People stealing from our church charity shop

[wee_mango]

I'd like to point out that my mother related this to me a few hours ago & I sometimes do 3-hour shifts in our church's charity shop but on this occasion I wasn't there. There is a Polish or Czech family (this is important) who often come in to have a look around and purchase various bric-a-brac. They are nice people and can consist of a tall guy (let's call him TG), his kids, wife or a couple of friends. We 'staff' used to give them slight discounts (even though our policy is that we don't) because they couldn't speak a lot of English and didn't seem to have a lot of money so we felt sorry for them, but they seem to have taken advantage of this recently. :(



On Tuesday afternoon, two of our church goers R and P were on the shift when TG and 2 friends came in (a man and a woman). R was on the tills and P was out the back ironing some of the shirts etc that were to go out on display and the 3 came in to browse. One of them had picked out a £10 Tommy Hilfiger jacket to dry on in the changing room and did so but he left it over a nearby railing as if it didn't fit...


TG meanwhile had found a good pair of shoes but there didn't appear to be a price label on them so he took them up to R at the till and told her there was no price on them. R knew they were a good make and said they would be about £4.50 (the true/original price). TG argues that he only has half of that but R stands her ground and eventually P comes out from the back, after being tipped off by an old lady to keep an eye on the group. P didn't know how much the shoes were and was surprised that they had been put out without a price so gives them to him for £2.50.


The 3 all left the shop, R started serving the old lady and P went into the back area again beside the changing room and noticed that the Tommy Hilfiger jacket had disappeared from the railing. R swore that she hadn't rung it through when serving any of the Poles/Czechs, the old lady certainly hadn't bought it and there was no one else in the shop at the time. The only explanation was that while both P and R and the old lady were at the till with TG, his male friend had put the coat back on in the changing room then put his own coat over it so no one noticed when they all walked out.


It really annoys me when people have the audacity to pull this shit; they used our good nature to steal from us. My mum knew for sure that those shoes had been priced the night before at £4.50 so we have a feeling the guy decided to pull the sticker off and got discount on it because he supposedly had just half that. He does it all the time, says "this is all I have", pretends he can't understand a lot of English and always has a few pounds in his hand. The ironic thing is, he's been taking English classes for some time now and has a job working in a Tesco branch (big UK supermarket chain for those who don't know) so he's obviously got more money than he's letting on...


I'm doing the afternoon shift this coming Saturday so I'll be looking out for him and the rest of us who do daily shifts have been warned about this incident. He certainly won't be getting any more discounts and if he's in and tries it, we've been told to tell him we don't offer discounts because people have been stealing stock. ;) I'm sort of hoping he tries it and gets the hint because I can't help but wonder if they try this with other shops.


Also posted over at customers_suck


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Comments

[thebiomechanoid.livejournal.com]

!!!!!
omg
hideous.
You should say that you have been checking some cctv footage for people stealing stuff...it's a white lie, yes but it may get the point across a bit stronger.

[wee-mango.livejournal.com]

LMAO! XD Oh I'd love to see the look on their faces if I was to tell him that, though how many charity shops seriously have cctv? :p

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