Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

Ummmm... Couple quick options:
1) Wave your arm to attract the attention of the "sales droids"
2) Talk to the "sales droid" when it comes over to help you with the credit
card transaction
3) Cancel the transaction, and walk all the way over to the regular tills.

It's only a dollar's worth of items, so I doubt that HD is going to go broke
over it. But the fact that you couldn't scan the items in is not really an
excuse for not paying for them, IMHO.

Clint

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the
bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to
summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match
what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

I have done this three times at both Lowes and HD. Hollar at the top of
your voice, "Your stupid machine does not work." I guarantee, you will
get their attention and some service. The short embarrasment on you
part is well worth seeing their shocked faces. Since everybody knows
that what you said is true, they all laugh with you, not at you.

Bill in WNC mountains

"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have done this three times at both Lowes and HD. Hollar at the top of
your voice, "Your stupid machine does not work." I guarantee, you will
get their attention and some service. The short embarrasment on you
part is well worth seeing their shocked faces. Since everybody knows
that what you said is true, they all laugh with you, not at you.

Bill in WNC mountains


I once stood in a store waiting for a salesperson for way too long. I
eventually whipped oput my mobile phone called the store and explained the
problem. Inside of 60 sec I helpful person was speeding toward me. YMMV

Mekon

Heehee...I did the same thing at a Home Depot once, called the manager and
asked him why he wasn't running one of the cash registers since the lines
weren't moving and there were no cashiers to be found, amazingly, after I
hung up, he found some employees to put to work.

One other time I called and asked the manager on-duty why she had someone
who was basically incompetent stopping every customer at the door and
demanding to see their reciepts, told her as I had told the employee that I
thought I had stolen something to call the police.

I refuse to stop and have my belongings gone thru by drones.

John

"Mekon" wrote in message
...

"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have done this three times at both Lowes and HD. Hollar at the top of
your voice, "Your stupid machine does not work." I guarantee, you will
get their attention and some service. The short embarrasment on you
part is well worth seeing their shocked faces. Since everybody knows
that what you said is true, they all laugh with you, not at you.

Bill in WNC mountains


I once stood in a store waiting for a salesperson for way too long. I
eventually whipped oput my mobile phone called the store and explained the
problem. Inside of 60 sec I helpful person was speeding toward me. YMMV

Mekon

On Wed, 10 May 2006 04:32:54 GMT, "John Emmons"
wrote:

One other time I called and asked the manager on-duty why she had someone
who was basically incompetent stopping every customer at the door and
demanding to see their reciepts, told her as I had told the employee that I
thought I had stolen something to call the police.

I refuse to stop and have my belongings gone thru by drones.

You have absolutely no legal obligation to do so and shouldn't. Once
you purchase something and they take your payment, you own the item
and have no obligation whatsoever to show it to anyone, any more than
you can demand the drone empty their pockets for you.

I've had some of them being very insistant, but I ignore them. It's
funny to see some of them running out into the parking lot after me
yelling "I have to see your receipt".

No you don't. You *WANT* to see it, you don't have to.

Wal-mart has gotten sued over this and has lost every time. They have
no right whatsoever to demand to see anything. They can ask, you can
decline. They cannot stop you and frankly, I'd love to see one of
them try, my lawyer wouldn't mind picking up some free and easy money
for me.

John Emmons wrote:
Heehee...I did the same thing at a Home Depot once, called the manager and
asked him why he wasn't running one of the cash registers since the lines
weren't moving and there were no cashiers to be found, amazingly, after I
hung up, he found some employees to put to work.

One other time I called and asked the manager on-duty why she had someone
who was basically incompetent stopping every customer at the door and
demanding to see their reciepts, told her as I had told the employee that I
thought I had stolen something to call the police.

You had told the employee that you thought you had stolen something?

Why?

I asked a _competent_ employee why they were checking receipts
on the way out. He explained that sometimes people will buy something,
take it home, them bring back the receipt and try to walk out with a
second item. The person at the door is supposed to be checking the
TIME and DATE on the receipt to verify that it was just issued.

--

FF

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the
bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to
summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match
what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

Pay them - on your next visit. Next time, ask for help or better yet, shop
at a place that has better customer service.
Dave



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TeamCasa wrote:
"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the
bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to
summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match
what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

Pay them - on your next visit. Next time, ask for help or better yet, shop
at a place that has better customer service.
Dave

Do not I repeat do not pay the next time you go in you will be arrested
for theft if you tell them, have herd of it happen before.

"Roy Smith"snip
Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

TeamCasa wrote:
Pay them - on your next visit. Next time, ask for help or better yet,
shop
at a place that has better customer service.
Dave

redice said,
Do not I repeat do not pay the next time you go in you will be arrested
for theft if you tell them, have herd of it happen before.

Nonsense.
No business will have you arrested for paying for a product!
"Officer, arrest that man! He's paying for something!"

Dave



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Teamcasa wrote:

"Roy Smith"snip

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

TeamCasa wrote:
Pay them - on your next visit. Next time, ask for help or better yet,
shop
at a place that has better customer service.
Dave


redice said,
Do not I repeat do not pay the next time you go in you will be arrested
for theft if you tell them, have herd of it happen before.


Nonsense.
No business will have you arrested for paying for a product!
"Officer, arrest that man! He's paying for something!"

Dave



Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com


LOL! I almost asked the poster earlier today to provide names and dates
of such arrests. Maybe he heard it from a friend who heard it from a
friend...

Dave

Teamcasa wrote:
"Roy Smith"snip
Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for
sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

TeamCasa wrote:
Pay them - on your next visit. Next time, ask for help or better yet,
shop
at a place that has better customer service.
Dave

redice said,
Do not I repeat do not pay the next time you go in you will be arrested
for theft if you tell them, have herd of it happen before.

Nonsense.
No business will have you arrested for paying for a product!
"Officer, arrest that man! He's paying for something!"


It may seem like there is a fine line between telling the manager,
I stole these last week but wan tto pay for them now, and
I got home and saw from the receipt that I hadn't paid for these
and want to pay for them now.

But the former is admitting to a crime while the latter stops
short of that and simply acknowledges that he owes the
store some money.

A third option is to carry them in and simply go through the
check-out counter and pay for them without saying anything,
which I think is what the advice suggested.

--

FF

I was once given about thirty dollars of pipe by a Home Desperate manager.


I went in and bought four, ten-foot lengths of pipe for pipe clamps, had
them cut into three pieces (2, 3 and 5-feet long), and threaded on both ends
of all the peices. They give you one threading for free, and charge for any
more. The drone in plumbing didn't know how to write up the ticket for the
extra cuts and threading, so we walked up front to talk to someone else, who
also had no clue. They called another cluless droid, who called another,
who called another, who called another... ...over the course of twenty
minutes every droid in the store had come up and tried something but none of
their somethings had worked. Finally the manager came up front to see what
all the calls were about. He tried a couple of things, neither of which
worked. Finally he looked over at me and asked, "How long have you been
standing here while we have been trying to figure this out?"

When I told him it was pushing a half hour, he told me he was sorry for my
inconveniance, and to take the pipe and leave. I was back in the store a
week later, and there were prices and codes for the extra cut and thread
fees posted next to the machines.

I thought about writing a letter to corporate, to let them know how much I
appreciated being treated right, but thought better of it. I figure they
would probably fire him for it.

On Tue, 09 May 2006 22:34:50 -0400, Roy Smith wrote:

Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?


The lags have a code ---usually 3 letters like....AAG....on the head.
That code needs to be entered into the system X the count.

If I were you I would just go back and pay. I once bought a bunch of
pipes and fittings. When I got home I realized that I had screwed one
piece to another and left it that way at checkout. The lady just
scanned one item. The next time I went back I just brought the item
with me and told the the story and paid for it.
If you don't pay for it you're a thief. If I'm going to be a thief it
should be BIG money..not some lags, etc

"Joe" wrote in message

If you don't pay for it you're a thief. If I'm going to be a thief it
should be BIG money..not some lags, etc

You're right. They say everyman has his price ... but a buck eight?

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 5/6/06

If I were you I would just go back and pay.

I was at the local Napa today to get an airfilter, and told the guy
that I owed the store $1.26 for a couple of plastic license plate nuts
and machine screws. He remembered the transaction, said thanks for
coming back to pay, and looked genuinely pleased to have had me come
in. That's just gravy for me. The real payoff is the satisfaction and
peace of mind I get from doing the right thing.

JP
*****************************
The soapbox is yours.

Jay Pique wrote:


I was at the local Napa today to get an airfilter, and told the guy
that I owed the store $1.26 for a couple of plastic license plate nuts
and machine screws. He remembered the transaction, said thanks for
coming back to pay, and looked genuinely pleased to have had me come
in. That's just gravy for me. The real payoff is the satisfaction
and peace of mind I get from doing the right thing.


Sonce today was my birthday (69) I went for a nice lunch at a local
microbrewery. Along with a very good fettucine with portobello
mushrooms and chunks of prime rib, I had a pint of stout and a pint of
dunkel. They forgot to charge for the stout. I told the waitress I
wasn't going to cheat someone on my birthday, and she said the stout
would be a birthday present. Good feelings all around.

BTW, the pints inspired me to compose the following bit of verse.

Here's to the brew you can't see through,
Black as a witch's cat.
If the porter runs out I'll switch to stout,
Straight from the brewers tap.

--
It's turtles, all the way down

In article , Larry Blanchard
wrote:

Here's to the brew you can't see through,
Black as a witch's cat.
If the porter runs out I'll switch to stout,
Straight from the brewers tap.

I'll drink to that.

Happy Birthday, Larry!

Jay Pique wrote:
If I were you I would just go back and pay.

I was at the local Napa today to get an airfilter, and told the guy
that I owed the store $1.26 for a couple of plastic license plate nuts
and machine screws. He remembered the transaction, said thanks for
coming back to pay, and looked genuinely pleased to have had me come
in. That's just gravy for me. The real payoff is the satisfaction and
peace of mind I get from doing the right thing.


Hopefully that makes up for the frustration you feel when you
discover that the NAPA parts don't fit your car....

Leastways, they usually did not fit mine.

--

FF

On Tue, 09 May 2006 22:34:50 -0400, Roy Smith wrote:


Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

1. Be honest.

2. Don't waste our time with this childrish drivel. Get a life.

Roy Smith wrote:

Went to the local HD yesterday to pick up a bunch of sandpaper and a few
5/16" and 3/8" bolts I needed. Found what I wanted and decided to speed
things up by going to the self-checkout line. Bad move.

The sandpaper scanned fine, but I was at a loss how to deal with the bolts.
4 @ $0.13 and 4 @ $.14, IIRC. No bar code, no obvious way to enter them
into the system. I futzed around a bit while several sales droid types
hung out and observed the chaos.

Eventually, I found a screen that said something like "press here to summon
help", which I did. Still no assistance from the droids was forthcomming.
Finally, in desperation, I just dropped the bolts into my bag, which
immediately generated a message that the weight of my bag didn't match what
I had scanned, and that I should remove the extra items from the bag.
Still no assistance-droids.

Some more futzing, and the machine prompted me to swipe my credit card. A
droid came over, helpfully showed me how to swipe it, and watched me
complete the transaction.

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?
Do you make excuses for inaccurate income tax returns too? Do you claim
that there was no IRS agent available to help you fill out the forms
correctly?

Dave

Roy Smith wrote:

...

Sigh. I walked out the door with my $11 or so worth of paid-for sandpaper,
plus (by my calculations), $1.08 worth of hex-head bolts, shamelessly
absconded with. What's a customer to do?

What *I* did, in a very similar situation at Home Depot was go
somewhere
else to buy what I needed, leaving the merchandise at the checkout
station.

The next time I was there, the 'self service; checkout stations were
gone.

They've come back now, but only a couple of them with an adequate
number of real people who can check our items priced by quanity.

Like lumber, for example.

--

FF