Refusing your check had nothing to do with identity theft. Refusal of your check could mean you probably have a bad check elsewhere serviced by certegy. Certegy serves many companies and once you write a bad check at one of the many companies serviced by certegy your check will be refused at all of them until you take care of the check. Certegy does not send you a form to fill-out to be added a "premium list", they send you the information as to where you can mail a money order to pay for your returned check.
My advice... Don't STEAL! You got caught breaking the law, you knew when you were applying for citizenship you had to obey the laws. At what point did it not cross your mind when you were free-wheeling through TJ Maxx stealing that it was wrong?! Everytime a shoplifter is caught they want to start complaining about the consequences. Perhaps if people in-general obeyed laws and did not try to get something for nothing their lives would be a little easier.
First, I have to respond to Laura Reed's comment; Laura, a check is legal tender, if it were not a legal tender it would not be accepted as such. Second, if you are using checks as your choice of tender please be aware writing a check is a privelege and not a RIGHT. Any person or company has a right to refuse a check for any reason, especially if a third party who guarantees your check is "good" tells them it is not good. Third, when your check is declined by a retailer it does not indicate you have a check returned with that particular retailer, it means you have a check returned with a retailer within the network of the certifying company or have outstanding checks (uncleared checks) that could possibly cause your account to be overdrawn. If you are writing checks pending a future deposit, it is called "Kiting" and it is considered bank fraud, a federal offense, even if you anticipate a deposit within the next twenty-four hours. Lastly, who still writes checks in a place of business? Checks are the easiest ways for common criminals, including the businesses employees, to steal your bank account information. Get a debit/credit card; while debit cards may have their risks, they are less risky than a book of checks floating around and yes, I know there have been issues with identity theft due to credit card numbers being stolen from computer intrusions and such, but there are so many other ways to get your information and credit card companies do credit your account for fraudulent charges, but a bank will not automatically credit your account for stolen checks.
Lastly, people need to stop being to so quick to blame everyone for their problems, embarassments and short-comings. Take responsibility for your actions or lack of action, admit you may have over-extended your credit limit, your bank account or whatever else you may have done to cause your check or credit card to be declined. I cannot believe how much I see adults become spoiled brats with the mentality of a five-year old kid in stores, on television reality shows and so on. People always want to save face by blaming someone else and do not even consider the consequences that someone may lose their job, a promotion, or some other repurcusions due to a customers distorted or plain dishonest complaint.
First of all, stores should not return food items, if they do they must destroy it due to contamination. Yes, before you start gawking, I read you said it was sealed, however it is amazing what people will do with a syringe. I am curious why you would return a food product unopened. I have never returned a food item to a grocery store. Are you a compulsive shopper? However, I do realize I may be the exception in that I try to make wise decisions when purchasing so as not to have to return merchandise.
Second, there is no store or company who would tell you to ship food back to them at a corporate office and they would mail you a refund. If customer service truly believed you were in the right they would have called the store manager and if necessary, the district manager and instructed them to return the merchandise.
Last, there would be no reason to refuse the return of your reef slippers after only a few days (within 30 days), even if they are seasonal seasons do not change that quick, but they are not necessarily seasonal merchandise. The only seasonal merchandise retailers refuse to return within 30 days is holiday merchandise once the holiday has passed, but that still does not stop customers from trying to return it, after they have used it no doubt. The only reason I could fathom they would refuse your return is because the ticket was not attached, meaning the merchandise could have been used or come from another retailer. I'm curious who's spouse would even buy them a mere pair of flip flops for a gift, sounds cheesy. I think there is more to the story than you are telling, if so, you should get your facts straight before you start bad-mouthing a company on a public website. If you do have your facts straight then I would be talking to the district manager and taking care of this problem rather than complaing about it for sympathy on a website. If this store truly treats you this way it is a problem within that particular store, not the company as a whole.
In closing, a true TJ Maxx customer knows the policy and procedure, respects the store's policies, understands why they exist, and does his/her best to comply with those policies. On the rare chance he/she has a special exception he/she goes to the store manager in a professional/understanding manner and asks for that exception, if that does not work he/she goes to the next level, district manager, at this point he/she should feel the company has done what it can to resolve the issue and if he/she still feels this was unfair, then by all means file a complaint with consumer affairs.
Actually, the policy says other restictions may apply, but I guess you skipped right over that part since it would not support your argument that everyone else is wrong and you are right. It is a retailers right to refuse any return for any reason. However, I will say the store should have exchanged the shirt for the identical shirt in a different size, if that is what you were wanting to do. However, you did say they refused to return it, not exchange it. Retailers have to protect their assets, you may not think $150 is much money to a large retailer such as TJ Maxx, Wal-Mart, Target, etc, but when you have 300 to 1000 customers coming into your store each day and 10% - 25% want to return something it adds up very quickly for a company. Just curious, why didn't you just get the receipt from your mother? She could have mailed the receipt and it would have arrived within a few days. As far as the manager following you around, if he/she thought you were stealing loss prevention would have been following you and you would have been none the wiser, not the store manager. Perhaps the store manager was making sure he/she was available if you needed any help in order to off-set the previous bad experience you had with them.
If it was not a big deal why are you making it seem like a big deal. First of all, TJ Maxx is not a daycare center and does not provide toys to be used and left strewn about the store as a lot of customers do. Also, I wonder if you would buy a toy if you knew some kid had been playing with it and pounding on it while his/her mother shopped. Second, why should you be the only customer allowed to take a toy, a toy not paid for I might add, into the dressing room when all the other customers either bring a toy for their child if they must be amused by a toy or simply tell the child "no". If it was not a big deal why didn't you just buy the toy and give it to your child to play with in the dressing room? Did you purchase the toy before you left the store or did you put the "USED" toy back in the department where you got it from or maybe just toss it somewhere on your way to complain to the manager about her rude associate, nevermind the rude customer you may have seemed to be letting your child play with a toy that was not paid for and you apparantly had no intention of buying.
To the lady with the missing child. As you should know, yes, it may only take sixty seconds for a child to disappear, my question to you is why did you let your child out of your sight for sixty seconds. In additon, you cannot lock doors and refuse to let anyone to leave a public building, it is against the law and holding people against their will. However, Most TJ Maxx only have one exit and entrance at the front of the store, i f you were so certain your child had been kidnapped why did you not call the police and stand at the front door guarding it. TJ Maxx does use Code Adam, it directs them not to make PA announcements, but instead to send an associate to watch the front door and watch for the child WITH THE PARENT while the other associates check the store. Only the legal guardian can claim the child from someone trying to abduct the child since the TJ Maxx associate has no way of knowing you are the legal guardian, it could be a custody battle and a parent trying to kidnap the child from another.
Was the child found? YOu failed to mention if the child was actually kidnapped so I will have to assume you neglected your child and your child was not trained properly and wondered off into the store no doubt.
Vikki, are you for real with this? Before you start climbing on the soap box climb down off the cross or you are going to hurt yourself. My card was compromised and it cost me nothing out of my pocket and the cost of the bank, the bank where I work I might add, merely $1.27 to reissue my card. As for your concern about the other expenses your bank my incur reimbursing you for the fraudelent charges, TJ Maxx is picking up the tab for that as well. However, they could not just start sending a personal check to your house as you would like, they waited for the banks to report the final losses due to the intrusion and then paid the full amount of the loss incurred by the banks. In addition, they paid millions in fines to the federal trade commission and also offered a special shopping day to the entire country and gave them 10% off their purchase, may not sound like much, but if everyone took advantage of that it is quite a chunk of change. TJ Maxx has and still is paying the dues for the intrusion. I think you forget they were the victims of a crime, they did not freely give this information away. I hope if someone ever breaks into your computer and steals your information you remember how you criticized TJ Maxx and I hope when you file that police report they chastise you instead of recognizing you as a victim, the shoe will probably not feel so good then.
For the record, the intrusion was not only TJ Maxx, it was through another credit card company the intrusion occurred. Next time you get all dramatic on your cross, at least get all of your facts so you don't come across as a babbling idiot and maybe someone will take you serious.
Did you gain what you had hoped from this experience? Did you take sales away from TJ Maxx? Do you feel like a better person now?
"Ryan With Connections", if you have worked in retail for six plus years then you know the drill and you are wrong. First, that is not what they call a "bait & switch". Second, a retailer is only obligated to sell the merchandise for the price on the ticket, if it is the correct ticket or otherwise what we in 20+ years of retail experience call the "correct price". Several things could have caused this error, you moved the sign from another fixture, an associate added the jeans to the fixture without realizing the sign did not match the price on the jeans (human error, glad you're perfect though), the pair of jeans you got were the only pair on the rack because a customer placed them there when they decided on the 79.99 jeans instead of the 99.99 jeans they had originally selected, or someone was in the process of filling the rack due to selling and had not yet changed the sign. I am sure none of these occurred to you since you have connections and a lot of retail experience. I would think someone with retail experience would consider some of these options and give the store some latitude, these kind of comments are something you expect from a customer ignorant of retail practices.
I find myself wondering where you work, I would be curious to see if your store is perfect. If not I would most definitly have to contact your supervisor and write a letter to post on the internet. Oh yeah and mention my connections within your company.
First off, I don't know of any retailer who will take a check without a phone number. These days companies process their check approvals through a third party who guarantee the check they are verifying prior to the retailer accepting the check. One of the criteria is the check must have a phone number. You can give a fake phone number, although that does constitute fraud on your part, but that is between you and the judge, not that it would really go that far; however, if the third party approving the check requires the person accepting the check to call with additional info and you give a fake number it will be automatically declined as well as any future checks you might write with a company using this same third party.
Writing a check is a priveledge, it is not a RIGHT. If you don't want to give your personal information as you so stated, then don't be giving a complete stranger a piece of paper with your checking account information. You do realize your checking account information is much more valuable than your phone number, right? An unlisted phone number cannot be traced on white pages.com, but the cashier can use your address to find your home or use your account number online to pay his/her bills.
If you are really that concerned you should use a debit card and if you are too paranoid they will steal your pin number then perhaps to need to revert to using cash. I wonder if you would take a check from a complete stranger just because they assure you it is good? I am guessing you would not. Before you criticize someone else for their behavior please think of your own behavior and what you would do if the role were reversed and don't pitch a tantrum in a blog online unless you can be certain you are in the right and even then I would think twice about it. What goes around, comes around and karma is not that pretty for some of us. By the way, who did you think was going to really care about calling you? You do realize there is not some little man in the register copying down phone numbers, right?
First of all, after checking with the site, I found Steve who complained and the Steve who commented on the complaint stating he was another Steve is actually the same Steve. If you check Steve's activity you will see he posted the complaint and commented on the complaint. It is my guess Steve is either a customer/their or he is a disgruntled employee attempting to get the manager in trouble and belittle his coworkers who may or may not be asian. In reading Steve's complaint I am guessing his problem is as much with asians since he specified they are asian and perhpaps a problem with the manager since he made a comment she came in with food, and then came in again with more food. I wonder what manager has time to make two food runs and why a manager would do so. I also wonder how he knows she was the manager if she was at lunch. I wonder how he got into the break room since it is protected from unauthorized access with a lock. I wonder how he knew the page to the fitting room was for the guy he asked if he worked there. Is this TJ Maxx in an asian community, it seems everyone he came across, both associates and customers, are asian, indicating he is a racist.
In conclusion, I think Steve has some mental issues and should seek some help and maybe stay away from TJ Maxx until he find the help he so desperately needs.
