Friday, December 29

behind the counter

I've heard all the
Wal-Mart is evil!
sayings out there, with (or without) all kinds of arguments, and I have no idea if they're true or not: I've never been to a Wal-Mart.

This morning however, I found Behind the Counter, a blog published by a Wal-Mart employee.

It's quite insightful as blogs go, even if it's not about Wal-Mart as an entity: the guy works at the refunds / exchanges / complaints department.

Either way, it's a fresh view, and quite entertaining to read.

From the blog:
Even though there are labels all over the things that say "NOT ACTIVE UNTIL SOLD" and "SCAN AT REGISTER FOR ACTIVATION" people steal the things all the time. I guess you have to have a phone — even if it doesn't work — to look "street."

So these three toughs walk in with a kid in tow and they have the kid do the talking. The story is that "grandma" bought the kid the pre-paid cell phone "for Christmas" but that "someone" forgot to activate the phone at the register, so could we please activate the phone so the poor boy could use his Christmas present that grandma got him? And of course because it is a gift from the mysterious but oh-so-generous "grandma," they don't have a receipt.

Grandma doesn't exist. The phone was never legally sold in the first place. There is no way that phone ever got onto a receipt without being activated. No way, no how. You cannot scan the barcode and not scan the activation code. But still, can you call them liars? What can I do?

I have to return the phone as a return without a receipt, so I get a drivers license on at least one of the toughs, and then re-sell the phone, activating it.

I hope that phone give those guys brain cancer.

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