I'm seriously going to get fired over this.

[Brightglaive]

I would probably call them and leave a message that says, " If you don't contact us and set up payment for the chair we will be forced to turn over the case to the local Law enforcement/police for investigation of theft, theft by deception and possession of stolen property." If they even have any scruples at that point they WILL contact you back. Usually that will happen quickly when they realize they are on the verge of being arrested and going to jail.

If you present this as a theft and turn over evidence (surveillance tapes would help) to the local Law enforcement/police stating that this item was taken by the following people in this surveillance video without payment, and here is the cell phone number of the person in question, that is probable cause enough to get a search warrant for the name and address on the phone account from the cell phone provider. Or the officer may attempt to contact them himself. It's very unnerving to get a phone call from a policeman. Usually that is enough to get them to come pay for the item they stole. If not it's still a theft. The policeman can then find their home and go arrest them and recover the stolen property.

It's not your fault that this happened. Your manager screwed up first, placing the SOLD sign on the chair and not properly informing you that it was yet to be paid for. She should take the blame for that. You did make a mistake but the misunderstanding had already occured at management level. (You may still end up taking SOME, not all, of the blame.) And the customer took advantage of the situation and committed a crime which you are not to blame for. The majority of the blame lies in others. You can berate yourself for not catching this but ultimately it was NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. You are in sales and if it says "SOLD", it is basically out of your hands. The handoff at that point should be from the acounts/merchandise receivables to the customer. Not the salesman to the customer. If the item needs to be "HELD" then the store should have a dedicated space for held items in a back room or location on the salesfloor. An item is not "SOLD" until it is payed for.You may also suggest a policy that when the item is sold an invoice must be presented to pick up the item or attached to the item that has been sold.

Oh and BTW...... Have a cheeseburger fries and drink on me!! I've been there and I know the frustration. Sorry to hear bout the problems!!

[Acidrain666]

Good advice, however...

Speaking as someone who works in an investigative bureau, while the advice being given is good advice, investigators (and cops in general) would view this as not "worth" their time to investigate. Most wouldn't come right out and tell you that. They'd take the report, and let other things take priority. It sucks, but that's just the way it goes sometimes...

[Jester]

I was thinking the same thing. Most cops believe (probably correctly) that they have more important crimes to deal with.

That does NOT, however, prevent you from calling said thief's cell phone and telling them that, unless they arrange payment immediately, you will be turning over this matter to the proper authorities for a criminal theft charge.

Threats are often very effective in and of themselves, even without any true backup. I mean, how do THEY know you aren't actually doing that? (Or that the cops aren't pursuing it?)

[Jester]

Speaking as someone who has worked in a police department, this is not some two-bit candy store theft, this is a felony and should rank as high importance. Any competent department will take this very seriously and try to find this person.

True.

But not all police departments, are competent.

And even in competent departments, there are incompetent officers.

Just saying.

[Tria]

QUICK, WE NEED JELLO SHOOTERS!
HE NEEDS THOSE SUMBITCHES IN BRIGHT COLORS, TOO, STAT!

And the resident teetotler is confused.

[Rahmota]

Tria: A jello shooter is jello made with alchohol replacing the water. Ranging in consistency from watery to slimy. Some people actually like them I dont......

Kusangi: May the force be with you. I agree nervous breakdown suck royally. Dont let it lead to stress induced cardiac issues. Speaking from a slight bit of experience, waking up in the back of an ambulance is never a good thing. But look at it this way at the rate you are going you should be burning off the next 5-10 years worth of bad luck at once.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Tria: A jello shooter is jello made with alchohol replacing the water. Ranging in consistency from watery to slimy. Some people actually like them I dont......

Vodka replaces the cold water. Cherry! Topped with just a tiny dollop of whipped cream! (Why, yes, I had a few when I was at Fat Tuesday down in Key West...that may well be the last time...hmm...

Just don't make them on a tile floor right in front of the dresser, in paper dixie cups and then let the rings that seep through sit there for two weeks and go fuzzy...like my freshman college roommate did...with my hot pot, no less...why no, I wasn't the least bit annoyed... (but I wasn't cleaning up after her, either!)

Sorry, back on topic...

[It's me]

You may have screwed up, but.... there's a reason stores put policies and procedures in place: to make it really, really hard to screw things up (at least accidentally.)

It seems to me that your store is lacking a good policy for managing pick-ups.

I would have thought that when someone comes in to pickup a paid-for item that they would need to provide proof that they are the person that actually bought the item. Either photo-id that is matched to info on the store's paper work, or a receipt that is checked against the store paperwork to make sure they are taking the right item....

One way you might help redeem yourself is to go to your manager and offer to get a group together to draft up a policy that protects the store and the employees without it being a total PITA.

[Shengirl]

Vodka replaces the cold water. Cherry!

Ugh, cherry ones taste like cough medicine to me. I find if you stick to citrus flavors, however, it's pretty great.

[NightAngel]

I had Jello Shots precisely once.

They were gross.

After the 3rd or 4th one you either can't taste them anymore or don't care.

PASS THE JELLO SHOTS! WHOOO!!!

[Jester]

Why, yes, I had a few when I was at Fat Tuesday down in Key West...that may well be the last time...hmm...

All these cool CSers who have been to Key West....and I have met exactly one of them. (Not counting RW, of course.) Kind of a bummer, when you think about it.

[Auto]

I agree with this...if the cell number is valid, the police should be able to work with the cell company to find out who it belongs to. (Hopefully I don't watch too much Law & Order and I'm not being overly optimistic.)

As for you, deep breaths and big hugs. Whatever happens, it won't be the end of the world

It's theft. File a police report that mentions the thief left a cell phone number and hope for the best.

And yeah, there's a big diff between a HOLD sign and a SOLD sign.

Hope it all work out for you.

[Kusanagi]

Okay, it's been a madhouse for a couple of days.

It gets even worse! Oh joy!

So, that night of the posting - I left a note out for the manager, to the effect of:

"CALL ME ASAP regarding the chair
I got swamped and fucked over by this person
Will explain more when you call"

My thought was that I would go in and pay for it, right? So the money shows up, we write the chair off as sold, and my district manager won't fire me, because he won't find out.

Oh, the best laid plans. I can't even get damage control to work properly.

My theory was to get the manager to go along with this because she put the sign on the piece that said it was sold in the first place - me paying for it is technically against company policy but they really don't care who pays for it as long as it gets paid for.

This would have been great. The manager would have seen the not and I could have closed for half an hour and taken care of it.

It would have been great, if the District Manager didn't decide to drop by early that morning and open himself. So when I got to work, my inbox had a nice message in bold red letters regarding the chair, where was it, where was the money, and what happened?"

So.....my DM knows. I spoke with him about it and was honest and to say he was upset would be a very large understatement.

At least he's upset with the manager now, because the sold sign shouldn't have been on there even though I didn't read the note.

On top of that, he ends up telling me that he needs to inform corporate of it, I can't pay for it, and "We'll have to find a solution."

And hangs up.

So today, he has to come in and we have to work together.

You know that really REALLY akward feeling when you're working with your boss and there's something unpleasant that he needs to say and that you don't want to hear? The one that shoots your blood pressure up and makes you sweat?

That was me today.

Finally, before he left, I spoke with him. And his answer was "I won't know what corporate will decide until Monday at the earliest."

I have Sunday and Monday off. It's great knowing that on Tuesday I might only be walking in to turn in my keys. He hasn't even set a schedule for next week yet.

I'm going to TRY and enjoy my two days off, at least.

[It's me]

One thing to keep in mind:

Letting someone go due to an honest mistake is bad business. Replacing you will cost a whole lot more than $400. I doubt that corporate is going to let a good employee go because of a mistake that is as much the fault of poor store procedures as anything else.

[boffomusic]

I feel your pain. A few weeks ago I had one of our resident klepto's dupe me into giving him a brand new set of "24" DVDs (admittedly it's not a $400 chair, but it is probably the most expensive single item in the store). He came back and claimed that he had left it in the horror section by mistake. I walked over with him and found it. After he left my cashier informed me that he hadn't entered the store with it the first time he came in.