Walmart - Company Run By Morons for My Benefit

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Pekka
It's the sheep mentality here that got Jesus killed in the first place.

DF is Jesus?!?!

wtf pekka?

[Pekka]

JM, Don't you think that's lame? We should RAPE THEM! Or at least stone them.. ?

Come on, some team spirit here. Not too much to ask. This whole deal reminds me of teenage girls, who see a guy, and the guy tells a dirty joke to the girls, and after few hours, the girls have convinced themselves the man was trying to rape them, in fact he had a boner too.

After a day, he was surely trying to rape them and was a rapist, had a gun, two boners, semen on his pants, a head of some woman in his trunk, and now 100 people have heard about it and it just gets worse. The teenage girls actually believe their own hype, as they have formed some kind of weird ****ed up vortex of hysteria.

Get over it.

[Jon Miller]

Umm, we can read DF's posts right here.

I am surprised I didn't do the usual response.

JM

[snoopy369]

Mens rea- you knew that your actions were deciving the manager into believing that you had purchased the goods from Wal-mart.

Laz, THIS is where you are wrong. There is no mens rea, because he never deceived the manager into believing the goods were purchased at Wal-Mart. Or more specifically, as I don't know the exact circumstances, he did not have to decieve the manager. If he actually did, then that's (marginally) different.

Wal-mart's return policy is not "you may return anything you bought at wal-mart without a reciept", but "you may return anything we carry [exclusions apply] without a receipt". Thus, no deception was necessary. And, from the OP, I presume no deception occurred, if this statement is accurate and specific:

I tell the clerk I have a defective Ipod without a receipt, and let her know that all I want to do is exchange it for a new one, and possibly even upgrade it

Where is the deception there? If Wal-Mart doesn't care where it was purchased, as their lack of ASKING that question would imply, it is clearly not deception, as nothing there is false or implying a falsehood.

Again, returning an item without receipt is a standard practice at many major retail stores, and there is no implied or requested information on where the item was obtained, unless there is a complication with the item [such as not carrying the item at the store it is returned to]. If ANY return without receipt to a store it wasn't purchased from is fraud, then an awful lot of people commit fraud, and the retailers really don't care about it. His return was no different from thousands I handle every month, except that it was an item that my store's return policy explicitly excludes, and I would explicitly deny THAT return. If someone brought a defective copy of a book to my store, I would, with no questions ask, accept it back (so long as it appeared to me defective due to publisher mistakes and not due to wear and tear or misuse). If any fraud occurred here, that was it - in implying it was defective from the start rather than due to misuse - but again, if the store didn't ask that question, they do not care. For that matter, in most cases, I'd probably take back a book that may have been customer damaged, if it's still in a condition that I could return it to the publisher.

Go learn about RETAIL before you go spouting off legalese please

[Arrian]

It's unethical, even if it's not illegal. And Floyd knows it. And he thought we'd think he was cool for it, which is pretty amusing.

-Arrian

[snoopy369]

I agree with the above post

After researching retail fraud a bit, I'd say that he's probably at fault for not informing the retailer of the reason for the defect. It's not fraud to not clear up the location of purchase, however...

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Pekka
Spitting from the ivory towers, the perfect beings, who are licensed character assassins. It's good none of you have ever done anything, or at least nothing that tops returning an item worth less than 200 dollars and getting a new one in replace.

You don't need to be in an ivory tower to not steal. It's really not difficult.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Pekka
JM, Don't you think that's lame? We should RAPE THEM! Or at least stone them.. ?

Come on, some team spirit here. Not too much to ask. This whole deal reminds me of teenage girls, who see a guy, and the guy tells a dirty joke to the girls, and after few hours, the girls have convinced themselves the man was trying to rape them, in fact he had a boner too.

After a day, he was surely trying to rape them and was a rapist, had a gun, two boners, semen on his pants, a head of some woman in his trunk, and now 100 people have heard about it and it just gets worse. The teenage girls actually believe their own hype, as they have formed some kind of weird ****ed up vortex of hysteria.

Get over it.

Er...

wtf pekka?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Pekka
This whole deal reminds me of teenage girls, who see a guy, and the guy tells a dirty joke to the girls, and after few hours, the girls have convinced themselves the man was trying to rape them, in fact he had a boner too.

I can't speak for the others, but my opinion of Floyd largely predates this thread.

[Jon Miller]

Same here.

JM

[Elok]

I don't recall encountering him before, but the opinion I have of him now is the same one I had after reading the original post. Well, more or less. At first it was, "This guy seems to be a tick on the collective ass of our consumer society." Now it's "Oh man, this guy is a tick on the collective ass of our consumer society, and he's proud of it. Gross."

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Laz, THIS is where you are wrong. There is no mens rea, because he never deceived the manager into believing the goods were purchased at Wal-Mart. Or more specifically, as I don't know the exact circumstances, he did not have to decieve the manager. If he actually did, then that's (marginally) different.

Floyd's words, my bolds.

knowing what I know about Walmart, I figured I'd have a decent shot of getting a new one. I walk into Walmart, skip the Customer Service counter and go back to Electronics. I tell the clerk I have a defective Ipod without a receipt, and let her know that all I want to do is exchange it for a new one, and possibly even upgrade it (I've found that you can avoid hearing "no" if, rather than asking, you very politely say what you want and be confident while doing so).

And, of course...

Let me start by saying that I screwed Walmart out of a brand new IPOD. Let me explain.

Wal-mart's return policy is not "you may return anything you bought at wal-mart without a reciept", but "you may return anything we carry [exclusions apply] without a receipt". Thus, no deception was necessary.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=538459

My bolds, from their returns policy.

Returns Policy by Department

All merchandise purchased from Walmart.com may be returned either to a store or by mail within 90 days of receiving it, unless otherwise noted below. Additional guidelines are also noted below.

Where is the deception there? If Wal-Mart doesn't care where it was purchased, as their lack of ASKING that question would imply, it is clearly not deception, as nothing there is false or implying a falsehood.

They don't need to ask. Although they were foolish in not asking for a receipt, the fact remains that this is a fraud.

If ANY return without receipt to a store it wasn't purchased from is fraud, then an awful lot of people commit fraud

They sure do.

Go learn about RETAIL before you go spouting off legalese please

Are you trying to tell me that the retail sector is exempt from the theft laws? Whether they take adequate safeguards against it or not, this is still a fraud.

[Kuciwalker]

My bolds, from their returns policy.

A quibble: that's specifically related only to online purchases from their store.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

And here's their stores policy, little Kuci.

http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=232

Everything in the store can be exchanged or refunded with a receipt within 90 days of purchase... with the exception of a few electronic items and regulated items.

After 90 days with receipt:
If available, we offer repair service through the manufacturer.

Exceptions to 90 Day Return Policy:

45 days with receipt: Computer components and computer accessories.
30 days with receipt: Camcorders and digital cameras.
15 days with receipt: Computers and postpaid cell phones.
These items must be unopened: Prerecorded music, movies, and software products.
Guns & Ammunition: Sales are final.

[Kuciwalker]

I wasn't disagreeing with you.