After driving all over Chicagoland with his 7 month old son looking for a DirecTV receiver, reader Bobby was called an asshole for not stopping and showing his receipt to a Best Buy employee. He’s a little ticked off, and he CC’d us on his letter to Best Buy. Let’s listen in:
We join Bobby as he drives to his third Best Buy of the day (the first one supposedly had 5 receivers in stock but the employees couldn’t find any of them and told him to drive to the second one — where the same thing happened.)
Even though it’s a pretty short drive in terms of miles, it took almost an hour due to highway traffic. Finally I got to the Bucktown store, made my purchase, and started to leave.
The security person at the door asked to see my receipt, and I told him no. (My son desperately needed a nap, and I know that while you have the right to ask for my receipt, I have the right to say no.) I kept walking, and the security person followed me out of the store. He kept asking, in more and more urgent tones, to see my receipt. I answered no a couple of times and he asked again, and then I said “you may not” and he called me an asshole. I don’t begrudge you asking customers to see their receipts. As long as you recognize that I’m under no obligation to show it, and you take no for an answer when it’s given.
I called the store a little later, and spoke to a manager who apologized, agreed that was unacceptable behavior, and said she’d have a conversation with the security guard.
But I don’t think that was enough. Best Buy repeatedly failed to do the minimum you’d expect a professional corporation to do….
I unnecessarily wasted at least two hours of my time today, and was called profane names for my trouble.
Oh receipt checkers, when will you learn…?
We’re curious, what do you think is fair compensation for being called an asshole? Or is having profanities hurled at you and your child just the price you pay for not following Best Buy’s “rules.” Tell us in the comments.
(Photo: Ian Muttoo )
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@Michael Belisle:
Raise your hand if you thought that this thread would really hit 400 comments.
@supesguy: Works both ways, man.
Also point that out to the monkeys who claim that by accepting to show your receipt, you’re giving up your personal freedoms and thus according to the great Franklin, do not deserve them.
I guess it comes down to personal views and preference. Some people see receipt checkers as akin to an illegal search and a shot on personal rights, while others see it as no big deal. I myself see it as a battle not worth fighting. I would be the first to fight if someone was actually being illegally searched.
I just find it funny/odd/sad that of all the slights against personal rights and civil liberties visible in the US today, this is the battle that many people are choosing to fight. Illegal wiretapping? Who cares. Receipt checkers? OH NO, WE MUST FIGHT THIS INJUSTICE!!
Oh, and also:
400!!!
400!
@RabbitDinner: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Crap…I really thought it was 400. And it was, according to the comment count.
@RabbitDinner: Maybe you can get it if it gets to 500 :p
@Stormslanding:
I think you defined yourself in the first sentence.
To intentionally send customers on a wild goose chase for an item is mean and wrong.
This is why BB & CC have such poor reputations.
If I was your manager, you would be fired.
“We’re curious, what do you think is fair compensation for being called an asshole? “
Compensation? Seriously, there’s no compensation needed beyond an apology. It was an ill-played choice by the guard, but deal with it and stop whining.
If you get called an asshole by someone, just suck it up, accept that the person who called you an asshole is one themself, and then make a note never to do business at that store again. Plain and simple.
@darkryd: You’re fighting a lost cause. The people who think that this guy deserves compensation are the same that think that every minor civil claim is a multimillion dollar lawsuit and the plaintiff can retire happily in the Caribbean.
the O/P should just boycott with his wallet by not shopping there in the future
@RabbitDinner: Just to be clear. I’m asking for compensation because, twice, they told me that store X had what I was looking for, and I went there and they didn’t. Two hours wasted, I think, is grounds for compensation. The name-calling was really just the icing on the cake.
I understand checking for receipts when people walk toward the doors from the middle of the store, not checking the receipts of people that just came from the checkout lane. It’s the register clerk’s responsibility to make sure that the customer doesn’t slip stuff past them, and then those tensiony nylon lune divider things can shoot them right out the door unmolested. If they go back in the store with their bag walk around before heading out, go ahead and check the bag.
As for being an asshole:
1. I’d love to be called an asshole at a store like that. I don’t care if I was in a hury, that’s something you can have a fun talk with the manager about.
2. We can discuss the merits of receipt checking, but the customer might really be an asshole.
3. I might be an asshole, too.
@GoBobbyGo: OK and I am not attacking you but simply calling out the B.S. I have seen
@GoBobbyGo: But unless they have some sort of “rain check” policy good luck with that.
Please. There are many worse things you could have been called than “asshole.”
Now, if he called you a bitch in front of your son, you have a right to be angry.
~Y
At this point in this thread, I expect to see someone putting power rankings on all of the possible insults that could have been directed to you so that we can see where “asshole” truly lands.
My money is that it doesn’t crack the top 10.
@Grive: You’re right, it should go both ways. I agree that militant refusers should not be criticizing people for submitting to the check.
My previous post is directed at those saying “Get over it” and let them check.
If they don’t mind having their receipts checked, I say: Go for it.
The difference is that I’m not asking anyone to change their behavior or telling them that their reaction is wrong. That needs to go both ways.
@RabbitDinner: “But unless they have some sort of “rain check” policy good luck with that.”
Well, exactly. If they don’t have black-letter policies that say they will do something, and they SHOULD do it anyway, other means of convincing them to do it are necessary. Thus the email to them, the post on consumerist and the 400-some comments.
@GoBobbyGo: All I’m saying is that what you want and what you get may (and likely will) be different things. And of the 400+ comments, a handful related to your specific situation. The rest was everyone’s favorite debate-the receipt check controversy redux
Big Believer here in picking-and-choosing your battles, but this one, I CHOOSE. Not because I’m an individual rights fanatic, but because I HATE LINES.
If I’m in one of these stores, the chances are pretty good that I’m running errands and anxious to get on to the next store. That’s just me. I’ve just waited in line at the checkout . . . I’m certainly not going to wait in line at the door, too. No way. No how. Especially so that some employee can confirm that I’m not a criminal.
My response: “Not today. Thanks.”
.
Sounds like the security guard simply voiced the opinion of most of the other customers leaving the store who could care less about showing their receipt.
@reed311 Refusing to submit to a receipt check is not grounds for detainment, and to take it a step beyond, only about 4 states allow you to detain someone for setting off the security alarms. I suggest you google “merchants statute” and your state’s name.
In order for the store to detain you against your will they must have a reasonable belief that you store, and be able to articulate the actions that led them to detain you.
For example: “I think this guy stole something, he looks like a thief and he wouldn’t let us check his receipt even after we asked 3 times!”
this wouldn’t generally be grounds for detainment, and the merchant statute doesn’t usually protect businesses from lawsuits based on such careless Loss Prevention. You have to have a solid reason, beyond a reasonable doubt in your own mind, to detain someone for a BRIEF investigation.
With the frequency of honest people refusing to subject themselves to being treated like criminals and walking out without showing a receipt, it would be hard to justify detaining each one. People should not be criminalized for acting lawfully, just because some jerk in a yellow shirt thinks he’s above the law.
I suppose that’s how we’re being conditioned these days, sacrifice your rights and self respect for “security reasons”.
I would only like to add that if the same had happened to me, and it has, I would immediate turn around and offer to show them my receipt at the returns counter. As a customer, I’m not obligated to stop being an asshole, but as an employee, and thereby a representative of your employer, YOU have the obligation of protecting your employers image. Now the security goon looks like the asshole, moreso than the hurried customer.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called an asshole in Best Buy (or Circuit City, or even Wal-mart for that matter), I’d have a shitload of nickels. My favorite was when I was in Wal-mart and they rang up an item for more than the price sticker stated, and when I questioned it the clerk called her manager right in front of me, saying how an “asshole customer” was trying to get her to lower the price on something.
This guy IS an asshole.
Repeat after me:
DO. NOT. SHOP. AT. BEST. BUY. EVER.
Man, it’s one thing that there’s a lot of sheep out there buying from brass buy, but what amazes me is how many consumerist regulars are always popping in here complaining about how they were mistreated there.
I’m not doing blame the consumer here, I’m just saying it reminds me of a saying: The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
It defies logic.
Really I think that they should only ask for a receipt if 1. You don’t have the item in a bag, such as a TV or home stereo or something or 2. The alarm goes off when you pass through the door when something like a CD or DVD and the anti theft sticker doesn’t get deactivated at the register correctly. Then I don’t have a problem with showing the receipt and really I don’t think anyone else should.
@Stormslanding: And a fine job you did at CompUSA. Maybe that’s why they’re so successful.
/sarcasm
In the olden days (1980′s and earlier) the security person would have been fired for speaking to a customer in such a rude manner.
Now, we just tolerate bad behavior. Gee, we’re such an advanced society–no wonder we’re in such an economic mess.
i found this happened to me and was detained
i contacted futureshop ceo todd empey he is the best complaint department
his telephone number is 604 763 7853 i think this is his cell phone as he does answer after hours