Responding to the post about a customer who thinks Radio Shack forced him to donate a dollar to Livestrong, a couple Radio Shack employees wrote in and said that cashiers lack the ability to force such charges.

They say it’s up to the customer to push a button that requests the donation, and all a clerk can do is approve it. Kenneth writes:

This just a little bit of info on the whole Livestrong post on Consumerist. I actually work at a radio shack, and we can’t force anyone to donate. After ringing the sale, our computer screen prompts a donation for the Livestrong collection, however from our end all we are able to do is decline it. The only way for a customer to make the donation is if they actually hit the “accept” button on the credit
card pad.

However, I have seen people hit it thinking its a prompt asking if the amount is correct when they slide their card. What I’m more than willing to bet happened is the customer hit the accept button thinking he was confirming the amount for his credit purchase. And, unfortunately, after the sale is complete, we are unable to refund donations. As far as I know, the funds immediately go to the Livestrong foundation and the whole thing is out of our lowly associate hands.

All in all, it’s really not possible for us to attach a donation, as only the customer can using the card pad.

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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