Falsely Accused of Theft

bunnie1234

Forwandert wrote: »

The stores probably sick and tired of the same group of people doing this daily/every few days and slowly dwindling the numbers down when someone over steps the mark on what's allowed. By the sounds of how the OP knows this person and that person and so worried about their reputation I'm assuming OP is part of this type of group.[/QUOT E]

I understand your logic. But (a) I am not part of a group and I know various people because that tends to happen when you shop at more of the less the same time each visit. (b) yes, if someone overstepped the mark I can see a store might want to eliminate them. Its a bit of a stretch to think that getting ONE pie reduced further was stepping over the mark. As mentioned, I saw other people handing lots of things for markdowns and they walked out unchallenged.

If you look at any posts on other sites relating to false accusations you will see that it does have an awful effect on someone to be accused of theft when they are not guilty. Its the public humiliation and being loudly threatened with police and banning for all to hear. The store KNEW we were not thieves so if they wanted to use their warped interpretation of theft in order to ban us, it would have been better if done more discreetly where it would have caused less impact. I don't think there is anyone on earth who would find it OK to be falsely accused of theft.

There are some very judgmental comments over this matter and that is exactly why being falsely accused in front of people is hard to take, because we know how judgmental people often are.

bunnie1234

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Which consumer organisation was that? I ask because you can't make a company reply to a complaint.

It was a very well known organisation. I am aware that you cannot make anyone reply to a letter. The idea is you ask that someone replies within 14 days (or whatever time you want to state) and you say that if you don't receive a response (or a satisfactory response) within that time that you will take matters further. I intend to do that, because what happened was outrageous by any standards imo.

bunnie1234

steve900 wrote: »

That sounds a terrible experience. To be honest if I had been dealt like that by the store staff, I would not want to spend another penny there.

Thank you for your comment. I don't want to spend another penny there really. I would like to go in there again simply so staff and anyone else I happen to see, would see I was not banned because the ban implies guilt. Maybe that seems pointless to anyone else. I can only say it feels very traumatic to be publicly accused of theft and I have not totally processed it yet, I guess.

powerful_Rogue

bunnie1234 wrote: »

It was a very well known organisation. I am aware that you cannot make anyone reply to a letter. The idea is you ask that someone replies within 14 days (or whatever time you want to state) and you say that if you don't receive a response (or a satisfactory response) within that time that you will take matters further. I intend to do that, because what happened was outrageous by any standards imo.

How exactly are you going to take matters further if they don't respond in 14 days?

waamo

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

How exactly are you going to take matters further if they don't respond in 14 days?

Indeed. There is nowhere to take matters to.

powerful_Rogue

waamo wrote: »

Indeed. There is nowhere to take matters to.

Always deformation, however OP would need VERY deep pockets and I would say has no chance of winning.

DoaM

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Always deformation

:eek:

Ah! Defamation

bunnie1234

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

How exactly are you going to take matters further if they don't respond in 14 days?

The consumer organisation would not have advised me to give them 14 days after which I would escalate the matter, if there was nowhere to escalate it to. There are consumer ombudsman and dispute resolution services available to preside over such matters and thank goodness there are. There are laws on consumer rights to protect consumers.

bunnie1234

DoaM wrote: »

:eek:

Ah! Defamation

Defamation is written lies and slander is the spoken version. Only problem is, I don't have a tape recording or video to prove what they said. Even though it would be the words of 4 against 2, I would not rate the chances of success in a legal action simply because they are a huge organisation and we are just 4 shoppers.

bunnie1234

waamo wrote: »

Indeed. There is nowhere to take matters to.

There is a consumer ombudsman and other bodies that enforce consumer rights and can take to task an organisation if it abuses those laws. As someone else mentioned, a store can ban anyone as long as they come up with a "reason". But claiming we were guilty of theft having paid for our items is wrong on every level.