AIBU to consider reporting this small grocery shop to Action Fraud?

[gingerbread88]

My son (12) was walking to the local park over the weekend with two friends. He has a debit card so stopped at a corner shop type convenience store to buy a drink and a chocolate bar.
He used his card via chip and pin and on the hand held card reader it said 'approved' but the man serving in the shop said it hadn't gone through and he was told to do it again. He did it again and again he saw 'approved' on the machine but the man claimed it hadn't gone through so his friend paid the £2.19 for him.
As they turned to leave the shop, an aggressive older lady came out from the back of the shop and demanded (shouting) they 'turn out their pockets, she had seen them on camera from the back of the shop stealing chewing gum from the counter'. All 3 boys were mortified and turned their pockets out and she realised her error and just sort of shrugged and the boys walked out.
My son called me straight away as he was very upset and explained what had happened and my husband then went to the shop straight away to find out what on earth had gone on. The man who was serving in the shop insisted both transactions had failed and that the woman had simply made a mistake in accusing the three boys of stealing. My husband advised them they should be more cautious in accusing customers of stealing.
I went into the bank today as being under 16 he isn't allowed internet banking (bank rule) They printed me off a statement from the computer and there is the 2 x transactions to this shop one after the other for £2.19 each debited from his account.
I went into the shop today to show them the bank statement and the transactions proving his card had been charged and asking why he wasn't given a receipt if the transactions had failed as the man claimed. I also said I was upset that aside from this, he and his friends were falsely accused of stealing and had been made to turn their pockets out. The woman was very defensive and aggressive towards me and started ranting and shouting and said she is sick of kids stealing from her, went into story after story of how people come into her shop and steal, the police do nothing, they have been told they have the right to get people to turn their pockets out as 'police won't come'. Even minors I asked as I had suggested it would have been better for them to call the police or parents as the children felt threatened and intimidated. Having experienced her wrath and anger this evening I have a very good idea of how she behaves in her shop.
When I showed the transactions had gone through she refused to accept it, saying he must have been in there 3 x and bought other things and she wanted to see times as just the date was not good enough. It was like talking to a brick wall and she was shouting and telling me to 'shut up'. When I asked to see the gentleman who had served my son and see what he had to say, he said there must be something wrong with the machine as the transactions didn't go through. The son of the couple came down and was trying to pacify the situation and was more reasonable and gave me the £4.40 out of the till.
I have left there feeling like they are fraudsters and preying on youngsters going into their shop (it is used a lot by school children as it is on a senior school route) Possibly the incorrect change here and there or like in my son's case, telling a minor his card hasn't gone through thus repeating transactions. He had ended up paying for a drink and a chocolate bar 3 x over.
Maybe they think all young people who use their shop are thieves and they have a right to claw back some of their stolen stock, who knows what they are thinking. The more I think about it, if it was a genuine mistake and it has 'never happened before' as they claimed to me today, and there must be a 'problem with their machine' some sort of receipt should have been printed or given to show a declined transaction. I have no idea about these hand held machines small businesses use. As an adult we would be more savvy with this and request it, kids do as they are told by adults so they are taking advantage of this I now feel in hindsight.
I am unsure whether to let it go as we got the money back out of the till or whether to make a report to Action Fraud or to Barclays as they may be doing this to lots of youngsters and it's not nice and to be honest their attitude was horrible.
Sorry for the long post!

Defiantly report them to trading standards and the police as it’s attempted theft.

As a PP said, the odd fiver there and there will soon add up to thousands a year, and the outrageous stereotyping of young people (their main customers) is just wrong.

Report them to the police and definitely let the school know, as pp have said that money will add up , and they could be scamming elderly people as well.

^definately report them not ‘defiantly’

@tjzmummabear

Oh dear.🙈 I just think about the poor elderly they could be scamming.

there was a whole tv show on them doing this.corner shop very common.
often too people don't ask for a receipt or check.so they just bung on amounts.
couldn't believe it so started keeping an eye on our local.and fuck me he was doing it.caught him out when I asked for the receipt.suddenly he changed his mind and said "ooh sorry hang on"amount when down by £3

DollyRose - they’re not a lovely family. They’re thieves and cheats.

@whiteworld

Oh yes complely!
Up untill we figured this out but they are just so welcoming. I guess that's how they get business or in their case build relationships to steal money and make you think no they wouldn't intentionally do that! I've suggested they get an itemised reciept machine.

I had a card repeatedly declined over a small amount (in a very nice cafe in Dover) and each time I was given a receipt showing it had been cancelled before eventually paying with cash. I'd immediately rung my bank to find out what the problem was with my card and they confirmed I'd not been charged and that there wasn't a problem with my card, so I was perfectly reassured that all was well.

This sounds much less innocent and I agree with everyone suggesting it's reported to police, school, trading standards and also to the bank(s) involved to watch out for suspicious (potentially fraudulent) transactions from that particular point of sale unit.

Jo

I would also recommend emailing the school

Our small post office used to add on extra £1s and hope you wouldn't notice
As a result I don't go there anymore

There’s a shop near us notorious for this. They preyed on the elderly in particular. One son got suspicious, went round the shop with his dad adding up the items they wanted to buy, they discreetly pretended to be looking at something not so far from the tills so he could hear the cashier tell his dad how much it all came to. About £4 more than it should have been!

I’d also see if I could contact their acquirer. World pay is one of the big ones, they won’t be happy if the shop are using their technology to commit fraud.

I’m generally put off using my cards in shops like that. I’ll only go in if I have cash.

I work with a lot of vulnerable adults and have witnessed and reported all sorts of scams in small shops including offering credit to "special customers" but of course charging a hefty fee for the privilege. Changing the price on goods at different times of day to maximise profits, splitting multipack goods and selling as individual packs and selling smuggled tobacco and cigarettes.

Oh wow, so much more widespread than I thought.
To think I was giving the benefit of doubt to them, perhaps it was an error with the card machine, perhaps they were mistaken etc and maybe 8 was being heavy handed to want to report them to the authorities.
The lack of receipts, the fact my son is old enough to have seen it approved on the machine twice but didn't feel confident enough to ague his case with an adult has left a bad taste in my mouth.
So yes, they accused the three of them of stealing and made to turn their pockets out but the reality was they were stealing from my son.
They seem to have this sense of entitlement about it too, like they're the victims overall and all they have to put up with in their shop. The woman was so unpleasant. Even when we left the shop she was ranting maybe he had been in there 3 x that day and bought things in 3 separate transactions and she wanted the times, not just the date. Even the son was saying to her, 'give it a rest Mum, we have charged this kid three times for a chocolate bar and a drink'.
Much as I like to shop local and support small businesses, I think I'll be taking my custom to Tesco Express or the coop in future.
I'm going to call Barclays tomorrow as a starting point and report them of fraudulent transactions and go from there.

I would also reach your ds to ALWAYS ask for the receipt, whether the transaction has gone though or not.

This will solve a lot of issues for him (and no possible argument on the shop side)

I work in a shop and I think you should definitely report it.
We use the c&p machines all of the time and every single time a transaction fails, a receipt comes out and we always give them to the customer

I would definitely contact the bank. That's fraud and they should act on your behalf to get the money returned to the account and pursue it from the fraudster.

My children have bank accounts with barclays and they the app. It may be worth changing his account to a bank at he can access or a go henry card

Trading standards are useless and corrupt in many areas too. They take kick backs
That's interesting. Which areas? What evidence? Taking back kicks is a crime. Now you know about it it is your duty to report it.

The shop were clearly trying it on. If a card payment is declined it will always say so on the device and the receipt will print out to say so. More often than not, the card machines give a different tone of beep for approved and declined which you soon get used to as a shop worker. Also if they were trying to argue the three different times angle they could check the times, amounts and last few digits of card number on their merchant copy of the card receipt.

Some card issuers provide window clings with the company name and the types of cards they accept. It may be worth checking if there's one on the door/window of the shop so you can trace the card provider and report the behaviour.

An ex-friend of my mum's owns a small shop and they are no longer friends because of exactly this type of shitty behaviour: giving change from a fiver when a tenner has been given, adding on a pound here and there, selling out of date stock knowingly. It must be rife.

I hate to say it, but I think a lot of small shops are like this. My local, if you pay cash will always short change you by 20p

If they have 300 customers per day then that’s £60, that’s 20 grand per year.

In our last village, we had three shops. The Co-op, the Post Office and the other one. The other one was infamous for shorting, overcharging, selling booze to minors etc. I remember buying a jug of milk for 1.99, handing over a fiver and getting back a pound and a penny. He only gave me the correct change when I promised to call the police.

How many of us religiously go through receipts even if we are given one?

Many years ago when I was in a ultra busy time of my life running a (successful) business and organising my wedding
I dropped off an outfit at a dry cleaners and didn't think twice.

Literally about 22 years later I was going through some old bank statements when I noticed a colossal amount had gone through for £1299.

I thought what on earth could that be? I had reduced my workload by then as I children so money was tighter.

When I managed to decipher the company name I realised it was a receipt for the dry cleaners!

They had forgotten? To put a full stop in the amount so instead of £12.99 the amount was £1299!!

I never pursued it as I had moved away, was years ago and the dry cleaners were gone.

It was so easily done and as they were dealing with well heeled clientele how often had that scam been pulled off do you think?!

I can imagine what they would have said if I had confronted them:Whoops! Sorry an honest mistake we just forgot the digital point?!

No receipt was handed over either, it just came up a month later on the credit card which I didn't even bother looking at to eternal shame and horror.

So, check your dry cleaners' receipts folks!