And another question is, can I really walk out of Best Buy with a new laptop or camera or whatever, knowing that no one will attempt to stop me physically? Sounds like free electronics just for the taking?
“can I really walk out of Best Buy with a new laptop or camera or whatever, knowing that no one will attempt to stop me physically? Sounds like free electronics just for the taking? “
The message is now very clear: FREE STUFF AT BEST BUY.
I had a best buy employee chase me out to the parking lot in Texas. I was pricing ram for my laptop on the road. Yelling that I stole it. I clearly did not, the sticks were misplaced by another employee. If the female wasn’t there it might have gotten really, really ugly. Best buy is inept in general.
And if the guy had a piece, the Best Buy smurf might have gotten a helluva lot more than just a pink slip. He might have gotten his face blown off.
There is a reason we hire police officers.
At Fry’s and Best Buy I like waving with one finger to the poor nerds checking receipts at the door.
Shoots, back in the day (early 80’s) we used to pray for a shoplifter just to break up a dull day.
We chased one guy 5 or 6 blocks. Detained him for the police. When the cops got there, they told the guy he was lucky he didn’t get caught at one of our competitors. He said they would have just beat you to a pulp and left you.
I understand the lawsuit rational.
Most stores will not stop people from stealing.
My daughter says she watches hundreds of dollars walk out of Marshalls daily
I think these policies are ridiculous and there should be a remedy.
I worked for a large electronic chain back in my college days and we had it hammered into us from day one that we were NOT to detain or pursue shoplifter under any circumstances. If we thought someone was trying to shoplift, about all we could do is approach them before they left the store and say something vague like, “I noticed you picked up a radio, I can check you out if you are ready.” If they continued to head for the doors, we were told to let them go and call mall security with a description of a shoplifter. As some have mentioned, the reason the companies do this is fear of lawsuits and other liability issues if the employee or the perp is injured, or the employee detains an innocent person by mistake. The company would rather take a couple hundred dollar hit than risk a six or seven figure lawsuit.
Someone call looter guy. I hope Best Buy gets hit with a flash mob of thieves.
Retail work is a bitch, thanks to LAWYERS! Don’t blame the retail companies.
OK fine, he violated rules. They couldn’t take into account his exemplary record with the company? They HAD to fire him on the first “offense”? No black mark on his record and upgrade training? They just HAD TO fire him?
In my college days, I knew a forklift operator at a retail store who accidentally destroyed 5 grand in merchandise and got nothing more than a talking-to about it. (For that matter, I’ve seen a machinist trash a $60,000 landing gear piston and nearly nothing was said to him about it.)
I’m betting a manager up the chain was worried that this guy was going to move up and take his job. Ever wonder why blithering idiots get hired/promoted and really decent people get passed over? There’s a lot of managers who want to be the most knowledgeable and experienced person there, so they hire the biggest morons they can find and pass over good people (or fire them for bogus reasons).
I already don’t shop there so now I’ll not shop there even more! :) I can’t see why anybody besides thieves would want to shop there anyway.
I tried to buy a computer there a few years ago and after several minutes 3 things became clear:
They had no idea what they were talking about,
They were only trying to steer me toward the most expensive items, and
They were more interested in selling me extra service features and extended warranties.
I said forget it and left. Haven’t been back since.
FU Best Buy! Thanks for sticking up for the American way, you sh!tards!
I’ll send hate mail to them in the morning.
A VERY good friend of mine is a GM of a Best Buy store. He says the amount of stuff that people walk out with in under 30 seconds is astonishing to the average person. But their policy is just like dozens of other stores who are too afraid to lay hands on anyone due to insurance and lawsuits.
The only company that I know in major retailing that licenses their LP staff to tackle or do what ever to get the perp down and the merch back is Federated Department Stores.
Best Buy banks on deterrent camera guys at the front of the store and door alarm sensors to stop you. Basically, run in with a mask on and run out and by the time the cops get there a robber could be on the highway on the way home.
We need tort reform.
If I owned a company nearly Billings, I would hire this guy immediately. Sounds like a good employee.
Some stores have dedicated security personnel, and they can stop and detain you. Unless you know how the store you visit is staffed, you risk being detained or worse for refusing to show your receipt. You're guilty until proven innocent at Best Buy.
I'd love to say that this will make me shop at Best Buy less, but I don't shop there now, since they have no ethics on a corporate level at all and have no qualms about cheating their customers.
As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to be sad about a guy getting fired from a company that practices bait-and-switch on a daily basis, refuses to honor their own ads, and has sold more than one box of rocks where a computer/piece of electronics should be.
The name "Best Buy" is synonymous with "showroom to visit before ordering online" for a lot of people.
I look forward to their eventual demise, much like I did Blockbuster.
>I understand Best Buy’s take on this and for that I do not have a problem, my question is why do they ask to see your receipt if they are not allowed to stop you nor detain you? I usually just keep on walking, ignoring the receipt checkers, but the question is why do they even ask, knowing that they cannot stop you?<
That’s what I am asking too! These clowns at the front ask for the receipt but if I run out with an Ipad, will these clowns ask for it? Stupidity. Good thing I go to BB to check out the physical measurements and buy the same item on Amazon.
>> Because it’s against company policy to interfere with a crime-in-progress
The stolen laptop is not worth the injury liabilities. Best Buy can still go # itself for terminating the guy.
Best Buy in action:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1379476/posts
This one was idiots all the way down, not just the Best Buy people.