“It’s not normal, I buy an iPhone and there’s a pebble in it…” Fabien (name has been changed) is struggling to swallow what happened to him on Tuesday. At Fnac in the Parly 2 shopping center, in Chesnay-Rocquencourt (Yvelines), he buys an iPhone 13 worth 859 euros for his wife, taking advantage of a promotion. Before leaving the store, he checks that the box is well sealed with two adhesive strips. Back home, he hands the gift to his wife, who first thinks it’s a joke when she opens the packaging.
An increasingly common scam
“There was a piece of tile inside, with the edges rounded to take the shape of an iPhone,” he says. I was in all my states, I wondered if they were going to believe me at Fnac. Back at the point of sale, Fabien explains his problem. The employee takes it seriously, and informs him that an iPhone 13 return has just taken place the same morning. The buyer had paid cash, before coming to claim a refund on the pretext that the person for whom he had bought the phone no longer wanted it.
“In terms of the weight of the box, it corresponded and there were always the seals, continues Fabien. There are no more checks than that on returns. An internal communication at Fnac had also just been sent to the teams, concerning this kind of increasingly recurrent occurrence in electronics stores in Île-de-France. According to our information, this event occurred for the first time in Parly 2 but would have already been noted in other brands and shopping centers in the region.
A complaint filed by Fnac
The management of Fnac for its part filed a complaint with the Versailles police station on Wednesday. The investigators are mobilizing to intercept the author in flagrante delicto. “We discover the phenomenon and we will use the videos from the surveillance cameras, indicates a police source. We will see if we can make connections with other events that have taken place elsewhere. »
After more than an hour of waiting and checking his identity papers, Fabien was finally given a new iPhone by Fnac. But it’s not without resentment. “In their eyes I had the impression of being a suspect, concludes Fabien. I am still waiting for a commercial gesture in compensation for the lost time. If I testify it is to warn people, that they check their purchases because it is really the emotional elevator. »