Have Fake iPads Landed in the U.S.?

Several news stories during the year have reported on the inevitable fake iPad flooding the market in China, but it now appears that one version of a counterfeit iPad has appeared in the United States.

The local NBC news station in Boston reports that a father in Dorchester, Massachusetts was duped when he bought an iPad at the Best Buy in Dorchester:

Last month Shlager paid $830 for an iPad at a Best Buy store in Dorchester. But when he gave it to his son, who is a college freshman in Florida, there was shock and disappointment as they opened the box last week.

“He couldn’t get it to work, and he was frustrated and threw it in the corner of the room,” said Shlager.

No matter how much clicking and swiping they did, the iPad just wouldn’t turn on. There was no power cable in the box, and hardly any instructions.

Shlager took it to a Best Buy store in Florida and showed it to the “GeekSquad.”

“They looked at it and came back and said, ‘It’s not going to work because it’s fake.’” said Shlager.

Shlager then tried to return it at three different Best Buy stores, including the one in Dorchester, but they wouldn’t let him.

“They accused me of bringing home a new one and replacing it with a dummy and trying to return a dummy,” said Shlager.

No word yet on whether Shlager’s son was reprimanded for his arrested development as a toddler and throwing his non-functioning present around.