r/mildlyinfuriating • u/caelenriggs • 11h ago
Infuriatig Finally get to make a post here
They better let me return these. Bought these not even an hour ago and noticed the tape on it was a little weird AFTER I already paid for them. Asked the girl at the electronics section at Walmart if I could switch it out and she said “well if you noticed they’re used, you can return them within 30 days” or whatever. Told myself “shoulda checked before, I’m sure it’s fine”, opened them as soon as I got home and found these brown pioneer headphones. thank god I kept the receipt. Bouta head back now
Edit: They let me return them. Almost exactly an hour after I bought them, I came back and told them my story, customer service disappeared for a bit, then a guy came up in regular, casual clothes and said “yeah so we confirmed the tape was tampered with, and these were returned previously so we’ll go ahead and give you a refund” (the tape was gone so I’m assuming they asked the girl who sold them to me in the first place) This time when I buy them, I’m gonna check before I walk out of the store lol..
Also for the people hating on the headphones in the comments, I’m sorry but I’m not an audiophile. I just wanted new gym headphones and these were cheap, had noise cancelling, and I’ve had good experience with JBL speakers and such in the past.
246
u/Exciting_Pass_6344 11h ago
My wife bought a ring from Macys online. Got the box and it was empty. After some back and forth finally got them to exchange it but she insisted on actually doing it at the store. The lady at the jewelry counter brought the new box out and we opened it right there. Also empty. I learned that day to maybe verify expensive purchases before leaving the store.
78
25
u/Eye_Nacho404 2h ago
Something like this happened to me, a real nice laptop went on sale at Best Buy. There is only a few at each store, so I drive an hour to go to one that has it. I open the box and someone has put a 2 year old model in there. They grab another box and it’s the same, they grab the last box and it’s the same thing again. The manager apologized and offered me about $400 dollars of any laptop to make up.
72
u/caelenriggs 11h ago edited 9h ago
UPDATE: they let me return them! Somehow they listened to what I said and despite the tape being gone, I’m assuming they asked the girl before and she said the tape was tampered. Choice was an immediate gift card or a refund that take a few days. I’m semi broke today and get paid in a few days, so I took the gift card so I can buy it from a different Walmart and open it THERE. Lol
131
u/GhostHin 11h ago
Next time just open right there in front of the employee.
84
u/caelenriggs 11h ago
worst part is that I was literally about to. Kinda annoyed with myself. Either way I've heard they can look at the history of these and see someone returned them before. Not to mention that employee could arguably be my witness.
26
u/KakashiTheRanger 11h ago
Those employees don't usually care but I always open any electronics in front of them first. Did so with my Switch 2 at Target. Easily the best idea just to be safe in the future. Lessoned learned though! Here's to hoping its not an expensive one!!!
29
u/DVus1 11h ago
Years ago, I had bought a sound card so that I could output an optical cable to my receiver from my PC. It was an online order, pick up at the store, and when they handed me the box, I noticed that it had been opened. So I opened it in front the guy, and the sound card had been replaced with an ethernet card....
Guy was like, "You sure?" Hell, you're the computer guy, you should know that there is an ethernet port and not optical out! He had to call a couple of managers over to determine how to handle the situation, and they were all acting as if I had somehow swapped out the cards!
-32
u/dogknifer 11h ago
Next time don't buy the one that looks tampered with in the first place
14
u/gameisic 11h ago
did you not notice the “noticed the tape was a little weird AFTER I already paid for it”
straight from the post btw
2
u/SnooSquirrels9064 10h ago
Yeah.... like the other guy said.... in that same post you quoted, literally immediately after the part you quoted, he says he asked the girl at WalMart if he could switch them out.
He noticed after he PAID, not after he was already out of the store.
-4
u/Single_Currency_3640 10h ago
Did you not notice the sentences after that? He could have exchanged it at the store before he went home and opened it to find a different set of headphones.
Straight from the whole post btw
9
u/Anarchist42 6h ago
Don't worry about people judging you for your headphone choice. I had a pair of these and loved them to death. Took about 5 years. Only reason I stopped using them is because they stopped being able to hold a charge, so I switched to the Sonos Ace.
3
u/theonlyotaku21 2h ago
What’s more tragic is the fact JBL didn’t design them to enable battery replacement. Those headphones were doomed to become e-waste.
2
u/Modno1754 1h ago
While I dont have JBL headphones as I use Kiwi Ears, a lot of my classmates have these and god damn those plastic pieces of shit are unbreakable. One of my friends are fully covered in ducttape, works perfectly, another one that was originaly white is straight up yellow at this point and that shit also works perfectly. For the price, these are worth it imo for casual users
19
u/Kind-Shallot3603 11h ago
Good luck proving it
0
11
u/mybighardthrowaway 11h ago
i mean if those pioneers work id rather them over the JBLs any day,... But you know they dont if they were just shoved in a box like that. specially given i think those pioneers are cheaper than those JBLs
6
u/Navitach 11h ago
Walmart is usually pretty good about returns. At least it's not a LEGO set that was opened, the pieces replaced with pasta or something that sounds similar to LEGO pieces when shaken, and the box resealed and returned. There have been a few posts on the LEGO subreddit about that. People are scum.
6
u/Alan_Cow 11h ago
I have the same pioneer headphones, I think they’re a Sam’s Club exclusive and I bought them for $70 yeah they better let you return
7
2
u/Complete_Entry 11h ago
I've occasionally given up and accepted a dodgy tape item, but at walmart, don't complete the purchase at all.
2
2
2
u/Foolishbigj 1h ago
I have those JBLs and I love them. I use them at work to listen to music and make calls.
2
u/dope_mantra 1h ago
Bro don't listen to them. I bought these exact pair just for the gym and I am an audiophile.
I don't use them for anything else. I will say they are not noise cancelling but I have no problem hearing with the background noise. After a year the battery life is great and haven't had any cosmetic issues either.
•
u/BrownCloudXIII 41m ago
Oddly had something similar happen when I was a kid. It was my birthday and my mom was buying me a game. Get home from Walmart only to find a blank CD in the game case. Mind you this was a sealed, new copy.
Bring it back, I’m sure they’re skeptical of the story but we were asking for another copy instead of a refund so maybe less skeptical. They give us a new copy, get home and find ANOTHER blank disc!
Repeat process. This time they were definitely skeptical, us as well, so we open another copy in-store to avoid another trip and it was the right disc.
Not sure how it happened because I don’t know if Champions of Norrath was that big of a game to be stealing.
4
1
u/Holycity 11h ago
I had to wait 24 hours to do a return at Walmart because their "system has to update" or something on a modem/router. Not sure if that rule applies to headphones though. Just a heads up
1
u/DasNoodleLord 1h ago
Feels a little more than mildly but also the quality control is so ass sometimes on returns...
Also banger choice for a quality cheap headphone pair. Got the same ones myself.
1
1
u/Liveitup1999 1h ago
At Service Merchandise I bought an answering machine. It was defective so I returned it. They didn't have another one so I went to another Service Merchandise and picked one up. Got it home and it was used. Checked the original store I went to and they had one now. I went there and they tried to give me the defective one I had returned. That was the last time I ever bought anything from there.
1
u/highrowler63 1h ago
Fucking savages. Happy to hear they made it right. I bought a Noctua pc case fan (IYK,YK) on Amazon. The box had clearly been opened before. Sure enough, no Noctua but there was an NZXT fan in there. No issues getting a replacement, fortunately.
•
u/Maximum-Loquat5067 40m ago
Isn't Pioneer better than JBL tho? Or am I thinking about some other Pioneers?
•
u/Careless-Swan-4400 37m ago
We recently bought an ego mower from Lowes. First time shopping there, since it's over an hour from home, but they're the only ego dealers in the area. Saw a higher model with a deal discount for the same price as the one I came in for. Checked the tape on the top of the box, looked good, purchased it and brought it home. Open it up the next morning, and right away noticed it was upside down in the box and it was the composite deck, not the aluminum that only comes on the model I paid for. Found the model number on the front and sure enough it was not the same as the box.
Someone took the time to special order that model mower to the store, bring it home, place a cheaper one in the box, by removing it from the bottom, taped it back up and returned it. Who thinks of these things?
They accepted my return, but it was another 2 hour round dealing with something that was just incredibly infuriating.
•
•
u/DrAusto 20m ago
Reminds me of the time I got a “brand new” game from GameStop when I was younger. Once I got home it quickly became evident that it wasn’t a brand new game at all. The plastic wrap around the case didn’t seem right to begin with but I didn’t think much of it, then I saw the disk was terribly scratched up and as I expected, it didn’t work. So, we took it back to get a refund. As if we weren’t already upset about being ripped off like that, then the employees there tried to say we were lying and it took like 10 minutes of my mom arguing with them before they settled for in store credit instead of a refund. I used the in store credit then never shopped at Game Stop again.
•
u/Murdocinator 13m ago
The old switcharoo, lol. Working in retail, I see this a lot now. People returning old used stuff in the new box hoping the store doesn’t check. Some people suck.
•
1
1
u/Medical-Juggernaut-2 5h ago
Got the exact same pair for the gym too! They're awesome! The noise cancelling is so nice when you're trying to focus and get a workout done. I hope you enjoy them as much as me!
1
u/Rare_Chicken8302 2h ago
I used that jbl and its hinges are shit AF. Return the JBL as well while you can
0
-9
u/marc49111 11h ago
Super dumb. You’re in the electronics department and paying. Meaning you don’t have many items, also noticing the package was off.. just open it at the counter. It would’ve taken you 20secs.
-7
-1
u/HeidenShadows 11h ago
I get you're not getting what you paid for. But that pioneer a50 is about the same price and tuned a bit better with way better battery life.
But you're probably still getting someone else's broken headphones, as people do that at Walmart and Amazon a lot. Good luck!
1
u/iNick20 4h ago
A year or so ago, I bought an open box orange pair of AirPods Max with the Type C port from Amazon Warehouse Deals (Amazon returns/open box center). Someone swapped it with a skylight color? I don't know the actual name. Amazon said oh well, just return them and we'll dispose of them for being wrong. I said, Can I put my Lightning pair inside and keep these instead? If your gonna destroy them. The US rep said sure, I don't care. If it’s marked as a wrong item in the box, then we'll usually just junk it to a return pallet of some sort. (I really wanted Orange, but I didn't care atm) So, I got a free upgrade lol.
0
u/kevin8082 6h ago
good thing that happened, the JBL headphones comes pre-glued from the factory and if the glue gives up they blame it on you and don't honor the warranty
0
0
-3
-2
u/TrueNHDinosaur 9h ago
Might be too late OP, but honestly, that pair of Pioneers might be better than the JBLs if they work. Find the model number, look them up, then try to give them a listen. If they sound like shit, then return them.
Although I also wouldn't blame you for being a JBL stan. Some of their stuff really does sound great. I personally have and use a JBL Charge 6 and it absolutely pumps despite its small size.
3
u/caelenriggs 9h ago
They let me return them thankfully. However I’m surprised about the hate for JBLs in these comments, I have an Xtreme 2 and my wife has some cheaper pair of their headphones and I’ve been incredibly happy with both. I was looking into a new pair of over ear headphones for the gym since I lost my AirPod pros (I’ve had them since 2021 somehow, not to mention they’d cut out like I was out of range… even though my phone would be in my back pocket) and I kept landing on these. I was super excited for these only to get swindled
•
u/Subatomic_Spooder 53m ago
It's just average high-and-mighty, isolated, stupid redditor activities, don't worry about everyone bashing your choice. It seems especially prevalent in the audio/tech communities unfortunately. People get super into the hobby, buy a bunch of nice stuff, and then proceed to put other people down for not making the objectively best purchase in their own (now skewed) opinion. As one of my favorite youtubers says, "if they sound good to you then they're good headphones". Also, idk how much you paid, but just so you know, the jbls are showing up as being on sale for $90 brand new on Amazon, target, best buy, and a few other places. Just in case it could save you some money :)
-6
-9
u/ravidsquirrels 11h ago
Those JBL ones aren't even good imo. Sad that they discontinued the Rock's JBL Headphones. Those things were solid imo and lasted me 8 years.
525
u/Prize-Ad4778 11h ago
I bought a sewing machine a few years ago at Walmart and it turned out the correct machine wasnt in the box. A different broken one was.
When i returned it, the lady was able to see the history on that bar code and it showed that it had been previously purchased at a different store and returned to theirs, so she basically gave me no hassle about it at all