Arguably the biggest gaming deal this Summer was Best Buy's Xbox One and Samsung 40" HDTV for $499. Given the Xbox One's value of $350, and the HDTV's MSRP of $430, it was a Black Friday magnitude deal that thousands would impulsively take advantage of.
The deal was so good, in-fact, that even customers with no interest in an Xbox One have taken advantage of the deal.
Since the deal went live a week ago it has sold out across the country. Some of the customers had no interest in keeping both items, though.
During the past couple days several customers have returned the Xbox One to another retailer before sharing their experience on internet forums. They would state to customer service that they lost the receipt, resulting in them walking away with a brand name 40" HDTV for a staggering $150, or $280 less than its MSRP.
One user on NeoGAF proudly shared his experience of not only returning the Xbox One at Target, but trading it in for the latest PS4 bundle which includes The Last of Us and Batman: Arkham Knight. He even shared the receipt, which you can view below:
Several forum goers would reply to the user sharing that what he did was wrong. He didn't seem bothered, and his response defended his actions stating the following:
Love all the faux outrage.
News flash for some of you not knowing how this works. All they will do is return the unit to the distributor/company for a credit. Nothing was wrong with the unit at all. And their customer service at the store were the ones that opened it for the first time.
No one is losing their job. Relax and chill with the outrage.
Users on deal websites including Slickdeals have similarly taken advantage of the opportunity with return fraud, with Walmart also being on the losing end of the deal.
This constitutes as return fraud, an action that has resulted in retailers increasing their margins over the years in order to make up for the losses incurred. Estimates point toward return fraud costing American retailers more than $3 billion each year, making it a significant issue that retailers have had to act upon, and customers have paid for.
