Wrongly Accused Shoplifting In Tesco - Help

sinw

Hi, any advice would be appretiated...

Today at 11am i went to purchase some magazines from Tesco - i paid, and then thought i would like to go and look at some yougurts. So i toddled off and at the yougurt isle the mags were getting heavy and starining the cheap t plastic bag' so i put them in my rucksack.

Anyhow out of the door i was stopped by security n asked if they cud look in ma bag, i refused and they asked for reciept, i refused. I told them to go n ask the checkout girl who served me (i know her from shopping there regular), anyhow the guys surrounding me in the corner of the cs said they wont to protect them??? then one manager said why dont we just ban him, i asked them if why they wanna look in ma bag are they accusing me of stealing? They said no they were not, i said well why do u want look in ma bag? They said as someone reported me putting stuff in ma bag in the store, so i said u must be accusing me of something then? I took them ova to the checkout girl and the had put up wiv a barage of staff shouting just show them ur reciept.

I would not show them unless police were presant as i think i may have rights, but dont know as i never been stopped before. Eventually the Police arrived and cautioned me, looked through ma bag n only found what i had paid for (obviously) anyhow they let me go after being searched and id checked i have a stop form with grounds say - identifieds as possible offender in shoplifting then says negative result.

Anyhow i extremly upset and angry with my treatment in TESCO and wonder what i can do? I phoned CS who gave me a case number to write a letter of complaint.....

any thoughts??

geri1965_2

Why didn't you just show them the receipt? Then the whole mistake would have been cleared up without escalating into a situation where it was necessary to call the police.

I really don't think you will get anywhere with Tesco as it seems to be a genuine mistake (you were spotted putting items into a bag on the shopfloor).

dacouch

I understand where you are coming from but I personally would have just shown them the receipt. It would have been so much easier.

The security staff have a job to do and if they believed you were shoplifting they would have wanted to satisfy themsevles you had paid for the items by seeing a receipt. Thats is what there job is

sinw

why did i have too i not done anything wrong? i offered an avenue to verify my transaction

joanne0620

Showing you receipt would have been your best bet, you knew you had nothing to hide and had no stolen anything so I don't really see why you refused to show it.

geri1965_2

sinw wrote: »

why did i have too i not done anything wrong? i offered an avenue to verify my transaction

Because they don't know you haven't done anything wrong. Look at it from their point of view - you were seen putting magazines into a rucksack on the shop floor. They did not know you had been through the checkout and paid for them already, and for all they know the cashier could have been a friend of yours or an accomplice. The receipt is the only proof of purchase.

[Deleted User]

If confronted in a store about shoplifting, do you:
a) show receipt, show products in bag, mutter about over-zealous security guards and go about your day
b) Make a fuss, refuse to show proof of purchase, demand the police are called before you show the receipt then whinge about it afterward

You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by showing your receipt. Just remember, the store is not a 'public place' so if you are in the store, its not-unreasonable to be asked to show your receipt if you've purchased something.

mdecker_london

sinw wrote: »

Hi, any advice would be appretiated...

Today at 11am i went to purchase some magazines from Tesco - i paid, and then thought i would like to go and look at some yougurts. So i toddled off and at the yougurt isle the mags were getting heavy and starining the cheap t plastic bag' so i put them in my rucksack.

Anyhow out of the door i was stopped by security n asked if they cud look in ma bag, i refused and they asked for reciept, i refused. I told them to go n ask the checkout girl who served me (i know her from shopping there regular), anyhow the guys surrounding me in the corner of the cs said they wont to protect them??? then one manager said why dont we just ban him, i asked them if why they wanna look in ma bag are they accusing me of stealing? They said no they were not, i said well why do u want look in ma bag? They said as someone reported me putting stuff in ma bag in the store, so i said u must be accusing me of something then? I took them ova to the checkout girl and the had put up wiv a barage of staff shouting just show them ur reciept.

I would not show them unless police were presant as i think i may have rights, but dont know as i never been stopped before. Eventually the Police arrived and cautioned me, looked through ma bag n only found what i had paid for (obviously) anyhow they let me go after being searched and id checked i have a stop form with grounds say - identifieds as possible offender in shoplifting then says negative result.

Anyhow i extremly upset and angry with my treatment in TESCO and wonder what i can do? I phoned CS who gave me a case number to write a letter of complaint.....

any thoughts??

Erm..... you're not gonna like this, but the fact that you paid, then went back into the store, then put magazines you'd previously bought from the store into your bag, may well have looked suspicious and certainly entitled them to ask you to produce your receipt.

I really cannot understand why you didn't simply pull the receipt out to start with, then you'd have been on your way. You must have realised that it looked suspicious, so why go through all the grief of having a police record made of your details?

You'd only have grounds for action if they were unreasonable in their original request. I don't think their request was unreasonable or disproportionate, although I can appreciate that it was a very unpleasant experience for you and I, too, would probably have got up on my high horse!

vikingaero

You need vast amounts of compensation for the way Tesco has treated you. :rolleyes:

Or you could have been more reasonable and shown the bleedin' receipt and cleared up the matter in a micro-second. Sheesh!

suekjw

I think you created the problem yourself to be honest. I got asked to show a receipt once. I did, they thanked me and we both went on 0ur way.

knowledgepower1

Dont see the reason for the complaint tbh.you would have done thesame thing if roles were reversed.