Toys R Us Gripe

[MTSBspidey]

I refuse to check my bag at the customer service desk. There's prescription medication in my bag. There's usually a laptop. The store wants to hold my bag because they don't know me and don't know if I'm a thief, well I'm sorry but I don't know the person working behind the counter and I don't know if they're a thief. How do I know they're not going to rifle through my stuff and rob me? A $15 figure that TRU thinks I might steal is less of a risk in my book than the meds or laptop that might get stolen from me. If they want to look through my bag on the way out, that's fine I have nothing to hide, but I'm not handing my stuff to a stranger.

 

And as was mentioned before, no one ever asks women for their bags. The bag check policy is just sexist.

[Wheeljack35]

They have camera's aimed at the courtesy desks in big store to make sure employees aren't stealing money from the registers

[MTSBspidey]

Maybe at TRU, but not at every store that asks to check bags. I never check my bag anywhere.

 

EDIT - And clearly TRU doesn't trust their employees either. Why should I?

[Devilbat]

RockthePlank, you seem like a really nice guy, and I'm sure I can't relate since I never liked or wore backpacks, and I've never been a motorcycle rider, although I completely understand where you're coming from, about how the backpack is the only way you can tote stuff home since you're on a bike. Being the toy collector I am, too many times I've seen guys riding down the road, and I just wonder to myself how they might be able to transport stuff they buy home. (lol) Seriously, I see those side-compartments and what-not, and I wonder if toys could be stored safely in there. Heh...geeze, I think about toys waaay too much. ANYWAY...me personally, I would feel weird to begin with, going into a store carrying a bag I knew could potentially be used to stash stolen items in. I would just feel like the employees would be watching every move I made, so I'd just be uncomfortable the whole time. I honestly don't see a problem with just leaving the bag up front while I shopped, then when I paid for everything, just load up the ol' bag and be on my way.

 

But then again, you've done it for years, and now all of a sudden it's a problem? And on top of that, they referenced a sign that doesn't exist? I'd probably be upset too. But like I said, I wouldn't have had a bag in the store to begin with, but that's just me and my personal hang-ups.

[jjlecaros]

Then leave your stuff in the car. In this case you have a bike so that out the question. Im sure also if mentioned the meds or laptop they would let you slide and go with your bag. As for women.....purse sizes vary most are small and would barely fit a figure. As for my customers I will treat them real well, but then again I'm a small store and can keep an eye on pretty much everyone all at once. For the most part the people that would try to steal are kids thus why they are keeping their bags outside or by the door.

As for feeling the way you do, you have all the right to feel like that. Some people here agree with you, some don't.

 

I've worked at tru and I can tell half the cameras don't work and half are fake ones to prevent, they rely on workers keeping an eye, asking you if you need help if they feel you are suspicious. Also people saying sensors would catch them...that's bs cuz most items in tru don't have any and video games for the most part are locked ip and you can't leave r zone with them.

[nevermore]

I have no problem leaving my bag behind a register. As a teen they used to make me do it so often that I no longer wait for them to ask and just walk it up to a register and ask if they want me to leave it. There are times when I'll walk home from work (the joys of only having 1 car between my wife and I) so I'll need to bring my bag too. I am pretty sure an employee won't steal my laptop. If it happened I would notice right away and call them on it and it would be found pretty quickly. I really don't see what the big deal is. They are just trying to prevent stuff from being stolen. They don't know you. They don't know you are an honest person. In a way I am actually comforted by the fact that they asked you and don't just single out on age or race.

 

I know it feels like you are being singled out and that is upsetting but the reality is I've never been in a store where they allow you to walk around with a backpack. Thus to me it is an understood rule everywhere.

[CaptainTriumph]

How do they know you aren't some nut job a with bomb? Not saying you are but they don't know that.

If your going to go to Toys R Us with a bomb then your nuts enough to do your damage regardless of their "security" procedures....

 

 

Its like the sign at my work that shows a handgun and a reminder that firearms aren't permitted. Like anyone that would bring a gun to work would be stopped by a sign telling them not to do it!

[nevermore]

How do they know you aren't some nut job a with bomb? Not saying you are but they don't know that.

If your going to go to Toys R Us with a bomb then your nuts enough to do your damage regardless of their "security" procedures....

 

 

Its like the sign at my work that shows a handgun and a reminder that firearms aren't permitted. Like anyone that would bring a gun to work would be stopped by a sign telling them not to do it!

 

Haha! I can just imagine someone loaded down with firearms walking up and seeing the sign and going "DAMN! I was gonna shoot up everyone in this place! You're all lucky you have that sign!"

[synch]

Then leave your stuff in the car. In this case you have a bike so that out the question. Im sure also if mentioned the meds or laptop they would let you slide and go with your bag. As for women.....purse sizes vary most are small and would barely fit a figure. As for my customers I will treat them real well, but then again I'm a small store and can keep an eye on pretty much everyone all at once. For the most part the people that would try to steal are kids thus why they are keeping their bags outside or by the door.

As for feeling the way you do, you have all the right to feel like that. Some people here agree with you, some don't.

 

I've worked at tru and I can tell half the cameras don't work and half are fake ones to prevent, they rely on workers keeping an eye, asking you if you need help if they feel you are suspicious. Also people saying sensors would catch them...that's bs cuz most items in tru don't have any and video games for the most part are locked ip and you can't leave r zone with them.

 

I'd have a security camera or two set it ... people are pros & if they want to they can sneak it by you! all it takes is you helping one person up front, a couple other people checking out other stuff & the guy stealing stuff on the other side. Face facts now no matter what you have set up at some point something will get stolen from you :S. I also hope you are getting some parts put on your windows & door so people can't sneak through them my lcs has had at least 3 things stolen out from under him & one B&E since the bars no B&E

[RockthePlank]

yup people get pissed at me when i ask them for ID but you know what unless you are there everyday when I deal with 50-100 people in an hour I am not going to freaking remember you lol

 

@loll@

 

It's funny you say that, because I live right near a Texico gas station, go there everyday for the past 7 years, I pass like 4 other gas stations on my way to work, but I always give them my business, even if it's not the cheapest. A while back one of the owners, someone I have dealt with many times asked me for my ID. No big deal, figured I must never buy anything like that when she was there, and went on my way. The next day, she asked for it again, and again, I shrugged it off. Then I saw her AGAIN a few days later and she asked me for it again. This time I showed her and asked why she didn't remember me. She got defensive and said she had never seen me before. I asked my wife, who goes there just as often, if she had ever been IDed by her and she said no, infact that woman always asks if my wife could get her daughter a job (and trust me, my wife is in her early 20's and could totally pass for highschool age) She still kept randomly asking me for it, until she saw me with my wife one day and asked if I knew that lady, when I said, yeah it's my wife, her attitude completely changed!

 

I refuse to check my bag at the customer service desk. There's prescription medication in my bag. There's usually a laptop. The store wants to hold my bag because they don't know me and don't know if I'm a thief, well I'm sorry but I don't know the person working behind the counter and I don't know if they're a thief. How do I know they're not going to rifle through my stuff and rob me? A $15 figure that TRU thinks I might steal is less of a risk in my book than the meds or laptop that might get stolen from me. If they want to look through my bag on the way out, that's fine I have nothing to hide, but I'm not handing my stuff to a stranger.

 

And as was mentioned before, no one ever asks women for their bags. The bag check policy is just sexist.

 

I totally agree, the store wants me to leave my bag with someone they don't even trust themselves? Really? The number one kinda of theft, is employee theft! Often when I go out and I think I am going to a store where I may have to check my bag, I make sure that I don't have anything that is important in there. No "meds" (yeah, I'll call them meds here) no laptop, not even a checkbook.

 

 

In a way I am actually comforted by the fact that they asked you and don't just single out on age or race.

 

I know it feels like you are being singled out and that is upsetting but the reality is I've never been in a store where they allow you to walk around with a backpack. Thus to me it is an understood rule everywhere.

I would probably not have a problem, if the other 99% of the time I went there I was treated the same. To me, it feels like if I am going in business attire, no problem, but if it's regular clothes, suddenly I am suspicious. Same guy, different shirt, crazy!

 

 

Then leave your stuff in the car. In this case you have a bike so that out the question. Im sure also if mentioned the meds or laptop they would let you slide and go with your bag. As for women.....purse sizes vary most are small and would barely fit a figure. As for my customers I will treat them real well, but then again I'm a small store and can keep an eye on pretty much everyone all at once. For the most part the people that would try to steal are kids thus why they are keeping their bags outside or by the door.

As for feeling the way you do, you have all the right to feel like that. Some people here agree with you, some don't.

 

I've worked at tru and I can tell half the cameras don't work and half are fake ones to prevent, they rely on workers keeping an eye, asking you if you need help if they feel you are suspicious. Also people saying sensors would catch them...that's bs cuz most items in tru don't have any and video games for the most part are locked ip and you can't leave r zone with them.

 

I'd have a security camera or two set it ... people are pros & if they want to they can sneak it by you! all it takes is you helping one person up front, a couple other people checking out other stuff & the guy stealing stuff on the other side. Face facts now no matter what you have set up at some point something will get stolen from you :S. I also hope you are getting some parts put on your windows & door so people can't sneak through them my lcs has had at least 3 things stolen out from under him & one B&E since the bars no B&E

Your words speak true synch! No matter what kind of security they have, someone can steal something, it's a fact. If I wanted to steal things for their store, trust me, I wouldn't walk in with a big bag on my back and I wouldn't be going back there atleast twice a month. Plus it's like JJ said, all the high end, costly stuff is either locked up behind them, like games, or sold right at the register, like batteries and 20 oz sodas at a $1.99 (whose the real thief?)

 

BTW, my wife carry's a huge purse, she always has, and it would be too easy for her to go crazy and steal everything in site if she wanted to, we just aren't those kinds of people though. She's never been asked to check it anywhere or told she couldn't take it. Talk about sexist!

[nevermore]

RockthePlank I totally understand if you've been there plenty of times before and just now got asked. I always get asked so I don't even hesitate anymore. Most likely the other times it was probably just employees who didn't give a F* before and finally someone started actually following the policy.

[Doom Saber]

I would NEVER bring a back pack into any store.Hell security would waatch you like a hawk.These people don't know you to them they see somebody who could stuff something is his back pack.

 

Don't take it personally

 

I agree that it shouldn't be taken personality. I have had a lot of incidents where I brought my backpack in the store. Most of the time I am told to leave my backpack on the front. There was one time where I did felt a bit butthurt since the comicstore guy made a new policy on the spot about not carrying backpacks around - butthurt since he made up the new rule when I was the only customer in the store despite that the new policy applied to other ppl coming in to the store as well; the store is located near a university campus. He only enforced the rule that whole day.

[jjlecaros]

comic relief?

[MikePrime]

I haven't used a backpack since I was in college.

[RockthePlank]

I haven't used a backpack since I was in college.

 

Yeah, its a bag I got just for riding, I dont like the look of saddle bags on my bike, so its the bag!

 

Sometime I buy too many groceries and I have to figure out a way to cram it all in. When I bought the Thundertank, it was too wide, so I put it in as much as I could, I took off my belt to help strap it to the bag itself and ended up looking crazy trying to get it all together out in the parking lot. Totally worth it though!

[Eric]

I don't see the importance of a sign. Would you not come in if you saw the sign? They ask you to leave the bag the first thing while you walk in, it's not like you are inside the store and they track you down in the aisle and take your bag. My store is going to be by a school I'm going have all the kids leave their bags at the front.

 

I go to a used book store that is next to a comic store. I usually go to the comic store first then the book store. Every time I go to the book store they ask people to leave their bags/backpacks at the door. No sign nothing they just ask as you walk in and I have no problem leaving my comics the while I browse around.

 

You might as well complain about tsa agents in the airport feeling up on people or going thru the body scan. Are you a terrorist? Do you look like one? No but you Go thru it cuz it's part of the rules. Are going to stop flying because of it?

 

I think you are being a bit over top about it.

 

I don't think he's being over the top at all.

 

If they asked every time or, more importantly, if they asked everyone, it would be a different story. But the fact they don't ask when he's well dressed and the fact they apparently don't ask mothers to leave their purses is crap. This isn't a mom and pop comic shop or bookstore. It's a large corporation, probably with a store manager who has an axe to grind and thinks the only people who steal anything are males who like action figures. This is profiling plain and simple.

 

I work for a large retail chain, and my store is located right next to a middle school. Yesterday the kids had a half day of school, so at about one o'clock at least 30 kids came, all with backpacks. They weren't even asked to leave despite the fact few were actually buying anything. If they had been asked to leave their bags, their parents would have been in the store five minutes later totally flipping out, and rightfully so.

 

If you want to stop shoplifting, watch for it. But you can't selectively ask people as they walk in the store.

[RockthePlank]

I don't think he's being over the top at all.

 

If they asked every time or, more importantly, if they asked everyone, it would be a different story. But the fact they don't ask when he's well dressed and the fact they apparently don't ask mothers to leave their purses is crap. This isn't a mom and pop comic shop or bookstore. It's a large corporation, probably with a store manager who has an axe to grind and thinks the only people who steal anything are males who like action figures. This is profiling plain and simple.

 

I work for a large retail chain, and my store is located right next to a middle school. Yesterday the kids had a half day of school, so at about one o'clock at least 30 kids came, all with backpacks. They weren't even asked to leave despite the fact few were actually buying anything. If they had been asked to leave their bags, their parents would have been in the store five minutes later totally flipping out, and rightfully so.

 

If you want to stop shoplifting, watch for it. But you can't selectively ask people as they walk in the store.

Thanks for the support man!

 

Still have YET to receive a reply from TRU, Im sure it'll just be some lame crap if I get something at all. I did go over to the mall today and TRU is right next door, so despite my vow not to go, I went there anyway. I didn't have my bag with me today since I didn't plan on buying anything anyhow, but I saw the had two figures I wanted. I picked em up, got close to the front, and thought, screw this, I'm good on giving them my money, I need to hear back from them first. So I left empty handed, and that is a rare thing if there is actually something worth getting. Too bad, they missed out on another easy $30 I didnt even plan to spend!

 

 

 

[synch]

bag check is nothing dude I was at a store today & asked the lady to look at something & she said "are you sure you want to buy before i get off my ass & do all the work" all the work included was standing up walking over to the display case & passing me the item to look at :S lol

[nevermore]

bag check is nothing dude I was at a store today & asked the lady to look at something & she said "are you sure you want to buy before i get off my ass & do all the work" all the work included was standing up walking over to the display case & passing me the item to look at :S lol

 

Wow, I hope you had her get a bunch of different things and then didn't buy anything...and then complained to the manager.

[RockthePlank]

bag check is nothing dude I was at a store today & asked the lady to look at something & she said "are you sure you want to buy before i get off my ass & do all the work" all the work included was standing up walking over to the display case & passing me the item to look at :S lol

 

Yeah life isn't too bad right now if this is my major gripe in it

 

I woulda totally made her stand and then I wouldnt have bought it just for that comment. Rude!

[synch]

I wish I would have but I was just so disgusted & shocked with it I said forget it & walked out the door ... & ... as I was leaving she said something like "yeah thats what I thought great guy like you..."

 

 

I wish I would have 1 , pointed out how rude that was of her, 2 pointed out how lazy that was of her, & 3 pointed out how she expects me to buy something with out even seeing it & knowing what it is ... I am still annoyed at this lady ... If I thought she was not the owner I would definitely complain to someone about it . She pretty much shot her self in the foot with any chance of making any kind of profit with me with that reply I also didn't even get a chance to check out the rest of the store which bugs me but I guess that is a good thing since I may have seen other stuff I liked :S

 

Honestly I'm thinking I'm going to send some friends down & have them all look at the same coin I wanted to look at lol

[Eric]

That's some crap, synch. Based on the job I work in where I can't say much to all the rude people I deal with, I absolutely would have taken the opportunity to say something smart to this lazy woman.

[Crimson Twins]

I like the idea of them checking your bag as you leave better than them asking for it before you even start shopping. But there would have to be a posted sign that says all bags are subject to being checked for security reasons. And if they thought you were trying to steal something by using your bag, there would be people watching you and would ask to see the bag before you exited the store.

 

Our PX is very strict about the bag policy. But then they are very strict about people bringing food or drinks into the store as well. The bag thing is a pain because they won't let you store the bags at a register either. You have to either leave it in your vehicle, or find someone to hold it outside of the store.

[RockthePlank]

Ok this is what I had in the inbox this morning:

 

 

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support

center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

 

Subject

---------------------------------------------------------------

Land-Based Retail Store Comments/Questions

 

 

Discussion Thread

---------------------------------------------------------------

Response - 09/17/2011 01:28 PM

Dear Mr. Rocktheplank,

 

Thank you for contacting Toys "R" Us in regards to your experience at our Gainesville, Fl location. Thank you as well for your time in writing this letter to us. We believe that this incident could be better handled if escalated even further to the Region of the store for review. We will also request a callback since you mentioned it at the end of your letter.

 

Thank you for your inquiry.

 

Sincerely,

 

Toys "R" Us.

 

 

What a great example of corporate buck passing! I love how no names were given for this letter, not Joe at TRU, or Sherry at TRU, just TRU, like Jefferey is sitting down typing it. We will see if I hear anything more about it or if it will just fall through the cracks of the corporate machine.

[synch]

perhaps the invisible bag check sign will become visible :S lol Either way at least you got a response that gives you a degree of satisfaction