walmart sighting

[PepperElf]

decided to post this here instead of at CS cos... it might start a bit of a flame war

shopping at walmart today, happened to look at SD cards

"why is this 4G card an 8G card?" turned out... the factory screwed up and packaged an 8G card in a 4G box.

the controversy is... that i bought it knowing fully well it was a factory screw up

[powerboy]

Did you get it for the 4G price? The factory did mess up. And sadly something like this, would start a flame war on CS.com.:(

[katie kaboom]

screw it. I would have done the same thing. It's not your fault they messed up. ;)

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Are you sure that you noticed before you bought it?

I mean are you certain that you didn't notice your good fortune only after it was too late?

Because I see no reason why you would go back to the store and pay more money when it was the factory that messed up.

WINK;)

[BroomJockey]

I don't see why you'd have to pay more. Odds are, it was scanned in inventory as a 4G card. If that's what it was tallied as, and that's what it was sold as, no problems. It's the company's screw up, and the best they can hope for is that there weren't too many done that way.

[Boozy]

At the factory level, that mistake has been caught and written off. At the store level, there shouldn't be any issues whatsoever, Like Broom said, it was received as a 4G and sold as a 4g, so there are no problems.

It was your lucky day. I'd leave it at that.

[DesignFox]

I'd have done the same thing. As everyone else said, the factory screwed up. The store isn't losing out on anything, and you've got everything to gain.

Woo hoo! *dance* :)

[the_std]

And sadly something like this, would start a flame war on CS.com.:(

Why is it sad that people might have differing opinions regarding the honesty of this situation? I'm not saying flame wars are good, but disagreement isn't always negative.

[BroomJockey]

And sadly something like this, would start a flame war on CS.com.:(

I'm not saying flame wars are good, but disagreement isn't always negative.

I agree flamewars are bad, but I'm spurred to ask, powerboy, why do you hold the opinion that this would create an actual flamewar rather than just disagreement?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I don't think you were dishonest, really. It was in Walmart's inventory for the price you paid for it. No one lost money, at least if I understand it right.

[lovlybones]

Are you trying to tell me that no one has tried switching some stickers around to save some money before?

[BroomJockey]

Are you trying to tell me that no one has tried switching some stickers around to save some money before?

What? I'm sorry. What's that got to do with anything? This isn't a case of sticker switching, or just the wrong tag applied. The physical product was inside the wrong clam-shell case, direct from the company. No switching happened *at* the store. The packaging said "4G," the card inside was "8G."

[lovlybones]

I guess I didn't clarify my thinking, If the OP knew that the packaging was labeled wrong, I see it as the same thing as switching a sticker. If this was a mistake by the factory, there are probably a lot more like this which can cost a company a lot of money. Especially if it wasn't mentioned to anyone at the store.

[Boozy]

However the factory found out about their mistake, chances are it wasn't from some random customer informing some random cashier at some random Walmart. They almost certainly caught it themselves long before.

[Slytovhand]

I get where Lovlybones is coming from... the question really comes down to: Does the customer have some sort of 'responsibility' to inform the store of the mistake? Especially if someone wants to really consider themselves 'honest'.

Doesn't matter how you choose to justify it - the basic question still remains the same. (Not, "If I can think of a good way to pretend that I'm an honourable person"). After all, if it was the other way around - a 4G in an 8G box - would people be so 'honest' to not bother telling anyone?? No, I didn't think so... so then, honesty is only important if it works in your favour, but not against your favour... yes? And, I'm pretty damn sure that Pepper knows this as well - hence the thread.....


FTR - yes, I'd take my 8G thank you very much! :D

[BroomJockey]

Doesn't matter how you choose to justify it - the basic question still remains the same. (Not, "If I can think of a good way to pretend that I'm an honourable person"). After all, if it was the other way around - a 4G in an 8G box - would people be so 'honest' to not bother telling anyone??

Actually, I can justify it thusly. Either way, it's a manufacturer's defect. A mistake was made during the item's creation. It is thus up to the consumer as to decide if that defect is one they are prepared to live with. If the 4G and the 8G were the same price normally, and I received a 4G in an 8G box, I'd probably still keep it unless I had a compelling reason to require 8G.

It just so happens, in this case, a manufacturer's defect improved operation from the consumer's point of view.

[Caveat Emptor]

You didn't do anything wrong, you just happened to luck out and like it was said, no one lost anything. I remember looking at software when I was 12, and seeing a game that was supposed to be $21.99 labeled as $12.99. Somebody with a price gun had screwed up, but I knew that they had to charge me the labeled price. In that case, did I feel guilty? A little, but I was doing nothing illegal and it was the *store* that had messed up to my benefit.

[fireheart17]

I can see where lovelybones is coming from, but all the same...like everyone else has said, it's a manufacturers defect, not a store defect. In this case, it just benefited you. It's like someone putting a 16GB iPod in an 8GB box. (referring primarily to the nano in this case) Unless there was some reason why you wanted an 8GB iPod, then there shouldn't be any problem why. iPods are damn near impossible to tamper with, size-wise, so that would be a manufacturing defect.

[PepperElf]

I agree flamewars are bad, but I'm spurred to ask, powerboy, why do you hold the opinion that this would create an actual flamewar rather than just disagreement?

that's cos i stated it first that it might start one

and yes, i see where lovely was coming from.
no i didn't switch tags around... it was factory-sealed, so only the factory took the loss. if it had been re-packaged i'd probably have said something, but i can't be sure (being honest).

and... to be honest i've looked for more mistakes, but haven't found any since then.

[BroomJockey]

that's cos i stated it first that it might start one



He just seemed much more certain than you did.

As for not finding any more, now you're just getting greedy :p

[PepperElf]

rofl. true.
tho if i did find a second it would go to my boyfriend... but for the most part i haven't looked there in a while... i've been busy with classes lately