Also, you purchased something correct? I am assuming that’s why the alarm went off in the first place.

I am Dorothy, one of Best Buy’s online community agents. We frequently review online postings to help build better relationships with our customers.

I was alarmed when I read your recount of the events you described while in our Poughkeepsie Galleria location last Saturday. It is never our intention to cast any aspersions on our customers, nor do we wish to cause our customers any delays within their shopping experience. Best Buy does take the type of behavior your have reported very seriously, and rest assured I have forwarded this information to the appropriate personnel for review. However, due to employee confidentiality, , we will be unable to provide you with specific details regarding any actions taken to resolve the matter at hand. I would though, like to extend my sincere apologies towards both you and your brother.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Oh, and I like your articles, even chuckled quite a bit at the adventures of Detective Bashyourbrainsin. :)

Sincerely,

Dorothy
Community Connector
Best Buy® Corporate

I’m a Product Process Supervisor at a Best Buy store, I oversee the warehouse, inventory and merchandising teams, as well as the loss prevention/asset protection (LP or AP) team.

Best Buy has a policy in place that lays out specific, mandatory steps that must be followed to make a stop and subsequent apprehension. None of the steps were followed by the Loss Prevention employee in your case. If the employee had passed their Asset Protection Specialist certification (which was just rolled out a few months ago) and still made the bad stop, they should no longer work for the company. If they have not been certified yet, they should be removed from the door until the certification has been passed, and they can demonstrate that they comprehend and retain the principles of the certification.

Your experience is what BBY and other retailers refer to as a “Non-Productive Incident” (NPI) or bad stop – no merchandise was recovered (because it was dropped before exit, or was never concealed, as is your case.) Per company policy, NPIs have to be reported to store and district managers, as well as entered into a Loss Prevention information management system. NPIs open the company and the individual associate up to huge liability, usually stemming from being taken to court over harassment and defamation of character charges.

At no time was the LP in the right in intimidating you, demanding you return to the retail space from the vestibule, and empty your pockets/lift your shirt. The only instance they may REQUEST that you empty your pockets is after all steps to apprehension have been followed, in the privacy of the LP office (after a “good” stop). Even then, it is a respectful, polite request, and if you choose not to comply, they have no recourse until the authorities show up.

You should go back into the store, ask to speak to the Manager on Duty (or better yet, the Product Process Manager if available) and describe the situation. Either that employee was far out of line, and is a bigger liability to the company than an asset, or the management team at that store is unaware of the proper procedures, training around those procedures, and REQUIRED certification that their LP associates must submit to. If the management stands by the actions of the employee, please get in touch with me via e-mail, and I’ll try to help you get in touch with the right people.

I really hate to see the company get slammed for something that we are 100% against, and do not expect our associates to do. Making apprehensions is not the goal of our Loss Prevention associates – they have no quotas, and should have been rigorously taught that apprehension/stopping someone is the last resort after all other methods of deterrence have failed.

Please send me an e-mail (assuming you can see that, as you’re the author) – I want to know how this turns out for you, and will try to the best of my ability to help you get the situation brought to someone’s attention should your efforts in the store not have any impact.

-Kyle

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.

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.

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”).