Archived A customer grabbed me in a dispute

[SoCalMama]

I did not bother to scan my ID at SCO. I just hit the help button. That stops the train right away.
I caught so many men with gift card issues. A pair of them bought upwards of $50K one day. I work(ed) with stupid people. Took me less than a minute to catch on. They were in the store for over 2 hours. As soon as they came my way, I had them. I was thinking, "Is everyone else clueless around here?" Answer - yes. Sadly. The good AP guys went to other stores or got better jobs. STL was impressed. Sigh.

 

[Bethy]

I did not bother to scan my ID at SCO. I just hit the help button. That stops the train right away.
I caught so many men with gift card issues. A pair of them bought upwards of $50K one day. I work(ed) with stupid people. Took me less than a minute to catch on. They were in the store for over 2 hours. As soon as they came my way, I had them. I was thinking, "Is everyone else clueless around here?" Answer - yes. Sadly. The good AP guys went to other stores or got better jobs. STL was impressed. Sigh.

Buying or using gift cards of that amount?

At my store you could only buy 5 Visa cards at a time.

 

[On6]

Many retailers don't care about credit card fraud because in the end they usually get paid or the insurance will cover it.

You really have to be careful approaching people that are doing those types of scams. Most are career criminals with shady backgrounds. They know the retail rules and that you most likely can't or won't really do anything.

Your TPS should done more though. An incident report should have been filled out. Possibly a safe and secure action plan as well.

Follow up with your AP leader. And be careful giving out your location. I'm not in that area but I'm pretty sure I know which store you're at.

 

[Tessa120]

Buying or using gift cards of that amount?

At my store you could only buy 5 Visa cards at a time.

Since the amount of time they were in the store was brought up, it sounds like they bought a few, wandered off to "shop" then came back for a few more etc, possibly choosing a different cashier each time.

 

[anathema]

Many retailers don't care about credit card fraud because in the end they usually get paid or the insurance will cover it.

You really have to be careful approaching people that are doing those types of scams. Most are career criminals with shady backgrounds. They know the retail rules and that you most likely can't or won't really do anything.

Your TPS should done more though. An incident report should have been filled out. Possibly a safe and secure action plan as well.

Follow up with your AP leader. And be careful giving out your location. I'm not in that area but I'm pretty sure I know which store you're at.

This is the correct info. Your TPS failed you. It is not up to you to prevent credit card fraud. People much higher than our paygrade are hired to look into that stuff and will not give you a medal for stopping any incidents of it.

I'm not sure why this was asked of you but the TPS didn't see shady people at SCO to intervene? Why would he leave that to you?

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

There is no law on who we can ID or not. We’re a private entity we can ID everyone in the store if we want. And technically, for credit cards, if the back isn’t signed, we’re supposed to ID (obviously no one does).

My store will ID then check the name of the CC you if you’re buying very large amounts of GCs.

It’s hard when you’re at SCO because you simply can’t watch everyone at once. The key is never focus completely on one guest. If you’re helping one guest, keep your eyes open and excuse yourself to guest service another guest if needed.

 

[On6]

There is no law on who we can ID or not. We’re a private entity we can ID everyone in the store if we want. And technically, for credit cards, if the back isn’t signed, we’re supposed to ID (obviously no one does).

My store will ID then check the name of the CC you if you’re buying very large amounts of GCs.

It’s hard when you’re at SCO because you simply can’t watch everyone at once. The key is never focus completely on one guest. If you’re helping one guest, keep your eyes open and excuse yourself to guest service another guest if needed.

MasterCard and Visa actually prohibit retailers asking for ID if the back is signed. Yes I know very few are actually signed so this is mostly a moot point.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

MasterCard and Visa actually prohibit retailers asking for ID if the back is signed. Yes I know very few are actually signed so this is mostly a moot point.

Well we can’t ask for ID in relation to the card if that is the case but we can still card whoever we want, and then glance over at the card. And then deny the sale because we want to.

 

[On6]

Well we can’t ask for ID in relation to the card if that is the case but we can still card whoever we want, and then glance over at the card. And then deny the sale because we want to.

Other than alcohol, medicine and videos games what reason would we have to ask for ID?

We also have the basic right as a business to refuse service to anyone. But how well you think that would go over with corporate?

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Other than alcohol, medicine and videos games what reason would we have to ask for ID?

We also have the basic right as a business to refuse service to anyone. But how well you think that would go over with corporate?

I’m not saying we should. I was just saying legally we can.

 

[Times Up]

It’s hard when you’re at SCO because you simply can’t watch everyone at once. The key is never focus completely on one guest. If you’re helping one guest, keep your eyes open and excuse yourself to guest service another guest if needed

I try to an extent, but it's unfair to the guest that I am currently helping if I am also checking out another guest. Also, I am 1 person with 1 set of eyes, and I get paid the same as a cashier who is is on a traditional lane and doesn't have to help 6 guests at once. I try to do a good job for each guest, but am certainly not running around like my pants are on fire.

 

[BoxCutter]

Since the SCO registers are already programmed differently than the other registers, how hard could it be to put a dollar limit on a single card gift card or multiple gift card purchases in the same transaction? The beginning of this past holiday season we had a "guest" purchase over $24,000 in gift cards at SCO in two transactions. This was two days after our STL told us in the huddle what the amount limits were. Apparently, the info was never communicated down to the cashiers and SCO attendants.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Since the SCO registers are already programmed differently than the other registers, how hard could it be to put a dollar limit on a single card gift card or multiple gift card purchases in the same transaction? The beginning of this past holiday season we had a "guest" purchase over $24,000 in gift cards at SCO in two transactions. This was two days after our STL told us in the huddle what the amount limits were. Apparently, the info was never communicated down to the cashiers and SCO attendants.

Well what they need to bring back is when you're approving the coupons to SEE WHAT YOU'RE APPROVING!! that's how it was on the old system, so you could see if it's scam coupons... but now it just goes through when you enter your number so you have no idea what you just approved...

 

[Guessed Service]

Since the SCO registers are already programmed differently than the other registers, how hard could it be to put a dollar limit on a single card gift card or multiple gift card purchases in the same transaction? The beginning of this past holiday season we had a "guest" purchase over $24,000 in gift cards at SCO in two transactions. This was two days after our STL told us in the huddle what the amount limits were. Apparently, the info was never communicated down to the cashiers and SCO attendants.

Well what they need to bring back is when you're approving the coupons to SEE WHAT YOU'RE APPROVING!! that's how it was on the old system, so you could see if it's scam coupons... but now it just goes through when you enter your number so you have no idea what you just approved...

I believe there is a limit already set into the registers with Visa and Target gift cards, and possibly with iTunes, I'm not sure about others. The problem is that scammers and resellers already know about the limits and just try to do multiple transactions.

As far as fake/wrong coupons, I now immediately hit back after the approval screen so I can see. I stopped someone previously with a fake $10 mfr coupon disguised into cartwheel.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Call the gsa/gstl or lod without delay for help, if ap is not there. If they “touch” you. Your lod can call the police.

 

[District11]

Update: I spoke to my ETL-AP and he assured me that he will ban the scammers and call the police if they tresspass. He also told me to never work without a walkie for my safety and to remove myself from the immediate area and call AP should I ever see those guys again.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Update: I spoke to my ETL-AP and he assured me that he will ban the scammers and call the police if they tresspass. He also told me to never work without a walkie for my safety and to remove myself from the immediate area and call AP should I ever see those guys again.

That sounds like a great plan for both you and AP.

 

[GSAguy]

Update: I spoke to my ETL-AP and he assured me that he will ban the scammers and call the police if they tresspass. He also told me to never work without a walkie for my safety and to remove myself from the immediate area and call AP should I ever see those guys again.

That sounds more like it! If a guest ever grabbed me like that, I would have called for AP right then and there. Ours are usually pretty good about getting to us quick if we call for them, and they don’t mind a bit to deal with guests that show themselves.

 

[Redzee]

Scream. Loudly. No guest should grab you. And glare. Practice. You are your best defense and the cameras should back you up.

 

[commiecorvus]

Scream. Loudly. No guest should grab you. And glare. Practice. You are your best defense and the cameras should back you up.

I recommend the Stitch method of getting them to back off.

 

[Kompa]

Flex them into an endcap next time

 

[Bethy]

Well what they need to bring back is when you're approving the coupons to SEE WHAT YOU'RE APPROVING!! that's how it was on the old system, so you could see if it's scam coupons... but now it just goes through when you enter your number so you have no idea what you just approved...

YES!!!! We always scan our speed id immediately when we approach an SCO without actually really looking at the screen, since then we can get into store mode and figure out what the issue is most efficiently.
For the coupons, after we log onto the SCO to collect their coupons, the next screen should be to choose “accept coupons (and back to SCO)” or “view coupon matchups” to take us back to the screen to view the transaction.
Too many stupid scams possible by this.

 

[GSAguy]

YES!!!! We always scan our speed id immediately when we approach an SCO without actually really looking at the screen, since then we can get into store mode and figure out what the issue is most efficiently.
For the coupons, after we log onto the SCO to collect their coupons, the next screen should be to choose “accept coupons (and back to SCO)” or “view coupon matchups” to take us back to the screen to view the transaction.
Too many stupid scams possible by this.

Ours says a team member is coming to accept your coupons and says how many.

 

[Bethy]

Ours says a team member is coming to accept your coupons and says how many.

Ours does too. But natural instinct for TMs is just to click store mode and scan their speed ID so they can fix whatever it is (remove an item, adjust a price, enter in literally any type of produce). Of course we need to pay more attention to the screen before we swipe on, but we don’t see thattt many extreme couponers so many get used to just walking up and swiping on while they figure out what’s going on and engage the guest.

 

[GSAguy]

Yeah, I will glance at the coupons before I drop them down the slot. I definitely get suspicious when I see coupons on copy paper.