I purchased an air conditioner a few years back...got it home, opened the box only to find that it had been used, I could see pine needles and dust on top of the a/c when I took it out,,,the a/c did not work, when I tried to return it they accused me of breaking it and trying to return it,,,,it got ugly,,,,I had the receipt to show I had purchased the a/c about an hour earlier, I showed them the pine needles and the dust that still remained on top of the a/c, of course I was dealing with someone who shall we say was a couple of bottles short of a six pack,,,I ended up getting the manager who right away could piece together what had happened,,,,,,he apologized profusely for his employee and told me to get another a/c, he told me I could upgrade if I wanted to in order for his store to make up for the aggravation his employee had put me through.
I check everything now, doesn't matter what it is, clothes, electronics, anything, hell one day I was buying a can of nuts, it had a plastic top on it, you had to remove the top and pop the pull tab,,,,for some reason just before I was going to check out something told me to take the plastic top off, good thing I did, someone had opened the pull top and had eaten about 1/2 of the nuts,,,,
That made me laugh out loud. Probably not a return though--probably somebody snacking throughout the store. I see this a lot in Wal-Mart with our friends from south of the border. Diapers, milk, candy--just helping themselves.
Another thing I'm seeing all the time now, is meat at Wal-Mart and Sam's in the strangest places. In the children's section, in with cleaning products. I'm always finding meat where it shouldn't be. I don't know if someone is doing this to cost Wal-Mart money, or a PETA nut perhaps, or people are just that lazy they can't put things back in the proper place.
Speaking of nuts, I did return some cinnamon flavored almonds to Sam's after Christmas--I guess it was a couple of Christmases ago. Just didn't sound like they would be good. I knew exactly where my brother probably got them and I was correct. They were unopened and the lady doing the return made sure they were unopen before she took them back.
You also have to check the dates on food now days. My local Kroger is bad about having old stuff on the shelves.
I observed a moma hand her brat a can of nuts in a grocery store just to shut her little brat up. Just before she got on the check out she took them away from the brat and dropped them on a shelf.
I know someone who gave someone a dustbuster. The thing was full of dirt. My crazy relative insist that they just wrapped up the one they had in the garage and I insist that they bought it new, took it home and wrapped it and gave it thinking it was in perfect condition.
Who would think to look inside the vac to check for dirt?
Not sure, but I think that's an east coast phenomenon.