Technical Wondering if this is happening in any other part of the USA & world ??

Good practice! I check everything as well.

 

You all think these little scams are bad, take a look at white collar crime figures. 300 to 500 billion yearly, but it's ok, because it's too expensive to prosecute the sorry assed thieves. Think about it, think long and hard.

 

I do blame Walmart, they knowingly resell defective shit all day, every day. I've seen bikes that we told the original buyer to take back, instead of paying us to patch it together, and, lo and behold, the same bike was brought in for repair a couple of weeks later. Bought by another unsuspecting customer. Seen this more than once.
They know this stuff is no good, but they will still sell it again.

 

When stores like Walmart cater to and placate the scammers and thieves, it is positively reinforcing the crooks' behaviour. In other words, training them to continue their cheating antics.

I suppose the stores are worried that not doing so will harm their "money back guarantee" reputation. So they follow the easy, weak willed path.

 

Was on the news last night, video of people that used their food stamp cards to buy soda pop and water taking them outside and opening and dumping out the contents so they could return the cans and bottles for the Oregon 10 cent deposits in cash so they can by booze or cigs! Great system

Dave

 

So, are these folks any worse than people we all know who buy, say, a battery from Costco
with an unlimited 3 year warranty and return it the week befor it expires for a new one??
And do it again ?? Why is that just being "smart". We all pay for it.

 

I still get my shop discount from all my local car merchants. I pay cash, so no tax fraud, etc. Good enough deal, (I have a FEW cars I buy parts for...)

 

At an auto wreckers I worked at The odd tool would go missing once in a while mostly sockets, small rounded stuff. One day we got a hoist working that was inoperative for a couple of years with the boss's Olds on it.Pile of sockets etc. under the car. Seems the thieving orange shop kitty had batted them til they were out of reach under the car.

 

I purchased a 4' florescent shop light from Lowe's and when I opened the box it was an old 2"x4". I felt like a jerk bringing it back but the people that work at the customer service counter told me it happens all the time with returns. I would open every returned box if I was Lowe's and hope to catch the thieves.

 

MAYBE KITTY DID NOT LIKE THE CHEAP FOOD YOU BOUGHT HER

 

I used to be a service rep for Nabisco and yes they have the same return policy for food. Went in to a Walmart one day to find our credit bin had some items I know didn't come off the shelf. Seems someone had a family member die, so they cleaned out the pantry and took it to Walmart.

 

Had one customer rent a fork lift off of us and return another !!!

Older Raymond Easi reach. Out on long term rent.
When it came back it was a beat up old shitter.
He just swapped the spec plates (vin number plate) and the plastic covers.
Then sent us his old beat up shitter

We knew what he did but could not outright prove it.

Now we barcode our trucks and take pics before they go out. Shitty that folks are like this.

 

I worked with a major car manufacturer who were based in Europe. Most of their vehicles were shipped by transporter ships to a few major ports. At each port they had a body shop to "repair" vehicles damaged in transit across the ocean. I visited one of the shops and was really surprised at how many vehicles were there. At the time, 15 yrs ago, cars would be repaired up to a max of $1000 without any change in retail price.

 

My neighbor has a business selling used car parts, mostly BMWs. He has been doing it for 40 years. Lately he has started to places 2-3 different markings on parts, because he had people bring him their old defective parts back stating they were his. And of course wanting their Money back. I guess this is pretty normal nowadays....

 

I have opened new boxes at the parts store in front of the cashier. I paid for it, may as well see if the part is new before I leave the store. This is nothing new either, I saw it happening 40 years ago.

 

Lol so I guess it’s traditional to be a scum bag lol!!

 

I once received as a gift a billfold that must have been returned, it had a picture of some woman I've never seen before in it-

 

My wife???? ..

 

Happened to me too. Bought a pair of rear wheel cylinders for my 5W, and one of the boxes had a used cylinder in it.
Unbelievable!

 

I wonder if this is like a high from the chemical release in the brain, like gambling?

And I have to agree that Walmart's liberal return policy is training their "customers" to abuse it.

 

In the long run all these unscrupulous a-holes are just increasing the cost for all of us, You don’t think the big box chain stores are eating the loss, they kick it back to the manufacture which only increases the cost to the retailer, which raises the retail price.

 

Two cases....
My wife’s cousin bought ( co-signed) on a new car. That car was bad about front tire wear and the dealer could not align it.
It was taken to a tire shop for alignment and the mechanic would not touch it. He brought them out to the bay and showed them where their new car was actually two cars welded together. In other words it was a repaired wreck.

They go back to the dealer......
“ We don’t know how this happened but we want to make it right.”
His first offer was a brand new SUV of their choosing.... free and clear.

Being a Christian lady, my wife’s aunt said they would take a SUV but continue with the payment plan of the original car...... so that’s how they wrote it up.

A late friend of mine had a step son who was paralyzed from the neck down when he was 17. It was a rollover accident involving a “ new” car.

The insurance investigator proved that that car was structurally damaged but only cosmetically repaired.
The roof collapsed on rollover. Bondo was evident and it was obvious that that car had been poorly repaired and sold as new car.

There was never an explanation on how that happened. The manufacturer settled with them since their name was on it.

Speculation is that it was likely repaired by someone involved in the shipping. Possibly even an individual employed by the shipping company.

Somewhere....Somehow???

 

I think your wife’s cousin may have come out OK on that deal but it would have been better to take a pass on that offer and report the situation to the manufacturer. Companies take a dim view of things like that and they would have no doubt dealt severely with those scum bags. What’s to prevent that dealer from pulling a fast one on another buyer?

 

Ive received "new" parts from Summit and its obvious the box has been opened. The "critical" necessary part of the kit is missing. Good thing about Summit, Ive never had a problem getting a replacement, and most times they send it before they get my return, for which they paid shipping. Its a pain waiting for another part but they at least cover it. I would think a good business plan would include a through inspection of returned parts. The world is just full of A..holes, some, I hate to say are in our community of "car guys". Mucho respect for Summit, Speedway, Jegs, and many others, never had a return problem.

 

That's some amateur shit... I read an article about a guy yesterday that returned $370,000 worth of merchandise to Amazon, but instead of returning the item he filled the box with the exact weight in dirt... Then he'd resell the new product he purchased, essentially doubling his money! He's going to jail now but they didn't catch him for 2 years...
#paydirt

 

Well, that's where the good stuff is, usually.

 

This happened to a friend of my father.

In 1970 he and his wife bought a new Thunderbird from the Jim Skinner Ford dealership in Birmingham. In less than a month the car started giving them trouble.
After a couple of attempts of quick repair, Skinner narrowed it down to a bad intake and gave them a loaner Mustang. They had to order the parts and would contact them when their car was ready.
Two weeks go by. He calls the the dealer....the car is not ready. He does this several times.
Life goes by....
Nearly a year later he is on his porch looking at the Mustang, then it dawns on him,
" What about my Thunderbird?!!!"
He calls Skinner. "What Thunderbird?" they say.
He goes down there. Nobody has any idea what car he is talking about. Well, they finally find it. It was behind the body shop in a fence with bumpers and fenders piled on it. The hood was down but not latched. They open the hood. The intake was gone and the car had been out in the weather like this for months.
The Mustang that his wife had been driving was reported ....stolen off the lot.....
They made it good with a '71.

About 20 or so years later this same man's son had a car stolen. Of course they file a report.
A year later he gets a notice in the mail from his city. It's title transfer paperwork.

Come to find out his son's car was recovered by a neighboring town the same night it was stolen. It was in the impound yard while they were filing the report.
The city had sold it as an abandoned vehicle in their lot a year later. They had full coverage insurance so he passed it along to his insurance company.

Ham Snatchers.....

That's what my old Fire Chief called the Police in the town he worked at in the 70s....
There was a fire at a meat plant where hams were smoked and packaged. When the FD got there there were several patrol cruisers in front of the plant and the police were busy.....rescuing hams by the armload.

Throw downs....

Same town...There was a fatal officer involved shooting in an alley. The suspect was fatally shot by an officer. Several cruisers would stop and the officers would go down the alley and look under the blanket to see if they could identify the suspect and leave.
When the coroner removed the blanket, he found a switchblade knife, a big butcher knife and three inexpensive pistols underneath it.

 

@34Larry I purchased a Motorcraft oil filter at WalMart. The checkout guy opened the box and compared the filter with the box label. I asked if he was checking to see if I bought the right one. He said "NO" "they" frequently put K&N filters in the Motorcraft & Fram boxes because they are twice the price. I never knew.

 

There are historic disasters I would love to learn more about...
I went to school in Carlisle, PA, a couple hundred yards from a major RR freight line. The town was brought to a halt frequently by very long freight trains going through grade crossings...a lot were coal, but there were also long trains of new cars going from Detroit to east coast. Oddly, I don't remember the make...maybe all were represented at different times. Legends and folklore abounded..."look for fogged up windows...sleeping hobo!"
The transport changed from two-layer automobile cars to three-layer a couple years before I arrived...probably early '60's.
There was of course major planning for the changeover, and lots of RR switching equipment elevated to suit, but apparently one pedestrian bridge was not properly noted...a LOT of brand new cars became convertibles in a few seconds. This seemed to be one of the quite possibly true legends, with lots of old timers agreeing on details.
There wasn't any sane way of researching things without computers, and the story would not likely have been noted in the NYT annual paper indexes.
So...WTH would Detroit have done??
Sudden huge supply of new fenders, motors, and transmissions for the lifetimes of those models??? New roofs...more likely, new body shells...being put together in every bodyshop east of the Mississippi? Bankruptcy in all the major industrial insurance and reinsurance companies in Detroit?
Whether it really happened or not, I would love to know how major industry reacted or would have reacted.
I must repeat...these wereVERY long trains.

 

When I was in High School, taking an Auto Body course at our vocational school, there was a 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood in the shop that had been donated by GM after falling from a train onto it's roof. GM eventually came and retrieved the body and frame, after learning of the school's plans to repair it and donate to the Junior College next door's Hotel and Hospitality school.