Anyone get stopped leaving stores?

[SnowRidge]

I may be a victim of profiling. I never get checked anyplace except Sam's. I bought an elliptical trainer at one of the local Super Wallyworlds a couple of weeks ago, because as I was on my way to the lighting section I passed the exercise section and saw this thing on sale for $129. The sign was right below what looked to be a reasonably decent elliptical trainer, but I wasn't sure it was the one on sale. I had a clerk check it out and he said it was the one, so I had him load it up on a flatbed and take it to customer service while I did the rest of my shopping. At customer service, they rang it up and it came out $297...still pretty cheap for the thing, but more than I wanted to pay. So I told them it had a sign for $129, and they said OK. No further check was made on a difference of $168. I then wondered if I could have said $50, but I just don't have enough larceny in my heart I guess. I checked the same machine at the other two Wally stores over the next week or so, when I happened to be in them, because my SIL thought he might want one. Either I got in on a short-lived sale, or it was just mislabelled. I got a boxed machine, by the way, not a floor model.

Chuck

I bought a rifle at Wallys. It took a whole passel of people to complete the sale, but that's another story. Anyway, the gun had a price tag with a decent price on it. I agreed to buy it. Part of their convoluted procedure is that every gun must leave the store in the original box with the matching serial number on it accompanied to the front door by a manager.

So off they went to find the box. It took a good twenty minutes or so. When they found it, someone noticed that a price sticker on the box was about ten dollars less than what I had paid. The manager said they had to void the sale, redo the paperwork, and sell me the gun for the lower price. One of the employees (not me) pointed out that I had already technically bought the gun, the required-by-law paperwork had already been filled out, and the price I had paid was the correct current price.

It didn't matter. They and I had to do everything over because "WalMart sells for the lowest marked price -- always."

I would gladly have given them ten dollars more than the original price, let alone ten dollars less, just to get out of there. What a hassle.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I was going through a rather bad time in my life so I decided to grab a couple of new CD's to listen to. When I handed the cashier a 100 dollar bill to pay for them, he marked it with a pen and it did not react. He immediately exclaimed loudly enough for other customers to hear that my bill was counterfit and called security.

Security shows up, call the local cops who show up. I am explaining that I just picked up the bill along with some other 100's that did react to the pen. The cops take my info and my bill but give me a reciept and let me go.

Turned out that the bill being older did not react to the marker pens as the newer ones do. I had to go out of my way to pick up my bill at this two bit police station with part time hours.

In retrospect, I should have in one way or another let the store owner know my displeasure about being embarressed by the situation I suppose. I just never went back to the store or even that mall as a matter of fact.

 

[2manyrocks]

If the manager keeps acting like that, he won't have any customers. Think of the employees who work for him. Sounds like a store to avoid entirely. Why help them out by telling them their manager is a jerk? If it's a store you otherwise like, then call the owners. Based on how they treat you, then decide if you keep shopping there.

 

[JB4310]

You must not belong to a Sam's Club or B J's Wholesale............ as they stop EVERY customer and make you prove you are not stealing anything on the way out.

Yup, after you wait in line to pay, you have to wait in line to prove you payed, there's 1 person checking the receipts of people coming from 8 registers! so it becomes a longer line than at the checkout!!!

I agree with OP, I would be mad in that situation, not sure what I would do at the moment but afterwards some of the recommendations here might of come to mind.

How about when you walk thru the door at Home Depot, Lowes etc and that shop lifting alarm goes off, how do you folks react? Of course the first few times it happened I was shocked and stopped, now I don't even pay attention to it or give that courtesy look back for the OK from the cashire.

I was treated real bad by a lowes customer service girl, could have complained but it was right before X-Mas and didn't want anyone to lose there job, so I just laughed and walked out leaving a carriage full of probably 200 individual PVC pipe fittings, 45's 90's etc. etc. and a bunch more stuff, I didn't need it that day, figured that was my revenge making them put every thing back.

Later that day I thought about going back to see if my carriage was still sitting there, since I did have a little of my own time invested in picking the items and loading it! Not sure who I punished, maybe just myself

JB.

 

[vic4news]

I could understand having your receipt checked if you went through one of the self-service checkouts, but having been checked out by a cashier I don't see the point. If something wasn't on the receipt it would be the cashier's fault not yours.

 

[Skyco]

I was treated real bad by a lowes customer service girl, could have complained but it was right before X-Mas and didn't want anyone to lose there job, so I just laughed and walked out leaving a carriage full of probably 200 individual PVC pipe fittings, 45's 90's etc. etc. and a bunch more stuff, I didn't need it that day, figured that was my revenge making them put every thing back.

Later that day I thought about going back to see if my carriage was still sitting there, since I did have a little of my own time invested in picking the items and loading it! Not sure who I punished, maybe just myself

JB.

I had the opposite...I was in a WalMart and went to the restroom leaving my cart nearby in the shoe department. Came back from the restroom and my cart was gone I guess they thought it was abandoned, had to start all over with my shopping!

 

[zzvyb6]

Two weeks ago I was at Lowe's getting some light fixture parts. I knew what it added up to and with tax should have come to about $9.60 . However, when the total came up, it was about $5.00 more than t I expected. Turns out the register was remembering the very last item that the previous purchaser in my line had selected in addition to my items. The guy in the next aisle just finished signing his credit card slip without realizing it was $90 higher than it should have been. No clue as to how long that problem was going on. But it was worth a few tense moments in all the lines waiting to buy. Wonder how much the highest error was that day.

 

[LBrown59]

I could understand having your receipt checked if you went through one of the self-service checkouts, but having been checked out by a cashier I don't see the point. If something wasn't on the receipt it would be the cashier's fault not yours.

Not if you were shoplifting the item.

 

[texasjohn]

My TBN friends.... Sams and Fry's in Austin have, for years, checked receipts and had enough checkers to not cause a long wait. So far, nowhere else around here is checking.

However, I feel that these kind of difficulties will become ever more common as hard economic times hit. This may signal the start of a trend rather than a rogue manager.

For many years in the USA we have greatly enjoyed freedom from hassle when purchasing things... and a "low" level of shoplifting has resulted/been tolerated. Having traveled extensively internationally, the USA has the highest level of trust for the general population, IMHO. It is a little recognized freedom.

However, I predict that as hard times ooze thru our communities, both companies and individuals will become increasingly defensive of our selves and property, similar to what occurs in foreign countries. If you have traveled to countries where there is a significant level of poverty, you understand what I mean. I feverently hope I am wrong and that instead the spirit of community and cooperation that brought zero arrests in Washington DC on Inaguration Day will trump the ooze of hard times.

 

[YesDeere]

I would have silently MF'd him to death. So many people that get lost on their little piece of authority.