Retail Fraud on the Rise 663
prostoalex writes "They buy the merchandise, print their own receipts, and return it. They buy two watches - an expensive one and inexpensive one, and then swap them and return the one with the highest price. Business Week talks about retail scams, and how merchants are trying to avoid them without losing the customer service battle. They are fighting against surprisingly sophisticated techniques, too." From the article: "Q: What role do auction Web sites play in all this? A: Retailers have stopped giving cash back in many different cases. Instead, they do refunds in the form of gift cards or store credits or store value cards. If a crook can get enough of those, he might sell $2,500 worth of gift cards for $2,000 online. It's a benefit for the buyer, who gets a discount and will use those gift cards. And the person who has manipulated the return-scam system has a way to [make money]. But the retailers lose out. "
This is unethical (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is unethical (Score:5, Funny)
They returned them in place of $50 Swiss models.
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Insightful)
Lemme see... we have a story about videogames violence, another about piracy, another about corporations prosecuting software developers...
the answer: there is NO moral compass anymore. People just do what they want.
Re:This is unethical (Score:5, Insightful)
That sounds like a Christian analysis of secular culture. But like most quips, it doesn't hold up under scrutiny. The article about videogame violence talks about the decline in violent crime (FBI Uniform Crime Reports) that has occured at the same time as increasing realism in video games, including violent games. The article about piracy is actually discussing how businesses have taken a highly nuanced topic (copyright) and are successfully selling their very one-sided interpretation to governments in Europe.
The problem with thieves is that they have learned not to value long-term goals or to put weight on medium to long term consequences. As a result, their moral decision making is skewed towards what they can get away with right now, while simultaneously discounting the effects their actions might have on themselves and the people around them.
As to how and why this happens, some see their parents or others in the community around them growing old and miserable, having worked hard for a long time and getting very little for it. Some are taught that morals are a set of rules without any explanation of the why's behind the rules. When "because I said so" doesn't answer the question any more, but no other answer is given, people will successfully learn to ignore their perfectly functioning conscience in favor of what they've learned (rationalization).
Sadly, I'll now have to explain that understanding why thieves behave the way they do does not excuse or justify their behavior. Oh and I most definitely am asserting that fear-based Christian morals are worse than useless in teaching morality and are part of the problem.
But you may have reached different conclusions on all of my points...
Regards,
Ross
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is unethical (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe you should think about the fact that your worldview is only one of countless others out there and that there's a likely possibility that it's not THE correct one. If a person can't accept that possibility, no matter what religion or philosophy they adhere to, then that person is the one in denial.
Oh - are ideals such as the pursuit of happiness, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, right to bear arms, due process and the like Christian ideals? If so, please point out where these are discussed in the Bible and how the scripture lines up with the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Thanks.
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
Re:This is unethical (Score:5, Insightful)
I got frelled by this same policy at Circuit City.
Got my brother a scanner for xmas, turns out my mom got him a digital camera, so I went to exchange the scanner for camera go-alongs (bag, batteries, flash-cards, tripod, etc.)
When I went to return the item (unopened mind you) the guy opened the box, removed the scanner, cable, and software, inspected it for missing parts, then THREW THE BOX IN THE TRASH and only returned 85% of the price of the scanner to me on a gift card.
He explained that there is a 15% restocking fee on anything that's been opened. I stated that it had not been opened until he had done so (he had to undo a sticker over the flap of the box and tore off a few layers of the box in the process.)
When continued refusing to give me 100% credit then asked for a manager. He claimed he was "in charge." He didn't say he was a manager. I called his bluff, pulled out my cellphone, dialed 411, called the store, and asked for the manager. The guy promptly discovered a manager was available and summoned her.
She asked the kid of the box had been opened. He said yes. I said the kid opened it. She said he had to open it to make sure everything was being returned. She also refused to credit my sale 100%.
Out comes the cell phone again.
"411, city and state please."
"Sacramento California"
"What listing please."
"Attorney General's office, the department in charge of business practices." (GOD, I LOVE MY CELL PHONE AND ITS *SPEAKER PHONE* MODE.)
Before I got past the first layer of automated push button hell the manager agreed to give me a 100% credit to a gift card.
I folded my phone. I then told her that I no longer wished to do business with Circuit City and would like to have my credit card credited for the full refund and would buy camera-do-dads elsewhere.
When the first words out of her mouth were "Our policy is..." I unfolded the phone and hit redial.
She didn't finish the sentence and instead asked me for the card used to pay for the original transaction so she could credit the full price to me.
I hate to think how many people out there innocently get screwed by these places because they aren't the obnoxious stubborn bitch that I am.
She didn't agree to this until I
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
In the same place as the morals of every employer who overworks and underpays his staff, as the banker who charges both interest and fees, as the credit card company that commits usury, of the utility companies that charge as much as they possibly can and then some...
Oh one bad deed does not justify another, but please don't argue morality. That simply doesn't exist anymore. Greed is pandemic now.
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Insightful)
Greed may be pandemic, but there are enough people who are not to not give up hope.
Personal responsibility needs a resurrection. If that stays dead, we're doomed as a civilization. It's as simple as that. Blaming everything from the water supply to one's 3rd grade teacher has done nothing but foist a victim-ridden society that feels entitled to things and when those things don't come, being unscrupulous un
Re:This is unethical (Score:2, Interesting)
I mean, be honest: what is the difference? Printing receipts is bad, but do
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
Re:This is unethical (Score:3, Interesting)
It works both ways (Score:2)
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
In their sweaty little palms, only they don't point north but rather towards Boca Raton.
Re:This is unethical (Score:2)
A friend of mine used to work at Banana Republic, she told me that they were instructed to not challenge a person if they thought they were stealing because the company could be sued, even if they were right.
This is a bit of a digression:
Another friend of mine used to steal all the time, he was kinda the clepto sort that got a big thrill out of it. Kinda like Winnona Rider. He al
Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
While I see the need for retailers to offer return policies to the actual purchaser of an item, I've always had the feeling that the ability to return something that someone else gave you was a service that no retiler had any obligation to do. You didn't buy it, the retailer has no obligation to take it back from you.
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
very few (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
Re:Will affect legitimate consumers (Score:2)
If it doesn't fit your needs, you probably should have done more research before you bought it.
Maybe stores should charge customers a premium for the ability to return items for reasons other than defectiveness? (This is essentially what "restocking fees" are.)
That way the costs of merchandise returns and of return fraud are borne by the people who
The end of easy returns is the end of retail (Score:3, Insightful)
If I'm sure a product will meet my needs after doing what research I can, I'll purchase online, either from a reputable vendor or the best deal from froogle.
If after doing what research I can online, I'm still not 100% sure that it will work out (for example, a new camera that doesn't have online reviews, or a new subrevision of a card that previously was supported under OpenBSD, but mi
Same Ol Same Ol (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the net of this article is that if you are Target Inc and track each recipt in a giant database - you'll be less likely to get ripped off.
Re:Same Ol Same Ol (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Same Ol Same Ol (Score:2)
Yawn. (Score:2)
The answer is simple, fight back with technology (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
GASP!!! No shit? I think that is a problem more widespread than just retail...
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
I wonder which is cheaper... to invest millions in anti-theft technologies, advanced databases, embedded serial numbers, RFID, etc., or just take the tiny loss each quarter due to cheate
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
Yeppers. I heard about some folks doing a scam a couple of years back... Target ran a nationwide ad for a toy item and screwed up the pricing (normal $50, ad said $25) but decided to honor it. Some folks went out a
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:3, Informative)
Didn't do what the ads claimed it would do? Their fault. The UCC [cornell.edu] says they have to give you a refund. No 'restocking fee' allowed. Not only that, but if you have to buy the correct item somewhere else they owe you the difference in cost (see "Cover").
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, so that when you buy a gallon of lighter fluid that purchase is stored in a database. Then when you buy a bag of fertilizer, that purchase goes into a database, too. Then the FBI decides to go hunting and says, "Hey Wal-Mart! Give us a list of everybody who's bought fertalizer and lighter fluid!" and under the Patriot Act they must hand it over and are legally bound not to tell anyone that they
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
I noticed ordering stuff from newegg my rescript reflects not only the model number but the serial of the product i'm buying. Very smart and helped me establish in a few cases where I bought something, or rather if I bought it from newegg or not. And I imagine could be used in a retail store situation to help prevent bogu
Re:The answer is simple, fight back with technolog (Score:2)
Can this be? A Slashdotter actually ADVOCATING the adoption of RFID-like technologies?
I had a friend that did that. Not my friend anymor (Score:4, Interesting)
I was so disgusted with him that i just stopped all contact with him. As soon as I heard that he did this (about 3 weeks after he did it) I went and reported him to the retail store he did it to. He was under 18 so he only got a slap on the wrist and ended up paying for it.
It just anoyed me that people do this. I run into it plenty of times in my line of work (Pro Audio) where people will buy speakers, you tell them how to set the settings, or better yet you set it up for them. Yet 2 days later they come in with Burned up Voice Coils and complaining that they were the WORST speakers they've ever bought, how they know more than me about pro audio and that it wasn't them. Yet by looking at the speaker you can tell it was overdriven.... Then go look at their equipment settings and they are not what you told them/set up for them. Yet they try and tell you they NEED a free replacement because these were obviously defective.... Sorry No dice. I don't play that game.
Re:I had a friend that did that. Not my friend any (Score:3)
a friend of mine that works at a photo shop refuses to do anything but pack up a customers camera and ship it to canon for a fee. the customer signs a paper that states that they will be charged up to
Re:I had a friend that did that. Not my friend any (Score:3, Insightful)
You didn't try talking to him first? No offense, actually, I take that back, I mean a lot of offense, but you were a total dick of a friend. What kind of person potentially fucks up a kid's life and permanent record without at least trying to get him straightened out first? I bet you're the kind of douchebag who thinks all druggies should just be shot instead of treated.
Re:I had a friend that did that. Not my friend any (Score:3, Insightful)
If he was 16-17, I think he should be treated harshly. He's old enough to know what he's doing. Plus, let's not dramatize; it's not like hes gonna be doing hard time. I'm guessing a suspended sentence and a clean slate when he turns 18.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
How exactly is it worse? The friend committed fraud and the poster did not agree with fraud so he turned him in. I would like to hear your explanation for this though.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
How serious of a crime must it be before you would report a friend? Would you turn in a friend who was a rapist? A child molester? A murderer? No? Then you are a horrible person.
Would you turn in a friend if he stole a 50 cent candy bar? A 500,000 check in an insurance scam? No then yes? At what point would you turn him in? At what monetary amount?
What you fail to realize, my ignorant, p
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of the old saw:
A man asks a woman, "Would you sleep with me for one million dollars?" The woman thinks about it for a moment, smiles, and says, "Yes." The man then asks, "Then, would you sleep with me for one dollar?!" The woman immediately replies, "Absolutely not! What kind of a girl do you think I am?!?" The man says,
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
She learned a valuable lesson not to steal. Does that make us assholes in your book?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you wait for him to rape or kill someone?
What if he steals from your neighbor?
I turned in a fellow student who was stealing expensive tools from people's cars and trucks. I didn't regret it then and I don't regret it now.
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually quite the opposit. The kid was under 18 so he only got a slap on the wrist, in other words: He may have learned a lesson and don't do it again.
If he'd been an adult and charged for Fraud then, well, as an adult he should have been aware of the risk.
Friendship doesn't mean that you let them get away with murder (or Fraud).
Re:I had a friend that did that. Not my friend any (Score:3, Insightful)
only for fools. (Score:2)
come on, you are going to believe that schmuck that "says" that thay have $2500.00 worth of cards? either idiots or morons would buy them from the thief... Because the theif will empty them before sending them. and now the buyer has spent $2000.00 for a pile of worthless plastic.
Retailers need verification & item identity (Score:4, Interesting)
This is an issue of verification and item identity.
Possible solutions? How about identity tools such as image recognition, holographic barcodes on the item itself, RFID, etched serial numbers, etc.
Re:Retailers need verification & item identity (Score:3, Interesting)
Either that or maybe they should train their employees to tell the difference between Rolex and Timex. If they were to try such a scam against employees whoa ctually know their stock, then it wouldn't work. So, maybe more training and less reliance on non-human controls would be better.
Re:Retailers need verification & item identity (Score:2)
I mean, I'm all for hiring the handicapped, but requiring that all return counter personnel be autistic savants seems like pushing it to me.
They used to do this in Egyptian times (Score:2, Insightful)
Fake gold, fake clothing, fake jewels.
it's just that the market is bigger and authentication is harder and harder.
Nordstrom (Score:2)
Employees are the biggest source of retail theft (Score:5, Insightful)
http://jrrobertssecurity.com/security-news/securi
Re:Employees are the biggest source of retail thef (Score:3, Insightful)
I haven't done it, but I understand it... Back in the day I worked at quite a few stores, and I can tell you that when you are a one-dollar-over-minimum-wage employee living at or under the poverty line, it gets pretty tough to be surrounded by all sorts of products you want (and occasionally need) but couldn't possibly afford.
Not justifying it, I stayed honest... But I do understan
Funny thing, you've been proven correct (Score:5, Informative)
And for all that, they still make a lot of money.
You'll never eliminate it, of course, some people are just greedy. Every person could live in luxury and there'd still be those who stole just to have more, but you are absolutly correct that when employees are paid for shit and treated like shit, they are much more prone to theft.
Re:Employees are the biggest source of retail thef (Score:4, Interesting)
I know that one reason many big-box chains don't give larger employee discounts is that if they gave more than 10% they would actually lose money on many items. This is also the reason that Target, for instance, doesn't let you use a non-Target credit card in conjunction with your employee discount...the extra few percent they'd lose in CC fees would push many sales into losses for them.
I would never argue that they shouldn't pay more, though...I'm with you on that. Especially because while people won't generally work harder for a better employee discount, many people WILL work harder for more pay. So if they paid more, they would see some of that money returned to them in the form of better productivity.
Re:Employees are the biggest source of retail thef (Score:2)
The death of trust (Score:3, Insightful)
The end result, of course, is going to be that everything gets verified at every stage of the process. This is just a pain in the ass for normal customers not trying to get away with anything, but it seems to be an inevitable consequence of the information economy- it's so easy to change or hide information that the retailer cannot afford to take their virtual eyes off it even for a moment; if they do, they have to assume it's tainted and end the transaction. Thanks, human nature.
I've run into this... (Score:2)
I really can't understand how people can justify this to themselves.
Re:I've run into this... (Score:2)
I really can't understand how people can justify this to themselves.
In America "Future Shop" was known for putting customer returns back on the shelves, even ones that were returned as being faulty. I shopped there from time to
Re: Missing Barcode (Score:2)
I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
(Self-disclosure: I only did it once, as a "proof-of-concept" test!)
There's one thing I often do (Score:3, Interesting)
Why do I do that? you might think I'm a crook or something. Well, I'm tired of being shafted with some store's "10% restocking fee" (which is utter bullshit), or the incredibly ingenious ways of selling me stuff that never works right in the first place, then refusing to admit it's shit, or waiting for-bloody-ever for the thing to be fixed under warranty.
Some stores shaft me, I shaft them back. It's only fair. I don't do that with all stores, but CompUSA, Fry's and others, I have no qualms. Screw them.
Re:There's one thing I often do (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There's one thing I often do (Score:4, Insightful)
That's some great personal ethics you have there.. basically helping yourself to an extended warranty. You are a common thief, nothing less, and deserve the same punishment as a shoplifer, as that is EXACTLY what you are doing. Your justifications are bullshit. It's time for you to decide whether you are an honest person, or a cockroach. So far, your actions have been that of a cockroach.
Well that is bad, but... (Score:2)
Then again... Maybe I'm just bitter about what Sprint did to my phone bill one time and refused to credit anything back.
Embed Electronic Receipt in Chip Inside Product (Score:2)
This is stealing, but how about music? (Score:2)
Now, will people say the same about copying cd's of music? I won't. I know, it's a contradiction, but I just don't buy music anymore unless I'm buying it alog with others who will make copies can keep them. Example: I copied Ben Folds' album. I would give him five bucks for it (I figure that's a fair pric
Stealing vs. Copyright infringment. (Score:2)
Re:This is stealing, but how about music? (Score:2)
You want the EU Proposing to Make P2P Piracy A Criminal Offense article, a few headings down.
This thread is about stealing actual products from retail stores. I know people confuse this with piracy all the time, but please don't troll. You are obvioulsy wayyyy off topic.
Translation - tyey're going under (Score:2)
Sure theres a con or two, but it seems to me that everytime a retailer starts to get "tough" on the customer, it's usually not long before they go out of business.
The whole economy is in a really crappy situation right now, and the mid-term outlook is the worst in over 200 years, so I wouldn't be supprised at all to see a lot of retailers go out of business
ugh... (Score:2)
It shouldn't be that surprising that today he's got the biggest stack of pirated video games of anyone I know.
He's the sort of guy that cares deeply about the video game industry, just not enough to give them his money.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
easy to prevent much (Score:2)
The "Best Buy Trick" (Score:5, Interesting)
BT was employed in the department of the company that would test our products with various PC games. PC game manufacturers would send free games to test to make sure they worked with our brand of controllers, gamepads, etc. BT was basically the one and only guy to handle receiving these games. Most of the time we didn't care if they worked or not, we'd just get tons of games for free, and they started to accumulate behind BT.
One day he got the idea to take these shrinkwrapped games back to the local Best Buy for store credit. He would then take the store credit and buy stuff he wanted, or stuff to sell on eBay. Best Buy's return policy said if you didn't have a receipt, all you needed was your ID to return the product for store credit. BT started going to Best Buy daily returning 1, or 2 games at a time. He'd travel to various Best Buys within the area.
It was working so well, BT ran out of games to take back. You'd think he would have stopped, but I guess greed is just a too powerful force. BT started taking items from the Demo warehouse (a little local warehouse that had 10-20 items of each of the products we manufactured, controllers, memory cards for consoles, basically video game accessories). The policy at the company was it was okay to go back and take 1 or 2 things once in a while, even to take home to keep for personal use.
However BT started taking 3, 4, 5 things at a time, and took them to Best Buy to return as well. Eventually Best Buy caught on, and he had to get his wife, and close friends to go return things for him for a cut of the store credit.
When BT finally left the company, he had accumulated over 5,000 dollars worth of Best Buy store credit. He walked in, bought a laptop and a desktop computer and ended his career.
After that, half the staff of the company started doing the "Best Buy Trick", just on a much smaller scale..
all the technology in the world won't help..if you (Score:2)
I actually did see a USED CD-R shrink-wrapped, and placed on the returned items cart for sale, at Microcenter once.
it's a sliding scale, the retailer can hire higher quality employees and provide more training, and stop more fraud, but pay more in salaries...they've put more effort
Common problem (Score:2)
Also, they track their sales well enough that if the warranty is determined void or the product return/refund is refused, ALL stores
refund (Score:4, Insightful)
All I hear is "waah!"... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's take a look at what some / virtually all of the stores do.
1. Blatantly and regularly violating in false advertising and bait and switch laws by claiming "oh, it was a price mistake that we don't have to honor that price."
Virtually every online store engages in such practices, although B&M stores are doing this more and more as well.
1a. Not applying sale prices at the cashier or overcharging the customer
2. Using rebate houses that don't honor / lose / just flat out destroy rebates. (CompUSA, TigerDirect, and pretty much everyone else)
3. Using rebate houses that don't pay on time. I've filed over $10,000 in rebates and I can count on one hand the number of rebates that came on time. It should not take 8 weeks for someone to cut you a check. Again, everyone who offers rebates engages in such behavior.
4. Selling extended warranties that are for the most part entirely useless. (My friend's laptop sitting on a kitchen counter started melting - proc overheated, motherboard got scorched and even some of the keys, and the chasis melted, Circuit City refused to honor the extended warranty because they claimed it was "Abuse")
4a. Claiming something is a "warranty", when in fact it is not. Read the fine print on some of these "warranties", have a laugh / cry.
4b. Training their salespeople to lie about the benefits of the "warranty". If some AG wants to file a suit, I know that Staples stores have a couple training CD-Roms lying around that clearly contradict the policies in the extended "warranties"
5. Getting around pricematch policies by ordering slightly different (yet identical in all features) models from the manufacturer. i.e. a HP PSC 950 and HP PSC 950xi. Perhaps not illegal, but a shady, shady practice that lets retail stores ignore their price match policies for many items.
6. (This is really devoted to my favorite, favorite store, Fry'ed Electronics). Labelling missing items as "containing all parts", even though many parts are missing. Then accusing the person trying to return a half empty box of theft.
Or throwing returns back onto the shelf without any indication that the product was returned or is missing parts. I'm sure this violates a whole bunch of laws, but hey...
7. Frys also gets the award for selling accessories that clearly won't work with the product that the customer has. i.e. the sales associates pushing SATA drives onto people who have only IDE controllers, Pentium processors for AMD motherboards, etc, etc.
Of course, every so often, the poor, helpless retail stores get caught and get - at most, a light slap on the wrist.
If you engage in clearly unethical business practices on all levels - from the very top to your store managers and even in the training materials that you give to your associates, you have as much right to complain as someone who paid a drug dealer with fake money and realized that they were sold orageno.
The fraud perpetrated onto the customer by these retail stores far exceeds any losses. Moreover, shady behaviour is encouraged by management and continues, even in the face of the occasional "Martha Stewart" FTC / BBB / "local / regional government agency that handles this sort of stuff" investigation.
Re:All I hear is "waah!"... (Score:3)
The media is complicit in all of this (the same with the reporting on how much music money is "lost" to piracy) - They want us to feel bad for giant corporations that are making money hand over fist while the consumer is shit on.
At the same time, very little is done to expose these and other lousy business practices.
two wrongs don't make a right.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, as to your actual points:
1. No reputable B&M store does this. They do make mistakes. They are legitimate mistakes.
2, 3. Rebates are offered by the manufacturer, not the store. Take it up with them.
4. Yeah, I'm sure you're right. I don't buy them.
5. That's part and parcel of pricematch policies. Places want to offer them, but they don't really want to get into price wars. Deal with it. If they didn't have these o
Not checking returns. (Score:4, Interesting)
Specifically, there was an 802.11 card that was the same model but different version (therefore different chipset -- Broadcom instead of Prism) than indicated on the box, a sound card that just wouldn't work (my fault for not researching), and a graphics card that had a fan even though the picture on the box showed a heatsink.
Anyway, all three times, they accepted my explanation and let me exchange for what I wanted, but they never actualy opened the boxes and looked at what I had returned, at least not while I was there.
On top of that, I paid cash each time, and declined to give them my name and address.
The third time, when I was returning the video card, I was actually tempted to swap it for an older card -- I was pretty sure they wouldn't look, and they had no way to trace me.
Of course the temptation only lasted a few seconds; I am not a thief, and the deed I was considering is really, really slimy. All the same, it doesn't surprise me at all that other people do this.
My wife works in retail, and has truely wonderful stories about customer returns. One of my favorites is the one about someone who returned a chiped coffee cup that the shop hadn't had in stock for at least 10 years, but it had the store's name written on the bottom. And they granted the refund.
As a cashier... (Score:4, Informative)
I know that it is stupidly difficult to commit retail fraud at Staples. Trust me. Why? Our all-encompassing POS system. Transaction histories, the ability to dig out a past receipt (no more "I lost it, but here's the item"), and linked transaction numbers. That, combined with checking the returned products (no computers filled with potatoes) and so on, make it that much more difficult for lowlife thieves.
In the 6 months I have worked here, the only crime I have heard about was all physical. Taking the box and running, taking a product out of the box and sneaking it out, etc. Pretty much all of the crimes committed in our stores are posted around the district. There are not too many of these, thankfully.
The article also talks about returning products being counted as fraud. I have not seen any evidence of it here. Of course, we don't sell fancy clothes you just want to wear once or whatever, but we flaunt our "bring it back in 30 days for any reason" policy and it doesn't even matter if they are just trying it out. If it's in saleable condition, sell it. Otherwise, return it to the manufacturer as defective. I don't see any problem. It might be a problem with the smaller retailers, but most of them also don't have return policies like we do.
Time to go, a customer is approaching the service desk.
Re:Bright as a... well... (Score:2)
i've bought coloured reflector bulbs before from maplin and i've learent you always check what color is actually in the box before buying as they do get put in the wrong boxes when people look at them
and all colors of theese bulbs are the same price so again they don't save anything by swapping the boxes
Re:look at subway's sub club cards (Score:2)
It's the same as the world has always been. There will always be evil and/or immoral people circumventing the system. This isn't new, but every generation seems to think it is. There is a reason that doors, locks, guard dogs, clubs, guns, and home/business security systems we
Re:Challenging Retail Theft Myths (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A new type of consumer report would fix this (Score:2)
I would not shop at your store, If I wanted to use cash for anonymity it still would not be anonymous. You would have a
record of the sale even if I used Cash. Ask Radio Shack about
that.
Re:A new type of consumer report would fix this (Score:2)
Good idea, except
Downside:
1) Crooks will steal your identity now. You would just give them one more reason to do that.
2) Look at all the problems with credit reports and incorrect information. So far a bad mark on your credit report will only PREVENT you from getting credit, which can be a bummer, but it doesn't COST you anything. What happens when you suddenly have to pay 30-50% more for everything because of a clerical error? Who
Re:Reminds me of this common story. (Score:3)
Are you implying that this justifies retail fraud? If so, I hate you.
Re:I did it (Score:4, Insightful)
The correct procedure to have followed in this case would be to either pay for the extended warranty of buy a new Xbox.
Look at it this way: if you justify stealing from Walmart because a product is out of warranty and you didn't bother to buy an extended warranty then the logical continuation of this is that all "customers" would be justified in doing so.
Re:$8 Billion went missing in Iraq & UStaxpaye (Score:3, Insightful)