Although Radio Shack employees insist they can’t make a customer donate a dollar to Livestrong at checkout, Cheryl’s tale is disturbingly similar to that of Ryan, who says Radio Shack swiped a buck for him in the name of cancer research.

She writes:

This happened to me today as well. I am just furious. I only went into radioshack to buy a crummy battery and told the clerk I did NOT want to give to the Livestrong Campaign. When I looked at my receipt when returned home, I see he did charge me. When I called, he told me I would have to drive back to that store to refund. I am not driving and wasting the gas and an hour for their scam.
I was then sent to various district and regional managers who also told me to drive back. I have left a voice mail for the CEO of the company and e-mails to Media and Investor Relations.

The company sent us this statement to address the problem and solution:

Tens of thousands of customers have eagerly contributed to our point-of-sale collection for LIVESTRONG in just the first few weeks. As 100% of every $1 point-of-sale donation goes directly to LIVESTRONG, we believe it’s been tremendously successful so far. But RadioShack doesn’t intend for any customer to feel compelled to support the fight against cancer. It is a personal choice. We believe the directions are clear on the point-of-sale device, but we regret the few errors that apparently have occurred among the tens of thousands of contributions received so far. Customers who believe they’ve made the donation in error should simply contact us at customercare@radioshack.com or 1-800-THE-SHACK so that we can facilitate the refund process. And in the days ahead, we will use your feedback to remind our employees again about how to manage this process carefully and correctly. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

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