My Target was selling a used/expired seat

momtoo3

Well-known member
I was looking at clearance seats at my Target and found a EFT65 for $37. I grabbed it down, all excited and saw that the box had been opened and was kind of resealed. I opened it and saw an old style Triumph. The kind with the yellow tabs on the knobs without the infinite slide harness. It was manufactured in 2002. I had the same one for ds1 when he out grew his bucket. The seat smelled old and had crumbs in it. I tracked down an employee while pushing my double stroller and pulling the cart and kicking the car seat box, yeah that was a sight to see. The lady was a little confused as to why I was telling her about the issue and going through the trouble until she looked in the box. I showed her the manufacture date and expiration and she said people buy new seats and return the old ones with that reciept/box all the time. I asked her why customer service doesn't catch it but she just shrugged and said they just don't care enough to look and that it is frustrating. She apologized for having the seat make it out to the sales floor and that was the end of it. I watched her drag the box into the back room. I will always be checking what is inside the box before buying now.
 
ADS

christineka

New member
Yeah, it happens. I had a parent at a check insist she bought a century brand booster just 3 years ago at walmart. I'm thinking someone put it in some other box and returned it.
 

msg221

Well-known member
I totally believe people do this. I returned a Coccoro to BRU once (it was on clearance as an online return when I got it but I never even opened the box) and they always open the box and look inside. The employee told me she once had someone fill the box up with bricks. How absolutely mortifying if you are the dishonest person who gets caught doing that! I cannot even imagine!
 

vonfirmath

New member
And people doing stuff like this is one reason stores feel they need to have more and more restricted return policies.
 

Kac

Ambassador - CPS Technician
I can't believe they didn't open the box to look at it and I can't believe a person would do that.
 

Pixels

New member
I found a Roundabout 40, expired, blue shell, moldy straps in a Marathon box at Target a couple of years ago. Took it up to the customer service counter.
 

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
I had someone try to return an infant seat, without the base. Guess they just needed the base.
 

Pixels

New member
I had someone try to return an infant seat, without the base. Guess they just needed the base.

Did they play it off, like "Oh, I forgot that?" Or ...?

And did you alert the other people who work returns to be on the lookout in case they decided to try again another day?
 

wavegal

New member
I have returned seats to target, they don't look (I wasn't doing what those people did! it was the real unused seat!)

BRU takes everything out of the box and looks for parts and manuals for everything, i once forgot a piece of paper and didn't realize it, that was a pain but I do get why!
 

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
Did they play it off, like "Oh, I forgot that?" Or ...?

And did you alert the other people who work returns to be on the lookout in case they decided to try again another day?

They said it didn't come with one. Yeah, tell the car seat tech that has sold baby gear for the better part of the last 18 years that it didn't come with one. Whatever. The weight was wrong. Yeah, so I had to check. They had retaped the box! Baby checks all returns that are opened.

I let the others in the department know. The customers did not bring it back.
 

nmb

New member
I showed her the manufacture date and expiration and she said people buy new seats and return the old ones with that reciept/box all the time.

:eek:

Are you kidding me? "All the time"? It would not have even occurred to me to return an old item as if it were the new... people are nuts!
 

thepeach80

Senior Community Member
The lady at Wal-Mart on Saturday told us one time someone came in and put their old carseat on one of the travel systems and took the new carseat for their baby. Nice.
 

cpsaddict

New member
I could tell horror stories all day long about what people will do for returns. When I was the baby gear supervisor at BRU, I had an Evenflo travel system returned. Apparently, CS did not look in the box, because when I did, there was a mismatched OLD Evenflo car seat and stroller. I marched right to the store manager with that one. After that, even if the box was sealed, we had to open it to check. I also had people come in and replace an entire travel system with their old one and just leave with it. It goes on and on and on.
 

nmb

New member
The lady at Wal-Mart on Saturday told us one time someone came in and put their old carseat on one of the travel systems and took the new carseat for their baby. Nice.

I also had people come in and replace an entire travel system with their old one and just leave with it. It goes on and on and on.


Ok, now over being angry at Wal-mart for tying the seats to the shelf. Used to drive me NUTS that I couldn't see how DS fit in them... :eek:
 

Meg

Well-known member
This happened to a woman in my playgroup. She bought a stroller and when she got home she found a dirty old stroller in the box that wasn't even the same brand. When she went back to Target and told them what happened, they pretty much told her "Too bad, how do we know that you're not the one who is lying?" She ended up calling the manufacture(I think the old stroller was registered or something) and they were able to help her out and it resulted in Target refunding her. So anyway, OP, I'm glad you caught the old seat and got it off the shelves so some unsuspecting parents didn't end up buying it and then getting screwed when they tried returning it. :thumbsup:
 

kbud

New member
Oh yeah, the stories I heard when I worked as a trainer for retail loss prevention equipment. I trained the stores, Target, Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart, all the big box stores. The best one I heard was at Staples. People would take something off the shelf and walk up to the UPS counter and ship it to themselves without ever paying. It technically didn't even meet the definition of theft as they never took it past the last point of sale!
 

skitle1802

New member
Home depot has that problem too. Boxes full of trash, bricks, dirt, etc. and swapping out new parts and returning the old inside the new product.
 

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