Posted on 12/28/2007 4:45:25 AM PST by Tai_Chung
The family of a 10-year-old girl who received an MP3 video player for Christmas was shocked when it found the player was loaded with explicit songs and pornographic movie clips.
Cookeville resident Daryl Hill said his daughter was thrilled to find that Santa had left an MP3 player under the tree -- until she turned it on.
"Within 10 minutes, my daughter was crying," Hill told Nashville, Tenn., TV station WSMV.
There were video clips of XXX-rated sex scenes and the pornography on the player.
"I wish I could take the thoughts and images out of her head," said Hill.
The Hills had bought three MP3 players for their children that came from a Wal-Mart store in Sparta, Tenn. It turns out one of the MP3 players had been returned to the store from a previous owner who loaded sex clips, graphic war scenes and lyrics about using drugs.
The Hills want to know why Wal-Mart would sell used merchandise as new in the first place, which is in violation of its own policies.
"If they want to be a major retailer, they need to act like it," said Hill.
The manager at the Sparta Wal-Mart declined comment on the matter and referred WSMV to Wal-Mart's corporate office.
A Wal-Mart representative e-mailed WSMV confirming that stores are not supposed to return opened packages to the sales floor. They said they are working to get to the bottom of the problem.
The Hills said they have declined Wal-Mart's offer to replace the MP3 player. They've already bought their daughter a new one and are hanging onto the controversial one until they talk to a lawyer.
Reminds me of a similar PC issue some time ago... a man bought a used PC at CompUSA, took it home and found thousands of photos and clips. Turned out the PC was “traded in” and it wasn’t cleaned up before being put out on the floor.
She probably wanted it for Christmas because her friends have them and she's used them before. Also, it says she watched for 10 minutes.
That said, I do get the impression that the family now feels that Santa left a couple hundred grand under their tree this year.
No kidding. It seems everyone's reaction to every minor thing that happens is to sick the lawyers on everyone else.
I've heard (I don't remember the source off-hand) that Wal-Mart gets sued once every 6 hours, but they only settle cases in which they are at fault. They fight all the other ones. If Wal-Mart can show that it was not at fault, then this legal fight will not be very fruitful.
Yup...our local Best Buy has been busted selling opened packages as new.
Turn it off and reprogram it.
“This doesn’t pass the smell test. This child figures out on her own how to operate the MP3 player, goes to the video menu, opens a clip, watches porn for 10 seconds, and then is devastated. Nope. This is a scam from the get-go.”
DING, DING, DING!!!
I’d like to examine the father’s computer.
If you don’t think Walmart repackages returned goods for return to the floor you’re a fool... I can guarantee you that behind the return counter you can find a shrink wrap machine... That said this may be a scammer but it is possible and perhaps probable... Why do you think Walmart insists that so many of their vendors take returns directly and mark their boxes accordingly.
I should go out and buy one, load it up with porn and sue walmart. Sounds like a profitable scheme to me.
Why would the parents give the kid the MP3 player to play with under the impression that it was completely empty?
This doesn’t sound right.
I doubt that they’d repack anything- they have enough clout that they can make the vendors take the items back for full credit. Why pay your own people to do it if you can stick it to your supplier?
HONESTY......and RESPONSIBILITY!
No "Hey, what's this stuff, Mom?" No "Hey, look at this!"
What I don’t get is why purchase a package that had been opened. The way those things are packaged I think it would be impossible to make it look like brand new. Also as a parent I would have tested it out and perhaps gone ahead put some of the child’s favorite music or video on it. After all, those things are empty when you buy them. Wouldn’t they have had to hook it up and put stuff on it before she could listen to or watch anything (as it would logically be assumed to be blank)?
I’m sorry for them but I don’t see how Walmart is liable for anything beyond replacing the unit.
Mom responds: "It's kinda like your father's...only much bigger."
Waiter. There is fly in my soup.
I don’t think it was something on WalMart’s side. Electronics these days tend to come in packages that have to be basically shredded to get the item out (100% sealed thick plastic, just had to utterly destroy a box yesterday). There’s no way you can reshelve those in a way that the customer won’t know it’s been opened. A lot of that stuff winds up going back to the manufacturer so they can repackage it in a pristine box, in theory they should be the ones making sure the item is pristine too.
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