Wal-Mart’s XXX MP3 Players: Mistake or Malicious?

Just before Christmas, a story emerged about Daryl Hill, a father in Tennessee who purchased an mp3 player for his daughter, only to find out that the player was loaded with pornography. The incident scarred both Daryl and his daughter, but more disturbing is the fact that Daryl Hill’s story seems to be part of a series of similar complaints. A father in Florida found porn on the iPod he bought at Wal-Mart for his son, and parents in Chicago found porn on the Zune they purchased at Wal-Mart as well.

The bigger question here is how this content is getting on to supposedly “new” electronics. Perhaps Wal-Mart’s employees are reselling returned merchandise. This would be a direct violation of company policy and retail bylines, but an understandable effort on the part of managers to boost narrow profit margins. A more worrisome alternative is that employees are purposesfully sabotaging Wal-Mart’s merchandise. This could spell trouble for products across the board, and potentially dangerous consequences. Either way, treating employees better and staffing stores appropriately would help prevent situations like this in the future.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, January 04, 2008

COMMENTS

how about all the other retailers treating their workers better and paying them better too?i have seen the same mp3 players at target,fred meyer,k-mart,best buy and etc.so i dont want to hear any walmart bashing on this.whatever where is the same bitching abouit the other high cost retailers selling the same dam items?picking at straws folks.

matthew vantress in gresham oregon
Saturday, January 05 at 06:21 AM

Obviosly you are NOT a parent! If you were you’d be upset that WALMART voluntarily or involuntarily is responsible for the porn on the mp3 players. (contact any good attorney and they will tell you so).You also obviosly are NOT a WALMART employee if you are you are a MALE because NO female with a brain in her head defends WALMART because it is nothing but A GOOD OLE BOYS CLUB! Thats right a bunch of male egotistical morons that cant handle that women dont have to nor want to OBEY any man to make them feel superior!

teresa farmer in lynchburg va
Saturday, January 05 at 06:41 PM

Hooray for teresa for adding the “we are the victim” useless comment of the day.

mary in
Saturday, January 05 at 08:27 PM

Wal-Mart leads the way in not acting like the major
retailer it is supposed to be.

It will be interesting to see what kind of so-called
“investigations” home office (Bentonville) conducts
in these incidents, and what, if any, punishments
those knuckleheads at the top give to those
responsible at the local store level.

Knowing Wal-Mart the way I do, the truely guilty
shall be financially rewarded, while the blame shall
be shifted to an innocent bystander.

Rob in Surfside Beach, SC
Sunday, January 06 at 11:42 AM

“NO female with a brain in her head defends WALMART”

But enough about “mary,” right teresa farmer?

ScrewedbyWal-Mart in Anytown, America
Sunday, January 06 at 12:34 PM

Well that doesn’t say much about you Screwed if this women (with NO brain as you say) can handily take you on and continually point out the fallacies in your posts.

mary in
Sunday, January 06 at 02:17 PM

I am not a parent either Teresa but I do have two young nephews.  I know their parents would be VERY upset if they purchased an MP3 player for them and there was porn on it.  Wouldn’t matter which retailer it came from.

Matthew, the issue isn’t which stores are selling these MP3 players.  The issue is which store has had complaints about porn showing up on them.  If Target, K-Mart and Costco end up selling ones with porn on them I’m sure that will make the news as well.

Corgishepmom in Irrigon, OR
Sunday, January 06 at 03:37 PM

Who care’s, are you seriously arguing about Wal-mart? Get a life!!!!!!

Nobody Cares in
Sunday, January 06 at 10:28 PM

mary,

“NO female with a brain in her head defends WALMART” ~ Screwedby

As Screwedby’s mother continues to shop at Wal-Mart, which most anti Wal-Marters would say, amounts to defending them, he must think she has NO brain in her head, too!!

RDS in
Sunday, January 06 at 11:19 PM

...amounts to defending them..

“I don’t think someone getting a good deal on toilet paper at Walmart is, through their purchase, endorsing Walmart’s business practices.” ~ Greg Spotts

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Helengcs in Washington
Monday, January 07 at 08:27 AM

“...amounts to defending them..

“I don’t think someone getting a good deal on toilet paper at Walmart is, through their purchase, endorsing Walmart’s business practices.” ~ Greg Spotts”

By Jove, I think he’s got it!!  Then again, maybe he hasn’t, he still wants Wal-Mart to close down, thus STOPPING people from getting a good deal!!

RDS in
Monday, January 07 at 12:43 PM

It’s arrogant to think the demise of Wal-Mart would create an unfillable vacuum. Not to worry, RDS, even without Wal-Mart, competition will still provide you with cheap toilet paper.

Ken V in Texas
Tuesday, January 08 at 04:29 AM

no corgi no one says shit about the other places that sold the same mp 3 players.target,costco and etc its ok for them to sell these and no one says shit or bitches,but walmart does and everyone has a fricking cow.talk about a double standard.who the hell cares anyway?you are picking at straws because you folks have no life and unfortunately buy all the lies from the govt and ufcw union who sponsors this walmart watch site big time.

matthew vantress in gresham oregon
Tuesday, January 08 at 06:20 AM

Ken V,

“It’s arrogant to think the demise of Wal-Mart would create an unfillable vacuum. Not to worry, RDS, even without Wal-Mart, competition will still provide you with cheap toilet paper.”

What you say is true and what I have been saying all along, so why be down on Wal-Mart, if another business would just come in to fill the vacuum?  And, if competition will provide cheap toilet paper, with Wal-Mart gone, why aren’t they doing it right NOW?

RDS in
Tuesday, January 08 at 01:54 PM

Not to worry, RDS, even without Wal-Mart, competition will still provide you with cheap toilet paper.

But consider this, Ken…

...say, one day, Wal-Mart ceased to exist and closed all their stores (not that it’ll ever happen, but for the sake of argument), could the competition even handle the sheer volume of customers?

The next biggest competitor (Target) has only 1,500 stores, less than half of Wal-Mart’s domestic store count (3,300).

The rest of the retail pack has even smaller store counts.

Needless to say, your wet dream would cause a nationwide, logistical nightmare for at least 3-5 years…

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Tammyvkr in Washington
Wednesday, January 09 at 06:12 PM

So Matthew you are telling us that other stores have been selling the MP3 players with downloaded porn on them?  Do tell, which stores and please provide links to back up your claims.

Or are you just saying we should bitch about the other stores selling the same MP3 models even though they haven’t had problems with returns due to porn downloads?

Corgishepmom in Irrigon, OR
Wednesday, January 09 at 06:39 PM

oh corgi are you stupid and dumb enough to believe every thing your hear on here is factual. govt and union backed studies are rarely accurate.its funny corgi you only bitch when walmart does something you dont like,but if its a store you are madly in love with and shop at regularly we dont hear shit from you.why?you have never been able to give me a straight answer on that.how come you didnt pick on and bitch at costco,kay bee toys,and etc for knowingly selling those tainted toys?thats my point.how do you know that those other stores corgi have not had the same problems with porn on the mp3s?any way who cares.big deal.if k-mart,costco or target did this no one would bitch and hiss.

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Cathyoid in Log Angeles
Thursday, January 10 at 08:06 AM

How would Wal-Mart employees be downloading porn on this merchandise?  According to the story it has happened in various Wal-Marts.  Only one logical conclusion can be drawn from this- someone on the product line was sabotaging the merchandise before it was packaged and shipped to Wal-Mart.  To believe Wal-Mart is doing this or they are reselling returned merchandise is, well, stupid.  How could Wal-Mart repackage this product?  Wal-Mart either destroys or returns dammaged or returned merchandise.  They dont have the ability to repackage it and sell it to someone else.

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4vhl2yh8fi in j6ng0z7kch
Saturday, January 12 at 03:17 PM

Big T : How do you know that the players were in their original packaging? I didn’t see that in the above article. Could these perhaps have been already outside the original configuration,indicating a return,or used by employees themselves??

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Jamesyzm in Indianapolis
Sunday, January 13 at 03:40 AM

If these customers were buying it out of the package then they would not have been so supprised to learn that they were possibly used before and to find that XXX material on them.

Big T in Rogers
Monday, January 14 at 10:10 AM

Big T: Can “out of the original “ packaging merchandise be marketed as “new”,legally,with warranty ,and all that implies legally? As a vendor you would know what constitues “new” as opposed to “as is”,wouldn’t you? I know that in some venues, returned merchandise,or vendor samples is marketed by the term"as is”, not marketd as original condition,or factory fresh for want of a better term.

ddrb in
Monday, January 14 at 11:39 AM

P.S.: In the above referenced instances,a discount is always placed on “as is” items-to differentiate from “new”,unadulterated or possibly compromised merchandise.

ddrb in
Monday, January 14 at 11:41 AM

ddrb, you are not making your case very clear.  If the product was purchase in package then there is no way Wal-Mart employees could have tampered with the MP3 players nor could the product have been returned.  If the product was sold out of package (which I dont think Wal-Mart can do) then it would be implied the merchandise was used.
This story refers to the merchandise as “supposedly “new” electronics” which would mean in package.

As for the merchandise I sell in Wal-Mart.  If the package is opened, damaged or returned then the merchandise is either returned to us (then destroyed) or simply destroyed by Wal-Mart.

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Lucaslus in Log Angeles
Monday, January 14 at 02:58 PM

Big T: I am not making any “case"- I was asking you a couple of questions,and also, alluding to the manner in which other retailers,in some instances,market their wares.

ddrb in
Monday, January 14 at 05:24 PM

P.S.: I’m unfamiliar with the packaging involved in these items.Is this a blister pack where it would be somewhat evident if it had been unsealed-or a box where it would be fairly easy to mask previous usage or tampering?Would you or anyone else know?

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