Posted on 12/14/2006 5:07:03 PM PST by publana
My parents who are in their seventies, retired, and on Social Security stopped at Walmart on US Hwy 80 in Mesquite, TX to get gas. After paying at the pump with a Walmart Gift Card and retrieving the receipt, the woman in the booth comes over the speaker and asks him how he intends to pay.
My Dad tells her he has already paid and shows her the receipt through the window. They argue a bit, then she asks him to see the $500 Walmart Gift Card. Instead of telling her to buzz off, he hands her the card. She tells him the card isn't any good and she isn't returning it. He shows her the balance of $414.18 printed on the receipt and demands the return of the receipt. Another customer sees what is going on and calls the police.
The police come, run his license to see if they can arrest him for anything, takes the woman's side and does nothing other than to tell her to return the card. My parents leave. After driving about a mile, my mother says to go back and complain to the manager at Walmart.
The manager at Walmart looks at the card and checks it. It shows a zero balance. It also is a much older card than the card my Dad had recently purchase. It had a creation date of October. It dawns on my Dad that the woman switched the card. Although, the manager agrees with my Dad, he says there is nothing he can do. He suggests he calls the police for the woman's theft.
The police come back and do nothing. They say it's a matter for Small Claims Court and refuse to file a report. My Dad wants a report filed because he realizes this woman has a great scam going. Switch cards, keep the one with the money. The customer will not notice the money is gone until the next time he goes to Walmart to make a purchase with the card. By that time, the person will not even remember handing the card to the employee.
My parents, being retired and on social security, could not afford to lose $400 at Christmas time.
Be careful out there!
You are dealing with too many low-level munchkins. Write to the president of the company. If you email, send it at a time when a secretary will not be on guard (i.e. late Friday night, Saturday, Sunday). That way the president is likely to open it himself.
Can't hurt to try to get him on the phone. Some of these people will actually talk to you if you ask.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was waiting until business hours to make contact. I will try your suggestion and email all the higher-ups tomorrow night.
Thanks again!
So the manager agreed but didn't take any action against his employee? I'd tell your dad to go to the regional manager. At least write a letter and cc it to the BBB, the state attorney general and whoever else he can think of.
Are there other places that will honor a Wal-Mart Gift Card besides Wal-Mart and Murphy Oil locations?
If those are the only ones, then maybe it is a self-contained situation where the gas clerk will be caught if she uses the card, or whoever she might have sold it to on the black market would also be caught when using it.
It's true the receipts don't print out the last 4 digits, so *thieves* can't use a receipt just like a gift card, especially for online purchases.
P.S. Yikes, I just realized that unless your dad wrote down the whole number someplace (and why would anyone ever do that?) or like they said, stored it online somewhere with another retailer, there's no way to prove which card was his.
All your hopes are with the data transmission or storage of that last transaction he did. And who knows what kind of mischief the station clerk could do to mess that up.
He agreed, but said he couldn't do anything about it because it was Murphy Oil that did it and they have nothing to do with Murphy Oil.
aaaah. I didn't know you could use a Gift Card Online. That makes more sense to me now.
Still... it seems they could track it down with so much information in their database. OK... so they have to narrow it down from 9999 cards. Surely, they can see which ones were used at store #5799 at 11:01 am on 12/14/2006 for a purchase of $49.32. There should be some way to search the database and narrow it down... surely.
Even with the receipt? So you think it's possible that she undid the sale? If so, hopefully there will be a transaction where it was reversed.
Since his receipt shows that he paid $49.32 for gas,
$85.82 minus 49.32 equals $36.50 spent before this gas purchase.
Something on the other receipts [not gas] may help knowing his original Gift Card number?
*They* can - somebody somewhere within the system that did the transaction, evidently Murphy Oil - but who would that be? At any rate, they can't prove it was your dad who used or owned the card.
I don't know what she might have done. My brain doesn't think that way and I've never worked retail, so I couldn't even make a stab at it. Sorry. I just feel certain she has her bases covered, somehow.
It was probably his last fill-up at the same place. Or maybe groceries or stuff inside Wal-Mart.
Does he go back and fill the card up at a teller's booth inside Wal-Mart or do they just do them at the checkout? Does he go to the same Wal-Mart every time or maybe most of the time?
Any chance he has repeatedly seen the same employee when he does that, like they might know or recognize him?
Yes, he usually goes to the same Walmart. I doubt that she would have recognized him because he doesn't drive much. A tank of gas will last him a while.
I don't know where he goes to get more money put on the card. I'll ask him, though. I'll also ask him to dig up old receipts (providing he still has them... I *think* he shreds stuff like that and since he no longer has to pay income tax, I can't think of any reason for him to save them.)
Well, with a little bit of luck somewhere along the line, maybe it can be salvaged! I hope so, for your dad's sake. Evildoers usually get tripped up.
WM hires a lot of people around Christmas and a lot of them are there to steal. They do everything from under-ringing (where they have their friends and family go through their check out and bag merchandise without ringing it up), to just taking all the cash out of the register and walking out the door.
With the gift cards they get the numbers off their register journals and then either hand key the number themselves and cash out the cards, or go to a friend and make purchases using your gift card number. they know it is unlikely that it will be discovered until after the 25th and they no longer work there.
Also, another scam they like to pull is after Christmas when you are making returns. Make sure you check your refund receipt carefully because they will refund to their own credit card numbers or will get a gift card themselves and fill it up with your refund.
If anyone runs into anything like that at a wal-mart, feel free to FReepmail me and I will help guide you through getting you money back, deal with wal-mart, and get the thief busted.
Were you ever successful in prosecuting someone that quit? Were any of them ever put in jail? I'm thinking the woman might be scared now after the cops coming out there twice.
Granted, they didn't do anything, but she might be nervous. I'd truly love to see her lead off in cuffs.
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