even if I tried, my luck the store I took it back to they would open the box. How embarassing that would be.
LafnGirl Posted November 26, 2005 Posted November 26, 2005 Usually when there is a 1.00 charge, its not an actual charge. its usually just a hold. Maybe your local video store or something. They do that every so ofter (6 mo, year, whatever) to make sure the CC# you give them is still active. But if its still there next week, may be worth pursuing.Thanks for info. It's weird though 'cause I rarely use that card and watch it closely. APPRECIATE THE RESPONSE!
msomnipotent Posted November 27, 2005 Posted November 27, 2005 I would never have believed this sort of thing actually happens if I didn't read it here. People that return used junk, or wood, should be banned from shopping. People who cannot control themselves and act like human beings in public should be confined. Maybe the raving lunatic should be told that he is being sentenced to 4 1/2 years, and then after letting him freak out for a while be told, "Oh, I didn't really mean it.". Threatening to kill someone should always be taken seriously. It's one thing if you say, "Oh, I could just kill you." to a friend after they pulled a prank on you, but to walk up to some stranger's face and tell them you will kill them takes a special kind of crazy. He should have mandatory anger classes at the very least. And I'm checking all of my packages from now on!
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