Fatwallet Forums - Assault by Circuit City Store Director.... UPDATED 12/22


Sign Up \| Login \| Help

Have you tried our Topic Alerts? Let us know what you are looking for, and we'll let you know when we find something.

Category:

customize

user profile

new topic

search

today

Author

Message Text For:
Assault by Circuit City Store Director.... UPDATED 12/22 - going on the radio

[ EMAIL TOPIC ]

[ PRINT TOPIC ] [ TEXT ONLY ]

[ FORUMS : TOPICS : REFRESH ]

This Topic has 28 pages : [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | Next | Previous ]

SweetClover

Senior Member
2K

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 2:41 AM

I just read this, and all I can say is "Wow!" Unbelievable! I hope you can resolve this satisfactorily. Keep us updated on the proceedingsc and outcome.

Free4ever

Thrifty Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 4:28 AM

I was about to get some shut-eye but I ended up staying an hour late just to read this very engrossing thread. Kudos for keeping your cool in a very heated situation. I hope it all works our for the best OP.

rocket

New Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 5:14 AM

I can't beleve that you are giving them so much time to make this right!

Review the tape...Bang! you're fired. Written apology (with detailed plan for prevention of future incidents) from ceo on the way to you via fedex. Allong with a gift card for every game in the store.

jeez, now I gotta wait till thurday night to find out what happened.

HotStuff2

Senior Member
5K

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 6:07 AM

I just read the first page...I'll read the rest later. What impressed me is that you demanded they NOT fire the helpful CSR1. You're right - he was trying to be a good CSR and apparently, was very nice to you. He shouldn't be punished for doing what he thought was the right thing, help a customer pick out games, and ring them up. Even if it WAS a price mistake, he had no knowledge of it.

But I'd still demand some form of payment. If you sued, you'd get cash. I think if you THREATEN to sue, they'd settle, and fast. Seriously. I would.

ephin

Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 6:20 AM

There are 3 versions to every story. Somehow I doubt you were as calm and polite as you make it sound. Without seeing the video, I can't say whether you were "assaulted" or if he merely took the bag from you after you refused to give it to him when he requested. I agree he crossed a line if he put his hands on you, but you didn't exactly go into this with clean hands either. You admittedly were trying to take advantage of an obvious pricing error and even though you were almost out of the store, you got called on the error. Don't stores have a right to try to protect themselves from outright shoplifters or more surrupticious(?spelling) ones who try to duoble dip with price matches and rebates or take advantage of pricing errors? Now, being a fellow FW I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but if I don't get one, I don't let it ruin my whole holiday season. You've got way too much time on your hands to let this little incident occupy so much of your mental energy. This guy's human too and sounds like he was trying to do his job as directed by corporate. Who knows how much heat this guy will have to face for every game that makes it out of the store for $5 after the email went out. Who knows if this guy has a wife and kids to support. Let it go, dude. You got $200 worth of games for $50. Why try to ruin this guys Xmas, or even life? Why "punish" CC. Who do you think pays for all these frivilous lawsuits? Ultimately, it's always the customer and taxpayer.

adogg09111

Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:05 AM

ephin said:

This guy's human too and sounds like he was trying to do his job as directed by corporate. Who knows how much heat this guy will have to face for every game that makes it out of the store for $5 after the email went out. Who knows if this guy has a wife and kids to support. Let it go, dude. You got $200 worth of games for $50. Why try to ruin this guys Xmas, or even life?

If this guy was doing his job he would have made sure that every CSR in the store knew about the price mistake, he would have made sure signs were posted about the mistake, and he would have made sure that every CSR apologized to the customers for the price mistake.

He dropped the ball and he had CSRs in the store that did not know about the mistake. If there is heat to take over games leaving the store, he should take it. And on top of that, the way he handled the situation was to create a scene in front of dozens of customers and then loose his cool and assault a customer. Such a person has no business managing a retail store. Once he was made aware of the situation, he should have let the OP go with his games and then personally informed every CSR that there was a price mistake and any more games going out at $5 would cost them their job.

Honestly, if it had been me and the manager did nothing but rip the bag out of my hand and try to force me to return the merchandise I would have called the police for that. I think that the OP handled the situation quite well considering. There are a lot of frivolous lawsuits and complaints in the world but this is not one of them. As a shopper, when I enter a retail store I don't think that I should have to worry about the manager assaulting me if he finds out that I got some merchandise cheap due to a price mistake. The manager should pay for this, he failed at his job. CC should pay for this. And maybe this can make it into some management training video so no other customer has to go through what this guy did.

sqrlproductions

Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:39 AM

ephin said:

You've got way too much time on your hands to let this little incident occupy so much of your mental energy. This guy's human too and sounds like he was trying to do his job as directed by corporate.

You've either: (a) never had anyone lay hands on you, or (b) had hands laid on you too many times!

As for doing his job according to corporate, if Circuit City does "direct" its employees this way, Circuit City will soon find itself under new owners -- CCemployee-assaulted litigants.

If the store director really felt the shopper was doing something criminal by buying for items at the price they ring up as, the store director should have taken up the shopper's suggestion to call the "proper" authorities e.g. police.

p.s. I wonder if this would happen in "concealed-weapons allowed" states. Is Colorado one?
edit
p.p.s. Here is the definition of "assault" according to Colorado statutes -- courtesy of http://198.187.128.12/colorado/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.0
Assault in the first degree
http://198.187.128.12/colorado/lpext.dll/Infobase4/29898/2b0e1/2b3f9/2b408?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm&q=assault%20battery&x=Advanced&2.0#LPHit1

Message edited by: sqrlproductions on 2004-12-15 07:45:30

shibadad

Senior Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:40 AM

It certainly seems like there was an over reaction on the part of the store employee, and OP has a right to be upset. From my own experience I sometimes push things a little too much when I feel wronged, and later have some regrets. Though the manager should be reprimanded, I hope both parties come to an understanding and no one gets fired.... not a good thing for the holiday spirit.

michal1980

Broke Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:41 AM

ephin said:

There are 3 versions to every story. Somehow I doubt you were as calm and polite as you make it sound. Without seeing the video, I can't say whether you were "assaulted" or if he merely took the bag from you after you refused to give it to him when he requested. I agree he crossed a line if he put his hands on you, but you didn't exactly go into this with clean hands either. You admittedly were trying to take advantage of an obvious pricing error and even though you were almost out of the store, you got called on the error. Don't stores have a right to try to protect themselves from outright shoplifters or more surrupticious(?spelling) ones who try to duoble dip with price matches and rebates or take advantage of pricing errors? Now, being a fellow FW I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but if I don't get one, I don't let it ruin my whole holiday season. You've got way too much time on your hands to let this little incident occupy so much of your mental energy. This guy's human too and sounds like he was trying to do his job as directed by corporate. Who knows how much heat this guy will have to face for every game that makes it out of the store for $5 after the email went out. Who knows if this guy has a wife and kids to support. Let it go, dude. You got $200 worth of games for $50. Why try to ruin this guys Xmas, or even life? Why "punish" CC. Who do you think pays for all these frivilous lawsuits? Ultimately, it's always the customer and taxpayer.

umm, ur not smart

he paid for the item, then the store tried taking it back. if they tried to stop him before he bought it would be within there right to stop him. however the ownership of the bad,recipet, and all games bought WERE HIS. If they took his bag, then the manager was the theif and should be thrown in jail. the price mistake was not the buyers fault, C.C. knew about it, the manager knew about it. and did not take any corrective action. so it would stand that he wanted games to sell

SeriusBlack

Senior Member
1K

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:47 AM

hey ephin, I guess you didn't read that someone was almost ASSAULTED over less than $100. Stolen goods, call it what you will....but that is totally out of line. If I were undefined, I would sue the pants off CC. Had the manager truly stepped over the line and put undefined on the floor, causing him great physical harm, then I guess it would be OK in your mind because undefined "stole" his <$100 worth of video games.
Devil's advocate, that is what you are.

jambuckles

Senior Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 7:52 AM

It really stinks to lose your job at Christmas. I have a relative who worked as a manager at KMart and there was a lot of pressure to keep operating costs down and revenue high. There was a lot of internal competition and always a lot of stress that they would lose their jobs if they didn't produce. Since he was salaried he would work around 80 hours a week in the holidays including Christmas Day. He was very stressed out and I could see how they could get to the breaking point. I am not condoning what this guy did. My brother never snapped, but he used to be afraid of what these deals would do to him (they take this stuff personally - because it can affect their crappy career in middle management aka Office Space).

On a side note: He left to become a high school teacher and loves it. So maybe if this guy gets canned you will be doing him a favor (though fired for assaulting a customer tends to haunt a resume).

Message edited by: jambuckles on 2004-12-15 07:54:14

doublejbass

Senior Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 8:04 AM

It sucks losing your job any time of the year. A good way to avoid that is to not assault customers. The "Christmas Spirit" doesn't involve letting people who frankly have no business working a position of authority in retail during christmas off the hook with no responsibility. I've worked retail during Christmas, and yet I somehow managed to get through without decking a customer looking for a Furby in the face. You @!#$ up, you get fired. That needs to be especially true for a retail employee at Christmas. That's GAME TIME.

psuJC

Senior Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 8:25 AM

Here's a couple thoughts:
1) I'd be surprised if the police take your report days after the assault. Reporting crime to the police as a last resort usually doesn't go over too well with the police, or the DA. If a crime is committed, you report it. If you choose not to pursue it down the road that's your option, but you have to file first. You don't get to do it the other way around. You've waited, so now you won't find anyone willing to prosecute this person so it's useless now, even if you want to press charges.

2) You keep saying you want everyone to keep in mind that CC is not to blame, it's the manager... yet you want Circuit City to handle it. You can't seem to seperate the two. Either CC is to blame and needs to fix it, or the manager is to blame and needs to be fixed by the police.

3) By bargining with CC you've blown any chance at suing them. All they have to do is write up a memo and they would have satisified your request.

You did everything right at the time of the event, and have done everything wrong since. If you really wanted something to come from this you should have called the police and sued the next day. Because you did neither they'll offer you a memo and a coupon and that's what you'll get, and there will be nothing you can do about it.

This stigma around suing is unjustified. Yes, there are lawsuits that are unjustified and many of them never even make it to trial. This is not one of those. Any suit you think you can win with a jury of your peers is a good lawsuit. This is the US. You have no options going up against corporations other than sit back and take it.. which is what will happen here.

galawdawg

Senior Member
1K

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 8:26 AM

uneasyrider said:

galawdawg said:

If you did not report the incident to law enforcement at the time of the event, many prosecutors will decline to prosecute such an incident as described. In my experience, juries in criminal cases often take the view, in cases such as this, that if the event was not important enough at the time to call the police then it should not be handled as a criminal matter.

I also recommend you follow the advice given to you by an attorney and not discuss this matter with anyone other than your attorney at this point, including CC and folks here at FW.

Don't know what experience you have but, many cases are filed way after the fact and has little effect on the outcome....as long as it's done within the statute of limitation. He did report it right away but has not filed charges. At least it's on file.
It's not too late...juries do understand that sometimes the impact of such events comes later, besides, it would more than likely be in civil court.

I have prosecuted thousands of cases in my career, a handful of them "delayed report" cases with warrants obtained by private citizens. My conviction rate on cases that are actually tried to a jury is about 98%. Know how many of those delayed report private warrant cases have resulted in a conviction after trial? Zero. None. Nada.

My colleagues have had the same experience. It is also unethical for a prosecutor to indict a case for the purpose of seeking an advantage for a litigant in a civil matter. If I find out that an incident is not reported to the police at the time of the event and that a civil case is pending/imminent, I generally decline to prosecute.

Message edited by: galawdawg on 2004-12-15 08:32:31

drew2money

Addicted Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 8:51 AM

You will be able to sue just over the mental anguish this caused you, public embarressment on top of that, then simple assault!! You can sue CC as managers are part of the corporate body.

FYI, just him touching you is assault. This manager at least needs a sabtical, if not firing, he is way to over stressed to cause a scene over a few video games.

Take them to the cleaners then share it with your fatwalleteers!!!

drew2money

Addicted Member

Date Posted: Dec/15/2004 8:54 AM

galawdawg said:

uneasyrider said:

galawdawg said:

If you did not report the incident to law enforcement at the time of the event, many prosecutors will decline to prosecute such an incident as described. In my experience, juries in criminal cases often take the view, in cases such as this, that if the event was not important enough at the time to call the police then it should not be handled as a criminal matter.

I also recommend you follow the advice given to you by an attorney and not discuss this matter with anyone other than your attorney at this point, including CC and folks here at FW.

Don't know what experience you have but, many cases are filed way after the fact and has little effect on the outcome....as long as it's done within the statute of limitation. He did report it right away but has not filed charges. At least it's on file.
It's not too late...juries do understand that sometimes the impact of such events comes later, besides, it would more than likely be in civil court.

I have prosecuted thousands of cases in my career, a handful of them "delayed report" cases with warrants obtained by private citizens. My conviction rate on cases that are actually tried to a jury is about 98%. Know how many of those delayed report private warrant cases have resulted in a conviction after trial? Z