June 18, 2016 - lala1234
Got fired for $5. Need advice.
A few weeks prior to me getting fired, a guest had left their $5 gift card reward by my register so I just kept it.
So one random day I get called into the HR office with no awareness of what’s going on & they just bombard me with all these questions about $5 gift cards. They then tell me that they know that I “stole” from a guest and that I was wrong for that. Okay, I figured. I didn’t know that I would be getting in trouble for that though, shouldn’t I have at least gotten a warning first? They then showed me footage of me making mistakes while cashiering, and they said I caused shortage to the store in the amount of $161.00. They were honest mistakes though! I’m sure if they monitored everyone’s transactions people have made mistakes too! They then made me sign a paper admitting to what happened and they said I wouldn’t get in trouble. They then fired me and a week later I get a call saying I’m being fined a $500 charge for the FIVE DOLLAR GIFT CARD and being made to pay for the shortages which were honest mistakes. What should I do? Am I wrong ? Or can I fight this ? Please help !!! I didn’t even get a warning !


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First of all you should have never signed anything admitting to anything. If it was a standard write up when you signed all signing it means is that you acknowledged you have been made aware of the incident. It is not an admittance to guilt. What it sounds like to me is they had you sign the form when they catch shop-lifters. It normally comes with a fine and bans you from the premises. Only clueless people sign that form. Typically companies will say sign it or we are going to call the police. A smart person would insist they call the police and ask for a lawyer. Clueless people have been known to sign these forms when committing no crime. Once you sign it you're basically screwed.
The only shot you have is to get a lawyer and claim you signed it under false pretenses. You could say it was your understanding the meeting was about performance issue and thought it was a write up. Most people will never get a lawyer because in the long run it's more expensive and companies count on that. I myself would have never signed anything and got a lawyer.
What you did was in fact stealing, but seeing how Target failed to educate you on such a matter you could easily claim inadequate training lead to this misunderstanding. It is tricky when it comes to their 5 dollar gift cards. It seem to me they were more worried about the shortage of $161.00 and seeing how they caught you taking the 5 dollar gift card it is safe to assume you took the $161.00.
You got very lucky. Someone in our store got charged with embezzlement after she changed the price for a guest on a miss marked bike. The $199 Schwin Bike had a sign for $99. Cashier changed it, but since the bike left with the guest so did her proof that the sign was wrong.
What? Total WTF? Wow, at my target leaders are very different, they don't care at all if we lose $50 dollars on a sale at all. People all the time, but that but but but that was only 2.99 out there why does it say 4.99 now. Because you're (the guest) are obviously cheating the price to get it cheaper instead of paying the full price or have misinterpreted the price as it could of been on the wrong shelf as usual people put stuff in the wrong place every single second of the day. A person says well that vaccum said only 100 on there not 400. GSTL comes in, ok, well we can't change it that huge, we have proof here it is 400, people usually find things on the wrong price tag underneath it and were sorry about that, but we can do half at $200 for you at the least. My target store loses over $50 to $100 dollars on every single transaction as people use coupons, the cartwheel phone app, the red card, and the new deals every week get an extra 10 dollars off your purchase of 100. Pretty much get there stuff free. So what is your target doing? They are being more realistic for sure but why not like my store where they don't care about how much money is a loss?
This happened to my sister's boyfriend exactly with the $5 gift card, except no shortage mistakes on the register. He was treated like it was an FBI sting for a large crime, CRAZY. He did sign a paper but wrote that he wasn't told by target he couldnt take a coupon if a customer leaves it there, and they were pissed he didn't admit in writing to stealing (which he wasn't trying to do but they were coercing him to say it was theft). If anyone gets that paper tell them you want a lawyer first and see how fast they step off, for $5 the company is nuts. I tried to warn him about working there.
PS
Oh and about the shortages. Explain you were not properly trained. If they have proof of your errors then the proof they were mistskes will be there too. in the future If you don't understand something always call a supervisor to the register, if they complain about having to help you so much then tell them to tell corporate to give cashiers more than 2 hours of bare bones training before letting them deal with the stores money.
if someone leaves it there, call the supervisor on duty and let them know someone left a giftcard behind and let them to get it. Don't even touch it or they may accuse you.
crazy. Ive taken a 50 dollar gift card and havent gotten in trouble. Ive actually stolen a lot of stuff from my target. I know ap knows too lol. I am glad nothing has happened as of yet. but my target is the same as daves up there, they say be bold and change the price (within a reasonable amount.) anyways. fuck target. when I get another job I want to run inside my old store and just flip over all the tables in girls, because Im hardlines and somehow I always end up folding tables in girls. bs
So I had a similar incident except that I pocketed the gift card and meant to turn it in to Guest Services and simply forgot. I had no intention on keeping it since I view it the same as merchandise left behind. You wouldn't keep a customer's bags, so why would you assume you could keep the card? At the time, I had another "legally acquired" gift card that one of my roommates had given me to use toward household items and mistakenly used the one I forgot to turn in.
Anyway, what I don't understand is WHY they came to me after 2-3 weeks AFTER the incident. If you're being watched, then WHY didn't they say something the same day?
When I was called in, I was just talked to and I explained the situation. No AP personnel, just the HR manager. What might have saved me is the fact that I have high sales/speed numbers and thankfully, a knack for selling the stupid RedCards.
I do feel for you because of the shady way management handles these situations. It was wrong to keep it though.