DGDevin wrote:
-MIKE- wrote:
Rationalize it all you want, it's theft.
If you recover money taken from you under false pretences, are you a thief?
That's more rationalization.
There are means in place to handle things like that.
You never heard that two wrongs don't make a right.
Your option is to not buy junk.
What if you don't know it's junk? What if it's priced, packaged and
promoted as quality goods but is actually junk *and both the mfg. and the
seller know so*--what then? We bought an Onkyo home theater system some
years back, when it began screwing up we went online and discovered other
folks having the same problems, alas we all seemed to discover the situation
at the same time. Onkyo's warranty depots were unable to fix the systems so
they stalled until the warranties ran out, they went right on selling the
same model. At that point it occured to us that the store which put the
system on sale might have done so for a reason--bingo, as one of their staff
confirmed they knew the system was a dud and they wanted to unload them.
Class actions suit. One of those legal means.
No, we didn't steal something from the store in revenge, but needless to say
we'll never buy another Onkyo product. However if there had been a way to
return the system, say by smudging the date on the receipt, I'd sure have
thought about it.
Then you would've decided your integrity was for sale for the price of a
home theater system.
But that involves being an informed
consumer... which is what is happening in here... in this thread.
That assumes it is possible for the consumer to be informed, and that isn't
always the case. The first batch of consumers to discover that a product is
no good serve as a warning for those who come later, but those first folks
still got ripped off.
Covered above.
In any case, in my experience, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot will all
take back "a product that fails in an unreasonable period of time (but
outside the store's return policy)."
I just went through this with a big electronics chain over some defective
inkjet cartridges. They realized they'd been selling a poorly-made brand of
cartridges so they dropped them because of many returns. But now they won't
accept any more returns on the grounds that they no longer sell that brand.
No, I didn't steal anything there either, but if I could have thought of a
way to return the cartridges without them realizing what I was doing I might
have done so and not lost any sleep over the "theft."
Then you would've decided your integrity was for sale for the price of
some inkjet cartridges.
We have the option of being honest about it, or run the risk of
having a misdemeanor charge on our record. For most people, however,
the misdemeanor never enters into the equation as a deterrent. For
most, the simple fact is the price of their integrity much higher
than $8.99.
Very fine speech, when you decide to come down off that horse I think
there's still some beer in the fridge.
It's hardly a high horse, and you're embarrassing yourself by saying it
is.
In how deep a hole must one stand in order that seeing petty theft as
wrong, looks like being on a high horse.
BTW, I've only done something like this once.
So have I.
And it was just as wrong as when you did it or when anyone else does it.
I bought a halogen lamp at
HD, it seemed to work okay so after awhile I got rid of the box and the
receipt, which caused the lamp to immediately die. HD wouldn't take it back
without a receipt of course, so I bought another one, put the defective one
in the new box and returned it with the new receipt (they gave me another
lamp). HD lost nothing, they returned the lamp to the mfg. for credit just
as they would have if I'd kept the first box and receipt. So now I have two
lamps that work, both of which I paid for. If I stole anything I'd like to
know just what that was. These days I keep receipts religiously *and*
original packaging which drives my wife crazy, but it's allowed us to return
some defective items that otherwise wouldn't have been accepted, live and
learn.
It's too bad they wouldn't take it back.
The HD's here will put it on a gift card if it's something they still
sell.
But that's still more rationalizing.
If it was after the amount of days stated in their return policy, it was
wrong.
If it was during the manufacturers warranty, you had another recourse.
If you lose the receipt, it's your problem. But you said you learned
that.
--
-MIKE-
"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com
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