Forget about all that high-tech fancy pants electronics stuff, who needs an iPad 3 when you can have a box full of fresh yellow notepads to scrawl on? There have been a few complaints at a Walmart in Michigan, with customers claiming they thought they’d bought an iPad 3, only to find stacks of paper in the box once they brought their items home.

According to a story by MyFoxDetroit.com, a customer says she bought the iPad 3 — or so she thought — for her daughter, who has spinal muscular atrophy and benefits from using the tablet in her speech therapy.

After coming home from Walmart with her purchase, she says she was stunned to find “a stack of papers. I was very upset to see that it was not in there.” She says the pads were added to provide weight but that there was no iPad in the box. She returned to Walmart and was turned down by a manager.

“She says she wasn’t giving me anything for it. She said it didn’t matter, even if I didn’t break the seal on the box. Once I bought it and walked out the door, it was mine.” Walmart called police to look into it, and they said the woman’s story wasn’t credible, so no refund.

A second complaint came in for another Walmart in the area, where a woman said she also bought an iPad 3 and found pads of legal paper. When she complained, Walmart originally denied her refund request, then changed course and gave her a full refund.

The woman who wanted an iPad 3 for her daughter adds that Apple isn’t helping her out, either.

“I did get a hold of Apple and and Apple told me that it’s not their issue because I didn’t buy it from them. I bought it from Walmart. Walmart is telling me and even the police told me I have to hire lawyers and file a civil suit against Apple,” she said.

While you might want to wait to get home to open your new products in privacy, to revel in the newness, if you’re worried about getting ripped off, you can always open the box at the store after you’ve purchased it. Or just learn to love expensive pads of paper.

This isn’t the first time people have claimed they ended up with non iPads — there have been reports of boxes filled with wood and paper iPads.

*Thanks for the heads up, Robert!

Customer say they got notepads, not iPads [MyFoxDetroit.com]

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