Products don't advertise their drawbacks leaving shoppers to rely on online reviews as one of the only ways to determine a product's true worth. Salon argues in an article Spooked by the (The Manhattan District Attorney's office is prosecuting a Bloomingdale's salesperson for running a month-long bogus gift card scam that netted $34,515 from the store, says the NY Sun.It says Bloomingdale's sales receipts were the key element of Ms. Ng's alleged scheme.

After a shopper made a purchase, she would regenerate the receipt. She would then make phony merchandise returns and use the credit to create the gift cards, according to the complaint. Between September 26 and October 3, Ms. Ng is said to have used 36 separate sales receipts to create the fraudulent cards.

A loss prevention officer at Bloomingdale's informed police of Ms. Ng's scam, and she was arrested on November 7. At the time of her arrest, police found six of the gift cards in Ms. Ng's wallet, according to the complaint.

Ms. Ng was charged with a series of crimes at her arraignment the following day, including third-degree grand larceny and second-degree forgery, an official at the Manhattan district attorney's office said. The dishonest employee could get seven years in prison for the scheme. We wonder if this person was a shopping addict like To Whom It May Concern;

I just had one of the worst time consuming experiences at your store. This is in regards to the unit located at 1501 Lincoln Blvd. Venice, CA 90291.

On 12/16 I went in and purchased two items a digital picture frame and a gps system as Christmas gifts. I got home and tested both items. The digital picture frame (omnitech 11.3 inch frame) had a broken pixel so I needed to return it. I called the store and they said no problem, bring it back with the receipt...

Today 12/18 I left work at 3 PM so I could return this item. It is pouring rain and traffic was really congested. I went home (culver city) and picked up the frame and receipt and decided to go to the Staples on 8704 South Sepulveda Blvd. since it was close to my home and I didn't want to drive too far in this rain and it being almost rush hour. Unfortunately they were out of stock of that frame, I inquired about the 7 inch and unfortunately was not on sale anymore so it would have cost only 10 less than the 11 inch frame that I purchased during a sale two days ago. So it was not worth it.

Inside that store I called the Lincoln blvd staples to make sure that they had one and that they could hold it for me. I reached a rep, got transferred, then transferred for a third time. I did not realize the store had such a confusing directory that staples own employees did not know who to transfer to. After a good solid 10 minutes I got an agent that said yes we do have it in stock and yes we will hold it.

Now it is getting close to 4:30 PM. I drive down there, and wait in the customer service line. When it is my turn I tell the agent my situation and she says hold on while she gets a replacement. She comes back empty handed, shrugs her shoulder and says I don't know who told you we had one but we do not. There is a manager standing next to her, I believe his name was Jeremiah. He says nothing and just walks away. The girl assisting me asks some of the reps if anyone took the call, one guy said it was him but he said he asked someone and they told him yes, we did have them in stock. So they all just stood there, and not even a simple sorry.

In the meantime there are customers in line and other employees are running around, and joking. I witnessed one employee in a Staples shirt if he could assist this woman customer, he told her no he doesn't work here anymore. That was completely ridiculous; it was obvious he was working.