Archived Return fraud.

[soL]

How is it handled at your store? We have the same group of ghetto people walk into the store all day returning a crapload of HBA product they obviously stole from another store using their ID's. Then we have them buying a lot of low-dollar items with shifty giftcards and returning it immediately at Guest Service. We're not allowed to do anything but basically watch them do it.

 

[The Dude Abides]

Unfortunately unless your STL or AP leadership stand up to it there is little you can do. We print a second copy of the receipts from their return to give AP the ability to monitor their transactions, but that's all we can really do.

 

[cmat21]

Anything HBA related or single items over 50$ we require the receipt.

 

[judgemental]

we changed our policy recently after a visit and after a small little investigation they did. if we find it suspicious (a bag load of HBA items) we ask for the receipt, if they don't have it we continue with "did you buy it here?" if they say yes we tell them AP will look up the receipt (this is obviously just a scare tactic). if they say no then we deny them and tell them to go back to the same store they bought it at. if they have single items we tell them they can't return it on the same day, we can only post void it. if they start to argue we call either AP or LOD.

 

[DoWork]

I see a lot of variation in how theft/fraud is handled from store to store. Would be nice to see a firm policy company wide with no compromises.

 

[Xanatos]

There is a sign behind guest service that says a return without a receipt may be denied. I just tell them we need the receipt. They argue, I stand my ground, they leave. Problem solved. Though, I do have that authority as a SrTL and you'll need to get your store leadership behind you so they don't come up and do the return just for the sake of "vibing" with these thieves.

 

[queencat]

We reprint no receipt return receipts and keep them in a bucket behind guest service.
However they've been catching on and returning shit then immediately wanting to buy a drink/candy bar/etc and getting irritated when we tell them we need to wait.
It's also a hassle because not everyone at guest service has supervisor numbers so until a GSA/GSTL/etc can get around to us one of our registers is out of commission.
On one hand it angers me but on the other, it's not my money. It says right behind me we can deny returns without a reciept. If Target doesn't want to do that then so be it.

 

[NPC]

Usually our Return Frauders come in with multiple bags stuffed with HBA items, easily equating to hundreds if not a couple thousand dollars. Our AP and one of our LOD-APs have been REALLY good an empowering Guest Service when it comes to turning away these returns. We require a receipt for any large HBA return. After we started doing this, Frauders began bringing in their receipts. However, the system still won't recognize the coupons used in these instances. So I inform the guests, "Okay, just so you know it may take a while, because I have to adjust the prices to what you paid for because of the coupons." Once they hear this, (I've literally had guests saying, "oh I won't get the full price?") they say never mind and leave.

Recently, our Frauders have become keen to the fact that we're not taking these returns, so now they'll come in with smaller returns, around $80-$100. Sometimes with only 4 items at a time. Unfortunately, in those cases, I feel I don't have the grounds to deny their returns, and AP feels the same. So instead I go ahead and do the return, and just inform AP so they can make a note of it. In cases like this, I keep track of the times of the returns and the kind of items. Yesterday I had 4 shady returns within 40 minutes of each other, all from different guests, yet similar items.

The hardest, yet most important thing about this is realizing every case is situational. Standing your ground is important, and keeping your AP team well informed and updated with incidents is the best thing to do. These guests tend to be aggressive. They know all the policies typically, and will threaten to call Corporate multiple times and ask for your name, and try to distract and intimidate you. Ironic, because Corporate knows exactly what's going on. So don't let that scare you. As long as you're doing your job, and being polite and respectful, (never accuse them of fraud for example) then you're doing nothing wrong. The GSTLs in my store are awful about stopping this stuff, so I never bother to ask them for help. So if you find this to be the case, go to whom you feel will support you.

 

[luna831]

Then lod comes and they do it anyway

we changed our policy recently after a visit and after a small little investigation they did. if we find it suspicious (a bag load of HBA items) we ask for the receipt, if they don't have it we continue with "did you buy it here?" if they say yes we tell them AP will look up the receipt (this is obviously just a scare tactic). if they say no then we deny them and tell them to go back to the same store they bought it at. if they have single items we tell them they can't return it on the same day, we can only post void it. if they start to argue we call either AP or LOD.

 

[Kompa]

give the guest the full refund. regular tms dont get paid enough to care of someone steals from tartet

 

[Retail Girl]

Not giving the guest the full amount back and deducting for manufacturer coupons is fraud, because Target is reimbursed for the coupons.

If the guests really knew Target's policies they would call corporate who would demand you do the transaction. Or they would fill out a survey and give it all ones so the etl-ge would have to call them the next day and apologize and beg forgiveness.

Doing that once or twice and having to get the dtl and gvp off their back, and the stl and etl-ge will have you do every return with a smile.

 

[APMonster]

If you are certain its return fraud denied the transaction. Make sure you offer receipt lookup and/or asks when/where they purchase it to interrupt the subject's response. Also, swipe the subject's ID and pretend they hit their return limit or say the system isn't allowing return without a receipt for this certain department. Apologize to the subject and say sorry there isn't anything you can do. Also, if the subject asks if they can exchange, your response is unfortunately not without a receipt.

All leaderships are different from store to store so be careful.

It's important you denied fraudulent returns because it subtracts from your total sales, which means less hours for team members.

 

[LilMissVO]

Like people have said, knowing that the leadership has your back is a big part of it. One of my GSTLs is a little bit of a flake when it comes to OBVIOUS fraud that it's become my suspision that he does it just so nobody takes survey points away. My other GSTL/GSAs are better at having my back (I'm just a service desk TM) when it comes to saying no to frauders. But any time I see something that I think is off, I make a note and take it to my ETLAP/TPS so they can keep track of it.

I call it being an "AP Friendly Team Member."

 

[The Dude Abides]

If you are certain its return fraud denied the transaction. Make sure you offer receipt lookup and/or asks when/where they purchase it to interrupt the subject's response. Also, swipe the subject's ID and pretend they hit their return limit or say the system isn't allowing return without a receipt for this certain department. Apologize to the subject and say sorry there isn't anything you can do. Also, if the subject asks if they can exchange, your response is unfortunately not without a receipt.

All leaderships are different from store to store so be careful.

It's important you denied fraudulent returns because it subtracts from your total sales, which means less hours for team members.

This is great if your store's leadership will support you on it. However, many team members work at locations where they do are not allowed to do this.

 

[soL]

Yeah, we recently told our Guest Service TM's to deny any HBA returns unless they have the receipt. This has resulted in a few of them leaving the store yelling angrily and another few trying to return stolen watches now. A lot of infant clothing as well.

 

[Patty]

I have never worked at the cash register , but I don't understand what is the deal with HBA? What can they do fraudulently with HBA? I am the operator, and one day a guest called yelling and carrying on about Nivea body wash. When she came in, a tm told me she was up front carrying on snd making a scene. When I went up there, she was trying to return about 40 of the items. It took an hour to do her return. Everyone said she was a scammer. Something was definitely off, but I dont see why. Cui bono?

 

[squirrely]

The Nivea was buy 4, get a $5gc. So with using coupons, they were paying very little out of pocket and getting the gc. If they return with no receipt, target essentially gave them free gift cards. A lot of HBA sales have the gc offers, which is why they're trying to limit those returns.

 

[Xanatos]

I have never worked at the cash register , but I don't understand what is the deal with HBA? What can they do fraudulently with HBA? I am the operator, and one day a guest called yelling and carrying on about Nivea body wash. When she came in, a tm told me she was up front carrying on snd making a scene. When I went up there, she was trying to return about 40 of the items. It took an hour to do her return. Everyone said she was a scammer. Something was definitely off, but I dont see why. Cui bono?

With HBA, it's usually manufacturer coupons. People will use $10 manufacturer coupons over and over and over and get the full amount back, which means they make $10 on each item, times 40 items is a nice profit for very little work.

Cosmetics, on the other hand, is usually theft. They're very small and very expensive items. I did my first no-receipt cosmetics return in YEARS just the other day. Then two days later, a woman comes in knowing I can do a no-receipt return with her license for a gift card; I looked her dead in the eye and said I need the receipt or form of payment until she left. I told AP and they said she and another guy have been doing that all over the city.

 

[NPC]

I actually had a super nice guy come in trying to do these returns. I saw him walk up with a shopping cart with about 4 bags STUFFED with HBA items. I was ready for an argument and getting ready to call an LOD. But instead he came up and told me that he was a reseller, and that he was trying to return the items he no longer needed. I was surprised he was so upfront and honest about being a reseller. ANYWAY, I started out vaguely, and told him that we weren't doing those kinds of returns anymore (in cases of resellers) however, I would do it if he has his receipt so that I could return the correct amounts. He simply nodded, and said okay and thank you, and left. I was so surprised, I felt like having a real moment and telling him, "Wow can I just say, we get a lot of these kinda of requests, but you're the first guy who was actually decent and honest." Haha. I figured that would be too inappropriate though as it would insinuate an accusation of some kind.

 

[NPC]

Recently I've dealt with a few transactions where a guest returned several packs of pillowcases. They're really expensive pillowcases, by either Threshold or Fieldcrest. Basically about $30 bucks a pack. And the guest will come in with about 7 or 8 packs. Because they're fairly small though, I am guessing that it's stollen merchandise.

The last guest I had with these, said they were a gift from his mom. I simply asked, "You're mom gave you 8 packs of pillowcases as a gift?" To which he replied and stumbled over a bunch of nonsense about his mom being in her 90s. (yet somehow capable of getting herself to Target.)

 

[SnorlaxTM]

If everything comes out to a total somewhere over $50-75 we call the LOD or AP, whoever is closest. Usually they deny it or offer to lookup the receipt (usually when they leave), but I notice when our GS vibe score is low some of this transactions get the okay.

 

[Flabbergasted]

Our store AP used to be very good at cracking down on the HBA, electronics coupon frauders. Unfortunately, due to some calls made to the DTL, we have been told that a new district-wide policy is in effect to accept any and all returns no matter how shady the guest may appear (or obviously are.) No store in our district is allowed to deny a single return anymore unless the register tells us to. I've just stopped caring at this point. If Target wants to give away its money to these lying, frauding people, I say let them have it. They'll just fix the shortage by cutting jobs and hours again anyway. Nothing's going to change.

 

[NPC]

Our store AP used to be very good at cracking down on the HBA, electronics coupon frauders. Unfortunately, due to some calls made to the DTL, we have been told that a new district-wide policy is in effect to accept any and all returns no matter how shady the guest may appear (or obviously are.) No store in our district is allowed to deny a single return anymore unless the register tells us to. I've just stopped caring at this point. If Target wants to give away its money to these lying, frauding people, I say let them have it. They'll just fix the shortage by cutting jobs and hours again anyway. Nothing's going to change.

Well supposedly, our systems are eventually going to be able to catch coupons if they make a return with a gift card, credit/debit, or receipt. I don't know if this is true, it's just something one of my AP had mentioned. Of course ID returns are still vulnerable, but of course at least they'll be stuck with a gift card.

It's frustrating because no one is ever on the same page. Our DTL told us to do the exact opposite around the time we stopped doing business with resellers. Technically you have the right to deny returns without a valid receipt. And things have relatively remained about the same for us thankfully.

 

[sigma7]

I get that there are people scamming the coupon system, but if the coupons are technically used correctly, target gets reimbursed. If the guest makes a no receipt return, they get the full value back (or last sale price blah blah blah) and target still got reimbursed for the correctly used coupon. So if we adjust down coupons for returns...isn't that really Target committing fraud and not the guest? In most cases, with legitimate coupons, it seems to me like the guest is defrauding the manufacturer and Target is just caught in the middle. With a receipt or not, if we adjust return values to take the coupon off of the return value, then Target is pocketing the coupon...they get reimbursed for the coupon and then don't give the coupon value back to the guest...the manufacturer is still out the money and Target is the one that defrauded them.

Giftcard promo returns are another thing entirely since Target gave the guest the giftcard and is just making things even if the guest returns the items without the giftcard. Now if the guest returns promo giftcard items without the receipt and still keeps the giftcard, then Target has been defrauded.

 

[Retail Girl]

I get that there are people scamming the coupon system, but if the coupons are technically used correctly, target gets reimbursed. If the guest makes a no receipt return, they get the full value back (or last sale price blah blah blah) and target still got reimbursed for the correctly used coupon. So if we adjust down coupons for returns...isn't that really Target committing fraud and not the guest? In most cases, with legitimate coupons, it seems to me like the guest is defrauding the manufacturer and Target is just caught in the middle. With a receipt or not, if we adjust return values to take the coupon off of the return value, then Target is pocketing the coupon...they get reimbursed for the coupon and then don't give the coupon value back to the guest...the manufacturer is still out the money and Target is the one that defrauded them.

Giftcard promo returns are another thing entirely since Target gave the guest the giftcard and is just making things even if the guest returns the items without the giftcard. Now if the guest returns promo giftcard items without the receipt and still keeps the giftcard, then Target has been defrauded.

That's why we can't adjust returns down for manufacturer coupons. It would leave the store open for fraud investigation, lawsuits, etc. Target gets burned on the labor to restock all of this crap, ULVs having serious overages at whatever store gets dumped on, and coupons that may not be reimbursed for being fraudulent, etc.