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I'm sorry for what we did, but NOT for what you did.

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  • I'm sorry for what we did, but NOT for what you did.

    We were short staffed last weekend and so we had to borrow a couple of people from other departments to cover our breaks. The staff that covered were fantastic, and I'm really grateful that they took the time to help us out. That said, obviously there were things in our department that they weren't aware of/didn't know how to do. One of these things, was which items have the security dye-tags attached to them.

    Our security tags are pretty basic. No flashing lights or whooping sirens, just two little glass capsules of dye. They're similar in construction to this one (but this is not a picture of our security tags. I'd rather not post the exact ones, haha!)



    Anyway. The deal is, they have to be removed at the counter with our special removing gadget. If you try to take them off yourself, the glass shatters, and you get permanent dye everywhere.

    Enter our customer. He had bought a pair of tagged jeans, and the girl covering in our department hadn't known that those jeans were tagged, so the tag had been left on. He must have bought them late morning, because he came back mid afternoon ranting and raving. It seems that, on seeing the tag was still on, he had tried to remove it himself. Predictably the thing had shattered, and he had dye all over the jeans and, apparently, his carpet at home.

    He wanted the jeans replaced, which we were happy to do. He'd paid for them, so the tag SHOULD have been removed. That's on us - someone should have told the covering girl about the tags, or she should have asked/been more vigilant given the unfamiliar department. However. He also wanted us to pay for his carpet to be cleaned/replaced.

    Sooo not happening, buddy. First of all, I know damn well that you didn't just "gently try to remove it" because there have been times I've accidentally dropped a dye tag and trod on it trying to pick it up - they're pretty sturdy. For you to have shattered it you must have been putting a decent amount of force into it.

    Secondly, though we absolutely acknowledge that we should have removed the tag, and we're sorry for the inconvenience of you having to come back to get it removed/have the jeans replaced, it isn't our fault that you CHOSE to wrestle with the damn thing. Your carpet's on you, dude, and not our problem.
    Last edited by veniteangeli; 08-20-2014, 02:39 AM. Reason: holy gigantic image batman
    Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...

  • #2
    I think I was in "covering girl's" place once when I worked at Macy's - during one shift, one of the department managers came up to me, and asked my name......apparently when I was helping out in another department, I'd forgotten/hadn't removed a security tag, and the customer hadn't realized it until they got home. (although I don't think they did what the person in this story did)

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    • #3
      Wow, I've never seen that type in any store I've visited. I'm kinda glad, actually. Last year I bought a vacuum and the cashier didn't remove the security device. I'm assuming part of it could have been removed, since the base itself was glued to the box. Once home, I of course had to fiddle with it and set off a shrill and LOUD alarm in my apartment. Late at night. With thin walls. I finally wrapped it in a blanket and covered it in pillows to muffle the sound. Two days later and the damn thing was still buzzing!
      A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

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      • #4
        I once bought an outfit for a wedding that was being held on a Sunday morning in small town New England (half a country away from where I lived at the time). Unfortunately, they forgot to remove the security tag from the skirt and I didn't discover it until the morning of the wedding. We tried to find a store that was even open on the off chance they could remove it but nothing was, so I went to the wedding with the white security tag on my skirt; then went back to the store when I was back home, with the receipt, and pointed out that not only did they forget, but their alarm system did nothing when I left the store or when I carried the skirt back into the store.

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        • #5
          Had a customer call up the 'mart, expecting one of us to drive over to their house and remove the tag. I told her that wasn't possible as our tag unlocker thingies are bolted to the desk (to prevent theft)
          Her response, "well (other retailer) has hand held ones, so you do too!"

          Nope

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          • #6
            Wait, explosive dye packs in a clothing store?! I can understand these in a bank, but for clothing? Wouldn't they ruin any other clothing in the immediate area if they went off in the store? If you can actually leave the store without them going off, doesn't that make them kind of pointless? Yes, the clothing will be ruined for the shoplifter, but it's still stolen.

            I don't get the logic of this at all. What's wrong with a security tag that just sets off the alarm?

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            • #7
              They're not explosive, they just shatter and ink things if the thief tries to remove them. They're sort of the first level of Loss Prevention. As I understand it, our Loss Prevention staff are to prevent the initial theft as much as is possible, and the tags are to prevent re-sale of any stolen merch?
              Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...

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              • #8
                This is just the first time I have ever heard of dye packs being used in a clothing store. Weird.

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                • #9
                  I think it's a great idea. Ruin the clothing for the shoplifter, and prevent either resale or a return without receipt scam.

                  Genius!
                  They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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                  • #10
                    Some shoplifters have techniques for removing the alarm tags - and if necessary, repairing the clothing. A tag which makes the clothing useless if it's removed wrong is a deterrant to attempting that.
                    Seshat's self-help guide:
                    1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                    2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                    3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                    4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                    "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                    • #11
                      Not only that, you have the MacBeth evidence of theft and/or posession of stolen goods (both crimes).
                      I'm trying to see things from your point of view, but I can't get my head that far up my keister!

                      Who is John Galt?
                      -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Monterey Jack View Post
                        This is just the first time I have ever heard of dye packs being used in a clothing store. Weird.
                        I've seen them pretty often, actually. A lot of tags look like electronic security tags, but if you look at the tag closely, it will warn you that there is ink inside ready to go off and stain anything it touches.

                        I find the effectiveness dubious, though. What's good about alarmed tags is you have to remove the tag inside the store if you want to get out with it. Doing so will take time, make noise, and attract attention. With the ink tags, you'll be able to leave the store with the clothing unnoticed, at which point you have all the resources of the outside world to remove the tag without getting inked. And there are tools available to do that.

                        I guess it's good for amateur shoplifters who don't know any better, but I doubt it's effective at all for professionals who make a living stealing clothes and selling them on a street corner.
                        Fiancee: We're going to need to do laundry. I'm out of clean pants.
                        Me: Sounds like a job for Gravekeeper!
                        Fiancee: What?!
                        Me: Nevermind.

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                        • #13
                          I think that if customers "really" want to steal something, they will find a way to do it - we use those plastic qwik cases on some CDs at the library, and some people have managed to get those off.....although I have no idea how.

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                          • #14
                            The idea isn't to stop the master thieves, but to stop the less prepared or less devoted ones.
                            The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
                            "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
                            Hoc spatio locantur.

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                            • #15
                              My understanding is that the dye tags are (in most cases) also alarm tags. Don't remove the tag? Alarm goes off. Try to remove tag without the proper tool? Merchandise gets ruined.

                              Good thing shoplifters aren't an organized community, or dye tags wouldn't work. If they WERE organized, they'd deliberately break EVERY dye tag, simply to ruin the merchandise - until losses due to dye were more than losses due to theft, at which point merchants would have no choice but to stop using dye tags.
                              Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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