Radio Shack Clerk Demands ID for a $20.00 Return

[Braddogg]

At my place of employment (a convenience store), company policy is to get the date of birth from everyone purchasing cigarettes, and to get ID from everyone looking under 35 (and they are STRICT about it).  I get those same looks from people, and people obviously in their 50s claiming a 1986 DOB.  Only the managers would ever raise a fuss about something like that. 

As a clerk, I'm asking you to just say something, make the clerk's job easier.  If it was up to him, it wouldn't be a policy.  Most of them are too dumb to know what they are asking or to take liberties (pun) with the rules when they get a cranky (or pro-liberty) customer.

[Quantrill]

Maybe she wanted to ask you out?

[slim]

I don't use Radio Shack I started boycotting them when they started asking for your name to buy batteries. The last time I was in a Radio shack I made a scene and walked out, I think the manager figured out that I was not a happy customer.

[maineiac]

The radio shack wanted to make sure you were who you said you were, to avoid giving away company money to the wrong person. I have no problem with showing ID to the private sector, I'm only annoyed by it when the government does it.

I don't use or carry ID anymore. If my word isn't good enough for them, government or private sector, they can smooch my buttinski!

Years ago, Radio Shack started in with requesting names, addresses, and phone numbers with every minor purchase. After initially confronting the cashiers, I changed tack to simply respond, "John Doe," and, "I don't have a phone," to save myself the irritation.

I'm pretty sure they were harvesting addies to send catalogs to, judging by the blizzard of flyers I would receive after each purchase. I only go to Radio Shack now as a last resort, which is very seldom.

[Dave Ridley]

you may want to try sending it to the worker's immediate superior and that person's immediate superior and keep at it till you get your  money back.   

[Transition Force]

Is RadioShack franchised out? I'm wondering because I was never asked any of that sort of information at the two i've been two, both of which were in small towns. (And when I mean small I mean 10,000-20,000 residents)

[Otosan]

Our local Lowe's is asking for phone numbers and when I asked why, their reply was... it will be used for refunds, to make it easier.....my arse.....so I give them a fake one each time, write the number on the ticket in case I every have to make a return.... 

[mvpel]

Places like Lowes and Home Depot have had a very big problem with fraudulent returns - people steal merchandise and then return it for a refund.  They actually arrested a Home Depot employee not too long ago here in Merrimack, as I recall, for processing fraudulent returns on behalf of a partner in crime.  Here it is:

Merrimack News-Connection August 15, 2006:

Police arrested Evelyn Lones, 34, of Nashua shortly after 8:00 am on Friday, August 4th, after she turned herself in on a warrant for theft by unauthorized taking. The charge resulted from investigations
by Merrimack police and loss prevention associates at Home Depot into suspicions that Lones, a former associate at Home Depot, had been making fraudulent returns. Police allege Lones made a series of
fraudulent returns, totaling approximately $8,300, between April 25th and June 20th. Lones was released on $2,500 personal recognizance bail, pending a District Court appearance.

[NC2NH]

When a store clerk asks me for my zip code, I say "I am a homeless person". once I told them 90210

I also refuse to give even a zip code. I figure resistance to giving innocuous info might help ward off more intrusive "customer privacy" policies later. Besides, the price on the shelf is denominated in dollars, not dollars + information.

Places like Lowes and Home Depot have had a very big problem with fraudulent returns - people steal merchandise and then return it for a refund.  They actually arrested a Home Depot employee not too long ago here in Merrimack, as I recall, for processing fraudulent returns on behalf of a partner in crime.

I don't know if these stores require ID for returns, but Lowe's used to ask for personal info, IIRC. Instead of having attentive front-of-store management, many stores treat all customers like criminals by relying on cameras and requiring ID/info. The irony is that theives are often a store's own employees. All that personal info is undoubtedly attractive to ID theives hired to work at the "Customer Service" counters.

If the issue is too many returns (even when the customer has a receipt), tightening the rules for returns (elapsed time since purchase, condition of items, etc.) would be preferable to giving info to strangers and being tracked in a database. I believe Target has had success with this policy. I don't recall having to give out personal info to return something there. Another nice feature is that all their receipts specify the last date the item can be returned for a refund.

[KurtDaBear]

Instead of having attentive front-of-store management, many stores treat all customers like criminals by relying on cameras and requiring ID/info.

We need to keep sight of the fact that we all "vote" with our dollars every time we spend them.  Places where too many people refuse to vote their dollars eventually go bankrupt.  Then they either disappear or go through reorganization and return in new and (supposedly) improved form.

Sometimes it may cost us a little in dollars and convenience to stop shopping some place that aggravates us, but in the end, we have the satisfaction of seeing the merchant who treats us better benefit from our dollars while we watch the bad guys slide slowly downhill.

[mraaron]

Is it possible they ask for ID to prevent people from making excessive numbers of returns?

If he provided the original receipt,  why would it matter since he returned the item and receipt.  Cant Radio Shack
look at the UPC and see that the returned item is the same packaging, and check the coaxial cable to make sure it
is the same as the package?  Besides, Radio Shack has a piss poor record as far as respecting the privacy of
its customers.  I would not shop there...alot of people must feel the same way, they just closed a bunch of stores, including a few in NH.

[error]

I just obtained a real live Radio Shack sales receipt, and on the front it says:

Your name, address and the original sales receipt are required for all refunds.  Sales and returns are subject to the terms and conditions identified on the back.

In the extensive "RETURN POLICY" on the back, the only mention of this is:

Your name, address and phone number may be required to process your refund.

Nothing here in particular about identification.

[wolf]

Response from Radio Shack to my scathing letter:

Wade Childs
Radio Shack Corp
300 Radioshack Cir.
Fort Worth TX 76102
Customer Care Center


Dear Mr. **********

Thank you for taking the time to write. I received your letter regarding your visit to our store in Honesdale.

I am very sorry for any difficulty you encountered as a result of this situation. Needless to say, this is not the kind of experience we expect our customers to have. Please be assured your concerns about the store are being investigated and will be appropriately addressed.

Again, please accept my apology for any inconvenience or frustration this matter caused you. Your business is important to us and I hope that you'll give us another opportunity to serve you in the future.

Thank you

Wade Childs
Customer Care Center

[Another Fate]

Well, that was nice of them to write back, at least.

This brings up an interesting trend: Stores are asking for more and more information of their customers. Stop and Shop tracks every grocery I buy, and Borders records every book I purchase. I accept this because both companies give me discounts for using their "coupon card." Nothing stops these companies from giving this information to other companies or the government. In fact there is NO incentive for a company not to turn over its records to the government, which can shut down a store or an entire chain.

The defense of most Americans, including myself, is to not care. The government has tons of information--so what? The so-what being that government is not always benevolent. There have been times over the course of history, such as aristocratic France of the 1700s, where government was not for the people and by the people. Governments evolve and change; Rome was a republic for centuries. Who knows, maybe someday the United States will have a massive agency dedicated to collecting information on its own citizens. So, I guess the truly prudent thing to do would be to not sign up for the coupon card.

[Pat McCotter]

http://www.nocards.org/essays/index.shtml

NO THERE THERE: The False Economy of Shopper Cards and Why We Must Reject It
Zelda Gordon No-Cards Shoppers, Amador Publishers

Supermarket shopper cards deplete resources from an essential activity, the distribution of food. The purveyors of "loyalty" card programs do not provide the food-buying public with any real goods or services. Rather, they insert themselves between vendor and consumer, skimming profits from the former and raising prices for the latter.