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Apple Store Customer Arrested for Shoplifting Says He Was Trying to Use EasyPay Self-Checkout
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As long as the plea included not having it go on his record as a result. If not, then fight it, because you will have to answer "yes" to the convicted of a crime section on every job, apartment or university application for the rest of your life if you plea out to something that "counts" in the system.
These kind of things are bound to happen. People make mistakes and forget things. Several times, when paying my credit card bills online, I have mistakenly logged out at the verify info page thinking I had already paid and it was the confirmation page. I'm surprised they took it so far over some earphones. Its hardly the most expensive item there.
I suppose someone could be in a hurry or just being careless. But you're right. For those reasons, giving the option to self check-out the goods on your own phone was a terrible idea by Apple. If he decides to make a big deal out of it, Apple will get a ton of bad publicity, and media is always on a look-out for a story like this one: David vs. Big Evil Corporate(especially Apple).
Once the word gets around (or is it already?) many clever shoplifters could simply scan the item, keep the "Pay Now" button screen there, and try to walk out when things get busy. Apple will have much difficulty getting those guys.
Very well put. I had trouble discerning whether or not this guy was telling the truth. However, as you pointed out, if you have an hour to "look-around" .. you probably have an extra 60 seconds to 2 minutes to make sure that your really expensive headphones have been paid for.
If he *is* innocent, I hope that he isn't convicted. But if he left the store with the intention of stealing, I do hope he is prosecuted.
The mistake was not the customer's.
The mistake was entirely in the apple employee's failure to look at the receipt.
Had he seen the phone screen, he would have pointed out the customer's oversight, ensuring the payment and then delivering the bag.
As such, any court would find the client innocent of intent.
The mistake was entirely in the apple employee's failure to look at the receipt.
Had he seen the phone screen, he would have pointed out the customer's oversight, ensuring the payment and then delivering the bag.
As such, any court would find the client innocent of intent.
.
Boy. Minimum wage employee makes company look bad again. So shocking.
Fire the employee, the best answer. He did more the $20 (or whatever the headphone cost) damage to Apple. Worse than the thief.
$20? The cheapest Bose are $99 for in-ears. $300 for N/C regular ones at apple.
charges
The prosecutor has the decision to press charges or not. Not Apple. Apple filed a claim and contacted the police but it's up to the prosecutor to press charges. This is a criminal suit, not a civil one.
The prosecutor has the decision to press charges or not. Not Apple. Apple filed a claim and contacted the police but it's up to the prosecutor to press charges. This is a criminal suit, not a civil one.
I've bought a few accessories in the Apple store (like an extra MBP charger) and have an iPhone and the app, but I've never felt it was safe to use. Maybe I am just a bit paranoid.
However on the other hand, a lot of the accessories in the apple store can be bought cheaper at Amazon.
Besides, some of the Apple employees are female and cute.
"Innocent of intent" ?
If it's an oversight at all. I'm pretty sure a tech savvy 18 year old that owns an iPhone has the common sense to tap the big ol' , "PAY NOW" button. Yeah, the employee may have made a mistake by not checking the receipt, if that is really what happened. But *his* major mistake was trying to walk out of the store without paying for it. If I were going to leave the store with ANY product, I would make damn sure I had some type of proof of purchase.
Usually Loss Prevention teams don't even confront someone until they start coming back in constantly. They'll nab a thief that comes back to the same store to pilfer things day after day or week after week. They'll keep a photo on file, note them as a possible or probable shoplifter and watch them over an extended period of time. This was probably the case with this guy, since they stopped him while he was still inside the store.
So, the guy actually placing the order, made NO MISTAKE, by not looking at his screen to confirm his order? He admitted he didn't even bother to look whether he even placed an order, let alone check if a transaction completed. "...I scanned the bar code with the Apple Store app, put my phone away..."
That's it? By scanning something you assumed you'd paid for it?
Now don't get me wrong, he should have checked his receipt, but, you can ask for a bag any time, and chances are pretty good you will get one. I have done it even without purchasing anything. Also, looking at the phone is also not the only way to check the receipt. When you actually complete a transaction, you can have one printed out right there in the store...
He has no personal responsibility to follow through?
I find that defense hard to believe. People in this day and age scrutinize their receipts to make sure they weren't over-charged, or charged twice for an item. This guy didn't even have a receipt to scrutinize!
Well Apple created the situation with the ridiculous easy pay honor system in the first place. Apparently they have a whole security force checking for these guys.
Seems like it would be cheaper to simply have a cash register at the front door. Not to mention it would be a lot easier to check out! Especially in the smaller mall stores.
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Yup.
Benefit of the Doubt
The store staff gave him a store bag so they had already assumed he had made the purchase. I believe the onus is back on Apple in this regard as it was failure of their store staff to check the receipt to see if the purchase had been finalised.
If you expect people to use the new way of paying then you should tick all the relevant boxes to make sure it works. In this case it sounds like an Apple staff member is at fault and not the customer.
The teenager even said he was still willing to pay for them after the incident. It would have been just as easy to take his money there and then and let him go on his way.
The store staff gave him a store bag so they had already assumed he had made the purchase. I believe the onus is back on Apple in this regard as it was failure of their store staff to check the receipt to see if the purchase had been finalised.
If you expect people to use the new way of paying then you should tick all the relevant boxes to make sure it works. In this case it sounds like an Apple staff member is at fault and not the customer.
The teenager even said he was still willing to pay for them after the incident. It would have been just as easy to take his money there and then and let him go on his way.
He has no personal liability. At least once. Apple created the app. They didn't train any customers on it. They didn't require some sort of assistance the first time or anything like that. So, yeah. He gets a pass. He very well could've made the mistake.
Have you never done a web-based payment where you see a page that looks like a receipt, but way down near the bottom there's a "submit" button to commit?
If you don't press "submit", it never happened.
I got a "we're going to disconnect" message from the phone company, and I was sure that I'd made the payment. Apparently I looked at what I thought was the receipt, but didn't notice that it was just a confirmation and that there was a "submit" button that I didn't click. (I'd taken a screen cap of the page and filed it, so when I started to protest my mistake had been captured in RGB....)
Apple is wrong here. Even if Apple is right, they're wrong to persecute a customer over a failing in their shopping system.
Apple is becoming the "big bully".
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The customers aren't obligated to use this app.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewEula?id=375380948
Terms and conditions for the Apple Store application.
Exactly my thought. The story is written from his perspective however, but if it an accurate account, there is enough uncertainty to prove intent. Anyone can stand around fiddling with their phone before walking out with a product, but if he did get a bag from an employee, which the employee and security camera can verify, then Apple doesn't have a case as they're supposed to check the receipt.
But as I read it, I was wondering, if that was a true account, and he showed them his phone on the confirmation page, they could have simply asked he confirm the payment and let him go; then nothing was taken, regardless of his original intent, and he'd hopefully know he couldn't get away with it in future. Less hassle for everybody.
From their side, it may reflect frustration with the level of shoplifting or attempted shoplifting at the store, and it is true shoplifters come up with all sorts of excuses and are very good at lying with a straight face. It won't surprise me if he did have intent with a scheme to appear to buy it, deliberately stopping at the final screen and keeping the phone on that page in case he was stopped.
Self-service in all its forms all come with the caveat that people will try and get away with not scanning all their items or none of them; the stores have someone standing around looking bored to look out for this, but it is too easy, and the stores take this as acceptable losses versus hiring enough staff for checkouts. My fiancé worked for Ikea until recently, and despite security watching the self-checkouts, attempted underscanning or just walking through without scanning was rife; they lost a lot of stuff, but considered it acceptable losses. The stories you hear with what some people will try to pull off. And it isn't just delinquent kids, it's middle-aged and older people as much as anyone. Same goes for a clothes store I work for; Some people are quite brazen, and they don't look like what you expect. It's elderly little ladies or otherwise respectably looking men or women. You can't pick 'em on stereotypes. Some people, regardless of age or education or how respectable they look, will always try and get away with as much as they can, and could win an Oscar for their acting if they get caught red-handed. So I don't blame the staff for not believing him, but they must consider that it was a mistake as there are no classes on self-service and mistakes will happen no matter how easy THEY think it is. Store staff make mistakes too, but usually don't get hauled to court for genuine mistakes, although some lose their job over it.
It also goes towards an important point: If you aren't guilty, never give into pressure and plead, stand your ground, at least if there is reasonable chance of evidence backing you up.
I'm scared to death knowing that someone like this might be walking around free.
True fact: America has five percent of the world's people and twenty - five percent of the world's prisoners.
I have somewhat of the opposite situation happening to me right now.
I ordered a $100 Apple iTunes eGift Card from Walmart a week ago at their 20% off sale, and it never arrived. Currently, PayPal is investigating it (Walmart didn't respond to me), and it's still all up in the air.
So, if this guy is innocent, I have a great deal of sympathy for him -- He might get stuck with a criminal prosecution for a technological glitch, while I might just wind up just getting ripped off for $80.00.
I ordered a $100 Apple iTunes eGift Card from Walmart a week ago at their 20% off sale, and it never arrived. Currently, PayPal is investigating it (Walmart didn't respond to me), and it's still all up in the air.
So, if this guy is innocent, I have a great deal of sympathy for him -- He might get stuck with a criminal prosecution for a technological glitch, while I might just wind up just getting ripped off for $80.00.