Archived A customer grabbed me in a dispute

[District11]

So I'm a female cashier. I've been on the job for about 4 months now and for the past 2 and a half months i have been on the SCO team. We regularly have credit card scammers at my store. I was informed to send anyone purchasing a gift card to a register or guest services. Today 2 grown men one heavy set the other not so much purchase a reloadable bullseye gift card for $100 I let it go because the deed was done. They started another gift card purchase and i approached the screen scanned my speed ID and proceeded to void to gift card while letting them know they could not purchase it there. The heavy guy grabbed my hand firmly from the screen while the other quickly went back and pressed pay. I firmly said please don't touch me. And his friend laughed and accused me of touching them first. They proceeded to insult me saying i was going to "hard" and i wouldnt be here in a year while laughing leaving with their card. I felt violated being grabbed without consent and embarrassed. I asked the TPS near the door what I could do and he didnt really have an answer. I'm hoping someone could give me some advice because it isn't the 1st time those 2 have purchased gift cards at SCO nor do I believe it will be the last.

 

[OneGoodEar]

Where's hard?

 

[District11]

He meant I was acting too uptight and serious. Urban slang i guess.

 

[commiecorvus]

"Going too hard" is a gym rat term for people who start out working like crazy in the gym and burn out, never to come back.

 

[commiecorvus]

Calling @HardlinesGuy @HardlinesFour @garbage @TallAPGuy and any another @AP folk.
This sounds like your area.

 

[redeye58]

If your TPS didn't do anything, you shouldn't have attempted to void the transaction.
Only thing you can do is take down trans times/reg & report it to AP; they can get images & go from there.
The guy could've broken your hand or knocked you down & you can bet Target wouldn't back you up.

 

[District11]

If your TPS didn't do anything, you shouldn't have attempted to void the transaction.
Only thing you can do is take down trans times/reg & report it to AP; they can get images & go from there.
The guy could've broken your hand or knocked you down & you can bet Target wouldn't back you up.

These guys move quickly on the screen. TPS cant do anything once the purchase has been made. I figured I would stop it but you have a point. I'm expendable and not worth the hassle had the situation escalated. So should I just let anyone purchasing giftcards go and ignore the rules?

 

[NPC]

It's not that nothing can be done. It sounds more like it just happened too fast for tps to do anything. I would have done the same thing. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you don't.

 

[IcePeasant]

Report the incident to AP, inform your GSTL of the incident, and as a SCO TM, I would continue to guest service guests prior to transactions. We started posting little signs at our SCO’s what couldn’t be rung up at SCO -age limit items, Coupons couldn’t be used, item limit, etc, maybe your leadership team will come up with a solution similar.

 

[District11]

It's not that nothing can be done. It sounds more like it just happened too fast for tps to do anything. I would have done the same thing. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you don't.

It normally does happen that quick. I have a few faces memorized and most of the time I dont notice them until the card they tried to use was declined and I'm called over.

 

[redeye58]

So should I just let anyone purchasing giftcards go and ignore the rules?

AP posters will be able to clarify but, by making note of trans time/reg, they can pull up the trans details & begin tracking (paid with a stolen card? loading it onto another card? what the card is used for? etc).
You can keep guest-servicing them whenever they come in but don't invite physical contact; just take down as many details as possible.

 

[District11]

Report the incident to AP, inform your GSTL of the incident, and as a SCO TM, I would continue to guest service guests prior to transactions. We started posting little signs at our SCO’s what couldn’t be rung up at SCO -age limit items, Coupons couldn’t be used, item limit, etc, maybe your leadership team will come up with a solution similar.

I doubt they would impose those limits because on the weekends especially we get a shit ton of customers and the GSTL rely on SCO POSs to relieve the lines in the checklanes.

 

[District11]

AP posters will be able to clarify but, by making note of trans time/reg, they can pull up the trans details & begin tracking (paid with a stolen card? loading it onto another card? what the card is used for? etc).
You can keep guest-servicing them whenever they come in but don't invite physical contact; just take down as many details as possible.

Yes I do know what the time was, and POS # in case they needed to review the cameras but i chickened out on reporting it mainly out of embarrassment. I feared that they would somewhat blame me for provoking the customer.

 

[NPC]

Yes I do know what the time was, and POS # in case they needed to review the cameras but i chickened out on reporting it mainly out of embarrassment. I feared that they would somewhat blame me for provoking the customer.

That's ridiculous. Let them know, so next time they come in, AP can kick them out.

 

[AnEmptyPackage]

ASANTS but CC fraud is something AP won’t really act on unless PD approaches first with information. It’s not a loss to target, therefore I wouldn’t get into a dispute about it. AP probably appreciates your keen eye though, they should definitely be following up about the physical contact portion of it. You can file with PD if you feel threatened but that’s up to you. Just remember, target doesn’t pay you enough to worry about it.

 

[IcePeasant]

I doubt they would impose those limits because on the weekends especially we get a shit ton of customers and the GSTL rely on the 16 SCO POSs to relieve the lines in the checklanes.

We imposed the limits because intelligence and patterns started showing trends and AP enforced it. Coupon fraud esp at SCO where it is intended to be fast for the guests, meaning they would likely have less guest servicing and easier chances of getting away with such things.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

Absolutely make sure your AP team looks at the cameras and make sure they know how you feel about the situation. Discuss potentially having a Safe & Secure plan created. If they come in again, call AP or the LOD immediately and let them know. My best advice is going to be to distance yourself from them in the future if they return, and let the AP team deal with them if possible. If not, try and have another TM or a leader deal with then, or at least be with you if you must interact with them. If this happened at my store I’d be throwing them out and calling PD if they refused to leave. At the end of the day, your safety is worth more than anything else.

Also my apologies if this is only partially answering your questions. I’m on 3 hours of sleep in the last two days and kinda brain dead at the moment. Feel free to PM me or reply with other questions.

 

[District11]

We imposed the limits because intelligence and patterns started showing trends and AP enforced it. Coupon fraud esp at SCO where it is intended to be fast for the guests, meaning they would likely have less guest servicing and easier chances of getting away with such things.

When I started SCO the other worker would just clear the screen for coupons and i followed suit until i came across a lady with a cart of bagged groceries and a 5 dollar total. She had used fake coupons to cancel her subtotal and was only paying tax. The TLs at my store are very aware of what happens at SCO they dont care enough. Maybe i shouldnt either.

 

[pinkp2ie]

ASANTS but CC fraud is something AP won’t really act on unless PD approaches first with information. It’s not a loss to target, therefore I wouldn’t get into a dispute about it. AP probably appreciates your keen eye though, they should definitely be following up about the physical contact portion of it. You can file with PD if you feel threatened but that’s up to you. Just remember, target doesn’t pay you enough to worry about it.

My old ETL-AP was very cool, and he was watching cameras one day as two guys tried to purchase (1) prepaid visa card and mens clothing and some sporting goods stuff. I asked them for ID, couldn't provide it. Ended up somehow looking at the card, and it was a totally off person's name and 1000% sure wasn't them.

What i feel like is, if your AP team cares about CC fraud (which the old one used too, So i cared to ID check) i will care. If the AP team helps merch protects every now and then (not everyday), I will too.

 

[District11]

My old ETL-AP was very cool, and he was watching cameras one day as two guys tried to purchase (1) prepaid visa card and mens clothing and some sporting goods stuff. I asked them for ID, couldn't provide it. Ended up somehow looking at the card, and it was a totally off person's name and 1000% sure wasn't them.

What i feel like is, if your AP team cares about CC fraud (which the old one used too, So i cared to ID check) i will care. If the AP team helps merch protects every now and then (not everyday), I will too.

I was told by who I believe is an ETL that it was against target policy to ID credit cards. Which leads me back to how ridiculous it is that they want us to send scammers away when nothing is stopping them from making the purchase at the checklanes

 

[IWishIKnew]

It seems like they shouldn't be putting the burden on the SCO person to police this--if it's that important you should have a GSA/GSTL or AP nearby to help spot and deal with these situations. Putting the burden on you alone to intervene and make these assessments clearly puts your safety at risk. Raise it with your ETL & AP. CC fraud, to HL's point, is less of a concern than TM safety, and leadership should be aware of this and addressing it.

You shouldn't have to worry about being assaulted at work. Nobody can control everything, but the policy in itself puts TMs at risk, and needs to be addressed by leadership. If leadership knows that the policy has resulted in TMs being assaulted over it, they absolutely need to address it, to prevent something worse.

IMO.

 

[pinkp2ie]

I was told by who I believe is an ETL that it was against target policy to ID credit cards. Which leads me back to how ridiculous it is that they want us to send scammers away when nothing is stopping them from making the purchase at the checklanes

I read somewhere before that it's against agreements (on Target FB) that we can't ask for ID.

 

[Guessed Service]

We can't demand ID but AFAIK we can impose limits on dollar amounts of gift cards sold (no multiple transactions).

 

[IcePeasant]

When I started SCO the other worker would just clear the screen for coupons and i followed suit until i came across a lady with a cart of bagged groceries and a 5 dollar total. She had used fake coupons to cancel her subtotal and was only paying tax. The TLs at my store are very aware of what happens at SCO they dont care enough. Maybe i shouldnt either.

If that’s true, which I hope isn’t, Just because leadership doesn’t care doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Just doing your job by guest servicing and communicating any suspicious activity you see is you being proactive with the company’s well-being in mind.

 

[TallAPGuy]

So, I haven't heard anything about not buying gift cards at self-checkout, so that sounds like a policy at your store. Your TPS, if he was alone, wouldn't be able to do anything after the fact about that without getting slammed back down by corporate.
What I have an issue with is the lack of concern he seemed to have about a subject putting his hands on you in confrontational way. That is in no way acceptable and they should have left skid marks on the sidewalk as they were tossed out! Talk to your ETL-AP or AP Team Lead and explain what happened and they should trespass those two the next time they come in. If he/she doesn't take you seriously, take it up the chain to the ETL-HR or STL. If that doesn't work, call the integrity hotline and say that it created a Hostile Work Environment, that'll get the gears in motion.