Most Consumerist readers would guess that it’s unlikely that the people at Best Buy will be inviting us over for dinner anytime soon. So it’s a nice surprise to see the company actually thanking us for a story.
Yesterday we wrote about a way for customers to offer suggestions on the issue of receipt-checking on the company’s Best Buy IdeaX site.
In response, Best Buy has consolidated the suggestions into one current and even name-checked this here site:
Thanks to the Consumerist for highlighting an issue that’s important to certain customers of ours; the practice of checking receipts at the door.
This current is asking for solutions for other ways to handle what is essentially a loss prevention technique for us and other retailers.
Right now there are only a handful of suggestions in the current, but that might be because the original one submitted by Consumerist reader Mike seems to have a pretty large number of “points.”
So if you have a suggestion on how Best Buy can best deal with checking receipts, they are at least paying lip service to wanting to hear your ideas.
Current: What’s a better alternative to our checking receipts at the door? [Best Buy]
Get rid of receipt checkers or provide notice. [Mike's Original Suggestion]
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Best Buy will now join Fry’s as a store I will never spend a dollar in because of these ridiculous policies. If anybody from management ever reads these posts, be advised you are pushing us to ……no, begging us to….shop online for our electronics. We don’t have to put up with a store that assumes criminal activity from the very people who give you their hard earned dollars. I’ve never been checked at my local Best Buy, but this publicity is enough to keep us away from your stores. There are many, many other choices for electronics shopping.
Fry’s isn’t nearly as bad as the stories I hear about BB – I go there from time to time, and the receipt checker doesn’t bat an eye as I cruise on by. Haven’t bought a large LCD or anything, so who knows…
Well, at least Best Buy is responding to this.
I do fall in the camp of not showing my receipts (although, since I live in a low-crime part of Tennessee, I have never in my adult life had my receipt checked absent a contract otherwise). The only exceptions I would make to not showing my receipt are (1) businesses that include this provision in the membership agreement (i.e., Sam’s Club), and (2) businesses where I pay upfront and pick up the items later (i.e., go to Home Depot, pay for 20 2X4′s, and pick them up off the stack outside). The reason for the second one is that the goods haven’t been transferred to me yet, meaning that the U.C.C. title transfer provision hasn’t kicked in.
However, if I were a business owner, I might try a couple of tricks to get around it.
(1). Post a sign that says “Customers who do not show their receipts may not take shopping carts into the parking lot.” The customers can refuse, but will carry their own goods if they do.
(2). Post a sign that says “Please allow the receipt checker to mark your receipt; goods may not be returned or exchanged without a marked receipt.” The customer can again refuse; but, it will be cash and carry.
(3) Post a sign that says “Customers who do not present their receipts on exit will be banned from the store.” They can refuse, but may not return.
Would any of those tricks work?
(1). Post a sign that says “Customers who do not show their receipts may not take shopping carts into the parking lot.” The customers can refuse, but will carry their own goods if they do.
This is probably unenforceable. how do you prevent a customer from pushing a cart right on by you? It would not justify physically stopping somebody because they are not officially leaving Best Buy property, but only going to the parking lot.
(2). Post a sign that says “Please allow the receipt checker to mark your receipt; goods may not be returned or exchanged without a marked receipt.” The customer can again refuse; but, it will be cash and carry.
This could work, but it doesn’t solve anything. They would still be receipt checking.
(3) Post a sign that says “Customers who do not present their receipts on exit will be banned from the store.” They can refuse, but may not return.
Most states have a trespassing law where the person has to be officially notified usually done by an employee reading the exact legal verbiage. The customer isn’t waiting around for this to happen. I don’t think Best Buy will be able to ensure every employee remembers every person who did not show a receipt on a prior visit.
Ultimately none of the 3 suggestions solve the issue which is checking a receipt in the first place. Professional security managers can design the exit beyond the cash registers so as to lead people directly outside. There are also technological answers to the employee theft angle as well which would not be visible to the customer. Reciept checking is the result of not having professional, competent security people involved with their operations.
I apologize for my ignorance, but what is really the big deal? There’s a thread on this every day/week, and frankly, nothing new comes out of it. I read these because I’m still waiting for that one comment that explains in absolute clarity why being subjected to receipt checking is so awful. I’m kind of reminded of all the griping about min. card purchases (entirely different, I know), but then CC companies up and went and let merchants require ‘em. My solution was, if I don’t have cash, I don’t buy.
I feel like it’s not that far fetched for large box stores to go lobby Congress or something to allow them to do this by legal right. I’m all for fighting the good fight, but I just don’t buy the whole “if you don’t fight the small things, how are you going to tackle the big things?” I would rather save my energy for the big things.
Sorry if anything I said was really dumb, but do kindly explain.
The big deal comes up when someone is in a hurry, or the checker is being a jerk, or a cop is involved.
The underlying right to one’s own property is what drives the hatred of a practice that requires one to prove that their own property is theirs before they are allowed to leave (or else be detained / forfeit their goods).
When someone waits in line to check out, pays their money to the cashier, and the cashier then gives them the bag of items, historically and worldwide, the transaction is complete, the items have been sold. To then be stopped by store security a minute later, and not allowed to leave with one’s purchased goods without complying to procedure, ticks people off.
People generally do not have the right to detain you except for in very specific circumstances.
I wouldn’t mind the receipt check if they were checking everyone. I’ve been stopped multiple times by the yellow shirts to inspect my bags while they let the older white customers walk right through as LP rummage through my bag. I’ve brought it to management’s attention in the store and through e-mail after I began noticing this happening way too often to be a simple coincidence, and I received the same worthless response that they don’t discriminate.
Maybe it’s a WI thing, but this is the main reason I won’t set foot in a Best Buy store. I don’t fight the receipt checks as I have nothing to hide, but it is a bit embarrassing to get dirty looks from customers walking by unchecked as if I did something wrong.
Put the cashiers near the doors so there is only one way out and thru the cashier
The register is 6 feet away from the door. What purpose does receipt checking provide? Did I stuff a stereo in my pants between the cash register and the door?
Big problem is catching the “repeat” customer.
Buy the TV far from the main checkout counter. Carry out the TV. Return to the store. Pickup a TV and carry out the TV. If questioned, show the receipt from the original purchase. Repeat as much as possible. Return the original TV for a full refund. On a good day you can steal 2-3 (or more) big ticket items.
Sell the spoils on fleabay.
Bonus points if you steal from an office supply and return to office supply store to ship the stolen (and now sold) goods via their shipping associate.
How about people QUIT STEALING SHIT. Problem solved.
+1,000,000,000
Yes, a billion.
I wonder how much in dollars is caught by the receipt checkers daily at any given store. I also wonder how much it costs Best Buy to staff the receipt checker position (wages, benefits, taxes, training, etc..). Is it really worth it? If it is keep doing it, if not maybe they should rethink things.
How about not checking receipts?
Restructure your stores so that one half of the exit is only accessible if you’ve already gone through checkout. Make the cashier the line of defense there. If you’re approaching the door from the “no-transaction” side with a bag or items, by all means, check the receipt.
If you’re approaching from the checkout side, where you were just checked out 10 feet ago, you’ve already been checked by the cashier, and shouldn’t need to be re-checked again. If you can’t trust your cashier.
Restructure your stores so that one half of the exit is only accessible if you’ve already gone through checkout. Make the cashier the line of defense there. If you’re approaching the door from the “no-transaction” side with a bag or items, by all means, check the receipt.
If you’re approaching from the checkout side, where you were just checked out 10 feet ago, you’ve already been checked by the cashier, and shouldn’t need to be re-checked again. If you can’t trust your cashier to do their job, hire someone more trustworthy.
Registers right at exit. Funneling you directly out of the store. Nothing near the registers. One exit for leaving without making a purchase with employee monitoring that exit for thefts. And what ever happened to discretely monitoring a store with cameras? When I worked in a large retail store 30 years ago there were cameras throughout the store with security monitoring them all the time. Customers were only stopped by the security at the door if the cameras caught the customer stealing. If you did nothing wrong, you never had to know the store was being watched. I will not shop at a store that makes everyone feel like a suspected thief.
Umm, hey folks. this is NOT where Best buy is looking at for info. They have their own board with this discussion. You might have more success if you post you ideas and comments over there.
http://www.bestbuyideax.com/currents/19
Sadly it looks like Best Buy is deleting ideas they don’t like so I guess maybe here is the best place to comment.
Oddly Ive never been asked to see receipt. I specifically dig it down in wallet and pocket. Now if I beep the door monkey wont even get to see it. I walk back to cashier i was at to demagnetize. Then walk out. No beep = im not even talking to you and I keep walking.
Next unless I only have like 2 things.. checking receipt is certainly not going to be thorough. If I only have 2 things what are the chances the cashier missed 1 of them or I’m world’s ballsiest thief ever…. OR I have been to costco where cart was absolutely full. The list was like 2 feet long. There’s absolutely no way the lady at the door was able to make sure there was nothing stolen. So what’s the point? You want to inconvenience everyone for essentially NO net gain in stopping theft. Any decrease in theft no doubt was related to less people going to your store overall because of this.
Now you arent stopping people from just grabbing something; taking tag off and pocketing it. Receipt checking without a doubt is related to cashiers being minimum wage failures failing to scan things. Pretty easy fix tbh. Do like so many other places with the self-checkout; even if you dont want to go self-checkout do the same system. Where as you scan something. Put it on big scale. Computer knows weight of everything. Cashier then is sure to get it right. Next take the door monkeys off the door of sitting around and doing nothing. Have them be floating salesman whose job isnt any specific department but have general knowledge about everything in the store. Who can go be everywhere to stop people from pocketing shit because there’s an employee standing near me… This is a huge positive change because then when I wanna know where something is. They are right there to tell me. And you have employees off by themselves basically right next to customers.
I don’t have a problem with the receipt checking at all. A few seconds, and you’re on the way. What’s the big deal anyways? It just seems to me that if I refused to have my receipt checked, that automatically would make me look suspicious.
At all of the 4 (yes, 4) Best Buys with in 10 miles of my house, the registers are right next to the door in such as way that as soon as you walk through you have to walk right past the security person to get out the door. Take this one step further and apply the same kind of thing Blockbusters stores usually have. Make it so that once you pass the register you can not reenter the store unless you walk back past the register or out the door and back in.
Close all their stores and go to an online-only model. A big part of why I don’t shop at Best Buy any more is that I hate dealing with all the garbage associated with it (waiting in line, waiting in line AGAIN for the idiotic receipt checks, having to find stuff in the store because no employees are in sight, etc). On top of all that, Best Buy is usually more expensive than most online places, even with shipping factored in. So why would I put up with all Best Buy’s garbage just so that I can pay more? It makes no sense to me, especially given that most of the stuff that Best Buy sells is not stuff I would “impulse buy” anyway.
I understand that online vs. bricks and mortar isn’t exactly a fair comparison on price. Too bad. I’m willing to support local small businesses, etc and help them stay afloat by paying a little more than I could online, especially when there are reasons why having a local place in business is convenient. But Best Buy is another matter: they’re just another soulless corporation with a broken business model. I don’t care if their retail model dies off, because there isn’t really much advantage associated with having them around.
rfid tags on customers with shock collars that go off whenever anyone holds a product too long wiothout purchasing…it can only mean they’re a thief and deserve it.