I didn't take it!

[Coconut]

I bought a dart board today for a Christmas gift.

When I got home, a pocket knife and light set fell out of it.

Obviously, I didn't pay for that... it appeared someone had been planning to steal it and had stuffed it down into the dart board box (well, that's one guess).

It had a price sticker on it for $5, so I'm not that concerned about it. I guess I'll just return it next week.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Did you take it back?

[hecubus]

Something like that has happened to me on severla occasions. I use a wheelchair, and, when I go to the gorcery store, I tend to carry everything around on my lap. IN the winter, if I'm wearing my bulky winter coat, I have to often tuck an item up against my waist to make sure it doesn't fall off my lap. Sometimes I've had small items get covered up by my jacket, and I forget to put that item on the belt at checkout. I only notice that item when I get home.

Luckily, everyone at the gorcery store knows me, so I just tell them what happened,, and pay for the item the next time I go to the store.

[wagegoth]

I recently bought a purse at Target. When I opened it up to check it out in the store, it had three clothing pricetags in it. I stopped an employee right then to show her, because I didn't want to have any problems leaving the store.

[repsac]

Several times, I've gone into Wal-Mart to pick up software for one reason or another, only to open it when I get home and find nothing in the box. Well, at least the CD's were missing.

One case in particular sticks in my mind though. It's a perfect example of how things can go wrong really quickly.

I had gone in to pick up a CD, some game I wanted at the time. It wasn't expensive, but then again it wasn't cheap either. So I was rather certain what I wanted. Still, I had made up my mind that if I found something just as nice, but cheaper, I'd pick that up instead.

Back in electronics, I found the 10 dollar games lined up, and there was this one for Ghost Recon. Ah yes...that's one I'd like, so I took the game I had and put it down picking up the 10 dollar GR. It struck me as rather curious that the game would be in the ten dollar rack, so I asked one associate about it. He agreed it was odd, but then shrugged it off. "Probably came in earlier and we didn't notice it." Smiling, I thanked him and left to pay. The electronics woman was no where to be seen, so at the associate's suggestion I went up front.

Things progressively went from bad to worse.

1.) The game wouldln't scan.
2.) They couldn't find it in the system.
3.) They had to call the electronics associate up, but she was on break.

So after about ten minutes of waiting, the lady comes up, snatches the thing from the cashier and gives me this look. It's one that drips with distaste and I overhear her say to the cashier. "Hold him here while I get loss prevention. This is out of a package."

Yes, I was bothered, but I just chirped in. "You know, James (not real name) back there said that he thought it had come in before when I asked him. He's the one who told me to bring it up here. You weren't around then." Her face clouded, and the woman called back. Turning to look at me, with the same look on her face, she just oh'd, took the game and left. In the end, I went back and got the other one, but I must admit it bothered me.

A few days later, I talked with the store manager about it, and he had a rather nice (well, for me it would have been nice) discussion with the associate. I think, the gist of it was that you never ever accuse someone of stealing when you were too lazy to get off your arse and cover your department. Furthermore, breaks were banned within one hour of arriving at work.

[MadMike]

One of the few things I remember from the training film at my last job was that if a customer brings up anything that other items can be hidden inside, such as a toolbox, always open it up, but never accuse the customer of trying to steal what's inside. Probably about the only thing in that film that actually made sense. After all, someone else could have placed the items in there while it was still on the shelf.

[Becks]

Furthermore, breaks were banned within one hour of arriving at work.

Wow, you can take an official break an hour after punching in?? I much prefer the unofficial see if you can inhale an ultra-light 100 in two minutes sneak-out.

[repsac]

Oh gods...I can't belive I remember these:

LISA. Look InSide Always.

BOB. Bottom Of Buggy.

SCIC. Scan Check Inspect Confirm.

[Drakstern]

LISA and BOB always amused me...

Especially since both a Lisa and a Bob worked at our store.

Every once in a while, a manager would see something at the bottom of a cart, or something that could hold things in it and ask 'Have you seen BOB/LISA?'

This would always lead to 'I don't think they're here today' or 'Yeah, they're at *blank*.' The managers would get progressively more annoyed until they just started saying 'Did you check the bottom of the cart?'

Worked out much better that way too.

[Kogarashi]

LISA and BOB always amused me...

Especially since both a Lisa and a Bob worked at our store.

Every once in a while, a manager would see something at the bottom of a cart, or something that could hold things in it and ask 'Have you seen BOB/LISA?'

This would always lead to 'I don't think they're here today' or 'Yeah, they're at *blank*.' The managers would get progressively more annoyed until they just started saying 'Did you check the bottom of the cart?'

Worked out much better that way too.

I think that's why our CSMs would just say, "Don't forget LISA/BOB." Less confusion that way.

I usually tried to make some comment about the container to deflect customers' assumptions that I thought they were stealing. I'd open a purse, or a tackle box, or similar, and say something like, "That's a nice purse," or "Oooh, lots of room in there." Thing is, most of the time it was a true statement anyway.