Asked for receipt.

Dorrian

Went to a shop purchased my items paid got a receipt & left, I always use a trolley to take the heavy goods home & return it afterwards as I live around 400 metres from the shop . I exited the shop property & got to about 20 metres from my home in another road when all of a sudden an arm shot out & grabbed the trolley & asked what I was doing with the trolley, I explained I was using the trolley to take my purchased items home & I would return it as normal, they then asked to see my receipt & I flashed it but did not hand it to them & they would not let me proceed any further by holding the trolley I asked them to ring the store but they would not they wanted the receipt. I asked him for I.D & he showed me his work shirt logo from under his fleece So my Autism & anxiety was in overdrive so I was a bit stroppy but not rude or threatening & I took the whole back to the shop for a refund. They explained he did everything correct so after I got my composure I apologised for everything. Now I was wondering 1 Is there any distance from a store they can stop you. 2 Must they identify themselves 3 Does showing a company logo on a polo shirt count as I.D. It also seems the person who stopped & asked me about the trolley & to see the receipt was not actually working at the time but on their way to work. 

la531983

Have you discussed your needs with the store at any point prior to this, or have you just been taking it upon yourself to remove their trolley from their property on each occasion without telling them?  If the latter, their reaction is somewhat understandable.

DullGreyGuy

Dorrian said:

Went to a shop purchased my items paid got a receipt & left, I always use a trolley to take the heavy goods home & return it afterwards as I live around 400 metres from the shop . I exited the shop property got to about 20 metres from my home when all of a sudden an arm shot out & grabbed the trolley & asked what I was doing with the trolley, I explained I was using the trolley to take my purchased items home & I would return it as normal, they then asked to see my receipt & I flashed it but did not hand it to them & they would not let me proceed any further by holding the trolley I asked them to ring the store but they would not they wanted the receipt. I asked him for I.D & he showed me his work shirt logo from under his fleece So my Autism & anxiety was in overdrive so I was a bit stroppy but not rude or threatening & I took the whole back to the shop for a refund. They explained he did everything correct so after I got my composure I apologised for everything. Now I was wondering 1 Is there any distance from a store they can stop you. 2 Must they identify themselves 3 Does showing a company logo on a polo shirt count as I.D. It also seems the person who stopped & asked me about the trolley & to see the receipt was not actually working at the time but on their way to work. 

Ultimately it is the stores property and so they are entitled to set whatever rules they wish on their use. A while back it was popular for shops to have a mechanism that locks the wheels if people tried to take it outside the confines of the carpark/shopping centre which made it simpler for everyone. 

The majority of stores don't have a published policy which clearly makes it more complex. I doubt anyone is going to say within the car park is too far... certainly if you go outside of their carpark then its going to raise concerns that you aren't going to be bringing it back and it'll be dumped somewhere soon. 

Shop workers are not police etc, you don't have a right to see ID from them anymore than a random person in the street could demand to see your passport or driving license. It doesn't seem to unreasonable to show uniform as evidence that they are an employee rather than just a busybody... someone will come along now and say they still wear their Tesco staff polo 20 years after leaving their employment so it doesn't mean anything but again we go back to there being no statutory requirement for identification. 

Ideally you'd get permission from a suitable manager at the store so in the future if you are stopped you can say that the General Manager Bob or whoever has agreed it as you live 400m away and will be brining it straight back. 

Dorrian

DullGreyGuy said:

Dorrian said:

Went to a shop purchased my items paid got a receipt & left, I always use a trolley to take the heavy goods home & return it afterwards as I live around 400 metres from the shop . I exited the shop property got to about 20 metres from my home when all of a sudden an arm shot out & grabbed the trolley & asked what I was doing with the trolley, I explained I was using the trolley to take my purchased items home & I would return it as normal, they then asked to see my receipt & I flashed it but did not hand it to them & they would not let me proceed any further by holding the trolley I asked them to ring the store but they would not they wanted the receipt. I asked him for I.D & he showed me his work shirt logo from under his fleece So my Autism & anxiety was in overdrive so I was a bit stroppy but not rude or threatening & I took the whole back to the shop for a refund. They explained he did everything correct so after I got my composure I apologised for everything. Now I was wondering 1 Is there any distance from a store they can stop you. 2 Must they identify themselves 3 Does showing a company logo on a polo shirt count as I.D. It also seems the person who stopped & asked me about the trolley & to see the receipt was not actually working at the time but on their way to work. 

Ultimately it is the stores property and so they are entitled to set whatever rules they wish on their use. A while back it was popular for shops to have a mechanism that locks the wheels if people tried to take it outside the confines of the carpark/shopping centre which made it simpler for everyone. 

The majority of stores don't have a published policy which clearly makes it more complex. I doubt anyone is going to say within the car park is too far... certainly if you go outside of their carpark then its going to raise concerns that you aren't going to be bringing it back and it'll be dumped somewhere soon. 

Shop workers are not police etc, you don't have a right to see ID from them anymore than a random person in the street could demand to see your passport or driving license. It doesn't seem to unreasonable to show uniform as evidence that they are an employee rather than just a busybody... someone will come along now and say they still wear their Tesco staff polo 20 years after leaving their employment so it doesn't mean anything but again we go back to there being no statutory requirement for identification. 

Ideally you'd get permission from a suitable manager at the store so in the future if you are stopped you can say that the General Manager Bob or whoever has agreed it as you live 400m away and will be brining it straight back. 

Thank you for your reply  I gave him my phone to ring the manager on duty to check that I am allowed & he would not.so.

eskbanker

Dorrian said:
I gave him my phone to ring the manager on duty to check that I am allowed & he would not.so.

Does that last bit mean 'the person who accosted you wouldn't phone the manager' or 'he did but the manager refused to confirm that you were allowed to use the trolley away from the store'?

Dorrian

la531983 said:

Have you discussed your needs with the store at any point prior to this, or have you just been taking it upon yourself to remove their trolley from their property on each occasion without telling them?  If the latter, their reaction is somewhat understandable.

Thank you for your answer. On heavy items I always use a trolley & I have an understanding with the store that I can do. I normally check but the person I check with was busy & when he stopped me I gave him the phone to ring them which he refused.

DullGreyGuy

Did you have a named individual that had given permission? 

Back in my employee days if someone thrust a phone in front of me I wouldn't have a clue what my bosses telephone number was and in many cases for retail the listed "store" number goes to a call centre not anyone in store. 

Ultimately it comes down to a lot of variables but if someone could name one of our store managers and say they'd given consent I'd probably give that more weight to a random phone thrust infront of me. 

Dorrian

eskbanker said:

Dorrian said:
I gave him my phone to ring the manager on duty to check that I am allowed & he would not.so.

Does that last bit mean 'the person who accosted you wouldn't phone the manager' or 'he did but the manager refused to confirm that you were allowed to use the trolley away from the store'?

Sorry I offered him my phone to ring the manager & he refused to phone the manager concerned. He just wanted my receipt.

cymruchris

The trolley does belong to the shop, and they're not cheap - so you wandering off, although with very good intentions, might get alarm bells ringing if someone saw you leave the car park with it. Over the years, how many shopping trolleys have you seen dumped in rivers and the like? I know that you had every good intention to get the trolley back asap, but they don't really know that that was your plan, and not just dump it at the side of the road. 

It may be you've done it a dozen times before, and it's been fine, but probably nobody noticed. Maybe this time someone coming back from break might have seen you wheeling it through the streets and wanted the company property back. As has been said, it might be worth getting to know someone in the store, outline your intentions and hopefully they'll say that as long as you get the trolley back as soon as you've unloaded, they'll be ok with it.

Dorrian

DullGreyGuy said:

Did you have a named individual that had given permission? 

Back in my employee days if someone thrust a phone in front of me I wouldn't have a clue what my bosses telephone number was and in many cases for retail the listed "store" number goes to a call centre not anyone in store. 

Ultimately it comes down to a lot of variables but if someone could name one of our store managers and say they'd given consent I'd probably give that more weight to a random phone thrust infront of me. 

I told him exactly who to talk to & the number goes straight through to the store.

the_rach

Buy yourself a shopping cart bag thing to take your shopping home?