To ask how honest you all are ?

[fourfingerkitkat]

I'm no saint... I have, on occasion, told the odd wee porkie pie but my experiences at work recently have left me wondering if everybody nowadays is quite happy to be dishonest and lie to get what they want...

I work for a large high street store and there have been lots of offers on in the run up to Xmas, 3 for 2's, half price offers etc. A few weeks ago a particular 3 for 2 offer was flying off the shelves as the customer was saving approximately £40. In the past week I've loads of people bringing this particular item back claiming it was bought as a gift and they don't have a receipt so they're offered an exchange for the full value. After speaking to my colleagues they say the exact same thing happens every year, people buy loads of the 3 for 2's then bring back the "free third" item and get goods in the shop effectively for nothing.

Is this wrong or just a sign of the times ? Don't think I would ever have the bottle to do it myself. Whilst the money lost isn't coming out of my pocket directly, I'm more pi**ed off by the time it takes to serve all of them when the shop is already mobbed with Xmas shoppers !

[BrandyAlexander]

Ah! You have just explained something I have been struggling to understand since Saturday! I bought toys as presents in the Boots 3 for 2 sale and wanted a gift receipt. I was told that Boots don't do them anymore (the till can do it, but it is company policy not to do it) for the exact reason that you're explaining. I felt really thick because I couldn't work out the "scam", it's only just made sense seeing it written down!

I think the answer to your question is that (based on my conversation with the sales assistant) that this is now prevalent and not seen as dishonesty but of getting a good deal however I am sure you will have gazillion people come on now and tell you how honest they are

[squeakytoy]

Sainsburys had big notices up everywhere this week saying "no toy will be refunded or exchanged without proof of purchase". Every store should follow that practice.

[Brycie]

Gosh I wouldn't do that. That's awful.

[YourHandInMyHand]

I wouldn't have the balls to do that - it's so obvious! What about people who do get these things for xmas though and get a duplicate gift? Will they be able to exchange?

I do think the Boots 3 for 2 things tend to be priced with the offer in mind though, in the same way that ELC price things with the 20% off vouchers in mind.

[Trills]

Recently I was in a shop with a friend who was returning some shoes.

The handed over the shoes and her receipt, put her card in the machine, etc.

At the point where I would have walked off, she pointed out that it had been a 10% off day when she bought the shoes, and that they had refunded her the full price.

It then took another 10 minutes of calling the manager and faffing about to take back the extra money. (I was rather hoping that they'd say "our mistake, can't be bothered, keep it")

I am not as honest as that.

[diddl]

I wouldn´t-but sounds as if the shop has a shit (for them) returns policy.

It amazes me that in this "day & age" stuff can´t be tracked as having been bought as part of an offer anyway.

I did once buy a ring binder, accidentally stood on it & broke it & took it back to exchange-and got a new one without a problem.

[EmmelineGoulden]

I lie about all sorts of things. Pretend the train was late when it was really all my fault. Blame my DH when I've double booked. Tell a chugger I have no money/bank account/heart.

But I never try to get things dishonestly, doesn't seem any different to theft to me. But I know some places don't care about this sort of thing. It still gets customers in spending money, and since they give store credit rather return cash to the customer it doesn't matter much to them whether they are "giving away" a third jumper or something else instead.

[BANGBonkeyMollocksBANG]

We used to get people trying this with BOGOFs.


Shop policy at the time was 'We can't refund the 'free' item without the other item' , didn't stop people trying though!

Sounds to me the shop needs to grow some balls and a decent returns policy!

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

I am honest to the point of pain. I have AS, I couldn't be dishonest if my life depended on it. If a question requires a white lie to save someone's feelings, I'm like a rabbit caught in the headlights

[mluddy]

Yes me too. I do lie if someone's invited me to something I don't want to go to, just really to save hurting feelings.

But I just see that as theft and I'd never do it. I've had enough low paid jobs myself and just see it as taking money from the staff.

Having said that if someone had accidentally undercharged me I wouldn't necessarily go back and tell them.

[SirSugar]

the best thing I ever took back was a pair of high heeled ankle boots. I had fallen on the stairs in them because one heel completely broke off and the other tore up the back leaving the heal attached dangling from the leather which had ripped.

I opened the box in front of shop assistant and said ' I almost broke my neck in these'; the poor woman had an awful job keeping a straight face as she refunded me.

I also took back an indate, but off lobster to sainsburys. I suggested to the assistant that I would advise not opening the bags to check as the smell will clear the store. we took it outside to the bin where she had a quick look, the stench was vom inducing

[EmmaNemms]

I tell little white ones sometimes if I've forgotten to do something etc but most of the time, I don't seem to need to. My DH and I ran a care agency for 5 years and to be honest, the scope of people's (staff, mostly) lying was breathtaking. 'I've got D&V and can't work' at 6am on a Sunday am, when they've been telling all the clients they're going out on the piss the previous night, 'my car won't start but I don't want you to arrange me a lift' 'I can't work at the moment, even though I've got 50 calls to vulnerable old people in the next few days because my depression is back' then you see on their public FB wall, that they've got a great new job. It was incredibly depressing. The icing on the cake was the woman who suddenly went off sick at the same time her favourite client cancelled a weeks worth of calls. You don't really need to be Poirot...I sat outside the clients house and watched her arrive and leave at the normal time, having delivered the care and presumably split the fee. She still had the gall to insist she wasn't there and hadn't done anything wrong. It was so embarrassing. I can read people quite well and loathe being lied to.

[EmmaNemms]

My teenage daughter has just started a Saturday job at peacocks and she says the main focus of her job seems to be watching out for stealing.

[Ephiny]

I'm not above the occasional harmless white lie, but wouldn't do the 'scam' described in the OP. It's obviously wrong IMO, and I wouldn't have the cheek to do something so obvious anyway!

[LadyMargolotta]

I think three for two offers should be banned anyway, they just encourage wastage, and overeating when it's food.

[DappyHays]

Not completely dishonest but my daughter at around 22 months cried every time she wore a particular pair of shoes. They were Clarks and had been bought 3 months previously. I mentioned it in the shop and the woman told me to return them. They were quite scuffed (white leather) and ready for the bin and I got a full refund.

My DD is very fussy about her shoes, now that she's 8 I realise she was just crying because she didn't like them.

The Clarks store said they must have been fitted incorrectly.

I've used codes to get 20% off online then returned in store and got the full refund. I've handed them the invoice that states clearly there's been a discount, so don't feel bad about it.

If I saw someone drop a wallet or purse I'd pick it up and hand it over to them/police. If I found an anonymous £20 note in the street I'd pocket it.

A burglar was being chased by the police and they caught up with him in my garden (we knew nothing about it until they knocked on our door). The police needed to search our garden as they believed he'd dropped iPads and iPhones in it. I let them get on with it but DH and I were laughing saying "shucks, wish we'd got there first"...though I'd like to think if I found a random iPad in the garden I'd hand it in.

[Hexenbiest]

I'm very honest - and I wonder this.

I bought some school uniform and week after it was at a reduced rate - I thought oh that's annoying. It came up in conversation and people were telling me to take it back get a refund even when I pointed out once I'd paid the bus fair I'd have little left - apparently big business rips people off and we should all get what we can .

Some friend bought some expensive furniture and the bill didn't come instead of chasing the company up for invoice or just paying they just waited and after 6 months spent the money on a holiday.

Some friend deliberately damaged a carpet so they could claim on insurance and have a new one.

It just staggers me and I wonder if I?m being a mug sometime not to join in?so sadly I?m not surprised about the 3 for 2. Mention it to head office and get them to change their returns policy.

[CuriousMama]

I'm honest and wouldn't do the return thing.

Dp and I have been away this weekend and went to a lovely Italian restaurant. The table next to us hadn't been charged for their wine, and told the waitress. That's really nice and something I'd do too but I imagine a lot wouldn't?

[CuriousMama]

Oh I know someone who twice dropped an iron on their carpet on purpose I think it was investigated the second tiime?

[Hexenbiest]

I've had s shoe shop insist of giving a refund when I hadn't expected one. Five months ware on DS shoes but the rubber toe end had caved - giving him a sore toe. They insisted it wasn't normal wear and tear when I went to get new ones despite me pointing out DS is hard on shoes. So they refunded and sent them back to manufacture.

[EmmaNemms]

I get really cross with people who claim falsely on insurance, they don't seem to understand that it costs the rest of us a fortune. I had a minor car accident recently was plagued by calls about claiming for whiplash when I didn't have any. The husband of our office administrator, an ex copper, was a bit put out when I expressed the same view to him, after he suggested I claim falsely.

[Hexenbiest]

My friends were 'smart' CuriousMama two different rooms several years apart once paint and once an iron. They never got questioned.

We had damaged done by bulgier to a garage door only time we have ever claimed and it was for that one item ? separate insurance for the vehicle taken, and we had and inspector out who followed up with the police and took crime number and everything and gave us the third degree despite obvious damage.

[SufferingLampreys]

I think I'm honest.
I would have been the friend who admitted they had refunded too much for shoes

Bakers forgot to charge me for an item on Saturday so I pointed it out

Feels wrong to me to not point these things out

[freddiefrog]

Fairly honest I think.

I would never do anything like in the OP, and DD1 (as a toddler) once nicked a paid of pyjamas from Adams (we got half way home before I noticed the furiously waving PJs from the pushchair) which I returned with profuse apologies.

The odd white lie I'm guilty of.

I've also checked my receipt when I've got home from the supermarket or somewhere and realised something wasn't scanned through but not gone back with it.

With insurance, I thought they always checked. I once, genuinely knocked a tin of gloss paint down our stairs (I was glossing the bannisters). I'd covered the area where I was working with a dust sheet, but not the stairs and hallway. The tin bounced down the stairs, splattered the wall, the carpet, the living room door and one end of the sofa - it was my first ever claim, but they came out to investigate

[Alisvolatpropiis]

People tried to do that all the time where I used to work. They were always sadly disappointed if I was working that day!

It is why all shops should insist on having proof of purchase and not budge regardless of how much the customer shouts about it.