Future Shop and Best Buy have launched an investigation after as many as 10 fake Apple iPad 2s were sold at their Vancouver stores.
Future Shop said scam artists bought Apple's popular tablet computers with cash, replaced the devices with bags of model clay, resealed the boxes and returned them.
The returned fakes were then put back on the shelf and sold to unsuspecting customers.
"Customers don't expect to receive this kind of product from Future Shop, so it's a very serious matter and something we are addressing right away for anyone who has been impacted," spokesperson Elliott Chun told CTV British Columbia.
"It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money is this kind of organized way."
Mark Sandhu thought he had bought a $620 iPad 2 for his wife, Sundeep, for Christmas. Instead they both got an unpleasant surprise when she unwrapped the present.
"I look at him and I'm kind of in shock, 鈥楲ike what -- is this a joke?" Sundeep Randhawa recalled.
Sandhu said he was taken completely off guard.
"I did not expect this from Future Shop," he said.
Making matters worse, Sandhu said when he took the box back to Future Shop he was treated like a criminal by a manager.
"Maybe the way I was dressed, I don't know," he said. "She made me feel like I'm trying to scam them out of $700. I was the one getting scammed."
Sandhu said he contacted Future Shop's head office, Apple and local police, but no one would listen to his story. He said it was only after he took his story to CTV that he got a response from Future Shop.
The company has since apologized and given him a full refund. They also gave him a new iPad 2 as compensation.
With files from CTV British Columbia's Lynda Steele
