unpleasant incident with security guard

[rasputinsghost]

I would just like your opinions with respect to whether or not I was reasonable to e-mail a complaint regarding the incident below.

I was shopping with my adult son at our local large supermarket, in the late afternoon in the middle of the week. We chose items worth just under five pounds, and I paid for these at the self-service checkout, using the contactless app. on my debit card. I declined a receipt and I do not have a banking app. on my phone.

After purchasing the goods, I handed them to my son and went to the loo. When I came out of the loo, I found my son in conversation with the security guard. The guard asked me if the shopping was mine. I said it was. He asked me if I had the receipt. I said I had declined the receipt. He asked my if I had any proof of purchase. I said that I did not have a banking app, but I waited until I heard 'payment confirmed' before I left the checkout. The guard replied that he has reason to believe we were attempting to leave the store without purchasing the goods.

I assured him that I had purchased the goods, and perhaps we could check the till roll at the checkout.

The guard then told us to come to his desk. We followed him. He looked at the CCTV footage and told us that not only did it confirm that we had not paid, but there was footage of me 'doing this hundreds of times'. He said he would call the police unless we paid for the goods, left the store and never returned because we were 'banned'.

I was getting a little upset, so my son suggested we paid for the goods again (even though we knew we had already paid). We did this, then showed the guard the receipt and I asked why he had said he had footage of me stealing 'hundreds of times'. He denied saying this. I asked if we were banned. He said no. I asked for his name and said I would lodge a complaint because he had handled this situation very unprofessionally.

When I got home, I checked my bank account. I had paid twice, so there is no way there would be any footage of me not paying. I have lodged a complaint online with the store.

I am just wondering if perhaps I have overreacted.

If you use a bank app I think you'd find you don't need to remember the long number, all the ones I've ever come across need only a pin or biometric ID

Your error was paying the second time. You should have refused. Walked off. Let him stop you & take you to manager. CCTV of the till would quickly have shown you paying.

You are going to come a cropper in the future as more and more supermarkets use the system where you scan the receipt to leave the store.

what would have happened if you’d paid cash? No receipt and no proof.

lesson learned.

OP I can totally understand how you got intimidated by this security guard. I had a similar but not as bad experience recently, when staff stopped me leaving supermarket and really treated me as a thief. When I was able to show him I'd paid, he didn't even apologise, it was like he was disappointed!

I insisted he went back to the till with me so he could see I had paid.
I was buying alcohol and it had had the security tags taken off by another member of staff, plus the challenge 25.

I'm a very confident person but it was extremely unpleasant and unnerving being treated as guilty. Surely they should remain objective until evidence is found?! I sympathise with you and yes in your shoes I'd email requesting a refund and a goodwill voucher.

Always take the receipt. I'm sorry you were unfairly accused! Thank you for reporting the guard. Sounds like he's a shit stirrer...

You should NOT have paid again. That is like admitting liability.
I would have insisted on seeing evidence of the ‘theft’ and of me apparently being a prolific shoplifter!

If what you are saying is true and there isn't more to this then I'm unsure as to why you are asking for reassurance. To be clear - I'd be shouting this from the rooftops - social media - I'd even go back in and take a photograph of the security person and post them all over my local facebook page. I'd absolutely sing from the roof tops and threaten legal action............ If what you are saying is 100 percent true and there is nothing more to this. No effing way is some ball sack going to accuse me of stealing. That being said I'd have made a huge drama at the time and told him to crack on and call the police and also advised him that when the police came and proved that I had paid, I would be charging for my time.... There is a tiny part of me that thinks there is more to this. I personally have had this happen when I haven't had a receipt and the machines show a tally of everything that is purchased and it is easily shown without police involvement and usually means a grovelling apology from the store.

She doesn't have a banking app on her phone

Basically, always get a receipt. Always.
I dont use a banking app, and am not up to all these phone payments etc.
I use self-checkout and always get a receipt.
I would know if I had already paid for the goods, and would not have paid again.

I am always being stopped leaving Sainsburys, where they have Argos and I have collected a parcel along with some shopping. I always keep the receipt. It is annoying where I have always been honest. Open more manned tills and have security barriers. I think twice about going to that store.

Me neither.

Something similar happened to a friend of my mum's in M&S - he declined the receipt and walked out - security guard stopped him and asked him for the receipt. My mum said why on earth would you ask for a receipt if you know they are not given out routinely and told my friend to keep walking.

I know shoplifting (better described - looting) is a big problem at the moment but security guards picking on soft targets does not help.

Remember - they have to prove you have stolen something - that's how the burden of proof works. Not the other way round - so they need CCTV or other evidence that you didn't pay.

Of course he was disappointed - as I said, it's about intimidating soft targets and does nothing to prevent the looting which is the actual issue.

If they have that system then they have to provide the receipt automatically.

However, I was in a supermarket overseas recently and they didn't, I had to run back to get it, fortunately nobody was behind me and I was still able to press the button to get one.

It's ridiculous - if they are going to require the receipt then why on earth would you make it a voluntary thing to take one? If I am buying a pint of milk and a tub of yogurt I am not going to take a receipt!

This

I've never understood why people don't get a receipt...if the items are faulty, for this reason and to prove your presence in a particular location, for a mischarging error and more...always, always a receipt. The only people a lack of receipt benefits is the company.

I've only been in one Sainsbury's recently where they had the barriers to get out and there was no option to choose a receipt it was automatically issued which I suppose is obvious that they'd set it up that way.

Why would they want a horde of trapped shoppers?

Haven't rtft, but in the store I work in (and I would imagine all stores to be honest) we can log onto the tills and print out past receipts. We're able to filter them by time and amount paid so it's usually pretty easy to find a particular one. The security guards should have known that, he's either poorly trained or a dick. If this happens to anyone else, insist on speaking to the store manager, they should be able to sort it out. Always take a receipt!

I'm surprised that your son didn't kick up more of a fuss on your behalf, OP, and allowed you to pay again for the items - unless, like you, he does not like confrontation.

Are you sure he was referring to you? Could it be that he was referring to your son? It sounds a bit weird that your son said you should pay again, sounds like your son might know the security guard was referring to him and wanted to just get out of the situation. I think for the security guard to say you would be banned from the shop, it could not be a one off thing but you or your son already had to be on their radar and he now had proof (possibly your son had slipped something into his pocket while you were not looking?). I would be having a good chat with the son (and asking the shop to see their cctv)

Was he physically able to provide proof that you had shoplifted "hundreds of times before"??

take it from someone with a security background, he shouldnt be speaking to you this way unless he has physically seen it happen or has concrete proof on cctv that he is able to provide.

you should call for the manager in these situations, it sounds like hes in the wrong business.

He was bluffing, ask for a manager or tell him to call the police to review the cctv evidence.

Other than a security guard on a power trip and making up lies, the only other explanation I can think of is mistaken identity, i.e. the OP resembles a known shoplifter who frequents the shop regularly.

It's all very well to castigate OP for paying twice (tbh some of the messages are so aggressive they constitute bullying themselves) but the whole point is that not everybody is mentally robust - and I would put money on the security guard being more likely to challenge individuals who are older/younger/frail etc and not hulking 6'5 men or big groups of lads.

Of course OP should have stood her ground and certainly not paid twice but the point is she shouldn't have ever been put in a position where she felt like she even had to. If he could intimidate her, someone who might 'not do well with confrontation' but is mentally and physically able and had her adult son with her to support her, into being so worried that she did that, then it's very plausible that if he'd done the same to a young teen, or an older person, or someone with minor mental disabilities, or for whom english isn't their first language, or who was just struggling for whatever reason (recent bereavement, feeling ill, screaming toddler) they would also have reacted badly.

There was literally no reason for him to be aggressive. You can be assertive without intimidating someone.

Which is why one would typically expect the OP's adult son to have intervened and said something, unless he's mute and / or was similarly intimidated.

I know if I was shopping with my parents and something like this happened to them, I would 100% say something to that security guard, no matter how difficult he / she was being - and I don't consider myself a particularly confident person in public. I know, howevever, that I wouldn't allow my parents to be treated like this.