Wal-Mart Empty Box North Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Just to let everyone know, my situation was, thankfully, resolved.

Wal-Mart is in the business of making money at the expense of consumers, employees and the communities in which their stores are located - but is usually a bit more shrewd when it comes to separating a consumer from their money...

Unfortunately your experience is not one that is limited to Wal-Mart.  If you were dissatisfied with the experience you received at the store - you should request to speak with the district manager.  The store where I am employed uses advanced security mesaures to ensure merchandise does not "walk off" such as strapping an alarm to the boxes of more expensive items, placing special tags on select lines of clothing, locking up certain items, placing some items in plastic cases that cannot be opened without a special key and alarming electronic media (such as games for Wii) -I am not suggesting you are trying to commit a fraud - but if this store was doing their job with appropriate security measures in place - clearly the deck is stacked against you. 

More often than not it's another customer in the store that has stolen the product, and secretly placed the box back on the display/shelving, thus leaving an unsuspecting customer to purchase the box with no knowledge that it has been stolen.

Next time you buy an item, ask the cashier to open the box and check to see if everything that is supposed to be in the box, is in the box. I know with items like MP3 players that the weight of the box can be deceiving. Those players couldn't weight more than a pound. Also, check around the seal to make sure that it hasn't been previously opened.

$229 is a lot of money so I would pursue this further. I hope you can get a refund once everything is said and done. Good Luck to you. Let us know how everything went.