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My guess is that there is more to this story. I don't see Apple employees routinely stopping to ask people for receipts. Plus, they don't want to discourage people from using EasyPay. Perhaps they were tracking him for a while (as he was in the store for an hour), and saw something suspicious. It's easy enough to come in to the store with an "issue" for the Genius Bar. In any case, since he wants to proceed to trial he can give his side of the story then and let a jury decide.

I agree, in most cases they'll be following the action on video in the backroom and when he leaves the store without paying they can move on the shoplifter, otherwise he can claim he was on his way to pay for it.
 
Perhaps they should implement an audible sound for when the Pay Now is eligible to be pressed but hasn't been for an extended period of time, to alert the purchaser to pay and the employees of a potential shoplift attempt?
 
If he doesn't have a criminal record or hasn't been in trouble with the law before, I would say it was an honest mistake.

On the other hand if he has a history of shoplifting/theft then throw the book at him.

I say toss a coin.
 
Why can't they just let him pay and get on with their day?

Or, if they must drag this out, then check their security cameras. They see every inch of those stores, I'm sure they could see if he was using his phone to try and buy something.

Hows this going to help.

Basically i want to steel some stuff. I ender it into the app as though I am going to buy it, but don't hit the buy button.

I walk out of the store planning to hit the buy if I'm approached.

then damn, the phone auto locks and I'm nicked.
 
If the wording in the story is literal, I'd say they have no case as the kid didn't leave the store with the headphones.... no?

As a former LP manager and a current retail manager (both in NYC), I don't understand why they stopped the kid before he left the premises. Especially since he'd have to go up the stairs. I would not be surprised if profiling happened and that they jumped the gun.

Even if I believed he tried to shoplift, I would have simply made him complete the transaction and leave the store. It'll be a total waste of time -- both for the store and the criminal justice system -- to continue with prosecution, IMO.
 
Working retail, I'm betting he is a regular thief and has already been known to do this.

Since I'm betting Apple is erring on the side of making sure they don't piss off a customer I'm betting the fact they confronted him means they are sure of him and this isn't his first offense (it's just the first one they were sure enough to call him on it).

I know if we refuse a thief a fake return, then it's one that is either really stupid and obvious (Which of course this isn't due to their system) or one that we know them by sight and know they are stealing from us.
 
hope my buddy didn't bust him

Ugh, my buddy works at that store. I hope he wasn't one of those busting him. On second hand, gotta root for the home team. Bust him!
 
Sounds like they stopped him before he even left the store. So, did he even steal.

In the UK it would not be classed as stealing, you need to leave the store first for it to be classed as so as far as I know. And with no sales assistant involved that law is even more prevalent.

You'd need to ask an attorney familiar with New York law to answer that, as it would depend on the statute as well as case law. My guess (and I am not a lawyer) is that you may not need to specifically be beyond the door. I.e. you may be able to be charged if you are at the door and it is clear that you have taken the property, intend to walk out, and haven't paid.
 
My local Apple store doesn't give receipts for any type of purchase so I can see this being a mistake. That said, surely they wouldn't risk a lawsuit over a 30 buck purchase. They probably watched him closely.
 
We have some of these stupid machines in B&Q in the UK. They are so crap that they now man them with human beings. The whole point of them was so they didn't have to employ human beings..........

The other day when I took item 1 off the scale to scan item 2 (which is the wrong thing to do) I was asked accusingly "So you are going to pay for that aren't you?"

I prefer to pay a person until the technology is good.
 
Lol

That's what happened with me and a 27" iMac.

I LOL'd... Then LOL'd some more when I read people quoting you and not getting the humour! FWIW, i have 2 quotes to contribute to this thread:

Innocent until proven guilty
A lie is most conveniently hidden between two truths
 
Exactly.

Also as a former LP person, you can usually tell who is stealing something or looking to do so. They are looking around at employees, looking for security cameras, picking up something and then putting them down and doing it again. Anyone that stares at the same headphones for an hour and doesn't ask for help or questions is a little suspicious.

And yes those Bose and Beats headsets are always under watch at Apple Stores. Counted constantly through out the day...We only put one set of each out at a time for this reason. That is like the number one no no to take from an Apple store

Yep, working retail there is always those few items that the thieves really like and tend to already set up red flags (For us they come back to us and pretend to validly return them for credit that they sell through ebay or use themselves). And other things that make it really obvious (The strangest thing I find is thieves all seem to have the same excuse, it's like they talk to each other on what they think is the best thing to tell us why they are returning something. The excuse they give us is a red flag as well....).

If you work retail, you'd know what I mean, you start learning to see the tell tale signs. Thieves aren't as non obvious as they'd like to think they are. And sometimes it's irritating they think I'm that stupid.

I bet dollars to donuts though this kid is a repeat offender and has made himself so obvious the apple store is sure of themselves. You don't outright accuse a customer of theft unless you are absolutely sure. Hell, our store is so walkover we don't even do that, we just outright refuse the return (to the point I had one repeat thief when we had even easier return policies and never refused a return who at one point knew I knew he was a thief and knew I couldn't do a damned thing about it).
 
I also had the same issue when I used the Easy Pay app inside my local Best Buy. I hope they get this issue resolved soon.
 
As a former LP manager and a current retail manager (both in NYC), I don't understand why they stopped the kid before he left the premises. Especially since he'd have to go up the stairs. I would not be surprised if profiling happened and that they jumped the gun.

Even if I believed he tried to shoplift, I would have simply made him complete the transaction and leave the store. It'll be a total waste of time -- both for the store and the criminal justice system -- to continue with prosecution, IMO.

Well, what is not clear from the story (since we're being technical) is where he was actually stopped. To quote the accused "...went over to the Genius Bar for my appointment, and when I went to leave the store, they stopped me.” Certainly will be interesting (if it makes it to court) and Apple has surveillance tapes with him either in the store, or out. Though it seems to me that Apple would know the difference, and wouldn't stop/accuse someone of theft while they are still in the store.

Nowhere does it say he was in the store. And just the same nowhere does it state he was outside the store. Obviously that would be a key point in defining if this were theft or not. If he was still sitting at the genius bar, Apple will be in a world of hurt. If he was at the door threshold and walking out, and (likely) didn't have his phone in his hand trying to complete the transaction, seems to me the accused loses all attempts at claiming he wasn't shop-lifting. If he was out the door, then clearly he left without paying.
 
depends on what Bose headphones he was trying to buy...I believe you can only make a purchase of 199 or less with the app, I didn't read the whole thread to see if this was mentioned so sorry it was
 
I also had the same issue when I used the Easy Pay app inside my local Best Buy. I hope they get this issue resolved soon.

LOL. What issue? You forgot to click "PAY NOW" and tried to walk out without paying? Also curious to know which Best Buy store allowed you to use the Apple App EasyPay to make a purchase?

Sorry, not trying to be rude, but he didn't state at any point that he had an "issue". His "issue" was he thought (somehow) he paid for an item simply by scanning the bar-code.
 
This is exactly why I think EasyPay is a bad idea, it too easy to have major misunderstandings.

Agreed. At the same time, other than a major release my local Apple stores are never crowded enough that this would save me much time.
 
I can see it now. "person accused of stealing from apple store gets charges dropped, apple gives kid $100 iTunes card"
 
Even so, they obviously had proof he was trying to steal to call mall security.

This was not at a mall, the 5th Ave store is outside and they hire a security company to watch over their store 24/7. They are always inside and outside of the store. They are the loss prevention team.

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I can see it now. "person accused of stealing from apple store gets charges dropped, apple gives kid $100 iTunes card"

... and the headphones for free
 
No physical receipt + self-checkout = bad idea

This is exactly why I think EasyPay is a bad idea, it too easy to have major misunderstandings.

Hear hear! I insist on having a physical receipt, especially for any item of significant value or self-checkout for just this reason.
 
I can see it now. "person accused of stealing from apple store gets charges dropped, apple gives kid $100 iTunes card"

lol I always had a concern with using easy pay for big ticket items. So far the only I thing bought using easy pay was the 9.95 Mag2 to Mag1 adapter and it still felt weird walking out with no bag. I did ask for the paper receipt even though they push the e-receipt now, for the exact reason in this story.
 
This was not at a mall, the 5th Ave store is outside and they hire a security company to watch over their store 24/7. They are always inside and outside of the store. They are the loss prevention team.

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... and the headphones for free

Lol
 
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