Think twice before buying a "NEW" hard disk from DSE in the future…
The retailer has since admitted that it sells second hand hard drives as new, but in this instance forgot to wipe it clean.
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/exposed-new-…
As I understand it, it's fairly common practice DSE and affects all their products.
It's how they can do their 'return your goods within 14 days if you're not satisfied' policy. When someone returns a product (for 'change of mind' reasons, not because it's faulty), they just throw it back onto the shelf.
If you're going to buy from DSE I'd always advise to carefully inspect the packaging they give you, look for seals being broken on the box, the item being poorly packed inside the box or other suggestions as to the item being used before.
But can they legally sell it then as 'new' after someone has used it ?
The other thing is they might be liable for the damage to the filmmaker's clips due to the malware left on the recycled disk. Fair Trading should book 'em. But I suspect this negative publicity is harsher. No doubt that The Age article is doing the rounds now.
@ greenpossum. Definately working. The topic was treading #4 on Twitter this morning (For Sydneysiders).
Isn't this common practice in most electrical retail outlets? I bought a negear router from Officeworks Hornsby, came home to see that it's already been open and missing the wall-socket coverter. I called up the store and they informed me that many items returned within their 14 days warranty are simply put back on the shelf.
Pretty shabby practice.
Exact same thing happened to me from Harvey Norman at Southland. Bought a media player as a gift when I got home I thought the sticky tape was a bit strange. Opened it up and it was clearly a return. Plugged it in and they hadn't even cleared the memory, had a gb worth of stuff on there. Took it back and queried why they were selling a used item as new (with no discount or notification) and was told that it was a new salesperson and that they "always" advise the customer when the item is used. Got a new one as a replacement but wont be going back there.
Thought my experience was a one-off, clearly not!
if something is restocked in dick smith, don't they put a sticker on it labeling it as such?
I'm interested to know if theres a legal requirement too. My product from OW had no such labelling either. In fact, staff even put sticky tape over the box to make it look as if it was new. I only realised that it was a second hand item after I opened the box and saw that the bags were all torn open and the instruction manual was all crinked/smudged.
DS don't have this policy no more.
NO change of mind at all.
PS.
Also, dick smith has changed their price match policy.
What was one of the main advantages of buying from DSE is no longer! Although I never abused their returns policy because it has invariably led to it being abolished.
That is, well, a bit disconcerting..
If only fair trading would look into EB Games selling scratched discs with torn game manuals as new copies.
Often, when I buy a 'new' game from EB I ask the clerk to allow me to inspect the disc and contents of the game. A few times I have got funny looks or sarcastic comments from the sales clerks which was really annoying and I had to explain to them that I'm not being pedantic, just cautious because re-selling of used games does occur.
This has been done for years but their is usually a sticker that says returned and like three boxes
Missing equipment
Faulty
and one more i cant remember
But this person was quite unlucky and poor practice from Dick Smith
Shop Soiled and
Ex display
Dick Smith has changed their policy for returns. We purchased a printer cartridge and wanted to return it to buy another one. We hadn't open the box yet, so it was new and the guy at the counter did not want to process the return / exchange. The manager then came in, and applied some common sense and saw that the printer cartridge was new, so allowed us to exchange (and pay more) for the correct one. Ultimately though, they don't accept returns for opened items that they cannot sell for full price anymore. This was roughly about 3-4 weeks ago.
what's the block complaining about? he's got a whole hdd full of free moviez which he won't need to download :)
haha I was thinking just that when I first read the article on smh!
"And if their statement is true, why is the drive only 30GB? Instead of 1.5TB?"
I don't get it. What point are you trying to get across…
looks like someone did some switcheroo, took the new hard drive out and put their old one in.
More likely the reporting was unclear. The buyer plugged it in and found only 30GB free rather than the expected 1.5TB.
From the screenshot, there seems to be 2 partitions from the removable drive - one ~250GB and another one ~30GB so the raw size could be 300GB. A bit hard to find 30GB 3.5" drives these days, even the old ones.
ah the switcheroo, have to be pretty cocky to think you could get away with that. but this is a bargain website so I like it!
anywho, this story reminds me of christmas 2003 when I got a RC plane from santa and it was already broken in the box, sold new from dick. had grass stains and all.
they have never checked their items properly before reselling them as new, why the article makes out it is a scandal when us regular folk ie non movie making types without a channel to the media have suffered long by dick.
the manager (of dick) was sorry (that he was given a serve about it over the phone) and 5 weeks after christmas I was given a new one- great service hey!
I never did fly that replacement…..
anyone else sore by actions of dick?
There is nothing wrong with this practice IF!!! The retailer lets the customer know before purchase (this is my own personal opinion)
I agree with that - if the retailer is upfront about it and what you're buying then it's no problem. I have no problem buying refurbished goods. In fact, my laptop is refurbished from Apple and I'm quite happy with it.
Is this a bargain news?
If it's anything about dishonest retailers it belongs in this forum, i suppose.
Of course. Next time you see an external hard disk in DSE that's purportedly new but has been used, you can demand a reduction in price for having to be careful of malware and to reformat it yourself. Then maybe go price match it at OW. :P
Just curious but what is supposed to happen then? Do they sell it at a reduced price?
If so, won't this screw DSE if a couple of dudes decide to 'testdrive' a few items?
Then again, this might explain why they changed their 14 day no questions asked returns policy.
Just curious but what is supposed to happen then? Do they sell it at a reduced price?
They could be 'honest' and tell you it's not new, then it's up to you to decide whether you want to buy or not…
It's woolworths…they are never honest!
They should have retained their 14day policy but merely revised it. They do record the customers' details and purchase history after an refund incident. Perhaps they could 'blacklist' habitual refunders or customers who are clearly abusing the system. I have seen managers at EB send little kids away stuck with their $100 new copy of a game because of obvious refund abuse.
I don't see the big drama other than the fact you waste time to return the 'used' drive..
1) You get free pr0n
2) You got rocks in the head if you left out personal data in the drive you wanted to return.
I think the issues here are
Of course woolworths will refuse to pay compensation to this poor sap…
I say we boycott hard drives from dick smiths. Sounds fair to me!
This is why most computer shops typically have a 10-20% restocking fee which is totally justified. You must consider the retailer's POV too.
well, it doesn't stop you from returning it. (points #1, #2)
TBH, i would say its the users fault for leaving auto play on AND not have due diligence to have antivirus installed on their machine.
Autoplay is not the problem, assuming every portable media is clean is. I frequently get my usb thumbdrive infected with virus whenever it was used at a computer lab, so what's the difference in treating all portable media as suspect before you introduce it to your main computer?
trojan/virus infection can (and has before) occur at the format/firmware burn in stage at the factory as well.
btw, regarding the 30GB points, the screenshot is inconclusive to prove that it's 30gb.
My laptop harddrive is 500gb, but you will only see 3 drives adding up to 200gb. ;)
They have been doing this for years. Dicksmiths selling $5 network cables for $50. Their TVs and AV cables are poorly constructed.
Dick Smith himself says it won't happen under his leadership, he sold out ages ago the greedy b@st.
I asked a worker, they shove everything back on shelves, they don't have no labels or anything to tell you its been opened.
How is it Mr Smith's fault? He sold his company to Woolies many years ago and has absolutely no control anymore over quality control or product performance.
Look at all the claims his making, dick does this, dick does that….that's how lol
So he's acting like a bit of a dick?
No one, just you…
You Dick!
Wow. The guy seems like a complete moron. 30GB is more than likely how the previous owner has formated it. With my 1TB external I have a 32GB partition in FAT32 which makes it usable by more media devices, and use the remaining space as a NTFS partition which is like alot more flexible for holding larger files and doesn't have the constraints of FAT32. I see no way an external hard drive could "only be 30GB", just needs to be reformated. Furthermore, how the heck would any of this 'corrupted' his data? If he's some awesome film maker dude and has no basic knowledge on how computers work, he shouldn't be complaining. So this story in my eyes should be on the idiocy of that customer than Dick Smith.
I wonder whether this applies only on external hard drives. As mentioned in the comments, someone bought an iRiver MP3 player and someone else bought a cordless phone — both found to be restocked items without a proper cleanup.
So I guess it can pretty much apply to anything you buy on DSE.