# Tell me your stories of buying a new product from a retailer only to find it's been used. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011 "2015-03-14T22:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/21 "2015-03-16T03:14:26Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/22 "2015-03-16T03:19:54Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > When you make a return you have to give your name, checked against an id. I recall sometimes having to give my address but probably only when not returning something purchased with a credit card. > > I wonder if they will make an effort to find the person who did the scan return. I don’t know if it would do them any good. If they’d discovered it in store maybe it would have been possible to prove the other person did it, but now that it has been taken from the store and returned again, I think there have been too many points where the switch could have occurred. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/23 "2015-03-16T03:25:59Z")
Oh, and there is a really, really outside chance that it was an honest mistake. I mean, seriously unlikely, but if Ma and Pa Notscammers did accidentally both buy the same new toaster oven on the same day and then returned one, Ma could have inadvertently picked up the box that Pa had packed their old oven into for disposal and taken it in to the store… Hijinks ensue. The store would want to be really certain of their facts before they started making accusations. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/24 "2015-03-16T03:53:40Z")
> [@BaldDude](#): > > Best Buy. We bought a 50 inch Sharp Television , box seemed like it had the original seal. Took it home, and set it up and it worked terribly. Bad picture, no sound…As we were preparing to return it, my husband and I realized that the TV did not have the customary eight miles of plastic sheeting covering everything and that the remote had already had the batteries installed. Duh, on both our parts. Bright side is, when we returned it,they had no other Sharps in that size, so we were ‘forced’ to take a 60 inch samsung for the price of the 50 inch Sharp. Nice! Samsung (and Sony) are good stuff in TV’s. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/25 "2015-03-16T17:02:14Z")
Windshield wipers. I think I’ve had this happen at least 3 times with windshield wipers. Damn dishonest a-holes! ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/26 "2015-03-16T17:04:48Z")
My buddy bought a disposable camera on a road trip recently. Upon developing, he was informed it was just an empty shell, had already been used and the outer case was “resold”. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/27 "2015-03-17T02:48:14Z")
I bought a very nice dress at Macy’s, some 20 years ago now. It was brand-name, and quite pricey, but suitable for the workplace. Got it home, thought it hung funny. Wore it one day, thought it hung REALLY funny. Took it back (with receipt) and the clerk looked carefully at the seam that was hanging funny, and said “this was stolen and returned”. Yeah, someone managed to steal the dress, cut out the seam where the sensor tag was attached, resewed it, and returned it (sans receipt). Macy’s had to make good on it for me, so they were out the cost of the dress. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/28 "2015-03-17T03:04:08Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the whole item missing / substituted / heavily used. That sounds terrible; you’d have to go back to the retailer and convince them you were telling the truth… However, many times, as much as 1 / 5 times I buy some boxed electrical item, I find the cable ties have clearly been re-tied. And I sigh, as I know either some component will be missing, or it’s broken. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/29 "2015-03-17T13:07:03Z")
Well, not used, but I was given an electric kettle for Christmas - the base you put it on was missing. My friend couldn’t find the receipt and refused to try to return it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/30 "2015-03-17T13:48:12Z")
A guy I used to know asked me and a few other guys to give him a hand painting the exterior of his house. We arrived early in the day to a completely set-up job; there was scaffolding in place, etc. And he was in huge rush. He wanted to complete the job by a specific time. But he had a nice power spray unit and everyone chipped in and got the job done. For dinner, he had a bunch of food delivered then he split. His wife explained that he purchased the top of the line power painter from MonkeyWards. He thoroughly cleaned it after the day’s use and returned it, saying it wasn’t good enough for his needs. They had nothing better so they refunded his money. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011/31 "2015-03-17T13:57:35Z")
Back when these were more commonly sold as a separate item, I bought a telephone answering machine from Sears. Plugged it in and went to set it up and realized it already had a “Hello, you’ve reached the Smith residence. We can’t come to the phone right now…” message on it and phone numbers written in those button slots for frequently called numbers (remember those buttons? They were so high tech!) The message had a loud static noise, which was probably the reason it was returned. I took it back to Sears and I remember the clerk arguing with me that it simply was not possible. Except it was. I avoided Sears for electronics after that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-your-stories-of-buying-a-new-product-from-a-retailer-only-to-find-its-been-used/715011.md?page=1)