Had a run-in with a store detective

[MeetMyCat]

I bought some make up in my local Boots at lunch time. The self serve till asked me if I wanted a receipt, I said no. On the way out the store, my shopping obviously triggered some sort of alarm; hardly an unusual occurrence so I stepped back into the store, expecting a member of staff to approach me. I realised the item I’d purchased had some sort of security tag on, I assumed this had caused the problem. However Security came straight over, I assumed they would help me and de-tag the item. The woman asked to see my receipt, but I didn’t have one. I rarely request a receipt for small items. She kept repeating over and over ‘I need to see proof of payment’ and I kept repeating that I’d paid but didn’t obtain a receipt. In the end she said that if I didn’t provide proof of payment I would be detained.

I realise store detectives/security don’t have any powers of arrest, and also she was really petite and probably wouldn’t have been able to force me, if I had refused to go with her.

Quite a few people were watching by this point and it was getting quite embarrassing. Thankfully I then remembered that I’d paid using Barclays debit, and any transactions show up on my app almost immediately. So I logged into the app, showed her the transaction, she de-tagged my item and said I was free to go.

I think I’m just posting because I’m pissed off. What on earth would have happened if I hadn’t had my banking app as proof? Where would I stand? Surely failure to obtain a receipt is not the same as failing to pay, and most tills now ask you whether or not you want a receipt.

The moral of the story: forget about being green, always get a receipt

@Comedycook you were a pain in the arse by dumping your shopping.
You do realise almost every major shop has CCTV cameras. Every customer is regarded "with suspicion". They wouldn't have the cameras otherwise.

Exactly, its a fundamental part of the job. Weird to be annoyed about it. And if yuo did,blame the scurity guard for causing the customer to abandon their shopping.

His job isn't to make customers so uncomfortable that they leave without purchasing.
It doesn't matter what reason he thought he had, he was in the wrong.

@piratypotato yes but it took time away from doing other tasks.
On a Monday morning I was meant to do price checks and put the newspapers before the shop opened. Then do restocking goods and assisting customers when the shop opened. That was my job. Instead I often spent Monday morning spending 2 hours dashing around putting abandoned stock back where it was meant to be. I could have not bothered. But then customers would have complained we hadn't got items they wanted. Usually we had. It was just in a random stupid place.

I always get a receipt, whether paying at the till manned by a person or at a machine to avoid any misunderstandings or any faff.

Also because I check my till receipt very carefully when I get home as there are sometimes mistakes but the store which I did not catch whilst I was packing, etc. On the occasions I've spotted the mistake once I've got home I'm asked for details which are on the receipt itself and told to bring in the receipt for a refund, etc 🌹

You really care too much. You do whatever tasks need doing at any given time. Put back abandoned stock (no need to dash,you're paid wnough for that) and then restock goods, assisting customers as necessary.
Don't lets pretend any of it is important or that the tasks need prioritising. LEt it go.

@piratypotato paid enough ! Working in retail.
Hahahahaha 😂😂😂😂😂
Oh I wish.
I left retail years ago and would never go back to it.
It was shit. Low pay. Too much to do. And far too many twatty customers.

This happened to my husband who told them to check their own cctv for proof of purchase. They got into a dispute and the security team said something along the lines of they don't have time to check the cctv. Ridiculous!

It's annoying as I try to be as paperless as possible but sometimes when buying shopping in sainsburys (which is where this happened) I am now paranoid the same thing will happen to me and so print the receipt.

I would assuming the pp meant to say your not paid enough for that

its pretty clear thats meant to be not paid enoigh,from context.

@piratypotato ok apologies if you meant "not paid enough". That's part of the point. Not paid enough but having to be dashing around trying to do 15 different things at once.
Anyway the company I worked for went bust and 1000s of people lost their jobs.
That's life eh?

Exactly, so why would you? I never did. I did each task methodically, not fast. I wasn'tpaid to care what got done and when!

Our local supermarket only allow you to opt out of getting a receipt if it is below a certain amount and you cannot opt out if you buy certain items like wine/meat etc. Mind you most people just drop them in the bin near the self service checkout.

That's exactly what I thought when I read that post.

@piratypotato because it needed to be done. Or else we couldn't sell things. I was paid to "care" that certain tasks that needed to be done got done. But then you would find that other things (like searching for random stock that could literally be anywhere in the store) took time away from important tasks.

It was because the electronic tag wasn't removed and sounded the alarm

He didn't assume you were innocent. He just had a very clever and in offensive way of checking you had a receipt.

I returned something to Waitrose recently, a duplicate purchase made in error.

For months now I have said no to the receipt but luckily for some reason the till issued a receipt without asking.
I told the assistant when I took it back that for once I did actually have the receipt but that normally I wouldn't have one. She told me that I should always say yes to the receipt because without it she wouldn't have been able to refund me.

I was in a different Sainsbury's a few weeks ago and at the exit was security and a worker asking to see receipts before they would let people out the turnstyle. Last week, a woman who was paying at self service the same time as me, set the alarm off going through the barrier. As she didn’t get a receipt she had to go back to the till she was on with a worker who searched up the transaction. I always get a receipt even for one item now.

I used to work at Topshop and 90% of people sounding the alarms at the barriers were unfortunately customers who had just paid for their goods. It was more likely staff didn’t remove the tag vs theft, shoplifters tend to not stop at the barriers either. So generally there is an assumption that a mistake happened, especially if new staff are on the till

I used Aldi self-service today and they printed the receipt for me automatically. Bonus.

(It also cost about half what it would have done in Tesco, and a quarter of what it would have cost in Waitrose, so bonus bonus.)

I have been a store Detective for well over 10 years of my working career. 7 of those years were with a very famous luxury department store in Knightsbridge. Suffice to say, you would've been well within your rights to walk straight out of the store and if the security so much as touched you leaving they would've been in a lot of trouble. This is because there are certain legal requirements that need to be established before someone can be detained. Whether by CCTV or physically witnessing, you must have seen the person you have detained select the item, pass all possible opportunities to pay for said item, and then leave the store making no attempt to pay for the item. If you haven't seen all 3 things then you have no right to tale away someone's liberty. By all means you can ask for a receipt or invite the person back in, but they do not have to comply. Any good store Detective will never show out unless they have all 3 and have constant eyes on the person making sure they didn't put it back or drop it before they left. Failure to do so could lead to the company being sued for wrongful arrest (should they be detained) and the store Detective losing their job. I hope that clears the issue up. Hopefully the security have been trained to a standard where they know the law.

And that’s probably why shops seek to put customers in a position where they may not have a receipt: it means they aren’t obliged to provide refunds for goods, even when they’re faulty.

This happened to a friend of my mum's - he bought something in M&S (from a staffed till) and said no to a receipt and was then stopped on the way out. He is very meek but my mum got really annoyed with the store staff and they let him go.

If you are going to check receipts, don't give people the option to say no to them!

And for the avoidance of doubt, it's innocent until proven guilty. They have to prove (beyond reasonable doubt) that you didn't pay for the item. Not the other way round, despite the fact they condition people to think otherwise.

And that’s probably why shops seek to put customers in a position where they may not have a receipt: it means they aren’t obliged to provide refunds for goods, even when they’re faulty

although by law you don't need a receipt, just proof of purchase, which could be the transaction showing in an app or a bank statement