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Ever think about not letting Best Buy check your receipt?

die.net — Aaron Hopkins from die.net rants about his dealings with Best Buyers after refusing to let them check his receipt before leaving the store.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 18, 2006

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  • allthewhile, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17You know why I like this link? Because I NEVER QUESTIONED IT. So many of you are calling names but I bet the majority of you never even considered whether or not the store had a legal right to detain you. I for one never even questioned it. It makes me wonder, "what else do I not even question."
  • LucianSolaris, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15wow, from the looks of the posts i'd say between one half to two thirds of the posters don't give a ***** about principle, freedom, and especially privacy.

    I understand this is rather stupid, but the shared mindset of the stated posters will become the downfall of our liberties and the open door to a 'police state', where everyone is monitored to 'protect' against terrorists, shoplifters, and non-conformists.

    remember kiddies, you must submit to the id card and anal probing at the gate or the terrorists will take your life, liberty, and happiness!
  • nevetS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Checking receipts is a loss prevention measure that's been around for at least half my life. I don't know if things have changed very much from when I was a retail lackey, but back then we had no aspersions that we actually had the right to detain a customer who would not follow the policy. Sure there's the overzealous tough guy who has fun by chasing people down or intimidating the non-cooperative customer, but even those guys typically were chastised by management.

    If someone regularly didn't cooperate, the LP guys would follow them around in the stores for a while the next time they came in. There were some people who never cooperated on principle. Most people cooperated because it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. If there was a line, inevitably somebody would just get out of line and leave.

    I can see the best buy monkey's reaction 4 days before christmas with a big line and a big box of something heading out the door. If you just let the guy go, you're afraid it'll just start happening left and right and there goes your LP strategy - at the worst time of year since there's a line almost every day at that pont. So go harass him, let everyone see it and apologize later. No law suit will ever happen as a result. A little bad publicity maybe - but it'll serve to assist the LP program anyways, since would be shoplifters might stay away from the stores with the crazy door checkers. The real solution, though, is to have enough door checkers around so that the line never gets to be more than two or three customers long.

    Cheers to the guy for taking a stand and not putting up with a needless waste of time.

    It's not like these loss prevention measures actually benefit the customer by making prices lower.
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10> wow, from the looks of the posts i'd say between one half to
    > two thirds of the posters don't give a ***** about principle,
    > freedom, and especially privacy.

    Amazing, isn't it? Seems that people are so cowed nowadays that they're willing to acknowledge the fake authority of a Best Buy employee. My pet peeve is being asked for my phone number when buying something. I just politely and firmly tell them that I'd prefer not to give it out and never get any argument. I never see anyone else do that. I don't understand why people are so easily pushed around.
  • wrex00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I can tell that many people on here are quite the staunch republicans. I think the guy has the option but Best Buy has ABSOLUTELY NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to hold him for his receipt. He was WELL WITHIN HIS RIGHT to walk out, even if it was to be a pain in the ass.

    Regardless, a customer SHOULD show his receipt as a COURTESY to the store BUT (and that's a very BIG "but") HE DOESN'T HAVE TO! You guys need to understand Best Buy doesn't have the legal authority, CASE CLOSED. **YOU** are doing BB the favor and you don't necessarily have to. It's at your discretion, NOT THEIRS!

    But I hope you ALL CAN SEE that Best Buy acted very irresponsibly grabbing his cart and blocking his car. If you don't see than then move to cuba and join the communist regime.

    I would like to think that Best Buy isn't going to infringe on my rights because they feel they can, Yet I'm a courteous customer, I'll keep showing my receipt but it's only because **I make that CHOICE**
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11tokyopimp, it's called principles. Someday, you'll understand.

    (Note to self: stop browsing at -2 flame.)
  • mlebeau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Broadway: The law is not anything specific to retailers checking receipts. It's based on the fact that once you purchase something at a retail store, it is your property, and folks at the establishment don't have the right to go rifling through what are now your personal belongings. If they could, then it would also be legal for me to stop a woman on the street and begin rifling through her purse to see if she took my stick of gum. Get it now?
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8resistance is a must. if you dont resist all forms of opresion you are opressing your self
  • deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"everyone has to remember, these businesses do this ***** for a reason."

    And what reason is that? I can think of a half-dozen electronic that don't do this, and they seem to remain in business.

    Besides, every time, every single f**king time they check my receipts, they don't really check the contents of the bag, they just glance, and mark the receipt. Why should I waste my time go through their caveman era inventory control methods.

    Finally, anyone who has worked at Best Buy, Comp USA and Circuit City knows that merchandise often goes out the back door after hours or in the trash dumpster to picked up later.
  • baraqiyal, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11"Waiting in line for a minute is NOT an illegal detainment you ***** idiots."

    But blocking his car is.
  • lemur, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9I understand the guy's principles because I too believe very much in privacy and freedom, but I also believe strongly in social responsibility and cooperation. He did make a point, but he knew what he was doing and was fully aware that he was causing trouble, which is not very considerate on his part. People do need to stand up and fight for themselves when there is a good cause, but when was the last time a shopper had suffered abuse just because his receipt was checked?
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7im just doing my job is no excuse. morals come before your job, or at least should. im sure nazi soldiers tortureing jews said "im just doing my job" does that excuse their acts?>
  • IsraelTorres, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Did anyone notice the dates of the emails?

    Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 02:12:18 -0800 (PST)

    digg--
  • baraqiyal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Idiots don't even know the justice system. He's not credible until he makes a reference to a state statue."

    You'll never find a statute that begins "You don't have to...". It's up to Best Buy to provide a statute that says that they have the legal right to detain him if he doesn't show his receipt.
  • mlebeau, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Haha, yes from what I understand his legal reasoning is correct. Surprisingly, although Fry's employees are incompetent at every other thing under the sun, they do seem to grasp this point, because I always ignore them if there's any sort of line to be checked. I don't mind the five seconds if there's no line, but if there's a line, forget it.

    I had a similar experience to this guy at Walmart once where I just walked out calmly and the lady screamed and screamed and someone yelled "someone call the cops!"... haha.. I just kept walking and they didn't do anything. The friend I was with was kind of freaked out, though.
  • breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10@ tokyopimp

    "Please only post 1984 quotes when you can prove that there is a camera in my bedroom right now. "

    That's like saying "Don't claim that a holocaust is about to happen until people are being gassed in concentration camps." You don't wait until the war is lost and the worst has happened to oppose something wrong that is happening. I bet you're a Bush supporter, yet this is exactly what Bush claimed to do it Iraq, he said the reason we invaded Iraq was so we could stop the WMDs before Saddam had a chance to use them. As it turns out there were no WMDs, so his whole argument is invalid, but the point here is that we ARE losing our rights more and more and in very real ways. The time to stand up and put a stop to this trend is NOW!
  • deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Another corporation treating all it's customers like criminals....

    I plan to test this at my next, earliest convenience.
  • jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5People who are blind tools are funny, even defend the system oppressing them. :-)

    I've been doing this for a while now, but oddly I've never had anyone even question me about it, the rent-a-sharpie-guy just looks at me oddly.
  • breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@ maxlogan

    Fine, then you stand up and tell me where YOU are going to stand up by yourself to start opposing the loss of our personal rights. Where ever you stand up to fight for our rights then I will back you up. Until then shut up.
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5how did someone standing up for himself draw so many imature flames. remember your rights wont disapear all at once, no one would stand for that. but if we start accepting little things that arent that big of a deal, that makes the next intrusive act down the line less of a big deal, and we end up in bondage. resisting control hurts no one except the controler, and no one has any right to control anyone else. the only person you can ever change is your self, so stop worrying about other peoples acts and opinions and improve your selves, maybe then the world will take you as an example, but you cant force anyone to do anything.
  • darkten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wasn't going to reply to this...but I just couldn't resist.

    Its very simple.

    While there is no harm in showing the door dude your receipt, there is no harm in declining, either.

    The whole shopping experience in this stores has become quite intrusive and damned creepy.

    My Best buy routine:

    Walk into Best Buy with earbuds, long (expensive) leather coat, and sunglasses.

    Make my selections, wait in retarded line to walk up to an empty register...as opposed to going directly to empty register. More "Loss prevention" inconvenience,

    Have way too much information asked of me for a simple purchase. Decline.

    Pay for what I bought and leave.

    Period. The employees are welcome to follow me around the store if they wish while some thief is robbing them blind. That's their time, effort and energy. I'm not expending mine.

    And it isn't "*****" or "dicketry"...its a massive inconvenience and it has little to do with you, the shopper, and almost everything to do with them not trusting their *employees*.

    Seriously. The next you are in one of these places, count the cameras, the number of items in 'don't steal me' boxes, the additional embedded security tags, the "I need to get the key from Mike" events, the "I need to escort you to the register*" deals and you'll soon see that there are more than enough in-store loss prevention measures in place. They even have cameras over the checkouts.

    Its a further inconvenience that like so many other new policies, mores and laws introduced in the last 15 years are designed to pre-criminalize you while simultaneously desensitizing you to this sort of thing. Ask your Grandma...

    *I usually invite them to put it the hell back when this happens. I'm neither a child nor a thief and I find this extremely insulting and in poor form, as it often interrupts my shopping session/experience.
  • megabytehl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It appears Civil Disobedience has long been forgotten. Which explains alot of things wrong with this country today.
  • breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@ tokyopimp

    Wow, you are not intelligent. It was an analogy to show that things can start small, grow slowly, and wind up being awful situation.

    Here's some SAT question:

    Germany asking to see people's travel papers before leaving a town leads to holocaust
    as
    Stores unlawfully detaining people before leaving a store leads to what?

    It may lead to nothing, or it may lead to something awful. Either way, no amount of having your rights violated is acceptable and anyone standing up for their rights should be commended. Did he go about things the right way? No, but neither did Rosa Parks. You have to stand up for your rights, no matter how small, if they are being violated. Is standing in line a big deal? Of course not, but they detained this guy against his will and blocked his car in preventing him from leaving. That's ***** up and illegal. Even though he didn't do it in the best way, this guy stood up for himself and ALL of our rights. We should all give him a little thanks.
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I'm right there with the author of this piece and I give the guy a great deal of credit for doing this. I'm so sick and ***** tired of intrusive and annoying shopping experiences. I don't want people greeting me at the door. I don't want receipt checks. I don't want to give you my goddamn phone number at the register. I don't need a ***** customer loyalty card to carry around with me and swipe at the register every time I buy something.

    I'm not sure how the simple act of buying something has turned into the kind of ordeal you have to put up with nowadays but the guy who wrote this piece speaks for the frustration of many people who are fed up with it.
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8> Obey the rules or ***** off

    "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

    --George Orwell, 1984
  • ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In that case, I'll see you in court, and you can say bye bye to your little business, *****.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Screw Best Buy!


    also screw all of you that think that think this guy did something wrong
  • nymphetamine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5note to self: buy soda at best buy and refuse to have them check my receipt. so much fun!
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4> Until then stop being a sensationalist tool, who read one
    > to many books, and articles.

    LOL! I'm going to print that out and hang it on my fridge. I've never had anyone try to inslut me by claiming I read too many books. Ouch! Direct hit, tailgunner tokyopimp! That's hilarious.

    Oh and welcome to my block list. You can tell everyone about it at the next Best Buy employee meeting, okay?
  • tokyopimp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6@ inkswamp

    No it's called "Not that big of a deal!"

    I'm sorry you couldn't get to your destination 1 minute earlier because Best Buy has a crap load of people, doesn't have enough employees to monitor everyone (thanks to the holiday season), and just wants to check your reciept to make sure there isn't anything else in that bag.

    I'm sure your more important than the rest of the people in line, though.
  • Toecutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I ignore them all the time and they never do anything.
    They walk after me and say sir i need to check your reciept , i just say ***** off or call a cop.
    They always just let me walk away, even when the door buzzer is going off for no reason.
  • darkten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Maxlogan. No.

    No, no, no, no, no.

    Its:

    "If you aren't doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't be bothered."

    Its not:

    "If you aren't doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't mind being bothered, as you've nothing to hide."

    Here in America, people are accustomed to believing that if in fact they aren't doing anything untoward, they are to be left alone. If one of the principles that the place was founded upon.

    I suspect tho, within a generation, at the rate things are going, the job of reversing this mindset among the populace will be complete.

    It is not the job of the shopper to assist the merchant in securing their wares in ANY WAY, and if such an exchange should occur, it is most definitely voluntary.

    That's it...END OF STORY, as you say.
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3checking receipts keeps prices low

    the patriot act stops terror and helps the econemy

    Has anyone else noticed a trend of rights being sold for cash? can you say slavery?
  • tokyopimp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If anyone is so inconvienced by them checking your reciept, just go to circuit city and buy your crap, I've never had my reciept asked for from there. I go to the counter, say "No" to the extended warranty, and pay for my crap, leave and be done.

    And are we forgetting that he was shopping during the holiday season. I don't know about anyone else, but the Best Buy I have shoped at, is literally a fire hazard during the holidays. So I really don't blame them for checking recipts when there are so many people there, and not enough employees to monitor the situation.
  • cheech26, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Check out the following site for more information on the legalities of the the Exit Bag Check.

    http://crimedoctor.com/loss_prevention_3.htm
  • ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Once you pay, its yours. They can't check. And its not their property, they're leasing it.
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so innerred, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will that they will fight to protect it.
  • ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ok, but if there was a huge lineup, why stand in it when it offers no benefit to you
  • jbus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It is very annoying to take 3 steps away from the register with bag and receipt in hand and have a bored employee with a sharpie checking your receipt as SLOWLY as possible while chit chatting with their co-workers. As if you had time or opportunity to shoplift 5 steps after the register.

    Most of the stores that do this also have electronic RF sensors at the door and tag their products or at least products above a certain value, so this is not only redundant and annoying , it really give the impression that they just do not trust their customers. So why give them your business? Just make sure you tell them why you don't give them your business. Because they make it a hassle to make a simple purchase. If they are so worried that people are shoplifting they can install cameras and more RF sensors and have more security and so forth, but they should not be hassling their customers.
  • Broadway, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I would like to get the actual law we are dealing with out there so people actually know what the ***** they are talking about.

    There is no law that says anything about whether or not receipts can be checked on ostensibly purchased goods.

    The actual law in question states that a retailer may only detain a customer if there is a reasonable suspicion that he is shoplifting. This means that the law is subjective.

    Courts tend to favor customers who sue companies for detainment on false grounds. Therefore, most smart companies have rigid policies for who to detain which goes well beyond the law.

    This is because losing one TV costs a lot less than being sued.

    Now, you have to consider that this guy is exiting the store from a distant register, not the one next to the door. He has a cart full of expensive, unmarked products. To the guy at the front, it would be impossible to tell whether he had paid for them or not.

    Now, I'm not sure if this is suitable grounds for detainment or not. I just don't think this guy is as firmly planted in the right as he thinks he is.

    And it's not like he's sticking it to "Best Buy," the devious corporate entity. He's sticking it to a bunch of dudes who are trying to make some money and not get fired.
  • AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4We need to snow ball this kind of action and resistance to control. we need to care about standing up for our selves in a respectful way, it only helps us and others. if standing up against this kind of thing becomes the norm whats next? standing up against slavery and genocide? i can only hope
  • mattstat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That some readers do not feel the same indiggnation as Mr Hopkins did, surprises me.

    If you feel that it is "no big deal" to show your receipt, then you are tacitly acknowledging that some of your fellow customers are likely to be thieves. You are allowing that you too are likely to be a thief.

    You are admitting that the people surrounding you are not responsible and are are not acting civilly. You are saying the same of yourself. You are allowing that you and your fellow citizens should not be shown respect.

    And there is the main problem: because you do not think that your fellow citizens should be shown respect, you therefore have no right to demand respect be shown to you.

    The demeaning behavior on the part of Best Buy is not worth putting up with to save fifty cents on a pack of blank disks.
  • resetpassword, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2receipt checking seems useless. if you get a Best Buy bag, wouldn't it mostly be because you just bought something? Feels like Border Patrol.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This thread and enclosed links just wasted an hour of my life.
    I see both sides - and yet I do get annoyed by stores asking for my phone # and all the other data they need to let me buy a product.

    At radio shack they not only need my ph#, but they then verify my address to me. if the Phony # I give them is not recognized the ask to input my name and address...(what?)

    Sometimes its too much... 2 days ago I bought a USB Minilight (it lights up your laptop keyboard at night) for $3.00 and a pair of $4.00 external mp3 speakers at Officemax... Yep the 16yr old girl between the double doors needed to chk my receipt. Maybe someday when I want to save the 30seconds I will refuse and hope I don't spent 20minutes explaining myself.
  • Makr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've done this, i bought a couple of CD's from the register right in front of the exit. the guy had the gall to ask for a receipt. and this is while i'm checking it as a walk out the door. He physically saw me hand the cash over for the 4 cd's i was buying. and then was like, you have to wait here, and i was like no and walked out the door. they did nothing after that.it's stupid. they have no right to go through my stuff.
  • breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ maxlogan

    I can't believe in this discussion about ideas you're going to attack someone based on their looks. To me, that comment says more about you then it says about the guy you insulted.
  • breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ maxlogan

    You can't shake the devil's hand then say your only kidding. Clearly, if you are gonna bring a guy's looks into an argument then YOU are the one who isn't being open minded. I have a policy not to argue with people who aren't going to consider what is being said because they are close minded. I've listened to what you've said and some of what you say is reasonable. But if it's not a 2 way street and you only want to talk about your ideas but you are not going to try to understand by really listening, then there's no point in having a discussion with you. I almost envy people that are so sure of their positions that they can't even consider other points of view.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I've worked in support and customers like him are the ones that make support and retail jobs some of the worst to have."

    You mean customers who know their rights?
  • Ignathius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I understand his frustration. But..

    I like the receipt-checking policy. I think it prevents shoplifting, which keeps prices low and profits high (two things that help stores stay in business). Also, some stores (like Costco) claim that it helps identify items that are accidentally double-rung.

    Not sure about the legal rights he talks about, but I guess it makes sense."

    Best Buy having low prices? HAHAHAHA

    and the legal rights he's talking about are the fact that a store employee can't legally detain you unless they suspect you of shoplifting. don't believe it? go out on the street somewhere and try to detain someone for no good reason, and see who gets the cops attention when they show up.
  • jbus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If enough people resist or complain about being treated as criminals by default then this type of practice will stop and stores will have to do the right thing and make their loss prevention transparent except to those that are actually stealing. This is both possible and reasonable for customers to expect. The Corporate profits/losses of a company are not my problem when I'm shopping at a store. I can not be expected to worry about the financial standing of a company of which I am not an investor.

    Do they want their customers to come in and balance their ***** checkbooks too? How about sweeping the floors, cleaning the toilets and stocking their merchandise since we are in the store anyway. "Stock 5 items for every item you would like to purchase, it helps us keep our costs low and our payroll down and NO it's not optional"

    Seriously though... Having some grandma or some distracted teenager checking receipts is pretty lame attempt at loss prevention anyway. If people are getting up to the front of the store with large items like big-screen TVs and such without paying, then this company has other problems they need to deal with. Anyone who wants to steal smaller items is going to bolt past Grandma and cousin Timmy anyway. Legally a company can not force Grandma or Timmy to chase down a shoplifter. That shoplifter could do anything out of desperation their small wages are not worth their lives. Unless you are a trained security guard and this is what you signed up to do you'd be stupid to chase a thief that runs down. So what is the ***** point of this receipt crap? Real thieves are going to get away, and law abiding customers have to put up with yet another annoyance. What a ***** joke.
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