Great idea or Stupid daydream?

ive got a great idea? (note on the question mark) Suppose u have some sort of item that you bought and its somehow out of warrenty, cant u just go buy a new one of the exact same thing and put ur OLD one in the NEW box and return it? I was thinking of a gfx card or some electronics that people at the store cant really tell the difference, then u would have a new one without the cost of buying another one, or do they have some sort of system that makes it impossible?

PS. yeah i know this is morally wrong or at least in my opinion, but i want to hear some opinion on this.

 

Never mind morally wrong, it is totally ILLEGAL and called stealing.

You will not find MajorGeeks.com supporting this type of behavior.

 

It's no different then knowingly passing a bad check. It's fraud!

Stores make very little on electronic sales. The % is can even be near the negative on sale items. For every $1 of returns they have, it takes $100 in sales to make that loss up. Given a normal size stores payroll is much larger than $100 an hour, you are basically draining their bottom line and putting the pressure back on the customer who in turn end up paying higher prices.

This is why it is wise to shell out the $$ for the extended warranty on electronics.

 

In theory its a good idea but you can't expect anyone here to condone it.


http://www.websmileys.com/sm/comp/comp17.gif

 

That.................................was genius. Welcome to my My5.

Now let's all hug. :grouphug

 

Welcome to MGs but i don't envisage a long stay with that sort of attitude

 

Apart from the moral and legal ramifications, there is such a thing as serial Nos., for people like that. And yep, we do check it. had few customers of mine try that scam. If something like a graphics card, or just about any hardware, you should be getting a 12 months warranty. Pretty obvious when someone brings something in that's eighteen months old, and obviously been overclocked, it aint under warranty any more. All sales and work orders include serial Nos. Not so ‘great’ idea. rolleyes

 

I dont think its the crime of the century and ofcourse I wont condone it but anyway-

E.G Hypothetical situation you buy an Xbox 360 with its 29 day warranty US?I'm not sure anyway 2 months down the line it dies and your stuck with a peice of junk,it should have a reasonable operational lifespan in UK law thats usually 3 years which I think we expect most electrical products to last,so morally they are in the wrong in my opinion for selling you a peice of crap and exchanging the broken one for a new working one by buying,swapping and returning is IMHO is your moral right

But yeh it isnt your Legal right

 

lol im not actually carring out this plan, it just kind of came to me and i want to see how people would react (ie great idea! or stfu law breaker) and i also wanted to know if stores have a system to prevent stuff like that from happening, cause in theory i thought it was pretty smart.

 

Just remember hardware usually has some sort of device put in place to tell if it has been used. It may be just a piece of tape, maybe something more. Don't think people who do returns have not seen it all more than once. Also without an extended warranty offered by the store you may not be able to return it anyway. Read the fine print. If it is a manufactures warranty the best you can do is have it sent out for repair. Extended doesn't always mean adding more time, it can also mean that the store will cover manufactures warranties also.

 

I've yet to see such items without barcodes of some sort. Manufacturers of such items are already wise to tactics as you mentioned and taken appropriate action (not always obvious to purchaser). As many previous posts already pointed out, models vary particularly given age which is a give-away of potential fraud.

Not worth the risk. Others have thought of it before you and failed....miserably.

Cheers

LS