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Receipt Checkers: WTF?!
Tumbler 360
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I've been reading stories on Digg about Receipt checkers posted at the exits of stores and most of the stories I read and felt that the author or "victim" is a bit suspect in his motives but at the same time if I were standing at the door and a person refused to show me proof of purchase I don't think I'd have any evidence that he had or had not paid for it so I'd shrug and say I hope he paid for it. (Innocent until proven guilty, right?)
Then I read this (thank Digg):
As I was approaching the door, the receipt checker Bob said, "Do you have your receipt?" To which I responded, "Yes, it's in my wallet" and I kept walking towards the door. Behind me, I could hear him yell "Sir! Sir! I need to see your receipt!", but being an avid Consumerist reader, I knew I didn't need to stop, so I kept walking. Bob ran up in front of me and stood between the slider doors, blocking my exit and budging me back inside. Appalled that the Wal-mart employee had just touched me, I said "excuse me", but Bob refused to budge, demanding again to see my receipt. I attempted to walk around him, but he kept stepping in front of me, and I would bounce off of him. Now, I was bigger than Bob, but I didn't wish to get physical and blow the situation out of proportion.
http://digg.com/business_finance/Detained_and_Harassed_at_Walmart_for_not_showing_a_receipt
Full article if you want more details.
I guess I'm not surprised that the employee did this because his whole purpose of being there is to stop shoplifters from leaving the store...right?
Does this mean everyone is a shoplifter until you show proof of purchase?
I'm curious what the letter of the law says because this story went on to have a random customer wanting to help, convinced this man was trying to steal, and then the employee said he was going to file a police report with the customers license plate number.
Do stores have any legal grounds to press charges if you leave the store without showing proof of purchase on an item they sell? (And it's suspicious to say the least to be walking out of a store without a bag and refusing to show a receipt but that doesn't prove squat)
I understand that stores want to stop people from stealing but is this annoying trend effective? It seems like a pointless check really, I can think of 1000 ways to exploit this person.
Then I read this (thank Digg):
As I was approaching the door, the receipt checker Bob said, "Do you have your receipt?" To which I responded, "Yes, it's in my wallet" and I kept walking towards the door. Behind me, I could hear him yell "Sir! Sir! I need to see your receipt!", but being an avid Consumerist reader, I knew I didn't need to stop, so I kept walking. Bob ran up in front of me and stood between the slider doors, blocking my exit and budging me back inside. Appalled that the Wal-mart employee had just touched me, I said "excuse me", but Bob refused to budge, demanding again to see my receipt. I attempted to walk around him, but he kept stepping in front of me, and I would bounce off of him. Now, I was bigger than Bob, but I didn't wish to get physical and blow the situation out of proportion.
http://digg.com/business_finance/Detained_and_Harassed_at_Walmart_for_not_showing_a_receipt
Full article if you want more details.
I guess I'm not surprised that the employee did this because his whole purpose of being there is to stop shoplifters from leaving the store...right?
Does this mean everyone is a shoplifter until you show proof of purchase?
I'm curious what the letter of the law says because this story went on to have a random customer wanting to help, convinced this man was trying to steal, and then the employee said he was going to file a police report with the customers license plate number.
Do stores have any legal grounds to press charges if you leave the store without showing proof of purchase on an item they sell? (And it's suspicious to say the least to be walking out of a store without a bag and refusing to show a receipt but that doesn't prove squat)
I understand that stores want to stop people from stealing but is this annoying trend effective? It seems like a pointless check really, I can think of 1000 ways to exploit this person.
Tumbler 360 on
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And I bet even half the managers don't know or ignore the law themselves.
I can't wait to ignore the guy at Fry's.
They checker shouldn't have touched the guy obviously, but this sounds like nothing more than 2 douchebags butting heads
Now, I once had someone stop me quickly and politely ask to look inside a trash bin I had purchased, but I think that's actually reasonable, don't you?
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Yet another reason why I don't like The Consumerist. Yes, I understand that there's nothing that says they have to check, but it's not that much of a fucking inconvenience to have your receipt verified, and it helps deter shoplifting, which keeps prices down. I can't wait to see one of these jackasses try this bullshit at Costco (unlike Wal-Mart, Costco has the legal right to check, unless you want to enjoy a trespassing charge.)
Despite the lack of any sort of law requiring it, it does not mean police officers will not tase your ass if they see you attempting to leave a store while a clerk attempts to stop you. So the one and only time someone actually prevented me from leaving the store I just went to service counter and returned my merchandise and haven't been to that circuit city since.
normally, if I still have my receipt out, I just kinda wave it at them. If the clerk is too stupid to deactivate anti-theft devices, I don't actually stop when the alarm dealie goes off.
See, what they're counting on is everyone just figuring it's less trouble to show the reciept than it is to not show the reciept. However, if you're a Rights nerd, and as annoying as they might be we're lucky they exist, it may feel important to let the stores know that there is a limit and they can't break the law as far as detaining and searching people. Sometimes people are just in a rush or a bad mood and don't feel like waiting for the door dude to check out the stuff they waited in line for and paid for, and the stores gotta know to let them go.
Edit: Places like Costco have contracts and shit you gotta sign to get in, if I'm not mistaken, so they've got their own rules.
No. Once they sell it to you, it's your property. They are no more legally justified in going through the bag than they are going through your wallet/purse.
Edit: this doesn't apply to places like Costco, where part of your membership agreement is them doing a post-register check.
Just show him your receipt. Is it really that difficult for you?
That's rarely seen posted in the US.
I'm not sure if it's legally binding even if it is posted. I'm no lawyer, but obviously a sign like "management reserves the right to rape your daughters" doesn't actually give them the right to rape your daughters. There's limits to rights that can be taken from you even in contracts you sign, let alone from a sign someone sticks on a wall.
There was another story like this, I can't remember if I read it on these forums or on Fark or some such, but the door checker actually did literally tackle the customer as he walked through the parking lot, and the manager congratulated him...up until the cop they called actually showed up.
Its pretty much every store in Australia. When I worked at a CD Retail place, we were told though that we werent allowed to detail someone against their will, ever, even if we specifically saw them take stuff. Most people dont know this however, and when we used to bust people for shoplifting they'd lose their shit immediately and do whatever we wanted without objecting.
I think this is what confuses me the most, when did it become like shoplifting to not show your receipt when you leave?
I think in this case the guy gave a fairly legit story, I often stick receipts in my wallet, or in my bag so I dont' lose them and I can't tell you how many times I've shoved it in my pocket after the door checker sees it then later it's lost because I didn't stick it someplace safe like my wallet or inside the bag.
I don't think someone walking from the register areas towards the door with an item but does not show a receipt is acting like a shoplifter... Someone walking out the wrong side of the entrance doors with an item and not coming from where the registers are looks like a shoplifter but that doesn't mean he is...
Is this door checker policy a cost saving measure so that they don't need camera's and undercover guys sneaking around? They just stop everyone?
Eh? Perhaps between private "citizens" you'd have to use words like kidnapping and harassment as opposed to detainment and search, but the inside of a business is not some legal limbo land where laws stop working.
A store is certainly within the law to ask you to provide a receipt, but you are not obligated to produce one. Once you have paid for the goods, they are yours. Failure to show a receipt is not a basis for reasonable suspicion, nor is any other lack of compliance. Sam's Club and Costco are slightly different. They have membership agreements that you sign and you consent to the door check. If you do not, then your membership will be revoked.
Noone implied that not showing the receipt makes you a shoplifter, but the guy's item wasn't bagged. Not knowing the layout of the particular walmart we don't know if the receipt checker was eyeing him from across the store while the "victim" paid. For all he knew there was a guy carrying an item out the door who wouldn't let them see his receipt.
Even if it's within his rights not to show the receipt, he obviously was not trying to get out in a timely manner. He wanted drama.
What shoplifter tries to hide items in shopping bags as they exit the register area?
That doesn't matter, though. It's still his property. Just because he bought it there moments earlier doesn't make it any less so. If you are going to detain someone against their will, you'd better be goddamn sure what you are doing.
I agree that the Walmart employee screwed up by detaining the guy. I just have absolutely no sympathy for the shopper in this particular case
It's not the asking for a reciept that bothers me, it's the stores being too damn stupid to know that they can't physically restrain their customers from leaving. If they're going to do this, they damn well better know how far they can take it. I don't know if there's a "slippery slope" argument to be made here, I doubt any store would go for physical frisking or inspecting people's cars or something, but having a bunch of dudes push me away from the door and make demands of me would be bad enough.
Or maybe at least get some free shit.
Also to stick it to the proletariat.
You need some kids, cutoff shorts, and a half-shirt.
"I WAHS DETAY-N'D IL-LEGALLY! I'll take a gift card."
Yes. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and, after waiting for the trailer-trash whale in front of me who took 75 items through the 15-or-less lane, I'm really not looking to wait for father fucking time to get his spectacles and look over my receipt. Take my license plate number, and file a police report, and I'm sure the cops will be as thrilled that you wasted their time as I am that you wasted mine.
But whatever you do, you had better not lay a hand on me. You're a fucking retail employee, not a police officer.
I find the whole thing odd, though, because if there's one thing that was heavily emphasized at every retail chain I've worked at (including Wal-Mart, Target, and JC Penney) it's that you never try and physically detain a suspected shoplifter. Like, ever. Generally their policies allow them to fire you for doing so.
just sayin...
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I agree completely, but this one saved me a return trip to the store and an hour of scanning through surveillance camera to make sure I actually didn't buy three microwaves because I was being a fucking idiot.
It also annoys me that they check people at random. I'll see people walk by without a problem, and I go to walk by the guy and out the door and it's all, "STOP I NEED TO SEE YOUR RECEIPT!," and some of the guys don't even check the receipt. Some of them just see if you have one.
Some read it.
Some take it from you and read it.
It's just bullshit because it's like dealing with a security check that, aside from being worthless, you don't know the procedure for and if you act out it just makes you feel and look more like the type of criminal it's meant to stop.
We were always taught that if we saw someone shoplifting we were to call the police, and if they left before they got there to record their tag number and hopefully get them on camera. We were told NEVER to physically touch the customer for legal reasons. I had a manager that ran down a shoplifter to recover three cheap cordless phones (home phones, not cells) and almost got fired for it. They guy wasn't even charged because they didn't want a lawsuit.
Yes. Because when I shoplift, I don't hide items on my person. I conceal them temporarily in a rip in spacetime, only to place them in the shopping bag after purchasing other items.
And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling door greeters.
I am asking for a real answer.
Is there a statistic somewhere regarding the success rate of receipt checkers in identifying shoplifters?
We're not worried about "being touched," we are worried about "being detained."
If they don't have the right to do it, then it opens the company up to some pretty severe liabilities.