Walmart takes TVs people return and sells them as new, according to this unverified report we received.
Planning on buying a brand new TV from Wal-Mart? Don’t count on it. The TV in that probably slightly shipping-distressed box might be having it’s second time around the block already. But don’t expect to get any breaks – you still get to pay full price for the privilege of buying the TV somebody else returned as defective.
I’m one of the hapless minions of Wal-Mart, a position I like to think of as “Floor Monkey”. In this capacity, being that I’m more-or-less physically fit and capable of performing heavy labors, I’m often called upon to carry out things like treadmills, swingsets, and TVs. That last part is the one to pay attention to.
As I prepared to assist in the “disassembly” and sale of a floor model TV set, it came up in conversation with one of our longtime Electronics associates that when someone returns a TV as defective, it does not just go back to the manufacturer. Indeed, it goes back, gets whatever is wrong with it fixed, and then the same store gets it back to sell again….
Everyday low prices, indeed…
In effect, Wal-Mart is selling refurbished products with neither acknowledgment nor reduction in price to reflect the true status of the product.
My informant has been at this for a pretty long time, and has learned over the years some of the darker secret practices of everybody’s favorite retail giant. At least as far as what they do with electronic merchandise.
This practice isn’t just limited to TVs, either. I know first hand that when a bike is returned (which mind you they’re kind of not supposed to be to start with) they get taken to the back, where an associate will inspect and usually repair the bike, adding a new barcode label to it if necessary, and sending it back out to the rack for sale again. Also without any price reduction or indication that this is in reality a used item, unless it happens to have gotten visible signs of this from the previous owner’s use. Examples can be as simple as dirty tires (Quick tip, if the tires on that bike aren’t more or less evenly black, odds are someone’s taken it for a spin already), or less overt like scuffed chrome parts. This is actually much worse than the TVs, since those are sent to a factory where someone more likely to be trained in the service of the appliance will attend to it. There is no guarantee of any kind that the associate who takes charge of the bikes has any qualifications to repair a potentially defective bicycle. The bikes may be distinguishable visibly, but there’s no way at all to know with the TVs, since they’ll be factory sealed all over again like they rolled fresh off the line.
Wal-Mart is truly its own special little world. Where else could the word “new” actually mean “previously owned”?
Maybe that kid who had to return three different Xboxes to Walmart was actually a victim of this “rejuvenation” policy. — BEN POPKEN
(Photo: Clean Wal-Mart)
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No one here seems to share the same opinion as me. As long as Wal-Mart, or whatever retailer you want to mention, takes back items reasonably, where the heck is the problem? Sure, we can all be quite silly and want everything we buy to be 100% perfectly new, taped up and sealed, but what’s the point? So that means anything that’s ever been opened just to look at it, or I bought a DVD player and hook it up just to realize it doesn’t have a certain feature, or whatever, no harm done, but everything still needs to be sent across the country, back to the manufacturer, wasting Wal-Mart’s time, using more trucking fuel, costing money to be refurbed and inspected….why?
I can attest to Wal-Mart having such a great return policy, that I almost always buy electronics and household gadgets there. Just the other day, we bought a ceiling fan, and upon getting all the parts out, realized it used candelabra light bulbs instead of normal ones for some weird reason. Packed it back up, swapped for another one, no big deal. This is a heck of a lot of fuss over nothing, in my opinion. Of course, I like Wal-Mart, and I won’t lie about that, but this could be talking about any retailer that reshelves products where there is no harm done, saving everyone money. Because if they had to make sure all the product had never been touched in the package, you can be sure prices would go up. For no good reason.
@FLConsumer: Fry’s labels any open-box items on their shelves. They started discounting open-box items several years ago after a class-action lawsuit was filed for selling open-box items as new.
On our anniversary my husband and I bought a 3 dome tent from Wal-mart for $79. We were planning to camp, and like always before we go I wanted to set it up. So we did, what a surprise we got while we setting it up we realized that the tent pieces did not match. The piece that holds stuff in the ceiling of the tent was different colors. The poles were streched out, and there was ALOT of dirt inside. So I called Wal-mart and explained to the sales associate. And she told me to bring it back and they would exchange it. I told my husband that before I took it back to get the other one that I wanted to see the other two smaller tents. You wouldn’t believe what we found, there was someonelse’s swim trunks inside! I took the trunks with me when I took it back, the sales associate said you found these inside the tent? I said yes!
I recently went to the local walmart to buy a small TV to use for a pc monitor/tv. My friends dad (head of electronics) was there and he told me the mdoel I wanted was out of stock. He offered a more expensive model at the same price but it lacked HDMI, finally he asked if I’d be interested in a model that had been returned. The model had been returned same-day because the buyer wanted something bigger, it had been opened and turned on, but there wasn’t a mark on it. The 32″ Hi-def LCD had been marked at $650, but since this was a return he sold it to me for $300 with the same warranty as a new one. I’m very impressed with it, and I plan to start checking in with my friend’s dad regularly for deals like this.
I found out first hand that they do (sell referbs at ‘new’/full price with out marking them as being so..
I bought a VISIO plasma ’32 t.v., I noticed some minor dings in it- never thought much of it.. Until I went to have my HD cable service connected and realized the picture quality was still horrible in HD (after the tech checked his lines to make sure it wasn’t the signal feed from the wires).
I called Walmart and explained to them what was going on, Of course they tell me to call VISIO. while speaking with VISIO (they needed the serial #) and upon inspection of the box I noticed a shipping label TO that particular Walmart store that I had purchased it from , from a repair center..
Visio advised me that they DO NOT repair TV’s. they recycle the old ones and send out ‘new’ ones for 2 reasons #1- it’s cheaper than repairing them, #2- because a repaired TV will never have the same quality and with them being a fairly new company in the market they don’t wanna give out junk and give themselves a bad name. So, the referb was a walmart decision NOT VISIO. (not to mention I got a 1 year warranty also.. that was expired 4 months ago on the TV so that means I had it under warranty for 3 months.) needles to say I went to walmart with it… I was told VISIO must store their TVs for transit from where they had it shipped from (WRONG! according to VISIO)
anyways short(ened)story I missed some details in there I’m sure but #1 ALWAYS make sure the serial number is on the sales respite and that it matches the box. (it comes from good authority that the electronics associates are told NOT to put the serial# of old TVs on the receipt (mine wasn’t on there) #2 look at the white shipping labels on the box if it says “repair/repair center” anywhere or if it seems as though they’ve been tampered with torn/overlapping I would question making the transaction.
It was anyones fault but walmart’s, not to mention they denied it being a referb!! ((which I know for fact that it was) yet still returned my money??..
I’m sure I’ll see it back on the sales floor in no time!
(walmart can’t get credited for referbs so they HAVE to sell them or loss the money on them.
seems like quite a few of you are missing the point (and I work for Wal-mart myself.. Don’t get me wrong now there is nothing WRONG with selling refurbs. What is wrong is putting defective/open box and/or repaired merchandise back on the shelf at full price and still marked as ‘NEW’ it being put back up as ‘NEW’ is the problem and that creates a whole bunch of anti-trust issues.. perhaps you like getting ripped off, then who cares but I for one know that it makes my a little tick