I hate it when the cashier uses the counterfeit pen on *my *$100 bills. :mad: I don’t appreciate being treated like a criminal. :rolleyes:
I’d like to know which state law this is, and why the state police haven’t busted Wal-Mart’s ass for violating it several thousand times on a daily basis.
As I understand it, it is not against the law to ask for a receipt, but the customer has no obligation to provide one if asked. This is assuming there is not any particular reason to suspect that particular customer stole any property.
It never ceases to amaze me what gets some people’s goat. I never knew anyone had a problem with this policy until I read this thread. It’s just something that’s never been on my radar. I’ve had to show my receipt on several occasions and the whole process takes less than 3 seconds, and I have never once felt violated.
I’m kinda in the middle here. I don’t mind doing it occasionally. If the store did it often enough, I’d go start going elsewhere. I don’t feel it is a massive invasion of my rights - I just don’t like being bothered.
That makes a little more sense than the original phrasing.
Off-topic a bit, but a decade-plus of working in the service industry has lead me to loathe people who try to quote “it’s the law” at me when they don’t like what we’re telling them. Strangely enough, these “laws” never seem to get mentioned in any of the training sessions i’ve had to go to.
Yeah, I’ve read your later posts, but GOOD GRIEF, why do you bring such angst upon yourself and those you interact with?
Flashing a reciept is really damned simple, takes maybe 2.9 calories of effort, and gives the poor schmuck who’s sick to death of asking punters like yourself to show the paperwork a job.
It’s really dandy that you have such a philosophical objection to being asked for verification of a sale…I’d like to see you try refusing to show your ticket at your airport gate.
Lemme know how that goes for you, OK?? 
Eh, yeah, just show them the receipt, it’s not like it’s an inconvenience. If it IS an unforgivable inconvenience, shop at another store. Shop online even, we know you have internet access.
Also, 99% of the time I’ve been to Wal Mart, the stores have been clean, organized, and the staff were friendly and willing to help me find what I need. Same can be said for quality of service at McDonalds. Also, I’ve been to the occasional shitty Wal Mart and craptastic McDonalds. I stopped shopping at those particular stores and took my money to places where it was obviously wanted more.
Another random thought, you guys would HATE shopping at AAFES stores on military bases. They make you show ID!
Why should I inconvenience myself when the law says I don’t have to comply? Why should I pretend like they have the right to force my compliance?
Heck, the reason people make a big deal out of it is that this sort of thing supports ignorance of the law. It’s someone trying to trick you into thinking you have to do something when you don’t. People don’t like being tricked, even if the trickery is small.
BTW, I’ve never had this problem. At my Walmart, all big ticket items are electronically tagged, and all other items will have a sack with a receipt stapled to it which is a pretty good indicator that you went through the checkout line. And I’m in Arkansas, where Walmart originated, so we tend to see policy changes first.
I don’t understand why they need to ask. I have always been under the assumption the register area was watched with cameras, and the camera operators had real-time access to each transaction.
It isn’t a Las Vegas casino!
Stores could do a whole lot of things to prevent theft that the public doesn’t have to abide by. If it started to be common practice for stores to give people a quick frisking at the exit, or have low-paid clerks roaming the parking lot asking to check receipts as people are loading stuff into their car, doesn’t mean that people have to comply. If someone is inclined to not have their receipt checked, they are doing nothing wrong.
What is wrong is to have stores and police imply some kind of color of authority to make people stop and have their receipts checked. Two years ago, here at a Home Depot in DC, someone declined to have their purchases checked. A police officer intervened and told the man that he had to have his receipt checked because of “store policy.” Link. That is complete and total BS. The law says that someone owns an item once the purchase has been completed, and police officers are there to enforce the law, not make sure that people are following “store policy.” The police officer should have known and understood the law, and have been squarely on the side of the consumer.
Now, I find it more convenient to simply show my receipt, but I would not tolerate standing at a Costco-style line to exit a Target, Home Depot, or other store. The store has no right whatsoever to detain me if they have no suspicion I have done nothing wrong, and it is not incumbent on any consumer to prove to management that they bought something that one of their employees sold to them just SECONDS earlier (unless there is some preexisting clause in a membership agreement, or something like that.)
If stores want to cut down on theft, perhaps the security guards should patrol the area around the checkout counters to make sure people aren’t carrying goods past their clerks without paying.
“Rick is the Gandhi of receipt-check deniers.”
Really? Get over your special self. That is one of the stupidest things I ever heard.
I have no problem with the receipt-checking. I have no problem with people who hate it and blow past them. But people who take it out on minimum wage clerks while shopping at that same store? Self-absorbed jerks. Shop somewhere else. Vote with your wallet. Ask for the manager if you absolutely must. Don’t pester the guy making minimum wage.
Yeah, that was pretty stupid especially when he’s obviously the Rosa Parks of receipt-check deniers. :rolleyes:
These things happen before or during the transaction - not after. It would be pitifully easy to set the the store up in a manner that didn’t require a person re-checking your receipt as you left. Hassling patrons who have already paid as a show of security to future thieves is NOT a good plan.
For the record I don’t ‘put on a show’ about it. I usually just present the receipt. But the times when the door guard is acting they have some authority over me or if they are causing a logjam due to over zealous bag searching, I just walk past ignoring them.
I usually show my receipt just to avoid confrontation, but when you are stuck behind several people with carts full of goods and are expected to stand there and wait … unless it’s a store like BJ’s where receipt checking is part of my membership agreement, I’m walking around all of them and out.
I can’t blame retailers for trying to curb shoplifting and theft. There is a group here in Portland that went through a clothing store and made it out with something like $15,000 in designer jeans. They are very organized and execute diversionary tactics while the thieves are secreting the items. That sort of crime just raises prices for the rest of us, so I guess I’d rather have some retiree checking my receipt at the door, than to have to pay my share of an expensive surveillance system.
(Been there, done that.) The thing is, it’s not a universal policy. Not every Walmart checks receipts, and the ones that do don’t do it consistently. So you go to the shiny new SuperWalmart in Waynesburg, PA at 6 in the morning, use their remarkably clean bathroom, buy a Reese’s cup & pack of gum, pay, walk out the door, no problem. You go to the not so super Walmart in Richardson, TX at 7 in the evening, buy a hairbrush & tube of toothpaste, and get hassled at the door to show your receipt. (Been there, done that too.)
How is someone meant to know ahead of time?
What’s wrong with the door buzzers, though? I don’t mind those. Even in the couple of instances where they’ve accidentally gone off on me, it didn’t bother me. Then they at least had a reason to check my receipts against my bags, and they were always polite and apologetic about it.