So long as there is blood coursing through my dumb veins I will never shop at Best Buy again. Why? Because I feel the store’s anti-shoplifting measures went above and beyond what’s necessary at the weekend. Let me explain.
I went to the local mall, the Poughkeepsie Galleria, on Saturday to drop off a roll of film at Target. (I’ve recently been shooting with a film camera; I’m working on a post that’ll show up one of these days.) My brother and I then exited the way we came in: via Best Buy. The Best Buy is located right next to the parking lot, so it’s quicker to go to and from the parking lot via the store. You know what I mean.
Anyhow, as we’re exiting the Best Buy, on our way to the parking lot, the security alarm goes off. In my experience, the guy standing watch by the exit usually just waves you on—“it’s cool, just go”—since the alarm goes off all the time. (Shouldn’t that be fixed?) Not on Saturday.
The guy on watch immediately comes over to us, saying something like “stop right there,” with the tone of voice that suggested he was on a massive power trip. My initial reaction, at least mentally, was “no, I’m not stopping.” But whatever, let’s see what he has to say.
He then instructs my brother to lift his shirt up (?!) and empty out his pockets, and asks me to empty my pockets. I pulled out my phone and said something like, “Are you allowed to do this, or is this police-only type of thing?”
Then the guy motions us back into the store—the above took place in that little divider part between doors, where the gum ball machines are—and brings us to a table in plain view of all the other shoppers. Oh, great, now we have a situation, I’m thinking. The guy’s “you messed with the wrong man” grimace and tone of voice really put us off. He then proceeds to rifle through the contents of my brother’s wallet, like a police officer would. Never mind how hard it’d be to stuff an Xbox 360 or wireless router inside a wallet, it was the whole situation here that annoyed me.
Again I asked the guy, “Is this even legal? Are you permitted to look though our wallets, ask us to lift our shirts and empty our pockets because the alarm, which goes off every time I come here, went off?” After about a minute—I’m not going to exaggerate for effect and claim something ridiculous, it was only about a minute—of looking over our items, he says, “Go on, get out of here.” Gee, thanks. Next time I’ll strip naked and you can make sure there’s nothing on my person.
Here’s how far I was willing to take it: if I could go back in time, I’d tell the guy, “Look, I didn’t steal anything, so there’s no way I’m going to let you rifle through my things, demanding to see X, Y or Z, just to prove my innocence. That’s not happening. You’re more than welcome to call the police, who I’ll listen to because they’re the police, and not some guy in a yellow shirt.” Then the police would come, tell me to stop being a crybaby, chastise me for wasting their time, and tell me to leave the damn store already. And I would have, in a heartbeat, because, again, they’re the police, not some guy in a polo shirt. The police can compel you to do something, not some Best Buy employee who thinks he’s making an example out of someone, or who’s taking his aggression out on you.
Is this an overreaction? Perhaps; I don’t see myself as Toussaint Louverture or Patrick Henry or anything. But in no way am I prepared to shop at a store that thinks it can pull you aside, in the view of Lord knows how many people—great, now to these people I look like a criminal—just because its alarm goes off, especially since the alarm goes off all the time. But the fact that that alarm goes off every single time I enter the store suggests that the alarm perhaps isn’t what it should be— so don’t ask me to “comply” or whatever because your alarm is rubbish. I don’t take kindly to being treated like a common thief by your goons because your security system is trash.
Thank you, and God bless America.
You should probably go back through the store, at least once more, in order to report that employee to a manager, and attempt to get him fired.
The whole situation sounds like it was that one Yellow-shirt, and not the store. I’m not a big fan of Best Buy myself, but everything you said makes it sound like it was this guy being a dick.
A manager should be able to pull up the security footage from Saturday, see “Ok, so it was Jim working. Hey! He shouldn’t have done that!”, and proceed to call Jim into the office and fire his ass the next time he comes in for a shift.
Dude, could you clarify a little on exactly how many fingers the guard insterted in your anus? I recall from torts a situation where one finger was deemed acceptable, but a thumb was not.
This is a really unusual area of the law, and you might want to consult a homeopath.
You were in a private store. If I owned a store and the alarm went off, I would search you too. It’s not a big deal. Shit happens sometimes.
So where do your logic end? It’s a private store: now take off all your clothes. It’s a private store: now punch that old lady in the face.
Sure, they can ask me to leave (“get off our property”), but the point is that Best Buy policy does not carry the same weight as New York state law.
But Nicholas…what are they supposed to do if they think you stole something? By your logic, the store is sh*t out of luck if someone steals something and sticks it down their pants, because they’re basically home free at that point. Nobody can do more than ask them if they stole anything, even if the alarm goes off.
I agree with you that most of those alarm systems are total garbage, and something should be done to increase their efficacy. And it always sucks when someone is on a power trip, especially a security guard. But come on – they’re paid to provide security to the store, its customers, employees, and its merchandise. If the alarm goes off and they do nothing, why are they even there?
I don’t blame you for being angry, but people shoplift all the time and sometimes, because we don’t live in a perfect world, innocent people are inconvenienced because of that. I would be more curious why the alarm seems to go off every time you enter and exit – because I go to Best Buy a lot and its pretty uncommon for me to see or hear the alarm going off.
They’re supposed to quarantine you then call the police, not search you themselves.
Hey so I was discussing this with somebody and they gave me some interesting info: apparently, many department stores install security tags in their jeans and such which they do not remove after being purchased. This is common at stores like Banana Republic, JCrew, etc.
Take a look and see if you can find something like that in your clothes. It may explain why you’re constantly tripping alarms!
I worked the same position that the Best Buy employee did, except at Circuit City (obviously back in the day). We were told what to do in a situation such as yours…we’re supposed to wave a metal detecting wand around your body and ask you to remove whatever you have wherever the wand goes off. If you say no and run out of the store (or walk) we’re supposed to ask you to return. If you don’t, we have the option of calling the police-we can’t quarantine, touch, or do anything to anybody-it’s company policy. I highly doubt that Best Buy is any different…the “loss prevention” guys (as their called) only have the authority to check your receipt if you let them and call the police when it is deemed necessary to the manager-that’s it.
Two thoughts:
1) You and your brother weren’t compelled to do anything, the guard *asked* you – a firm ask is still just an ask. You chose to comply with his request and allow him to both detain and search your person. You might not have had time to consider your options, but that doesn’t change the basic situation – someone asked you to do something, and you complied.
2) I would have been completely livid and probably done the same thing under those circumstances. Submitting to authority is not something I handle gracefully, and it usually takes me a few seconds/minutes after an affront like the initial ‘lift up your shirt’ request for my red mist ti lift and begin thinking rationally and logically again. This is where it pays to have a deeply internalized understanding of the law – if you can suppress your initial anger/embarrassment and respond autonomously with a preconditioned logical response (”Call the police if you think I’ve really stolen something, I’ll be waiting on that bench in the mall if you’d like to call them, but you aren’t going to detain or search me”).
I agree with Jason. Nobody made you do anything, you just complied. Regardless, the LP guy was WAY out of line and should be fired since it’s actually AGAINST company policy to attempt to detain shoplifters.
That would be what we in the retail biz call a “bad stop”. Generally unless you absolutely know they have something and can identify exactly where it is you are not permitted to stop someone. This person was a dick and at least in the companies I worked for you only get so many bad stops till you get canned usually on the second time. Basically because they can be liable for defamation of character etc. I would complain and I would also have just kept walking. P.S. if you’re always setting of those alarms you probably have some clothing with the tags sewn into them. usually high end jeans or shirts will have a large square tag you need to cut off.
Alex, you missed the point completely. Private property or not they can’t demand a search. They can request one. Second Best Buy prices suck lately, seriously, I can buy the same TV at Walmart for a hundred dollars less and have a better return policy.
Grow up! The real problem here is the people that go in and do steal! They are the reason stuff like this happens. Retail stores have to protect their product, because people come in daily and try to steal what ever they can. If you want to gripe about something, then gripe about crimes that make prices and conviences harder on everyone else.
Totally. Bad guys do bad things, so lets inconvenience everyone.
well.. yes.. that’s the idea behind laws and rules..
*scratches head*
i guess you’re proposing a new way, maybe you get a “Good” sticker, and you shop in different stores, drive on different roads, so you won’t have to have the inconveniance of being under suspicion, ever. we do that right now loosely with those who have money, i suppose. try that, then.
you’ve obviously never lived in the inner city, jackass. you’ll get harassed just for walking to slow or too quickly. but you learn it’s the area and deal with it, the cops are as nervous as i am if not more.
What are you talking about? Part of reading comprehension is context – so lets read what I was responding to before taking it as a blanket statement.
I did enjoy that tangent about never living in an inner city, though.
In Phoenix, AZ a Best Buy I used to go to had a crazy sensitive alarm as well.
Eventually I (and others) figured out that if you had a Best Buy bag in your hand, they would just nod at you and let you leave. My friends and I just started carrying an empty bag with us every time we went to the store.
Great security guys…
It’s clearly illegal unless you’re the police!
Sorry, but they can detain you
http://www.civildemand.net/Articles.html
But that still sucks
And in this case there is no ‘reasonable suspicion’ of shop lifting. But it also sounds like he hung around because he is a ‘good guy’. If he tried to leave and they wouldn’t let him, that would have been very close to illegal detention. If they touched him while detaining him, that is potentially assault.
Nicholas,
Next time just avoid the whole situation by dropping your pants and handing them to the guard the second he starts hassling you. It will make everyone uncomfortable and be an instant win.
PS It’s much more hilarious if you are wearing creative drawers. Like old school childish superman ones.
Or no drawers.. :)
Johnny Knoxville? Is that you? :)
Tough luck. I hate Best Buy anyways.
Wow… It is a good thing you don’t own a store Alex or you would be sued.
My advice is to contact a lawyer. You have a solid case against best buy and the security person in general.
The law is funny with this stuff. You can’t accuse anyone of theft until they leave the store. However in store security can’t stop or detain shop lifters outside the store in the parking lot. At no time are you required to stop for anyone other then a police officer who properly identifies himself.
The maximum they can do is follow you to your car and get your license plate and submit it to the police.
Security officers have no more rights than any other average person. Call a lawyer, one of them really really wambulence chasing types. Tell them what happened, then tell them when your property was returned, cash was missing out of both you and your brothers wallet. About the you should hear the dollar signs going off in the lawyers head. If you don’t want to go that route, I suggest that you return to the store and ask to speak with the store manager, not a shift manager or a supervisor, but the actual store manager, he will most likely happily take the meet. I would also ask for that the head of lost prevention be asked to join. Then explained to them what happened to you and your brother. I would also ask that they pull the video surv. footage. I would also drop law suit hints. Play the victim because in this case you are the victim, the more you come across that this was traumatic, which was enough for you to never return your business to them, and you wonder how many other poor innocent people have been traumatized by this individual. When it is all said an done wait in the parking lot. You will bound to see the guy who did it being escorted out.
Companies don’t take kindly to complaints from customers that they were traumatized by one of their staff while he was working. It is far easier to settle or fire the person responsible then it is to argue with the customer.
I myself would have had my lawyer on the phone in the parking lot while the guy was asking to go through my personal belongings just praying he touched me. Best Buy would have been funding my retirement.
…and people like you are the reason everyone in this country is terrified of litigation. How about if you’re ever in that situation and so sure of your rights, you man up and walk out. Let the security guard follow you to your car, take your license plate, and let them follow up. Go from there instead of threatening litigation and helping christen the next thousand law schools in America.
You are incorrect. Concealment of merchandise on your person while still in the store constitutes theft in many, if not all states.
He should have refused the search and asked for the police to be called. He made the mistake of complying with the request of the employee.
Wow…Haxcid is what’s wrong with America.
Haxcid, I am afraid you are wrong, on many things.
Unfortunately the law does allow merchants to briefly detain individuals who are suspected of shoplifting. Check out the “merchants exception” or read some wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_imprisonment
or better yet take a first year torts class.
As for the search, it sounds like the author consented, mostly out of fear. I do not believe they have a right to a search, but the law may be different in NY.
Either way, even if the law were to allow such a search, it is clearly bad store policy. In this case only amplified by a well publicized article.
Sorry that happened to you Nicholas, no one likes to endure that embarassment. If it helps I will participate in your Best Buy boycott with you.
Sorry to hear you had to deal with an a-hole security guard – but I don’t think that’s reason to give up on an entire franchise altogether.
Next time, ask for a manager and report the jerk – or at least get his name and come back later to report him.
I bet you weren’t the only person who had a problem with this guy, and you never see him working there again.
After working many years in retail I can tell you that they are simply not allowed to do that. Unless someone has seen you pick up something off a shelf, shove it in your pocket/down your pants, and not let their eyes leave you as you leave the store, they have no right to search you for merchandise. Even still, they had no right to do so without calling the police. I would absolutely complain to Best Buy – call the District Manager or corporate customer service line. Even if they had just asked you to empty your pockets, they definitely had no reason to search through your wallet.
Honestly, having been to the Poughkeepsie Galleria before, and being familiar with the urban blight that is Poughkeepsie, I think that Best Buy has every reason to be somewhat more sensitive to potential shoplifting than stores in other locations.
I think the original post is simply the reaction of some one feeling violated and striking out in the only way you feel you can, by essentially leveraging the fact that you can reach so many people via this blog. While your feelings in this matter are indeed valid, I feel this response is inappropriate. Instead of just “ranting” perhaps if you went into journalist mode and gathered some information on how often “bad stops” like this take place, did some investigating to see if yours was an isolated incident or corporate policy, and hey, perhaps called BestBuy corporate to get them to comment on rifling through suspected shoplifters wallets.
For the record, I have set off the alarm at bestbuy many times, generally this involved my opening my bag and letting them look in without touching anything. I too would be annoyed if asked to lift my shirt or told to surrender my wallet; The popper reaction would have been to say, “you are not authorized to search me in this way and I refuse to subject myself to any search, feel free to call the authorities and I will comply with them”
Hey, I went to Gamestop and asked the woman behind the counter on a date, she totally rejected me, can you please write a lengthy post railing against Gamestop? Thanks :)
–J
Next time wear a condom
The question is, did the alarm sound when you went through any of the other doors that day?
Did it sound when you went back in the store with security?
If not I think you can simply call the manager to make him aware of the one faulty alarm. That will open the door for you to complain about your treatment.
You should have refused to allow him to search you. If he persisted you should have asked him to call the police, but still refused to allow him to search you. YOU allowed him to search your person and wallet. He asked and YOU complied with all his orders. In my opinion, the security employee did nothing illegal. All he did was ask, and you complied. Was he being a jerk? Probably, but last time I checked, being a jerk is not against the law. Now you realize your mistake and feel violated. So in answer to your question, “Is this an overreaction?” the answer is YES.
Shitty experience. My brother-in-law has managed retail stores for 25 years and has told me that shoplifting is their number one cost problem, and has been for years. This leads to higher prices for everybody, as somebody already mentioned. So security is to our benefit, as the less that gets stolen, the better prices the business can offer.
That being said, you had a bad experience, and should talk to the store manager and explain what happened. Don’t forget the part about you simply using the store to exit the mall. They’ll probably throw you a bone or at least apologize. If their alarm has a problem, the manager should want to know about it. It’s like when TSA rifled through my briefcase after it went through the x-ray — they searched it, emptied it, then sent it through again. Why x-ray it again if you’ve already done a manual search? These guys are just doing their job, and sometimes they don’t do it so well. But I’m still glad they’re there. The same goes with store security. I don’t want to pay more because some aholes rip off the store.
I thought that in the US that when this sort of thing happens it is your duty to sue them for millions.
Or is this just that we have the wrong impression of what America is like?
No, sadly that perception is fairly justified. Refer above to “Haxcid”’s comment. But please recognize the vast majority of Americans aren’t like that.
Also, many of the more ridiculous lawsuits – which are often highly publicized – are just as often thrown out of court.
It wasn’t the store, it was just a yellow shirted ass who thinks he has higher power than what he actually has. Anyway, in all honesty, you were kind of asking for it being lazy and all taking shortcuts to get to the car faster.
Do you have an iPhone? My iPhone sets of the alarm at Walgreens everytime. I have even gone in and out with and without my phone just to test it to make sure that is what it was.
Adding to that, some jeans from higher priced stores have an additional tag in them that sets off a lot of alarms. it is usually in the calf area of the jeans and is there for extra security. If you’re pants have that it could be yer trousers.
I have to side with bonafortuna here. This sounds like a case of Nicholas sorely over-reacting to the first time in his life he’s ever been wrongly accused of something.
It hurts, and maybe the security guard overstepped his bounds a little, but he was doing his job and doing it for the greater good of Best Buy and all Best Buy shoppers who have the right to a safe shopping environment. Maybe he also didn’t like how you looked or how you were acting…
If every case of shoplifting was handled by turning things over to the police, none of the cases would be solved or police time would be wasted tracking down petty items. If you were so sure of your rights and his wrongs, you could have stood up for yourself more. It feels like the shame of your inability to think/act clearly has caused the anger you’re now spewing.
Sometimes we have to accept a little humiliation in this world for the greater good, like getting searched by TSA at the airport, or going through through a metal detector before entering a NYC public school.
You may look like and BE an innocent individual who would never shoplift but you can’t expect everyone to know that.
Obviously you have the right to complain and voice your thoughts here on CG, but don’t you think you’re taking things a little too far by blaming the actions of this one individual and one faulty alarm system on the entire franchise? What if your rant, complaint, or lawsuit caused the entire store to have to shutdown and dozens of people lose their jobs? Why? Because you were unfairly mistreated for 5 minutes? I mean, can you get outside your own sense of entitlement for a minute to think about how frivolous and meaningless this petty injustice is compared to almost any REAL injustice in the world today?
As others have asked, if they can’t search you or detain you in the store, then what should they do to prevent shoplifting?
Raise prices on their goods to offset the losses accrued from shoplifting?
Again, I’m not calling myself Rosa Parks or anything–that would be beyond silly. But, if nothing else, maybe this’ll help people understand that those security guards cannot compel you to do anything without the presence of a police officer.
@Samson (and the rest of you who are so easily willing to give up your rights) , I’d like to thank you.
Sentiments like the following:
“Sometimes we have to accept a little humiliation in this world for the greater good” will make it so much easier for me to install myself as supreme leader of the united states one day.
This again shows the quality of help @best buy next time or next person this happens to,when someone tells you to empty your pockets tell them to get a court order and you want a lawyer now.Tell the lawyer file a law suit.BEST BUY SUCKS Always shop at other stores same product MUCH LOWER PRICES
sounds to me like you appear as a shady mofo; you rever think about that, huh?
Oh, Josh. How can you say I look shady?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholasadeleon/3568271428/
I’m harmless!
Aghhhhhh he is on the FBI’s top 20 !!
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/alert/tafoya_aj.htm
lmao my work firewall is blocking the site because it falls into the category of sharing media. BOOOOOOOOO hate these filters at work. I’ll check it out when I get home playa!
You look harmless but, I think we all learned our lesson from the Zodiac Killer. I only trust you as far as I can throw you.
LMAO!
Actually they do have the right to stop and even detain you – if you are on their private property. Its called the “shop-keeper’s privileged.”
What they DO NOT have the right to do is force you to give them your wallet or any other personal effects. Also, they can only detain for a “reasonable” amount of time to find out if you did steal something.
Basically, any judge would likely throw your case out of court if you decided to sue. The only possible exception being the fact that they guy took and rifled through your wallet, and the fact that he made you lift up your shirt.
Its not really worth your time or the court’s time. Unless you want to use the leverage of a possible lawsuit to try and get some kind of settlement out of Best Buy. However this is why the courts are so backed-up with B.S. cases.
If you wanted to get back at the a-hold Best Buy employee you should have demanded to see his manager when he said you could leave.
I’m not a lawyer. does anyone know if these “shop-keeper’s privileged” laws have ever been tested in the courts? I don’t see how they are constitutional.
This is why I shop online – but this is more and more the norm than anything else.
Like I go to ToysRUs with my kids this weekend – spend money in plain sight of the security drone and I’m still asked for a receipt. Not to mention I spent my money for the privilege of the staff automatically assuming that I am a thief and not to be trusted.
Someone (preferably who has worked in loss prevention) explain to me what from Best Buy could have been hiding in the guy’s wallet?
Go back and tell the manager.
The fact that you look like your 12 probably didn’t help matter — but if you spoke to the manager, let him know what was going on, I am sure everything would have been settled right then and there and the security guard would have looked like a total a-hole. So the moral of this story: Venting to us is okay, but you should have immediately asked for the manager. Now you are sh*t out of luck now!
Sucks it happen to you. I hope you get some sort of discount or rebate for your troubles. It isn’t right and they should apologize to you outright.
If you come to Canada, the Canadian Charter of rights and freedom protects you from these idiots. I once set off an alarm but the security guard couldn’t do anything with me except ask if I could show him my pockets. Had to let me go since he can’t touch me personally.
” Section 8: right from unreasonable search and seizure.
Section 9: freedom from arbitrary detainment or imprisonment.”
A) What he did was illegal, your rights were violated. No one, other than law enforcement is allowed to physically detain you unless they are willing to make a citizens arrest and then suffer the consequences of their actions. To all the retail owners here who said this was ok, let me know where your businesses are located, I want to set off your alarms and have you try and search me, we’ll change the names of those stores real quick.
B) Never hand anyone your wallet, I’m sure you felt intimidated which is why you gave it to him, that was his intent, what if he was just a guy in a yellow shirt and walked off with them.
C) Contact Best Buy corporate and the store manager, call and send EMAILs. You can be sure every customer in that store during that incident believes you stole something, there’s no reason to be humiliated by a wanna be cop who can’t catch real thiefs.
D) To the people who think you’re being a baby, it would be great if you were part of a minority group and you and your brother were profiled because of that, and that’s why you were searched. These people probably think it’s just fine for an African American to get pulled over in a “White” area and have their cars searched for no reason, it’s just a minor inconvenience for the greater good.
E) And finally, those stupid alarms go off all the time and retailers waste a ton of money on them. There’s a Walmart near me that has the alarm go off every 30 seconds or so, it’s laughable, you can hear it the entire time you’re in the store and when it goes off when we leave we just keep walking, you can’t fix it, call a cop and search me. As for the Best Buy alarm, it’s probably maintained by the Geek Squad and that’s why it does that. Now all the Geek Squad people can start flaming me.
Why are so many people so misguided. They can detain you, they can even handcuff you if you resist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopkeeper%27s_privilege
My older brother works at Best Buy. It is one retailer whose main focus is helping customers make infored purchases and keeping them happy. I noticed he mentioned that the alarm always goes off. That is not the case. It rarely goes off in my brothers store unless someone is actually stealing. If you had any idea of Best Buy’s shrink numbers due to theft you would be sick. Milloions of dollars are lost from people stealing from best Buy. I dont think anyone would like a total stranger coming in their house and stealing something!
lol. Have you ever taken criminal justice courses in college? I would’ve directly told that rent-a-cop, “No, you can call the police to search me” and moved on with my life. I don’t care how much Best Buy loses, the bottom line is they aren’t police officers and if anyone feels otherwise, I’ll see them in court.
Next time try and leave, if he stops you, try and leave again. If he persists in stopping you, it’s false imprisonment and you can sue for that.
Most stores will settle these cases immediately, as they aren’t worth the embarrassment or cost to them of litigating.
I just walk on when this happens, they have absolutely no right to search you at all. So just keep walking.
Don’t give legal advice if you don’t know what you are talking about, THEY CAN DETAIN YOU:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_imprisonment#Shopkeeper.27s_Privilege
You do know that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone and is quite often completely inaccurate and manipulated by users and companies. I would advise everyone not to take legal advice from a wiki or anyone who refers you to a wiki. Even with that said this article states that shopkeeper privilege is recognized in most jurisdictions but not all and does not have the same rights as law enforcement. So shopkeepers go ahead and detain but make sure you’re not wrong because if you detain me and I have not done anything I will press charges against you for false imprisonment and I will sue you.
Please talking sense. You are hurting my chances of becoming supreme leader of the sheep who so willing will give up their rights.
arrgh, that should be: Please STOP talking sense.”
I agree with you. That is stupid what that guy did. You should complain to the manager or something.
I find the comments absolutely fascinating. We’ve gotten so used to living in a “police state” that we’re willing to roll over and give up our rights without so much as making a peep. Wow. That brain-washing job sure worked well, didn’t it? Just accept that we’re living in a big-brother world. Everything changed after 9/11, didn’t it? We don’t blink an eye when our stuff is rifled through by the TSA. We don’t squawk when a goon at a big box store demands we raise our shirt and empty our pockets because we just “might be a thief”. Welcome to Big Brother USA. What’s amazing to me is the majority of the comments siding with the store’s right to play cop. Wow.
Nicholas, I’m sorry this happened to you. But you know — you kinda DO look like a terrah-ist! LOL! j/k…
Some of you guys sound like little babies. Hmmmm … deny a search and demand him to call the police … or, better yet, be respectful and show him you do not have anything and walk out the door. Boo hoo … grow up people. Shit happens, alarms go off, many security guards have power issues …. just deal with it and get on with your life.
Okay, here’s the thing – Blaming an entire corporation for ONE bad experience is just a little outrageous don’t you think? I have bad experiences at stores and restaurants and I’ve done things like requesting a different server, going to a different location, or speaking to a manager about people who were rude, unhelpful, or both.
Managers want to avoid problems, and that includes in their workforce. The thing is that if you’re going to complain think it out first, sound like you’re being sincere and helpful, and not just whining because sounding ignorant and angry will not help. Be moderate and they’ll work with you.
I work at Best Buy and yeah, sometimes the alarms go off for weird reasons. Sometimes they just go off because you’ve got something on you that sets it off. It’s electronics and sometimes they’re not always controllable. (Oh and btw VinnyP3 – not all GeekSquads or GS Agents are alike. I can vouch for the fact that store to store there are differences. It’s unfortunate if you’d had bad experiences but I promise good ones are out there.)
The other thing is that I can tell you that one person does not make the store. That store could be full of perfectly reasonable and intelligent employees and you happened to end up with an a–hole. He didn’t do what he should have done, and he should be held accountable for it. It sucks and I’m sorry because it can ruin an experience. Unfortunately in retail its hard to get everyone to WANT to be accountable for working for that company and abiding by guidelines.
Sorry GeekGoddess, I’m not blaming the individual Geeks who do the work, just the entire concept of The Geek Squad, Nerds to Go, Firedog, it’s a joke and most everything they try to sell is a rip off. I have my own computer repair business and fix computers every day. I mean check out this link for GS’ remote virus removal at $149 (http://support.geeksquad.com/support/category/Virus_and_Spyware_Removal) but I guess it’s better than them coming to your house using illegally obtained software, lieing about what’s wrong, and then using their flash drive to steal your data. I’ve never used them and never would, just like when I bought my HD TV there and they wanted hundreds of dollars for the geeks to come out and hook it up. Did it myself and even calibrated the picture, no Geeks involved.
I would never claim services are for everyone. I would never buy an in home networking because i can do it all my self. There are a lot of people who can’t or don’t want to bother with it though. I’ve sold installation services on microsoft office to people because they wanted it, even though i assured them it was simple to install. The level of competence and also comfort varies. Certainly if you can do it yourself and well, and you don’t mind spending the time in it, then it is not for you.
Now, you said you have your own business doing the same thing, so I understand why you wouldn’t buy services, and what’s more why we (at Best Buy) would be competition (and you’re right, there are definitely high prices involved in the Geek Squad, I won’t deny it. Not all of them out are outrageous though).
:)
Wow!!! You are one negative Mofo. You hate Gamestop and now Best Buy. It seems to me you should stick to buying everything you need from the comfort and safety of your parents basement (or where ever it is you work from). Thank god for Stop & Shop’s Peapod. Now you never have to leave the house. SUG-A-DIC!!!!
Your first mistake was doing what he said. You should have simply walked on. Your next mistake was doing what he said. Your third mistake was doing what he said. See a pattern evolving here? Yes, the employee was a dumbass. You were a bigger one for submitting to his “authority” when he clearly had none, and then bitching about it.
“Thank you, and God bless America.”
Out of the entire post, this was the funniest part to me. It was randomly thrown in there but great!
When the alarm goes off at Best Buy (almost every time I go there), I usually just run as fast as possible and it’s more entertaining that way.
Dude, could you clarify a little on exactly how many fingers the guard insterted in your anus? I recall from torts a situation where one finger was deemed acceptable, but a thumb was not.
This is a really unusual area of the law, and you might want to consult a homeopath.
Are you familiar with cycling? Have you heard about the most famous cycling race called Tour de France?
It looks like your Yellow Shirt win a cycling dumbass competition somewhere :-D
* no offense for Tour de France – think it’s a pretty good way to travel in France for free without moving from my sofa.
As a current Best Buy Employee here in Texas. i felt compelled to reply to the topic. First off, although i do not work in LP (Loss Prevention) i do work in Merchandising section which is all together one entire department.
Nonetheless, as dictated through my general Manager, LP is NOT allowed to physically touch a customer or detain them in the situation that occurred. The LP has the authority to ask for your bag and scan the item to make sure no theft has occurred. He does not have the authority to detain you or even ask you to lift up your shirt.
If the alarm goes off for the second time, the LP has the right to ask you to empty your pockets. Again, he cannot detain you in the manner he did. Certain people may argue according to the shopkeepers/shoplifters privilege that they have the right to detain you, which is technically true, however Best Buy operates according to different guidelines.
Although i might not have all the answers, if you have many more questions, feel free to ask.
Some Best Buy reps really are just turds. But for the fun of it, probably do it again sometime and see if he does the same things. Then file a report with the police or take legal action.
who the f*&% do you think you are? big effing deal you got searched when an alarm went off. Oh no!! my personal privacy was invaded…Waaaaa!!! Retail lives on razor thin margins and loss prevention is extremely important to these stores. Oh and the police state comments above are just so laughable. What a bunch of entitled little whiners. Like anyone even cares what you have in your luggage either when you go through airport security. Are you afraid they might find your Hentai comics and snicker at you?? Get a friggin’ life
Same thing happened to me at a Home Depot. Went to return a weedwhacker with no receipt – walked right in and the return area is right inside the front door. The clerk said she’d be right back, and a minute later some guy comes out and asks to see my drivers license. Not unusual for a return, but as he’s copying my info down he tells me that a clerk said they saw me in the store before and they think i stole it and then was trying to return it for a refund. (The thing is 4 feet long BTW). Tries to intimidate me and says they have cameras and as he’s going to go check them and he’ll call the police.
One of those moments where i’m just in total shock. All i say is “i didn’t steal it, go ahead and look at the cameras”, he processes the return and says he’s still going to go back and look at the cameras, and then i leave. I was so angry i could barely speak. Like you said, if i could go back in time there are about 1000 things i’d like to say to him, including several insults that i hope would get him to assault me so that I could sue him and the store.
I’ll never shop at a Home Depot again. I faxed a letter to the store manager and guess what I heard? Nothing. Apparently everyone from clerk up to manager there is an idiot.
I guess I’ve always been lucky because I pretty much only buy my electronics/computer gear from Best Buy.
The one near me pricematches Sears, Brandsmart USA, and HHGregg stores and since I have a Reward Zone membership I get coupons once I spend enough.
People never bother me, then again I’m usually telling the sales people about the products not vice versa, so I probably sell them on the idea that I don’t need what they’d like me to buy. Every store isn’t perfect but the story makes it sound systemic when I don’t think it’s the case.
Bad stores come from bad managers who condone behavior from bad staff and that leads to unhappy customers. It’s your money people, if you don’t get the service you require – your wallet speaks louder than your mouth any day of the week.
There’s a simple solution to this – don’t shop at best buy or any other store that treats you the shopper in this manner. Just because some minimum wage earning prick couldn’t pass the policeman’s exam, this doesn’t give him the right to interpret the law as he sees fit. Next time, just walk out.
I would go in there every day and take a shit on the bathroom floor, break some display stuff, spill a drink or two of something really sticky, leave some fruit behind some displays, spread a shitload of birdseed at the entrance, and call non stop with stupid questions.
And all you would get is banned from the store and the cops called. Is it really worth it?
Totally worth it! Someone still has to wipe the shit off the floor. LOL!
Honestly kid, I’m sure you’re sick of reading these replies, but I would be livid like yourself. Call the store, speak to a manager & I probably would never shop there again either.
what you do is go back to best buy with a lawyer and say, “See you guys in court mrs. Offica”
you can slap that guy in court with a huge bill to cover you and your brothers public embarrassment and harassment *sexual* as well. Did he touch u guys? Because if he did, he’d be in a lot of shit.