Help. Fake iPad scam from John Lewis.

shaun_from_Africa

If/when you do contact Apple to see if they can trace the ipad, make sure that you word the e-mail or letter so that they don't refuse because of data protections laws.


Explain what has occurred so far and ask if they would be able to check if the missing ipad has ever shown as being used or registered with themselves and point out that you don't wish to know any details of where it was used, who used it, or what exactly it was used for, simply whether or not it was used before the date that your parents made their purchase.

LilElvis

davetrousers wrote: »

This this this.

I suspect the genuine Ipad could be in the hands (or passed through the hands) of a John Lewis employee.

This sounds like a possibility, but falls down on the grounds that the box was sealed with cellophane. How would an employee have managed to rewrap the box without removing it from the store, let alone take away the genuine item and bring in the fake?

More likely that it was a returned item which was swapped and rewrapped prior to its return. John Lewis would not have needed to check the condition before issuing a refund because, as far as was apparent, it was intact as it was sealed.

chickendipperbabe

Its been mentioned earlier on in the thread, at face value this looks like return fraud.

Its not hard to obtain a machine that seals items in polythene or you can even buy the shrink film and blast it with a hair dryer/heat gun/whack it in the oven and it'll look factory sealed. This is what I imagine has happened here, its been sold and returned as an unwanted gift - on seeing it sealed John Lewis has re-stocked it then selling it onto the OP's parents. A very messy situation to be in.

shaun_from_Africa

LilElvis wrote: »

This sounds like a possibility, but falls down on the grounds that the box was sealed with cellophane. How would an employee have managed to rewrap the box without removing it from the store, let alone take away the genuine item and bring in the fake?

If you know what you are doing and have a very sharp knife, opening and resealing a cellophane sealed package and removing/replacing the item isn't too difficult.
If a customer was to closely examine the tampered with package they would spot it, but in reality, how many people do this before ripping the covering off?


A previous customer could also have done this and probably made a nice professional job of it.

Shaff

So an update. JL contacted my mother to say they have launched a full scale global investigation and are working with Apple to investigate every aspect of the supply chain right up to the purchase and return. They are taking very seriously the possible motivations of this which is a good thing.

They could not say at this stage what the outcome of this would be but apparently were professional and committed to getting to the bottom of this. My mother said she felt less like the accused and more like the witness to a crime after the conversation. May hear more tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for all your terrific advice, analysis and support much of which we have taken on board.

ConsumerGuy0016

Reminiscent of this particular story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507202/Father-complained-Tesco-470-iPad-actually-box-filled-clay-arrested.html

As JL said, iPads are clearly a big target for scammers.

k3lvc

Shaff wrote: »

So an update. JL contacted my mother to say they have launched a full scale global investigation and are working with Apple to investigate every aspect of the supply chain right up to the purchase and return.

Whilst appreciating that they are doing something Apple must be quaking in their boots at a 3rd party retailer in UK launching a "full scale global investigation" into them over a single iPad

The outcome has already been mentioned on here - a single rogue employee or returner and your Mum has been unlucky

DCFC79

I'm going with it being returned to the JL store and the iPad ended up in the new iPads pile rather than returned ones.

agrinnall

DCFC79 wrote: »

I'm going with it being returned to the JL store and the iPad ended up in the new iPads pile rather than returned ones.

I agree, while employee fraud is a possibility I think return fraud is much more likely. It's good that JL are investigating but I have to say that in the circumstances I would have expected them to also have refunded the OP's parents.

C_Mababejive

As an aside, i will just say that i have always found John Lewis stores and staff to be very good and their customer service both pre and post purchase to be exemplary.

As an example, we had a ridge freezer almost two years old that developed a fault. They had it inspected and agreed to supply a new one,equivalent model picked off the website which was better than the faulty one. no hassle.