Got a free light at Lowe's

I had seen other CPFers talk about the Task Force lights available at Lowe's. Living in NYC, I figured it would be easy for me to find a Lowe's store nearby. It wasn't! But I did finally stumble onto one a few days ago. They were out of the larger C-cell Task Force that I wanted. But they did have the 1AA model, and a black Coast "V2 6-chip Dual color" light. (5 white leds plus 1 red one. with 2 small switches on either side of the barrel for each color. [Review available on flashlightreviews.com under the section on Coast lights]).

The Coast light was marked at just under $21

I decided to buy both lights. Waiting in line, I noticed the cashier, a teenager, was busy gossiping with another employee. But she rang up the customers' purchases without too much delay. As I waited in line, I noticed she had a bit of a bad attitude. (Not surprising. It's gotten to the point that retail employees just don't give a $#^t anymore. My best friend who works as a retail Assistant-Manager with many years under his belt, in the Industry, confirmed my suspicions).

She rang up the Task Force light properly, but the price on the Coast light came to $31 rather than $21. I pointed out that it was listed at under $21. She just said "well..." and shrugged her shoulders. I could have pointed out that she had to sell it to me under the list price. But I was tired from Work, and I had met her kind before. This was going to turn into a nasty scene if I pointed out the error in pricing. I decided it wasn't worth it. I told her that in that case, I'd just buy the Task Force light. She took off the price of the Coast light from the register. But I noticed she left the Coast light in the bag. When I handed her the money, she went back to gossiping, and just absent-mindedly handed me the bag with both lights in it.

I walked out the door. She was too busy gossiping to do her job properly. I would have been happy to buy the light at the list price. But why go through a giant headache with a cashier who has a bad attitude?

That's how I got a free light at Lowe's.

I'm of two minds here... One says :rock: "F" em. She deserves to have it taken out of her pay if they find out, AND Lowes deserves the loss if they can't train their employees well enough to know the prices and local retail "rules".

One the other side, that loss to Lowes is part of the reason they can't afford to pay, train, and keep workers who do care. I bet the cashier'd pay more attention if she was making a good wage. In a job like that you usually have to get paid good to give a shitte.

It's all about perspective. :candle:

Ya know.... Under normal circumstances I would have given her the product and said "i believe you forgot to take this out".... HOWEVER... There have been times where the attitude I was given has caused me to go the other way. Living in Michigan we have a pricing thing where if a food item is mismarked, you have the right to get it at that price PLUS up to 5 times the difference. When we were in hard times we niticed the kraft cheese 16oz blocks were mismarked at the 8oz price (must have forgot to change the gun setting), Well, I didnt feel bad about spending 2 something for a 4 something blocks of cheese AND getting $5 cash back.. It all depends on the setting and the circumstances.
Jeff

I agree with both of you! In my old neighborhood, there's a Pizza place where both of the owners work very hard. One of them sometimes will under-charge me, by accident. When it comes to him, I always point out that I owe him more money than what he rang up. Always gotten great service and food from that place. They typically charge less money too!

But the case at Lowe's was different..... Certainly if retail employees got paid better, they might pay more attention to what they're doing. But I doubt if Big Name stores like Lowe's would even care. I think they do make enough profits every year to pay better wages, if they wanted to. They just don't want to. The number of free items that walk out the door, not including those that are shoplifted, are miniscule, and don't even dent their Bottom Line.

Shrinkage is not the problem!!!! Getting qualified help and mangers is!

This loss was due to the problem, not the problem itself.

Enjoy ur free lumens! I get upset all the time with retail help. When I worked retail I worked my *** off and cared. I can't believe the type of service i'm received as of late.


Awesome score!!!

If I notice the mistake while I'm at the register, or maybe even in the parking lot, I'd give it back. If I don't notice until I get home, I might keep it. It'd probably bother me, but then, it'd also bother me to have to return to the store because of their error. I don't know what I'd do, though. I certainly wouldn't make a special trip to return it, unless they promised to reimburse me for my gas and time....yeah, right, sure...

Manzerick said:

Awesome score!!!

Click to expand...

Got to agree with you there! Five white LEDs in a compact package with an extra button to turn on the 1 red LED to preserve your night vision. An inexpensive belt pouch and extra batteries comes with it!

I recommend it.... But I doubt anyone will get it for a better price than I did.

You didn't get a free light, you lost a little bit of your integrity. It would be one thing if you didn't notice till you got home, but you are proud of the fact that you stole the product. You can rationalize it all you want, but the simple fact is you stole it.

I am also disgusted that I am the first to point this out.

Mikeg23 said:

You didn't get a free light, you lost a little bit of your integrity. It would be one thing if you didn't notice till you got home, but you are proud of the fact that you stole the product. You can rationalize it all you want, but the simple fact is you stole it.

I am also disgusted that I am the first to point this out.

Click to expand...

If it makes you feel better to pretend that I shoved the light down my pants and walked out the door with it, go ahead.

I ran into a cashier who didn't give a $#^t about doing her job properly. (Why should I do it for her?) And in case you missed it, she didn't even care to sell me the light for the list price after she rang it up. As stated before, I was more than willing to pay the $21 for which it was listed.

As far as integrity goes, every job I've had, I take seriously. Including my current one. I work with two young ladies who often disappear on me to sleep for hours at a time, I work the night shift. And, I would tell my Supervisor about the fact that I often do a three-person job all by myself. But the guy I replaced on the night shift got fired for doing just that! None of my co-workers care, my boss doesn't give a $#^t either! If it wasn't for me, things would fall apart at Work. (At least during 3rd Shift).

Did I mention I work as a Security Guard at a corporate building in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District?

Yeah, the one place you'd think security would be taken seriously.

As I said you can rationalize it all you want, but you knowingly walked out the door with a product that you did not pay for. What's that called?

You know you stole it and you feel guilty about it. I can tell because you came here looking for support in your decision and the first person who disagreed caused you to get defensive.

(ETA: If you saw it, sorry for the text size being screwed up )

This thread is heading in a direction we don't want to go


Thread Closed.

Unforgiven

Knowing full well the storm that can happen to this thread, I'm still going to comment. I'll leave it up to one of the other admins or moderators to take whatever action the thread might later require. Hopefully, since it can be a good discussion in ethics, I'm hoping we can hold it to an acceptable level of discourse.

I noticed the thread early, and stuck around watching to see how it would go. Like Mikeg23, I had hoped for a quicker and sharper response against such.

Knowing that the light which had been rejected was still in the package, and walking out with it knowing it had not been paid for puts it into a level of ethics that proper action is unquestionable. It's clear cut, regardless of what justifications might be imagined due to poor customer service or whatever. The light was the property of Lowes, it is still the property of Lowes, and has not been purchased.

Edit: Oops! While I was typing, I didn't know the thread was already being closed. I guess that pretty well settles the moderation question.