I don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been shopping for myself (other than groceries) in a long time. But why does the store have to remove these tags. Is it illegal for consumers to remove them or something?
It’s not, AFAIK, illegal to remove them. In fact the ones that are sewn into clothing are designed to be cut out by the purchaser.
The ones that spawned my OP, however, are designed so that they can’t be removed w/o a special gadget at the store. If removed any other way, either they spew ink and ruin the garment, or they simply result in tearing the garment.
Because if you don’t remove them with the proper tool they will spread ink all over you and the garment.
ETA: This is in response to Liberal’s post.
You can’t remove them without ruining the garment. At the store that I work at we have a special “device” to remove them - without it you would need to cut a huge hole in the garment to get the tag off.
It’s tough to do so without the proper tool, without harming the merchandise. That’s the whole point.
Don’t many of the really accomplished, high volume shoplifters also obtain the tag removal tool?
Is no one going to answer my question?
[… ouch! …]
Considering that the tag removal tool is usually just a magnet and/or a spike of some kind to release an inner catch in the tag, I can’t imagine it would take longer than a few hours to make one if you had the tools and were so inclined. Or just call up the company and buy one…
What was the question again? 
“Is there anybody else in this house???!”
“NO!!!”
Some stores use a different frequency or system or something. Last time I went shopping a bunch of teenie boppers in ho clothes were going through Zellers the same time I was. They go through the scanners and they go off… so the guy behind the counter tried to deactivate it, but it wouldn’t work. (Why I remember it was because when he tried to explain what was going on, they all got this vacuous look on their face and couldn’t understand… I guess it was too technical for them). When I asked him about it, he said they have problems with clothes from that store going off all the time because they have the tags in them, but the store doesn’t deactivate them (for whatever reason) and something about those tags won’t let anyone else deactivate them.
I wonder if the girls wore those clothes shopping and kept wondering why they were setting off the alarms…
I run into the tags in books, DVDs, and electronics all the time. These are a complete waste of money because the false positive rate is so high. I have had alarms go off at least four stores in the last year and no one even paid attention. Before that, they would normally see an adult holding a bag and wave me through.
This might me a California thing. Our consumer protection is pretty strong on some things. For example no store can require you show a receipt on the way out. I walk past the recept checkers at Fry’s and other stores with a wave.
Nah, I doubt it’s a CA thing. I work at a drugstore in Illinois, and we have electronic sensor things at the door, and we tag many of our items… but I have absolutely no idea what we’re supposed to actually do if the sensors go off (which they do several times a day). Seriously, I’ve worked here for over five years, and I’ve asked several managers what we’re supposed to do about the damn things, but no ones seems to care/ have an answer. We’re pretty much not allowed to do anything that might bug a customer, so essentially we can offer to deactivate the person’s bags (if they have any), and if they refuse or don’t have any bags or just keep walking… we shrug. Not to mention the fact that the stupid sensors can be set off by cell phones, tags in items from other stores (purses and jackets seem to be big offenders for this), etc. For all Corporate pretends that “shrink” is a big issue, there is exactly jack shit that we can do about it. In all the years that I’ve worked for this company, we’ve “caught” maybe five or six shoplifters (and one of them, it was because her mom turned her in.)
There is a way to remove them, using common household tools. ( Work retial, and our security agent showed us). I wont post it, however, as I feel that would be in violation of the board’s rules about illigality.
If you find youself in the position of the OP’s, you should contact the store, and ask them if they have a local outlet that will remove them (as posted previously). If they refuse, then you should instntly insist on a tranferable credit, or a refund.
If they refuse that, hang up, and contact their corporate offices. Be prepared with purchase details (on your reciept)
take names at all points.
Let people know that you are taking names, and expect that compensation will be due for inconvienience and potential embarassment.
accept no bull sh*t
as soon as you get a whiff of BS, ask to talk to a “supervisor”
Do not take “no” for an answer.
keep a record of all time, long distance charges, and other expenses (milage to travel back to store to have tag removed, for example)
Be prepared (or at least seem to be) to take this to small claims court.
Threaten to bring in the “media”
(Does your local TV/Newspaper have a “problem solver” section on its news… call them.)
in other words, don’'t just be a “pain in the ass”… be prepared to cost them money/bad press for the trouble you take to be a “pain in the ass”
most importantly… Have fun doing it!
Good luck
FML