I love Target, but I can’t stand the way I get treated when I pay with a credit card.
I’ve seen elderly, “professional” looking women swipe their cards and put them back in their purses, but I have to keep mine out. Okay, maybe young people commit credit card fraud more or something. That’s not terrible–I have nothing to hide.
However, I hate it when I get obnoxious assholes who examine every loop and dotted “i” of my signature as if one letter difference makes me a criminal. It makes me get all neurotic about making a mistake when I’m signing or making the bottom loop in the “y” in my last name too long or something. Gee, asshole, you don’t think carrying a purse, along with a couple of plastic bags on your arms, having to bend over, and using a fucking pen made for right handers (with the chain coming from the right side) that I have to keep semi-turned around wouldn’t change your signature a little bit? I’ve had clerks take my credit card, give me The Look both before I’ve signed the slip and afterwards. I’ve even had some guy make a gesture to give my card back, and then pull it back at the last second and “examine” it more before he finally let me have it. Yeah, I’m impressed by all the power you wield, red polo shirt boy.
I’m not a fucking thief, goddamnit, and I hate being treated like one. So, word, word, word to the OP.
Not to mention, that most professionals view a PERFECT signature as one of a fraud. If you were to find someone who could reproduce his/her sig perfectly 10/10, they’re either way too anal about their sigs, or frauding.
Allow me to provide this small dissenting voice–I don’t think it’s a big deal (I only run into this at CostCo). I know the few times they caught me with something I hadn’t paid for, they (rightly) assumed it was the clerk’s fault, never made any assumptions (though I’m easily “profilable”), and corrected the error (I didn’t get it for free, natch, but they rang it up quick so I could go on my way). Having worked in retail, I know how theft can be a serious problem in some outlets, and doing a cursory check of everyone (even as a preemptive measure) is better than singling out individuals.
In short, if it bothers you that much, don’t go. Just my $0.02
I am pleased when an employee keeps my card and compares the signatures. I even intentionally leave my card on the counter, sig side up, while signing the receipt. Having been the victim of credit card fraud, I encourage retail employees to be more observant, getting rid of fraudulent charges can be a real hassle.
Now what we all need to do is band together, form some kind of pissed-off consumer group, and tell 'em all to bite us until they stop it.
I would like to know the legalities, though…if it isn’t legal for them to do it, and I have a right to refuse, then I just might do that.
(One of the minor reasons I hate it is because it is my habit to shove my receipt into the depths of my purse the minute I get it. I hate having to rifle around trying to find it for five minutes because I forgot that the shop I’ve just spent $400 at thinks I might have stolen the $8 package of toilet paper that isn’t in a bag.)
Happened to me too. But then, I’m not too crazy about Walmart!
In my area, central CA, Target doesn’t do it. CompUSA and CostCo do. I buy diddley from CompUSA but I tend to go there to get prices and such. I asked the CostCo person one time why they do the checking and they had the gall to say “It’s to be sure you get everything.” Yeah, sure. Dolt, you’re checking for theft, I know. :rolleyes:
My daughter used to work at Broadway and they did the plastic bag thing too. Thankfully, they’re outa bizness now.
Broadway!!! BROADWAY!? Oh my god, I am having such a flashback! I had totally forgotten about Broadway! And they were my first credit card ever, 20 years ago! I used to go there every Saturday as a child, to the one on the corner of Hollywood and Vine… wow.
Broadway didn’t go out of business that long ago. Less than 10 years ago, right? (OK, that may seem like a lot to you under 20 types, but for the rest of us - it’s not that long ago.)
I remember when they closed the Broadway in downtown L.A., my dad made a special trip to see it, one last time. I guess it had been there forever.
As far as the OP goes, I do resent it, but not a huge amount. I do wonder why they have to inspect my stuff (I’ve just paid for it, it is now mine) but I just let 'em do their thing so I can get the hell outta there.
I used to work as a cashier, and every once in a while I would get people who actually didn’t sign their signature on their credit card, but instead wrote “Please ask for picture ID” in the signature line. Quite often, they were surprised when I actually asked for ID. Apparently, most cashiers in this area (Alberta, Canada) don’t really bother to check signatures.
When I check actual signatures I just see if they’re fairly similar, and that the person didn’t seem hesitant or that they had to think too hard to see what their signature looks like.
I am a big fan of credit cards that allow you to have your picture on the front. Much easier and more reliable than signatures.
I worked at a store (a large sporting-goods type of store) that checked all of the employees bags before we left. We also had to wait until everyone in the store was done, and then all leave at the same time. I really hated [checking to see if this is still the Pit] the goat-felching ass-hammers that worked there who would hide security tags in other employees bags or coats as a “joke”. This usually happened at least once a week, and we’d all have to wait until the manager found it.
I never saw a single person get caught shoplifting this way, or any other way, but I’m pretty sure that several employees stole things.
There was a monthly store newletter that included a column on “Internal Theft” with various examples from that month. But the only people mentioned were obviously idiots… such as the “Shipping/Receiving Manager” who stole a pair of socks with the [large plastic] security tag still attached by shoving them down his pants. I don’t know how it’s possible to become a manager in any department, much less shipping, without figuring out that the security tags set off the security alarm, but :rolleyes: then the store thought that they were doing a “good job” catching employee theft. Never mind that the only people they caught were crying out for it.
Some years ago I visit Ikea to check out their sofa range and availability.
I select a suitable item and ascertain that delivery will take 8 weeks, my order to include an easy chair (matching) in addition to the sofa.
I wend my way to the checkout and proffer in payment a credit card, unused but authorised by the bank, with a limit of £1,600 available on it.
The cashier, after performing some mysterious rituals which escape me due to lack of attention on my part, informs me that my purchase has been rejected by the card company.
I try to discuss the impossibility of this circumstance with Mrs. Cashier but she doesn’t want to know. I am holding up the rest of the queue and she wants me to disappear. This is a non-standard transaction for her and she obviously prefers customers whose requirements are more orthodox. Maybe I look like a criminal to her.
But if I am a thief I am not very experienced. No career criminal would try to pay £900 up front for two items which he would not receive until 8 weeks later.
I discuss this point at length with the manager who, after various prompting from yours truly, discovers that Mrs. Cashier has put through my transaction twice, thus exceeding my £1,600 limit for me without me actually buying anything.
I found a better sofa somewhere else shortly afterwards. I paid cash.
BINGO! Which is why I refuse to ever let them search my bags. If they want to they must first accuse me in front of witnesses that they suspect me of shoplifting and then goodness help them in a court of law.
I used to sign my full name, but my surname is rather long so to save time I started signing just initial and surname. For the first time today (after several months) someone in a shop asked me to rewrite my signature to match what was on my switch card. I think she was new. She didn’t look at me as if I was a criminal, just as if she wanted to do this right.
It shows how lax these things are normally here (england). Though they generally take your card, and giev it back after you’ve signed the reciept.
Our park used to have massive employee cash theft problems, we mainly discovered this when we did some heavy reworking of the register software and started tracking trends in cupons and adjustments by each cashier. Once you have established a pattern you watch that person for a while. Cameras make this even more effective. Cashiers were instructed not to have cash on them at their workstations (lockers were provided for purses and such) and when we caught a few of them they amazingly didn’t have any particularly good reason for having 2 weeks worth of their paychecks, in cash, in their pocket. We even made a point out of reminding them of the policy at a meeting a few days before.
If i was designing a security system for a clothing store I would do something like have the camera systems capture any transactions where an employee discount was used. If an employee is turning up wearing “My brand” clothing but there is no history of them making that purchase, then you watch. It won’t nail every theft but it will point you to the best suspects without banket searching every employee. Or if its REALLY a big problem have the time clocks near the managers office with cameras covering the area and with sufficently advanced software have the clock system randomly flag an employee for a search when they clock out, leave them on the clock so they are paid for their time and then do the check. If such policies are in force and the employee agrees with them as a condition of hire, you should have a decent lower impact system. Kind like a random drug test approch to theft prevention.
My main problem with alot of places like you are describing is that they place no value on their people. I have often wondered why, beyond pure greed, an employer cannot take decent care of their employees. One place I worked at ran a 30% net profit margin! The owner had it all, the employees generally were eeking out an existance. Sick calls and theft were a constant problem. For 10% of that profit he could have had a team that would serve happily till their dying day. I realize that giving someone a raise does not suddenly make them not a theif, but the quality of people who show up to apply for higher paying jobs is much higher and they will be more worried about losing them.
My girlfriend was once in Target when a transformer blew and the power went out. Since the store was almost completely dark, she along with a number of other shoppers naturally started walking towards the exit. Get this: *a security guard stepped in front of them and told them that they couldn’t leave because the security gates at the door weren’t working!!! *
More unbelievable is this: my girlfriend and everyone else actually stood there for ten more minutes until the lights came on! I still tease my girlfriend about her obedience to the pudgy rent-a-cop. Personally, I would have been forced to put a Dolomite ass kickin’ on him.
You know what? If you don’t like the policy don’t shop at the fucking store! “ooh, they’re insulting me with this policy!” Then go somewhere else!
Do you honestly think the store manager wants to have a guy standing at the front of the store doing nothing but checking bags? That manager would much prefer to not have that worker at all, or have them do something productive. Fact is, those guys prevent theft, which makes these store’s low prices possible. Will you stop shopping there?
Of course you won’t, what you will do is make trouble for the minimum wage schlub who’s just trying to do their job. God forbid one of you high and mighty civil libertarians take 2min out of your day to discuss your unhappiness with the store manager. No, what you will do is push your way past the pseudosecurity guy and make him look bad. Let’s just see what he’ll do, you all say. I dare them to stop me. They’ll hear from my lawyer! Get a fucking grip, asshole. The guy is just doing his damn job. Don’t like it? SHOP SOMEWHERE ELSE!
They aren’t forcing you to shop there, they’re just offering low prices and a wide selection of merchandise. If you don’t like their security, or their lack of trained sales help, or whatever, you are free to go to another store that treats you like royalty. Of course, you’ll pay more, that’s the rub isn’t it? You want the low prices, but refuse to deal with the practices that allow the low prices to happen. Tough shit. Any of you who declared that your rights are violated with this policy are free to shop elsewhere, but you won’t because your civil rights will take a back place to low, low prices.
I look forward to the next installment of “the big chain stores treat me like shit, but I shop there all the time anyway”
I’ve seen this in two places here in England:
[li]Makro (supposedly a trade-only wholesaler, but everybody has a membership card) checks receipts and trolley contents(albeit very casually) on the way out of the door.[/li][li]Safeway; they introduced a scheme where the customer could check out a hand-held scanning terminal and scan the goods as they went into the trolley(directly into special boxes or something); at the checkout, the terminal was downloaded and the customer charged, but the goods didn’t have to be handled. The scheme relied chiefly on the honesty of the customer (that they didn’t put a few extra items in without scanning them), but IIRC a proportion of transactions were thoroughly checked on the way out.[/li]Not sure if Safeway still do this though.
I don’t know about all the other posters in this thread, but like I said before-- all the stores in minority neighborhoods do this. What the hell is a person supposed to do? Wait until Key Food empties out the garbage and go dumpster diving for food?
Where I grew up it was a given that all people were potential shoplifters. Wait, not pontential shoplifters, just uncaught ones. It is a nasty ass attitude to have towards your customers regardless of civil liberties.
So, fuck yeah it’s insulting. And fuck yeah I complain. And kiss my black motherfucking ass if you don’t like me complaining on a message board about being treated like a criminal without the slightest evidence by minimum wage shlubs whose only chance to feel powerful is by sneering at the cowered low-income customers who just want to by some fucking tampons.
Hey, how about security checks at airports? “I am not a terrorist and I resent the implication”.
No one is implying that anyone is a thief. Rather, that there is a small percentage of thiefs, and that even this small percentage can impact the bottom line significantly. Unfotunately, as the management is not personally acquinted with you, they have no way to distinguish you from the thiefs.
I’m not sure how effective the practice is. I would suggest that anyone who finds the practice unpleasant should avoid shopping at such stores. But there’s no reason to feel insulted.
Something is certainly up with my credit card company too, lately. I pay for most of my purchases with an Amex card, which because of the sorts of purchases I make has a limit of about $15,000 or so…and I use it all the time. But lately…I have been questioned, interrogted, and had a purchase temporarily refused in the last week. Here’s the situation:
High limit.
Professional-looking person using the card for purchases on a card that is fully paid off every month.
So I get asked for my Zip Code at Walmart before I am allowed to charge about $40 worth of goods. (they tell me “Amex requires it” (it’s a fucking lie, I called them and asked afterwards)).
So I get asked to show my drivers license, when I’ve never had to before, on the next purchase (about $100).
Next, my card is rejected at a jeweler’s, because they claim it is “outside of spending patterns” (which was another lie - I called Amex, and they insisted that they had said no such thing, and that there were absolutely no restrictions on my account).
Finally, another vendor insists that unless I give him my (unlisted) home phone number, he “cannot accept a credit card”.
I will again restate what I’ve said previously: This thought was not implied, it was quite emphatically stated.
“You can’t trust these molies.”
“I should open up shop on the Island, no punks there.” and the very famous:
“I saw you!” when in fact he saw nothing because I am not a fucking thief!
And these practises do not catch theives. It just demoralizes and insults customers. You people are crying now because the big chains are now doing this to you in the malls. Well, good for you! If I had known better when I was younger, I’d have made a really big stink then. But I was afraid of being looked at as a thieving punk.
Happened to me too. But then, I’m not too crazy about 
