Girl unwraps iPod, finds heavy-handed social commentary instead
By Darren Murph 
posted December 29th 2007 7:58PM
posted December 29th 2007 7:58PM
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posted December 29th 2007 7:58PM
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LOL thats nice. i wonder if they got another for free? did it have to pay again.
I dont know what you'd do in this situation if you were the business. You'd like to trust that the customer isnt lying to you and that they really were screwed over by some idiot but then again the iPod may be sitting on the customer's coffee table while they try to score a second (free) one. What are you to do?
Obviously you would give the customer a new iPod. Even if they really are screwing you over, the cost of an iPod is much, much less for a major retailer than the negative feedback from not giving them the ipod.
I've worked in retail returns and all you can do is guess. There are some standard lies and then there are strange truths like this. Personally? I like this gift. It's worth the money.
Believe me it sucks to be in this situation. I bought a brand new Ipod Classic 80 GB on Friday night @ Walmart, shrink wrapped, nothing susipicious. I got out to the parking lot and into my vehicle and upon opening found it to be a beat to hell 20 GB Ipod, no accessories (headphones, USB Cable, etc.) included. I literally ran back into the store and had a big conversation with the manager 8 minutes after the time of purchase listed on the receipt. Upon "reviewing" my case he has come to the conclusion that it is somehow not Walmart's problem or responsibility and the product came from Apple and I need to deal with Apple myself from here on out. Needless to say I have let him know my feelings of not wanting to have to do Walmart's dirty work for selling me a product off of their own shelves, but until Monday when I can speak with a regional manager, all things are on hold. My anger and frustration cannot be expressed in words, but I will do everything in my power to fight this until the end.
well said: apple = capitalistic garbage
How the hell does this happen?
Wow, this is really weird.
when i first saw the picture i thought it may be a death threat 'cos the way it was printed. But how can this kinda thing happen. Surely you would know due to lack of complete packaging etc
ALL right good advice to all people open all items that are expensive in the store at the checkout counter so they have proof. Luckily i haven't had that trouble. But i always check in the store. when i bought my 360 this spring i looked through the flap to make sure. And i buy my ipods from apple cause i don't trust walmart.
I wouldn't have left that store without calling the police in first and filing a report. Then, after that was said and no manager wanted to help, and no regional manager wanted to help - I'd file a story at every regional news area. THEN, I'd file a nice claim in small claims court and take the STORE to court. More then likely no one shows up and they're required to pay you. No store is allowed to fraud you just because of this laxness on returns.
Ironic that someone who cannot spell "resurrect" correctly would tell someone else to go read a book.
Oh, on second thought, sorry--the other "s" is caught in the angled paper. Ironic that I would choose to call a statement about reading ironic when I myself can't read.
WAIT! NO! It _IS_ misspelled, even with another "s," which does nothing to improve it. Jesus. Irony really is cruel.
the newspaper/magazine probably ran out of letters
ha ha ha
i meself no can read non ur spill notin neither
Talking about irony, does anyone else find it to be hilarious that anti-capitalist propaganda found its way onto Engadget--perhaps the most well-known consumer electronics site?
talk about irony, isn't it ironic that the same person who wrote this note is most likely sitting with this "capitalistic garbage" himself?
how about the fact that he told the person to go read books.. which are produced and sold by corporations just as much as anything else in this world. Even if the person were to go out and get a book with all the differnt kinds of books that exist, just like music, its very easy to read books for the rest of your life and still not really gain any knowledge. The the book industry just like the music and film industry is full of fluff with the important intelligent pieces of literature in the minority.
The person who wrote this is a idiot. a PMP is just the delivery medium for an artists music, much like how publishers purchase paper from corporations to print books. Is this guy gonna go and protest paper?!?! Maybe the girl would have been listening to socially aware music, maybe not. But the person who pulled this stunt should stop looking down on others from over that high held nose and do something to "The Man", as he sees it, and not the worker ant. While he's dissing others for wanting "capitalist garbage" I find it funny that the guy used some abstract ransom/heroine font and printed this "independent free thinking manifesto" off of a computer.
What a douche!
Waow, this is a thread of highly ranked goodness. Break the trend! Rank this low!
Dammit, that didn't work. I'll break the trend. I've got your back. Meat!.
I LOVE MEAT!
I HATE YOU ALL! ENGADGET IS FOR UNBATHED NERDS! APPLE DOESN'T ROX LOLOLOLO1!
maybe he read a book on bad spelling.
but wil it play doom? :D
haha that so funn sorry i have to do,!
the ipod can run doom, paper not :D
i think it blends better hahahaaha
best string of comments ever.. i ranked up all 3
Haha yeah, that was pretty fun; I didn't expect that.
I don't really like Wal-Mart
My first Mp3 player was from there, and it broke in 10.5-ish months
P.S. That player was replaced with a Samsung P2
oh, that's so relevant.
why yes, yes it was
Let me guess, u want a P2 also? :)
He doesn't.
I think the Devil wants to P2. P on You, that is.
Oh, and your fault for buying a Coby.
Wouldn't it make more sense to do this with a video game console? There's nothing stopping you from listening to music while reading, in fact I rarely read without listening to music...but you obviously would have trouble reading while playing halo :P
gah, what an idiot
word to this. What if she was intending to listen to her iPod while reading? That's what i would do
Emo Kids.....
The thief had obviously been watching too much TV.
But I'm curious about the note itself. Can you buy a special font for this kind of letter?
It's called a typewriter.
Its on fontmonster.com I can't remember its name, but its free to download and looks awful.
From what I can see of it, it might be a font called "Ransom".
Tyler Durden lives.
best news article on engadget, ever. I hope there are thousands more out there waiting to be opened.
cant wait for more :)
one of my favorite engadget posts ever.
This is getting ridiculous...
Imagine the smuggling and laundering possibilities of this if it is so easy to pass things on via Walmart returns.
Hmm...
And I just read the article:
"Jay Ellis, the girls father, returned the ipod to the Germantown, Md. Wal-Mart store where he purchased it. The store manger told him that another customer returned an iPod with a similar issue."
It's happened to the same store more than once and the manager was lame enough to admit it.
-1 Walmart
Hmmm... a brick of cocaine for a bricked 360. Just go to your local Walmart for the hook up. They wont know whats going on.
That's what happens when you do drugs kids.
pwned
I just don't understand this sort of guerrilla activism. Encouraging culture through destructive, subversive means seems backwards. What if the retailer doesn't accept the return? Honestly, why should they, for reasons mentioned? This person could be out a lot of time and money, just because some huffy, anti-social art student felt like destroying property would make the world a better place.
Acts like this communicate anger, not enlightenment.
You think it is serious? I think it is just some punk thinking he was funny after stealing an iPod. Otherwise resurrect would be spelled correctly.
yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Why not leave the ipod there, but add a note encouraging the buyer to return it? All you're doing is angering people. And stealing iPods.
I don't know. I've met people who are willing and capable of intentionally doing stuff like this. They use the same rhetoric too, about the evils of media and books saving the world. The loud, extremist liberal collective (emphasis on extremist) regularly voices support for these sort of acts as well.
And just because someone is hopped up on a "progressive" ideology doesn't mean they have to know how to spell ;)
Now, that is funny.