New Boss At Patent And Trademark Office Helped... >>
<< More Evidence That Patents Are Hurting...
 tdicon 


Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Jan 13th 2004 2:35am





Replacing Computer Parts With Potatoes

from the hmmm... dept

Well, I like potatoes as much as the next guy, but I'm really not quite sure what to make of this report. It seems that a guy in Germany who bought a computer later returned it, saying it wasn't working. When opened, the computer was stuffed full of potatoes. The shop exchanged the computer for a new one - but were surprised a short while later when he returned that new computer and it was again filled with potatoes. It's a little unclear what the scam was, but the article suggests that the working parts of the computer were taken out, before the potato-filled cases were returned. Of course, that doesn't seem like a particularly brilliant scam - but the really amazing part is that this guy actually thought he could get away with it the second time.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..


If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  

    Potatoe madness

    identicon
    Bryce, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 5:27am

    Can we offical rename french fires to pentium chips now.

    LOL

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Scam?

    identicon
    MLO, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 6:14am

    Is it positive that the guy was perpetrating a scam? Perhaps he was mentally challenged in some way...or had some mistaken idea about computers needing potatoes to operate.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Scam?

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 6:59am

    this was quite a common scam when I was working in Corpus Christi at a chain computer store, they would buy the computer, take the guts out, put in rocks or other handy items and return it for a refund.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Potatos

    identicon
    Aaron, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 7:31am

    Got one almost as bad. Customer pulled all the parts out of his laptop and filled it with 5 bucks in pennies glued to the base of the laptop..and sent it in for repair.... I had to call him and explain that this wasn't going to be covered by the warranty!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    could be worse

    identicon
    eeyore, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 12:10pm

    That's not as bad as when I worked fixing VCRs and a customer brought one in that upon removing the case turned out to be almost completely filled with dead cockroaches.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 12:45pm

    Aw, they're just playing the German version of America's fastest-growing quiz show sensation, "Potatoes or Gavin McLeod!"

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Umm...

    identicon
    JD, Jan 13th, 2004 @ 6:12pm

    ...but the really amazing part is that this guy actually thought he could get away with it the second time.

    The amazing part is that he got away with it the first time.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>


New Boss At Patent And Trademark Office Helped... >>
<< More Evidence That Patents Are Hurting...
 tdicon 

A word from our Sponsors...
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss

Powered by Postrank

From the Techdirt Archive...
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This