How does Best Buy know they're not getting scammed with their PRP's?

[Mattson]

PRP means product replacement plan.  It is essentially insurance for the product you buy.  I purchased a Nintendo Switch from them yesterday and I got the PRP... normally I don't get them but the sales person was right on and I felt like he earned that commission.  

 

To register the PRP in their system the employee had to scan a barcode on a sticker on the Switch itself.  There is a hole in Nintendo Switch boxes that allows the Best Buy employees to scan the hardware itself.

 

My question is, if I were to recreate this barcode in photoshop and print up a sticker and then slap it on a broken switch to get 'my' switch replaced how would they know?  If a switch is won't turn on that barcode is the only identifier they have...

 

Does Nintendo nuke the serial number remotely to prevent this from happening?  I'm just really curious and do not intend on doing any of this.

[79wjd]

They do get scammed sometimes. In fact you could probably just bring a completely different switch with a different serial code and still have it replaced. 

 

You could also essentially never buy anything -- buy a switch (or any product) and just return it and re buy it every 14 days. Retailers are able to offer services because at the end of the day MOST people are honest and don't take advantage.

[Mattson]

Yeah I was just curious.  I remember back when the Playstation came out, Christmas 1995, I was so excited.  I had hooked it up and before I could even turn it on I tripped over a cord and sent it crashing down to the ground and it broke.  I remember instantly crying and getting scared at what my dad would do when he found out.

 

He found out and he didn't get angry at me at all.  He told me not to worry about it and he'll take care of it.

 

Next day I had a brand new Playstation... my dad had purchased a new one and then returned the old one saying it didn't work when we hooked it up.  I just thought a scam in this vein would be hard to pull off today with registered serial numbers and stickers with barcodes.

[79wjd]

Just now, Mattson said:

Yeah I was just curious.  I remember back when the Playstation came out, Christmas 1995, I was so excited.  I had hooked it up and before I could even turn it on I tripped over a cord and sent it crashing down to the ground and it broke.  I remember instantly crying and getting scared at what my dad would do when he found out.

 

He found out and he didn't get angry at me at all.  He told me not to worry about it and he'll take care of it.

 

Next day I had a brand new Playstation... my dad had purchased a new one and then returned the old one saying it didn't work when we hooked it up.  I just thought a scam in this vein would be hard to pull off today with registered serial numbers and stickers with barcodes.

At the end of the day, retailers tend to not be super strict with serial numbers. 

 

I bought an Apple Watch about a month ago from Best Buy. A week later I had acquired some gift cards that I wanted applied to the watch. Well, the only way to do that is to return the watch and re buy it, so I ended up with a receipt that had a different serial number than the one on the watch I own. Then a week later I found a better deal at Kohls, so I returned the brand new unopened apple watch (from kohls) to best buy. So, now I have an Apple Watch that I bought at Best Buy with serial number A and a receipt from Kohls with serial number B. 

[TheKDub]

19 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

They do get scammed sometimes. In fact you could probably just bring a completely different switch with a different serial code and still have it replaced. 

 

You could also essentially never buy anything -- buy a switch (or any product) and just return it and re buy it every 14 days. Retailers are able to offer services because at the end of the day MOST people are honest and don't take advantage.

 

Except if you return stuff too frequently to BestBuy you can get banned from doing so as far as I know, though I kinda did similar when picking out a laptop (Bought one, wasn't sure on it, returned it, got a different one, hated it, returned it, got the original one. Probably lost them a few hundred $$$ right there)

[dalekphalm]

47 minutes ago, Mattson said:

PRP means product replacement plan.  It is essentially insurance for the product you buy.  I purchased a Nintendo Switch from them yesterday and I got the PRP... normally I don't get them but the sales person was right on and I felt like he earned that commission.  

 

To register the PRP in their system the employee had to scan a barcode on a sticker on the Switch itself.  There is a hole in Nintendo Switch boxes that allows the Best Buy employees to scan the hardware itself.

 

My question is, if I were to recreate this barcode in photoshop and print up a sticker and then slap it on a broken switch to get 'my' switch replaced how would they know?  If a switch is won't turn on that barcode is the only identifier they have...

 

Does Nintendo nuke the serial number remotely to prevent this from happening?  I'm just really curious and do not intend on doing any of this.

It comes down to this: The employees should be examining the switch in MINUTE DETAIL. If they happen to notice "Hey the SN is on some weird sticker" and peel it off, you're in shit. First, they won't accept the return. Second, you could be liable for fraud charges, if Best Buy decides to take legal action.

 

*Note: The collective "You", not the person that is @Mattson*

 

But yeah, definitely, they could miss the sticker, and you might be able to get away with it.

 

Of course, if they, or Nintendo (depending on what they do with the dead Switch), discover the sticker after the fact, they have all your info, and they could still go after you for Fraud.

 

But as others have said, they put procedures in place to make it more inconvenient for scammers, and then trust that normal people will be relatively honest.

 

Besides, they make a lot of money off of Protection Plans, given that like 95% to 99% of the products they sell will not need to be replaced.

[Mattson]

34 minutes ago, CCWong said:

I actually have a couple of hilarious stories about this in action.

Go on.

[aezakmi]

38 minutes ago, CCWong said:

BestBuy had a limit on how many returns you could do in a set period of time, and managers would actually blacklist people from the store for returning too many items / acting unethically.

 

One individual didn't understand the return policy, which is super lenient, and would put the items (game systems, computers, etc...) back in their packaging after smashing them and claim he hadn't opened them until that day (coincidentally always a day or two before the return period ended). He would claim he had only that day found that they had been damaged in transit to the store before he purchased it. Over and over again he repeated this process even though he was walked through the return policy and how he could return them no questions asked. Eventually he was banned from returning items.

 

There are always level of discretion that management can use. 

yeah but what's the point of doing that, I mean, buying something and then returning it for no reason, what kind of idiot does that? it's not like he's gonna get some profit, you either get the money back or an identical product, so, why?

[TheTripleDeuce]

2 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

yeah but what's the point of doing that, I mean, buying something and then returning it for no reason, what kind of idiot does that? it's not like he's gonna get some profit, you either get the money back or an identical product, so, why?

one could always buy a product, buy a broken one off kijiji or ebay, return broken one get duplicate working one and sell it for profit

[dalekphalm]

7 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

yeah but what's the point of doing that, I mean, buying something and then returning it for no reason, what kind of idiot does that? it's not like he's gonna get some profit, you either get the money back or an identical product, so, why?

Some people are just little shits that do it for fun.

4 minutes ago, TheTripleDeuce said:

one could always buy a product, buy a broken one off kijiji or ebay, return broken one get duplicate working one and sell it for profit

Other people are evil assholes that abuse the system for their own gain.

[79wjd]

12 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

yeah but what's the point of doing that, I mean, buying something and then returning it for no reason, what kind of idiot does that? it's not like he's gonna get some profit, you either get the money back or an identical product, so, why?

Well it would mean you could return it at any point when you decide you no longer want it -- if you can always return your item for a refund then you would never hesitate to buy anything. 

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Well it would mean you could return it at any point when you decide you no longer want it -- if you can always return your item for a refund then you would never hesitate to buy anything. 

That's not true. There are already retailers with ridiculous return policies. Like Walmart - for some things you can take up to 90 days to return an item.

 

In fact, places like Walmart bank on the fact that once someone walks out the door with something, they're highly unlikely to return it, even if they aren't totally satisfied, due to the effort involved with coming back to the store and going through the motions.

 

People are lazy and complacent.

 

Sure there would be some people who would abuse the fuck out of an "infinite" return policy, but those are likely the people who already do.

[asus killer]

the serial number is not just on that sticker. Even if they were somehow fooled by the "new" sticker, someone will eventually find it out. As they have your personal data...

 

anyway PRP is in itself a very good business to any store. Have that in mind.

[Bananasplit_00]

barcode hacking is a fun thing, you can with a lot of systems because they lack security just scan all your stuff, scan a sticker and pay, and end up paying literally nothing and have it look legit never the less.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

That's not true. There are already retailers with ridiculous return policies. Like Walmart - for some things you can take up to 90 days to return an item.

 

In fact, places like Walmart bank on the fact that once someone walks out the door with something, they're highly unlikely to return it, even if they aren't totally satisfied, due to the effort involved with coming back to the store and going through the motions.

 

People are lazy and complacent.

 

Sure there would be some people who would abuse the fuck out of an "infinite" return policy, but those are likely the people who already do.

I know people DON'T return things a lot of times, but a good return policy (e.g. confidence that you can return it if you want to) does encourage buyers. The fact that people often don't return things goes back to my original point that most people are decent and, as you mentioned, lazy. 

 

But nonetheless, buying and returning nets you an infinite return period. 

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

I know people DON'T return things a lot of times, but a good return policy (e.g. confidence that you can return it if you want to) does encourage buyers. The fact that people often don't return things goes back to my original point that most people are decent and, as you mentioned, lazy. 

 

But nonetheless, buying and returning nets you an infinite return period. 

It encourages buyers, yes, but you said people would "never" hesitate. And that's simply not true. There would always be people who would hesitate. That's why one of the biggest sales tactics are to get the sale no matter what, because once you've got the sale, odds are they aren't coming back.

 

So yes, it would likely encourage more "on the fence" people, but not all of them.

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

barcode hacking is a fun thing, you can with a lot of systems because they lack security just scan all your stuff, scan a sticker and pay, and end up paying literally nothing and have it look legit never the less.

How would this work without an incompetent employee? If the barcode was scanned into the system, and it was legit, the product would appear on the screen, at the designated price, and they would then ring you through.

 

If the barcode was not legit, it would not appear on the screen (or if it appeared, but showed up differently somehow?) the employee would have to be incompetent to not catch, for example, a PS4 "scanning" but the total still being zero (or $60 for a second controller or something).

 

Sure, incompetent employees do exist, but there must be more to this for this to actually work.

[Cole5]

3 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

How would this work without an incompetent employee? If the barcode was scanned into the system, and it was legit, the product would appear on the screen, at the designated price, and they would then ring you through.

 

If the barcode was not legit, it would not appear on the screen (or if it appeared, but showed up differently somehow?) the employee would have to be incompetent to not catch, for example, a PS4 "scanning" but the total still being zero (or $60 for a second controller or something).

 

Sure, incompetent employees do exist, but there must be more to this for this to actually work.

As someone who worked in retail for 3 years, I can confirm that we just dont care, the faster a customer leaves the better 

[79wjd]

7 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

It encourages buyers, yes, but you said people would "never" hesitate. And that's simply not true. There would always be people who would hesitate. That's why one of the biggest sales tactics are to get the sale no matter what, because once you've got the sale, odds are they aren't coming back.

 

So yes, it would likely encourage more "on the fence" people, but not all of them.

For people as a whole, sure, but I'm talking about why someone would continuously buy and return an item -- that person clearly has no issues putting in the effort and is clearly doing it to have an infinite return policy. 

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Cole5 said:

As someone who worked in retail for 3 years, I can confirm that we just dont care, the faster a customer leaves the better 

You might not care, personally, but not everyone is you.

 

Plus, there's a difference between not caring, and actually witnessing fraud, etc, and letting it go. Talk about insta-fired if you got caught letting something expensive go through when it was obvious something was amiss.

 

I've worked retail for more than 3 years, and while the jobs were all shit, I took pride in my work. I did the job well, and yes mistakes happen, but there's a difference between a mistake and being indifferent to obvious errors/glitches/fraud, etc.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

For people as a whole, sure, but I'm talking about why someone would continuously buy and return an item -- that person clearly has no issues putting in the effort and is clearly doing it to have an infinite return policy. 

Yeah, but they must be doing it for a reason.

 

Either they continually break the item, want a brand new one all the time, or are doing it "for fun".

 

None of these would be alleviated by an infinite return period (since there would have to be conditions on, for example, if the item breaks, how often you can return it, etc).

 

If you're talking about a hypothetical "here's an infinite return period, with no exceptions" policy, then... I mean... Capitalism doesn't work that way. Either prices would go up, or the businesses would go out of business.

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Yeah, but they must be doing it for a reason.

 

Either they continually break the item, want a brand new one all the time, or are doing it "for fun".

 

None of these would be alleviated by an infinite return period (since there would have to be conditions on, for example, if the item breaks, how often you can return it, etc).

 

If you're talking about a hypothetical "here's an infinite return period, with no exceptions" policy, then... I mean... Capitalism doesn't work that way. Either prices would go up, or the businesses would go out of business.

 

Context: 

1 hour ago, CCWong said:

-snip-

 

One individual didn't understand the return policy, which is super lenient, and would put the items (game systems, computers, etc...) back in their packaging after smashing them and claim he hadn't opened them until that day (coincidentally always a day or two before the return period ended). He would claim he had only that day found that they had been damaged in transit to the store before he purchased it. Over and over again he repeated this process even though he was walked through the return policy and how he could return them no questions asked. Eventually he was banned from returning items.

44 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

yeah but what's the point of doing that, I mean, buying something and then returning it for no reason, what kind of idiot does that? it's not like he's gonna get some profit, you either get the money back or an identical product, so, why?

 

 

So, he's clearly doing it to have an infinite return policy, and of course it isn't encouraged (or even allowed) by the store. But that doesn't mean people don't try it and/or that there aren't ways around it.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

9 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

How would this work without an incompetent employee? If the barcode was scanned into the system, and it was legit, the product would appear on the screen, at the designated price, and they would then ring you through.

 

If the barcode was not legit, it would not appear on the screen (or if it appeared, but showed up differently somehow?) the employee would have to be incompetent to not catch, for example, a PS4 "scanning" but the total still being zero (or $60 for a second controller or something).

 

Sure, incompetent employees do exist, but there must be more to this for this to actually work.

it would apear as whatever you want it too, you can tell the system that too display the item as. for say, VIP rebate or something like that, it will however ether bug out the value or show the cost as negative. this mostly applies in places like grocery stores here in Sweden where you can self scan and check out but they watch you, you can easely sneek in scanning a sticker somewhere. sure, they might catch you if it looks off in the records and they will have your credit card but unless they check every single one, you are good. i dont do this, i have plenty of money for stuff but if i was ever tight i at least know most of how it works so it wouldnt be too hard. you can do the same with subway tickets, airplane tickets and anything else automated or self service that uses a barcode

[dalekphalm]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

 

Context: 

 

 

So, he's clearly doing it to have an infinite return policy, and of course it isn't encouraged (or even allowed) by the store. But that doesn't mean people don't try it and/or that there aren't ways around it.

 

Yeah but he was smashing that thing. He literally broke it every time he returned it:

Quote

back in their packaging after smashing them

I don't know whether he was smashing them on purpose simply to get a "new" item every few weeks, or what.

 

There's not enough context to know his motivations there.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

it would apear as whatever you want it too, you can tell the system that too display the item as. for say, VIP rebate or something like that, it will however ether bug out the value or show the cost as negative. this mostly applies in places like grocery stores here in Sweden where you can self scan and check out but they watch you, you can easely sneek in scanning a sticker somewhere. sure, they might catch you if it looks off in the records and they will have your credit card but unless they check every single one, you are good. i dont do this, i have plenty of money for stuff but if i was ever tight i at least know most of how it works so it wouldnt be too hard. you can do the same with subway tickets, airplane tickets and anything else automated or self service that uses a barcode

How would that even work, unless their system wasn't using a SKU/inventory based system?

 

Anything scanned into the system has to be an item in the database for it to show up... At least, in a properly designed system.