Do we really need someone to check our receipts at the door?
Author : teriannThey are usually standing at the doors or some stores and supermarkets.
Sometimes they are serious and other times they have a ready smile. They are the security personnel who stand at the door and among their other duties they check receipts of customers.
Purpose
I have had varying experiences with the security at stores. At one store, the proprietor signaled his security to stop a large group of rowdy students from entering the store. This helps to prevent any issues that might arise with unsupervised minors roaming the store.
There also seemed to be an understanding between the proprietor and security personnel about which customers need extra attention. In some stores they assist vulnerable customers who are struggling with bags or provide other kinds of assistance.
The main goal of security at any establishment is to ensure that customers leave with the goods that they have purchased. They ensure that they can account for any items they bring or take out of the store.
Issues
One of my biggest issues is that sometimes you are in a hurry and it’s hard to wait as they go through the process of checking your bill. To make matters worse at times they can be surly and disrespectful.
I have often misplaced my receipt and security personnel can be impatient as I search through the clutter to find it.
When I finally unearth the receipt sometimes they hardly glance at it before affixing their signature so I began to wonder do we really need this?
Benefits
Well just recently I discovered a great benefit of having someone check my receipt! I was in a hurry as usual leaving a popular wholesale when the security checked my receipt and asked if I had bought 25 biscuits.
I was shocked as I had only bought 5 so I had been overcharged by $375!
So in my opinion it certainly is worth the inconvenience of having someone check our receipts.
What’s your take? Let me hear from you!
Teri Ann Renee Paisley
Gleaner online writer
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6 Responses to “Do we really need someone to check our receipts at the door?”
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I get the impression this is practice that someone thought would reduce the incidents of shoplifting and this may well be the case. However in this day and age it is so outdated as to be laughable. Take a certain well known pharmacy that have a lot of their items secured with RFID tags that are only negated when passed over the reader at the till. Try and walk out with said item and an alarm goes off. This is a great idea but this pharmacy still employs a guard at the door to check the receipts! That I just cannot see the point of.
I recently shopped at MegaMart, Mandeville where this is practiced. i left the line momentarily while the cashier was checking my groceries to run for an item I forgot.
When I got back, the cashier had paused cashing my things and allowed the customer behind me to go ahead. The cashier continued ringing up my items which I paid for. I headed for the door as is customary and my several bags of groceries “checked” by the pleasant door staff.
Upon reaching home, when unpacking, i discovered that a bag with approx $2200 of snacks (which i paid for) were missing.
This outlet like many claim that one of the reasons why the door check is done is to protect the consumer from leaving without receiving all items paid for.
We Jamaicans that weren’t born yesterday know the real reason for the door check.
It appears that the “lady” that went ahead of me during my absence took one of my grocery bags. In retrospect, i do remember a peculiar glance she gave me on my return.
The outlets do need to secure their goods but it wouldn’t be so insulting to the consumer/customer if they looked out for the interests of paying customers at the same time.
AML
I think it also serves to protect the organization from being liable for uncollected items. If you come back saying you didn’t get an item, the affixed signature (implying that you did even if no-one really checked) releases them from that liability…???
Hey John,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree that they are other ways to catch shoplifters but sometimes it is unintentional as the cashier might not have cashed the item properly or not at all. In those cases checking the bill will avoid any undue embarrassment by having an alarm go off when the customer tries to leave. Just a thought! Keep visiting the site!
Regards,
Teri Ann
Hello Adrian,
Sorry you had a such bad experience and I hope you reported it to the store. In my case I was overcharged so I was happy to get a refund but as your account shows it doesn’t always work in the customer’s favour. Therefore it is doubly important that customers check their receipts and purchases before they leave the store to prevent this from happening. Thanks for sharing and keep visiting!
Regards,
Teri Ann Renee Paisley
Hey Lisa,
That’s an interesting angle but I do agree that the door checks are beneficial for both the company and the customer as long as they are done accurately.
Thanks for sharing and keep visiting the site!
Regards,
Teri Ann