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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@TinyBug: I think you’re unnecessarily harsh, but I do agree that the ‘owned by store until proven otherwise’ doesn’t make any sense.
Why can’t it be ‘I own it until proven otherwise’, like the law actually says?
@Edge231:
Yes… yes.. you’re getting it, they own it until I buy it. Once I buy it I own it.
Aww, and it really did seem like you were getting it there for a second. But we have some lovely parting gifts for you on your way out. Absent a criminal investigation, i am under no obligation to justify ownership of my property to anyone.
I would fire on the spot any employee who used profanity toward a customer for ANY reason.
Call me old fashioned, but cussing is inexcusable.
@girly:
Yes, you may be right – it is easy to become short tempered when you see the same uttelry wrong “facts” being presented over and over and over in thses discussions.
So, to Edge, my apologies. You’re utterly and completely wrong, but I was out of line. Like I said – it’s time for a drink and some dinner
@spikespeigel: Ah, OK.
@CapitalC: Verily you speak the truth. This of course takes us back to, “Do we believe the manager will do something about the employee’s behavior?”
Ummm…maybe?
@TinyBug: Be sure to relax.
You know I think what’s funny about all this is that there are people arguing the case for incidents of supposedly ‘rogue’ employees going to lengths that even the corporations themselves wouldn’t support outright. Trying to find an ‘airtight’ way for corporations to check receipts.
Ok so the item becomes YOUR property once I have your cash (if I am the one running the store).
Many stores have policies that apply after the sale is made (for example a return policy) so why could I not have a “receipts required policy” that applies after a sale?
And aside from that, my original question was: What is the BIG DEAL with showing your receipt to someone?
@dragonfire81: You could have that policy, but how would you legally enforce it if people refuse? Maybe things like banning from future shopping, ejecting people from the store, but you couldn’t make them stay in the store until they complied.
There’s no big deal with showing the receipt. The big deal would be if there’s some kind of threat hanging over you if you don’t. They shouldn’t treat you badly if you just decide not to, or worse yet harm you.
The LP guy was not following policy, as explained by wellfleet. But I’m not sure what the appropriate “compensation” for rude treatment by an out of line employee is. An apology sounds fine with me.
The letter is good in general, but if Bobby wants compensation beyond that it helps to make a specific request. Otherwise, all Best Buy can do is stab in the dark at guessing what he means by saying “But I don’t think that was enough. Best Buy repeatedly failed to do the minimum you’d expect a professional corporation to do….”
Does he want a gift card? Discount? Refund? Apology? Notice that the employee has been fired? Hug? Call from Brad Anderson? Week of free day care? Cubs game in Best Buy’s luxury box (with open bar)?
Regardless, I’m sure Best Buy will do something. Whether or not it’s “the minimum you’d expect a professional corporation to do” is a tossup.
(Maybe the request was edited out to make for more colorful discussion, in which case this comment is moot.)
@Puck: Raise your hand if you thought that this thread would really hit 300 comments.
I’m actually surprised. I just got here, but I would have guessed rapid growth to somewhere around 150, and then a trickle over the night to end around 250.
Nope, pretty soon you’ll have to ask who thought it’d get to 400.
somehow this is what I think of when I think of everyone deciding to show their receipts because it’s ‘no big deal’
In The Know: Kim Jong-Il’s Approval Rating Plummets to 120%
Can we just disagree about whether it is or isn’t too much trouble to show a receipt at Best Buy without the lecture about how it’s tantamount to bowing down to brutal dictators? I really think that’s not too much to ask.
@snakeskin33: I didn’t really mean it that way. I just mean it’s a ‘choice’ that’s not a ‘choice’ if you can’t say no.
And if it’s a ‘choice’ but you should only say yes it doesn’t make much sense.
@exlawyer: Yeesh, how many times do I have to warn people for the same thing in the same thread?! Don’t call the victim names, read the comment code, and for what’s more, read the comments above you. Nobody likes one-off commenters who post to a 300+ comment thread with an identical comment to something on the first page.
@snakeskin33: No. We also need to compare it to child molestation, kidnapping, Hitler, “your papers, please”, the constitution, the law, what makes me happy, and anything else in the internet argument toy chest.
Of course it’s a choice. Of course I can say no. I choose to say yes, because I genuinely, truly don’t mind. If you do mind, YOU CAN SAY NO. It’s a real, true, honest choice. My opinion is that it’s a perfectly fair practice and one I’m happy to cooperate with. I didn’t say you should only say yes. I, personally, me, I do indeed believe that it’s “no big deal.” I find it unnecessarily combative for that to mean I get compared to people who submit to dictators. Why can’t it just be a point of disagreement? Why does anyone have to be in the pocket of Kim Jong Il?
Having read the threads accompanying the scores of other receipt check stories, I feel that the comments are truly carbon copies of each other. Some of them, the debate actually gets somewhere (e.g.-the CPA shoving the Wal-Mart receipt checker, the guy who got arrested for refusing to show his receipt, being detained, and threatened), but in those threads, there is an actual issue tangent to the concept of receipt-checking. The receipt checking debate has surpassed beating a dead horse, we have flogged it, we are absolutely desecrating the corpse
You guys might as well stop trying to convince the, “OMG, I R asked 2 show RECEIPT?! WTFBBQ!!!1!!oneoneone” because they won’t chance their minds, just like we won’t.
Most of them are just whiners from the hippy age that are going into a midlife crisis and need to find a way to feel important through any means possible.
OMFG! People are disagreeing on the Internets! Who knew?!
If I’d bought something inexpensive and didn’t really need the receipt, I would just crinkle it up into a wad and toss it at the guy. Whatever they do after that is probably grounds for a lawsuit.
@Cwicseolfor:
“I can do this at a Best Buy, or Walmart or Costco in NY?”
Costco and Sams Club may be a different matter as you joined a “club” and agreed to the rules.
@Edge231:
Stores can set what ever policies they want – but they shouldn’t be double secret probation policies or kept deep in an unlit basement inside a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign saying Beware Of The Leopard.
If it’s policy it should be clearly displayed, not in fine print, at the entrance and/or checkouts.
This isn’t a receipt story, but it is a Best Buy one:
I received a new Visa card in the mail as my old one was expiring. I stuck it in my wallet and forgot about it for a week or so.
I purchased something at Best Buy, and had just signed the credit card slip (this was when they were still paper) when the cashier turned my card over to check the signature. Of course, I had forgotten to sign the card when I stuck it in my wallet.
She says she can’t approve the sale unless the signatures match. So I turn the card over, sign the back of it, and she then picks up the card and the credit slip AND COMPARES THE SIGNATURES!!! And I don’t mean just a quick glance, she was really comparing them!
I had just signed both items in front of her, and she still compares the signatures!
Of course she approved the sale and I left just shaking my head….
@snakeskin33: You took that way too hard. I didn’t intend that as a personal slight. It’s just something that vaguely reminds me of this, no parallels to dictators intended.
Hi. I’m the OP. Sorry it took me so long to weigh in. Just a few things.
I can be an asshole. You can be an asshole. Anybody can be an asshole. I don’t think I was actually being an asshole in this situation. I didn’t raise my voice, I didn’t get all huffy. I just said “no” to the first request, “no” to the second, “no” to the third, and “you may not” to the fourth. Probably I should have said “no, thank you” instead of just “no”. But you can say “no” in a confrontational way and in a non-confrontational way, and this was the non-confrontational way.
Being called names is not usually fun, but I’m not claiming that it irreparably harmed me or anything. I never threatened to sue them. I just wrote up an email to tell them what happened and asked them to make it up to me.
All the people who are comparing receipt checkers to Nazi’s, child molesters, etc, I’m not there with you. As I said in my original email, I think it’s fine if they ask for it, as long as they’re prepared to take “no” for an answer. This guy didn’t like it – he followed me a few steps out the door toward the parking lot, and that was that. It wasn’t like he was threatening me. And, no, I wasn’t about to escalate any situation into anything worse, not with my baby right there. But if I’ve got a receipt somewhere in the bottom of my pocket, a bag in one arm, a baby in the other, and the baby’s starting to get really agitated, it IS a hassle to produce the receipt. And I guarantee it will take more than 20 seconds. If I don’t have to do it, I’m not going to.
To be honest, I agree that this isn’t something to get upset over. I’m not upset, I just know that I’ve been wronged and I think it’s reasonable to ask for something to make up for it.
As for both why I was shopping at BB at all, and why I wasted 2 hours of my day on this, it’s an incremental thing. My DVR broke, and it’s out of warranty, and DirecTV tells me I’ll have a new one much faster, and $20 cheaper, if I go to the store and pick one up. The only store that sells them is BB. It’s a ten minute drive. I call ahead of time to make sure they have it. No problem. Seems to me like the prudent thing to do here is to go to the store. It’s pretty annoying that they don’t actually have it. But there’s a store that’s 20 minutes further away that does. Well, I’ve wasted some time, but I’m already out of the house (which is the big thing about taking the baby out), and do I want to spend another half-hour or wait a couple more days to be able to watch tv? Off to the next store I go. The guys there were really nice, it wasn’t their fault the first place told me they had the thing when they didn’t, and they spent a bunch of time tracking a receiver down for me. Again, Bucktown’s a little further away, but its not like I can have the time I’ve already wasted back. It’s spend another hour or so or wait a couple days. So I check the baby, he seems fine, he’s well-fed and happy, so I go to the other store.
The whole excursion took me 3 hours. If I had been told the truth originally, that the Bucktown store was the closest one to me with the receiver in stock, I would have gone straight there and back, and it would have taken an hour. That’s why I said they wasted 2 hours of my time. Ben or whoever just edited that part out, because my email was pretty long.
I would like to see some info from these stores that play ” you’re a thief unless you prove otherwise”, to see how much theft it actually prevents. I seemed to recall a study somewhere that over 90% of all inventory loss was committed by staff. If that is true, then they are pissing off a lot of people for very little payback. One of these days, they’re going to do this to the wrong person ( like a lawyer? ) & the payout will exceed many years of ” public ” shoplifting losses!
@GoBobbyGo: I just know that I’ve been wronged and I think it’s reasonable to ask for something to make up for it.
There’s no question that you have been wronged. Do you mind answering what you think is fair compensation?
@waldo617211: I seemed to recall a study somewhere that over 90% of all inventory loss was committed by staff. If that is true, then they are pissing off a lot of people for very little payback.
I used to work as cashier at Best Buy. In my experience, most people don’t care and show their receipt when asked. I didn’t know there was any issue until I started reading The Consumerist.
“You’re a thief unless you prove otherwise” is not exactly the store’s reasoning. Receipt checking is intended to address at least three things:
* The “sweetheart” cashier, where someone walk through the line with a PS3 and the cashier only rings up the game (this is, of course, one type of employee theft)
* (more common) catch cashier or salesperson mistakes and hold the employee responsible. Example: you paid for a red washer and the stock guy pulled down a white one (see wellfleet, above). This one can work out in your favor, since how can you return something if it doesn’t match your receipt?
* (not applicable to Best Buy) Verifying that the customer properly rung up everything using the self-checkout. Example: Guy Switches Price Tag On Walmart Plasma TV, Tries To Buy It For $4.88.
These all seem like fair reasons to me—and I don’t know what alternative there is—so I don’t hold it against any store for asking.
Ahh, fond memories of me stiff-arming a receipt checker at CompUSA 8 years ago.
Good times.
He ended up on the ground after trying to grab me. Wish I was still in that good of shape.
@ScubaSteveKzoo
Scuba, I agree with you. I am a regular at my local Best Buy. Sometimes I have been asked for my receipt, sometimes I have been waived off. I don’t see the big deal with showing my receipt.
People can’t have it both ways. Retail theft costs companies millions a year. So, instead of raising prices, they check receipts. It’s similar to homeland security. People demand to be kept safe, and yet we refuse to spend an extra five minutes in a security line.
Don’t get pissed at BB; get pissed at the assholes that steal from Best Buy and raise prices for us all.
As for the associate who called him a name, that was obviously wrong and he should be reprimanded.
The percentage of blathering ‘Sheep’ posting on this forum is amazing. I never expected hooved animals to be computer literate.
To clear this up for all of those that seem to not understand most stores’ receipt-checking policy, it isn’t because they think you’re stealing it. It’s because (at Best Buy anyway), not all products are purchased at the registers by the front door, and sometimes multiple people can handle the product before it gets to the customer. Because of this, they check the receipt to make sure the customer gets the item that they paid for. Businesses are allowed to maintain the integrity of their inventory. If you hate having your receipt checked so much, just say you’d rather be rung out at the cash registers up front: most Best Buy’s don’t check receipts processed up there unless its a big-ticket item. I hate having my receipt checked too (every time I’m in Wal-Mart I pray they ask me for my receipt so I can refuse), but at Best Buy I think they’re reasons are a little more legitimate.
Its never occurred to me to not show my receipt if asked. Then again the only place that does that near me is a Sam’s Club. At Best Buy they only ask if the dinger goes off when you walk through. If that happens and they don’t notice, I go back anyway.
@reed311:
Stores have a right to detain you if the suspect you are shop lifting, but its my understanding that they must have very solid grounds for doing so, other wise they are opening them selves up to a lawsuit or even criminal prosecution. Not showing a receipt does not raise to the level. I think they have to witness some one take something off the shelves, pass through check out with out paying, and leaving the store, all with out losing sight of the person.
Beyond an apology I think that being forced to work the rest of his life at Best Buy is fitting punishment.
Reed311 says, “If someone is leaving your store and you ask for their receipt and they say “no”, that is reasonable cause to believe that they may have stolen your property.”
And he couldn’t be more wrong. As a former plain clothes loss prevention agent – and a current lawyer and law professor – trust me when I say that refusla to show your receipt (assuming you did lawfully purchase the merchandise in question) is *not* probable cause to detain someone. A store that detains someone solely on this basis is looking for a lawsuit, one it will lose. False imprisonment, battery, defamation, etc. Any decent company trains its agents in the law, and not showing your receipt doesn’t even come close to probable cause to detain.
I agree that the security guard was unprofessional but I have a problem with people who think that they DESERVE FREE STUFF just because they were inconvenienced or offended. I’m sorry OP but we’ve only heard your side of the story and usually the people who complain conveniently leave certain details out of their stories. At most you deserve an apology since you really didn’t suffer any hardship.
@krispykrink: There doesn’t need to be a law requiring it. You are on their private property, and they expect that you will abide by their polcies.
Is there a law that says you can’t bring your own soda and snacks into a movie theater? I highly doubt it, yet many movie theaters enfore such a policy, as is well within their rights as you are being allowed to enter their private property.
@MrDo: I have one even better – it’s called living near New Hampshire. No tax, AND no waiting for shipping.
@EyeHeartPie: If the person is perceived as an equal, then there will be no question. “Well-dressed” and my guess, also well spoken, polished. Not in a uniform. It is harder to look down on someone as a “minimum wage drone” or whatever when they look and sound like you.
I pick and chose my battles. And, honestly, I have some very serious battles to fight so showing my receipt at the door is nothing. If this is the biggest battle you have to fight, rock on.
And, guys, when you call someone a “minimum wage drone” or “high school drop out” or whatever the “in” insult is this week, you bring down your arguement. I personally don’t listen to you because when you insult someone who has an honest job, you sound like you are trying to be some self-righteous snob and I picture you at the public library computer waiting for your welfare check.
As for this case. Yes, calling him an asshole was uncalled for. He got an apology and that is all that he should get. What does he want? A public lashing? For him to be able to look down his nose on the receipt checker while he is “forced” to apologize. Yeah whatever.
@posaune: When it’s store policy in written form (for example, at Costco, where you get a membership agreement ahead of time) you’re spot on. However, unless there’s a giant sign in front of BestBuy that says “all merchandise subject to search and review after transactions are completed” so you can make an informed decision before shopping, it’s uninforcable. They can’t argue “if you don’t like our policy, shop elsewhere” if you don’t know the policy in the first place.
Conversation leading up to incident:
[Cashier] – “Hello sir, are you ready to check out?”
[Customer] – “Yes, just this DirectTV receiver is all today.”
[Cashier] – “What’s your phone number?”
[Customer] – “No thanks, you don’t need my phone number.”
[Cashier] – “Would you like to join our Best Buy Rewards program for $10.00 ?
[Customer] – “No, thanks.”
[Cashier] – “Are you sure? It’s only…”
[Customer] – “No, just the receiver.”
[Security Guard] – “May I see your receipt?”
Like all of his previous responses during the Worst Buy checkout process, Bobby was used to saying “No.”
I applaud his rejection of useless questions.
After spending over an hour reading all of these comments, I feel like I must comment. There has been extensive debate which has a fair amount of accurate information and a fair amount of clearly incorrect information. Here are three clear facts listed briefly.
FACT: Absent a membership agreement or another form of affirmative consent, the store has no legal authority to demand to see your receipt. They may ask, you may refuse.
FACT: Your refusal carries with it no risk of legal liability or legal consequences. It is, without question, not tantamount to probable cause. They cannot have you arrested for refusing to show your receipt.
FACT: Once you have paid for something, whether a stereo at Best Buy or an ice cream cone from a vendor on the street, it is yours. You do not have to prove this to anyone by any means, including showing them their receipt. If they are so convinced you have stolen something from them, they can detain you in most states until the police arrive. However, if it turns out that you didn’t steal anything, you will have grounds for a civil lawsuit against them, and they may face criminal charges along the lines of kidnapping.
(This is not intended to be legal advice. If you have a specific legal question, you should consult your lawyer.)
. . .
I have my own opinions about the entire receipt checking routine, but I will save it for another comment as I don’t want to confuse my opinion with clear facts.
I say divert the ‘resources’ of the receipt checkers by putting on regular clothing and have them target the actual thieves, not the 95+% of people that do not shoplift.
Specially Best Buy – it would take 1 person standing where they do to make sure anyone leaving w/a bag comes from the checkout lines.
Awfully smug and cocky executive mgmt. are making these types of decisions…
To everyone that says: “I don’t see what the big deal is about showing a receipt on the way out.”
Just because YOU DON’T MIND doesn’t mean EVERYONE else wants to stop (on their way from the register) and waste their time submitting to a completely meaningless song and dance that does nothing to prevent theft. The fat slobs at the door (and yes, they usually are fat slobs) should be watching their CCTVs rather than looking at receipts of customers coming directly from the store’s one open register.
Get it? Not everyone thinks like you. Hard to believe isn’t it?
@EllaMcWho: You want a gift certificate from Best Buy? Those cashiers would look at the thing and say it wouldn’t be valid.
Alright, here’s my spin on it, take it or leave it:
Our local Best Buy has NEVER checked a receipt that I have seen, although we do have a guy who gets paid to sit by the door and greet.
To those of you who say it is “their policy,” I can only say that it must not be policy at every store, because no one I know has ever been stopped at our store for a receipt check. ALSO, it seems to me that if it is a policy, it should be clearly posted or stated somewhere, so that customers know what to expect. That’s what Costco does. Its in their agreement when you sign up for a card.
Finally, I don’t suppose it would bother me if they did ask occasionally, as long as it isn’t every time. I can see them wanting to stop crime and “protect their merchandise” as much as any other store, but I can also see (based on what I’ve read here and on other sites in the past) that they CAN and DO lose customers over it. I would probably take offense if it was done EVERY time if it weren’t a posted policy, because in the end it does waste time. Regardless of how valuable that time may be or not, I only have so much time to live before I die, and I’d like to spend as little as possible waiting in lines so I can be checked for shoplifting or whatever. I have never stolen an item in my life and don’t intend to start anytime soon.
And our irritated customer has EVERY RIGHT to be bothered about being cursed at. Where I live cursing in the presence of a minor is a misdemeanor violation, and whether it occurs in the presence of a police officer or not, if a witness will sign the ticket, the offender will be issued a $108 fine. THINK TWICE ABOUT YOUR LANGUAGE. I see people griping that that language “isn’t all that bad or harmful” or whatever, but parents have the right to choose what their children are exposed to, thats why we have a rating system for movies and TV, and thats why cursing in front of children is illegal in so many jurisdictions. Whether he gets a gift card or not (I don’t care one way or the other) he MOST CERTAINLY deserves a PROPER apology from best buy and the employee. There are better ways to handle that situation, and the store needs to realize that. Good customer service is the ticket to repeat customers and a good customer base.
I didn’t have the time to read all 388 comments, and I know odds are this will never be seen, but while you have no obligation to show your receipt, they have no obligation to let you shop there.
Somehow I doubt the OP was called an asshole because he “politely” declined to show his receipt. Yes, he deserves an apology but the possibility exists he deserves to give one as well.
@supesguy: I disagree with it, but I usually only bother to walk through when there’s a line for the receipt checker (esp at The Home Depot, grr). I already waited in line to pay for it, fuck you, I’m not waiting to prove that what’s mine is mine. “But everyone else is!” “So?”
Thankfully I don’t live in a jurisdiction where it’s illegal to curse in front of a minor. A toddler? Ok that’s low. But someone like a 12 year old? Please. When my sister was 12 I heard her and her friends drop the f bomb all the time. I don’t mind the government trying to protect children, but I don’t support state-sponsored sheltering. If you want to raise your child to be a bumbling. socially awkward person fine, but I had heard almost every curse imaginable by the time I was 6 and I turned out fine.
@RabbitDinner: and no, I’m not “white trash” or any of that, in case anyone wants to start.