- Report: #286248
Complaint Review: Future Shop - Ottawa K1V 1J5 Ontario
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Future Shop
B1 - 2210 Bank Street At Hunt Club (South Keys) Ottawa K1V 1J5, K1V 1J5 Ontario, Canada
Phone:
613-526-7450
Web:
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Future Shop - A Division Of Best Buy Inc) eells items with security tags still attached, accused paying clients of thievery Ottawa Ontario
Future Shop in Ottawa (South Keys) routinely sells items with security tags still attached; these set off alarms when the paying client attempts to leave the store.
It's bad enough to have to deal with all of the usual Future Shop annoyances, from hard-sell tactics to push overpriced and largely-useless "extended warranty" schemes to the sale of "open box special" items at slightly-reduced prices without mentioning that these are often missing key accessories (discs, power cords...)
The abuse of the RFID anti-theft tags, however, is a little more serious. I have no idea what the store stands to gain by doing this, but I've had this Future Shop sell me items with these tags still in place and active twice in the same day. These are not isolated incidents.
Evidently, these folks have an endless collection of excuses. For instance, they may attempt to claim that the offending tags came from "items from some other store" even if you haven't visited any others. They may attempt to grab the paid items and/or the receipts right out of your hands - and in many cases the printed receipt is the only evidence of ownership you have.
Confront them about this, and they blithely reply "well, I gave the items back" seemingly oblivious that grabbing them in the first place is, well, stealing. If a store wants to tag items, they should remove the offending tags BEFORE they take your money - afterward the items are your property so it's a little too late. Future Shop appears not to grasp this simple concept.
Falsely accusing someone is a serious matter and one would expect that sooner or later these folks may just end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit if these incidents continue. Oh, and if they try to remove paid items (or the corresponding receipts) from your possession? I'd suggest reporting these incidents - the Ottawa non-emergency police number is 236-1222 and, even if you intend to handle this as a matter of civil (instead of criminal) law, there is evidence that you need - such as the recordings from all the cameras Future Shop targets against its clientele - which won't be handed over voluntarily to you but may be available to police if the matter is taken with the level of severity that these repeated incidents deserve.
Carl
Kingston, Ontario
Canada
It's bad enough to have to deal with all of the usual Future Shop annoyances, from hard-sell tactics to push overpriced and largely-useless "extended warranty" schemes to the sale of "open box special" items at slightly-reduced prices without mentioning that these are often missing key accessories (discs, power cords...)
The abuse of the RFID anti-theft tags, however, is a little more serious. I have no idea what the store stands to gain by doing this, but I've had this Future Shop sell me items with these tags still in place and active twice in the same day. These are not isolated incidents.
Evidently, these folks have an endless collection of excuses. For instance, they may attempt to claim that the offending tags came from "items from some other store" even if you haven't visited any others. They may attempt to grab the paid items and/or the receipts right out of your hands - and in many cases the printed receipt is the only evidence of ownership you have.
Confront them about this, and they blithely reply "well, I gave the items back" seemingly oblivious that grabbing them in the first place is, well, stealing. If a store wants to tag items, they should remove the offending tags BEFORE they take your money - afterward the items are your property so it's a little too late. Future Shop appears not to grasp this simple concept.
Falsely accusing someone is a serious matter and one would expect that sooner or later these folks may just end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit if these incidents continue. Oh, and if they try to remove paid items (or the corresponding receipts) from your possession? I'd suggest reporting these incidents - the Ottawa non-emergency police number is 236-1222 and, even if you intend to handle this as a matter of civil (instead of criminal) law, there is evidence that you need - such as the recordings from all the cameras Future Shop targets against its clientele - which won't be handed over voluntarily to you but may be available to police if the matter is taken with the level of severity that these repeated incidents deserve.
Carl
Kingston, Ontario
Canada
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Drawtaru
Johnson City,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
To Chris, who commented...
#2UPDATE Employee
Sat, February 07, 2009
If you were attempting to walk out of the store with a laptop or desktop computer, yes, the rules of Best Buy/Future Shop is that the computer must be logged by the loss prevention associate. We have to keep careful tabs on what walks out the door for computers, because they are one of the highest theft items in the entire store. People steal things. Just because *you* weren't stealing anything, doesn't mean the rule changes just for you. Grow up a little. So he asked for your reciept. Deal with it.
Chris
London,Ontario,
Canada
Similar experience.
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, January 26, 2009
I've had a similar experience with a Best Buy in London, Ontario, but with no alarm. I'd exchanged a product under warranty, the alarm didn't go off, but the door monkey accosted me claiming that he had to see my receipt or he couldn't let me leave the store. Well, knowing the law in this area, I told him that he had no authority whatsoever to see anything that I had. Once I've paid for the product, and cash has changed hands, it's mine. He then claimed that unless I showed him the receipt, he had a legal right to take whatever I was carrying, and put it back on the shelf. This sounds like a threat of robbery to me. Not to mention that it's completely wrong. I said I'd call the cops, he said he'd call a manager. Stupidly, the manager backed him up, so you can't claim that it was a single oversight, or an improperly trained employee. Needless to say, I'm never going back to this store.
Electric President
Edmonton,Alberta,
Canada
Oh man..
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, July 03, 2008
Like it or not, the sounding of an alarm gives the store "probable cause" under law to stop you and ask for a proof of purchase. I highly doubt hiding tags in their merchandise is some source of sick pleasure for Future Shop's management. If anything, needing to inspect bags is a nuisance for them. If your tags were not deactivated at the till, it's the fault of the cashier. Cashiers are human, they forget to do things despite training (I'm more than willing to bet that you've made a mistake, assuming you are human). There is no "RFID Troll" slipping tags into merchandise so that everyone can have a good ol' time investigating you. Loss is a huge problem for big companies, which is why the RFID tags exist in the first place. Have your receipt ready and stop complaining.
