Keep it…for sure!!!
As a guy thats managed retail…
its only a matter of time before somene takes inventory, sees that they have 1 extra of something and 1 short of something. then its as simple as reviewing video tape if they have it. even if they dont have it, at that point id see who rung it up, and if its more than 20 dollars, id call the police and have that employee arrested and the customer questioned. as a manager id have no idea or not if that employee was involved in doing a “Swap for a buddy” or just a mistake. So filing a police report (required for most retail insurance btw) is literally step 2 in that chain of events.
take it back, last thing you need is cops at your door.
Sweet Jesus, man… what kind of Gestapo outfit were you involved in?
My, how I laughed!
(Seriously - I had a good giggle at that…)
just think about it like this.
if youre a manager, controlling shrink is one of your first responsibilities. Shrink is loss to the business, damage, and theft.
so you see 1 of something sold, one of something missing. 1 employees sale in the register.
youd have no way of knowing if that employee just ripped you off with the help of a buddy. 80% of retail theft is employee theft. so youd assume that first.
so yeah, at that point, you pretty much have to call the police if you want to file an insurance claim agains the loss. pretty much all retail insurers require it.
If he had rang up a pack of resistors and gave out high dollar item, that’d be one thing… mistakingly bagging a similar product is something completely different.
Having the guy arrested is ludicrous. The police would be completely out of line to put cuffs on the guy in that situation.
what youre not understading here, is retail insurance requires a police report and that requires showing them all reciepts and evidence you have.
theyd be required by law to detain everyone involved by law if the loss is more than 20 dollars.
Would they not just take it out the guys wages?
thats never been an option at any major retailer ive worked or managed for.
you also have to think about this. if theres evidence that makes you question an employee’s integrity and makes you think hes stealing. you’re also asking yourself “what else has he stolen?”.
you have no idea at that point if hes responsible for other losses in the past at that point. again, this is something the police WILL ask about and generally want evidence of all losses in the past 6 months.
but again, if its on tape, that guys pretty much burned.
no matter what, if the shrink didnt come back. the only responsible thing to do, at the very least, is terminate the employee’s employment.
i know that sounds harsh, but thats just standard. its just business. if an employee error causes a couple hundred dollars worth of loss in 1 transaction. they get promoted to customer.
And as a guy who’s worked retail…
Inventory tends to happen quarterly, if that, in my experience. “reviewing video tape” means looking at months of tape to try to figure out exactly when the item went missing - which could be any time theoretically since the last inventory. Additionally, mistakes happen and a manager canning/having an employee arrested over a single item of retail (the actual cost of which is far less than the retail price) would be ridiculous. It’s another matter if the employee has a poor record when it comes to such things, but that’s not exactly the OP’s fault.
My stance? If it’s a small shop which would likely be hurt by losing the difference in cost between the items, return it. If not, enjoy your gain.
even the cheapest over the counter pc based survailence from frys has instant search.
youd just look at the timestamp on the reciept and key in the time. youd be looking at tape for no more than 10 minutes.
i imagine they dont stock more than 10 of those things even in a guitar center. so its not like it wouldnt pop up when they look to cycle count for a re order to see, they’re supposed to have more than they do.
even easier to see whats happened in a smaller store. as they likely only have 2-3 in stock at any given time.
and again, you guys arent grasping the fact that you cannot file a claim against any retail theft insurance without a police report. in retail theft, every police department in the country will investigate. is not like they send beatcops for that sort of thing. every police department in the country have detectives that ONLY do retail theft investigations. its that prevallent. 80% of all retail theft literally is internal. so every case does get investigated. also to prevent the retailer from commiting insurance fraud (Which also happens more than people realize).
I work in insurance. And I say hang onto it. They likely have a high enough profit margin to where they’re going to make the lost money back selling other stuff at a hiked price, anyway.
You would think they would scan the barcode on the box that of the item you are purchasing…and not ring you up before bringing the product out. It’s their fault. You could just as easily say “I requested the better model, and I thought that was the price of it!” and then play the false advertising card.
The shop is not that advanced. Its a case of a manual input onto a in-house invoices system which in turn prints out a very basic receipt.
They don’t here. As a matter of fact I’m pretty sure the burden falls on the retailer to prove the employee has a track record of theft before the police will investigate. They won’t arrest somebody over what is likely a one time mistake at the register. However if they can prove the same employee has wrung up the wrong thing on multiple occasions then they might investigate. Plus I’m sure the laws vary by state so depending on where this occurred and their local laws the results may be very different.
also the likely hood of video evidence still being around 3-4 months after the incident is extremely minimal.
unless you save a certain timeframe of footage, most security systems are digitally recorded nowadays and only hold about a 10-14 day buffer of recordings before recording over itself. so unless the shop he went to stocktake weekly, they’ll never know what happened.
all it takes is the salesman to realise what he did and for him to do the stocktake and fudge the numbers and management wouldnt know anyway.
Shop error in your favour. Relax mate 
I’d forget that you ever started this thread, enjoy your good fortune, and get stuck in to the controller.
This thread in my opinion is just a way for you to try to make yourself feel better. If it will make you feel better, jus keep it .
Even if you feel guilty for a bit to be honest, it’s completely normal since you’re a good guy. Jus take it as good fortune and be on your way.
this.