An unpleasant incident at Vivo City Toy'R US

[MSth08]

It was my first time and last time to go to Vivo City Toy’R US departmental store on 10 Jun 2007 afternoon with my group of friends; it supposed to an enjoyable trip but it turned unpleasant one.

Below is the whole incident :

I was stopped by one of the Toy’R US staff named Asraf when my friends and I were leaving the store. He requested to me to see the stuff that I was carried in the ‘OG’ plastic bag.

Out of courtesy, I opened out to let Asraf view it, it was a DC Superheroes action figure named Steel sealed in the box and he requested me for the purchased receipt.

I told him politely that the DC Superheroes action figure named Steel was bought my friend Zhiyong on my behalf a month ago (May 2007) at United Square Departmental Store and I don’t have the receipt with me.

The reply from Asraf was “if no receipt, we will call the Police.”

It was fine with me that Toy’R US members have a right to suspect and call the Police for assistance. So I replied to Asraf without hesitation that it was fine for me to call the Police for investigation and I followed him to the office.

When we were walking to the office, I asked Nelson to accompany me into the office because he collected the DC Superheroes action figure on my behalf from Zhiyong and I just collected the action figure from Nelson on 10 Jun 2007 at China Square Central.

While waiting for the Police to arrive, My friend Nelson called Zhiyong, it was coincidence that Zhiyong still kept the purchased receipt which he had made a month ago at United Square Toy’R US departmental store and he made a trip to Vivo City Toy’R US departmental store from his home Hougang to prove that the action figure was bought elsewhere.

We also called Leslie for advice, he offered to come to Vivo City Toy’R US to find out the detail of the whole matter.

The Toy’R US (PI) David Chan arrived shortly, followed by the Police. We informed them that my friend Zhiyong had the purchased receipt and he was on the way to Vivo City Toy’R US. Zhiyong arrived, showed the purchased receipt to the Police Officer while the Toy’R US staffs were doing their investigation.

One of the Police Officer was asking us about the action figure, we told him that we were toy collectors, met up on every Sunday at China Square Central flea market. It was a place where toy collectors met up, made toy transaction and discuss about our passion of toys.

It was the moment when the Toy’R US staff Asraf walked pass us while we were havng the conversation with the Police Officer, my friend Leslie was making a statement of the toy collecting, he laughed.

Then the Toy’R US staff Asraf turned around, raised his voice at my friend Leslie, in front of us and the Police Officer by saying: “You’re laughing at me, right?” It was very absurb of the staff Asraf to give such a statement!

After the Toy’R US members finished their investigation, David Chan came out with Asraf and other staff. He said: “I will not apologize, but for the good will, we apologize.”

Does it imply that it is my fault to bring in the sealed toy into Toy’R US from elsewhere ?

Leslie informed David Chan of the absurd statement which Asraf had made earlier, David Chan asked Asraf to apologize. But Asraf swung his two hands up when saying “Sorry” to Leslie. There was no sincerity of apologize from Asraf at all!

David Chan told Asraf that it wasn’t correct to do so, Asraf offered a handshake for his mistake, we accepted the handshake. The action figure was returned to me. But we won’t forget the whole incident.


A complaint letter is preparing to send to Toy'R US HQ in Singapore soon regarding the staff attitude and behaviour.

========================================

One impt lesson learnt, do keep the receipt for at least 2 or 4mths. u won't know when u need it badly when accused of stealing.

Thanks to zhiyong for the purchased receipt! I owe u one!

Also thanks to Nelson and Leslie. u guys are there for me... :)

[Lord Nike]

Take solace in the fact that he's the one working in a dead end minimum wage job..

I shall seek out this "Asraf" in the future and become the worst customer of the day.. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[[soundwave]]

After this whole incident this afternoon, I seriously was extremely disappointed at the attitude that has given us. To also think that TRU Vivo branch was their flagship store made matters worst.

The entire stuff crew including the PI needs some serious attitude adjustments. Rotten attitudes like that just tempts me to go back just to mock at them. Next time I see Asraf on duty, I will go up and declare my toys to him. :laugh:

EDIT: To add on, the worst thing was that Asraf didn't see Dennis putting anything into the bag and simply upfront accused aggressively. Even when everything was revealed, he just couldn't swallow his mistake.

[jdelpiero]

oh my gosh.. the drama.. the action..
why am i missing all the good stuff..?

[wyvern]

Sorry to hear that this happens to you MSth08. I was suprise that this actually happen, my goodness.:(

I think its necessary to file an official complaints the the PR for TRU Singapore, hopefully this will bring some attention to them. But on the otherhand, would they(TRU) simply ignore or refuse to acknowledge this incident...? :(

I am thinking of this, perhaps you could also try dropping a note to the ST forum, brings about the awareness of the attitude and also retaining of the receipt for future verifications..:)

Really disgusted with the security behaviour, simply not tolerable...:shooting:

[bingren]

Sorry to hear about your incident Msth08. The attitudes of the staff at TRU really puts me off. The newspapers should hear of such service in Singapore.

[mohn]

post it on stomp! ?

[Godmaster]

Well this whole thing is juz nth but crap. :angry:

I was thinking if we buy stuff from CSC flea market stalls on sundays then go TRU Vivo, where in the world we can produce receipts to prove we bought them at the flea market. In the end accused of stealing and all the trouble that comes with it. On top of it still gotta tahan that sort of attitude from the TRU staff.

Certainly spoil the whole noon of yest for the bunch of us there. The complaint letter is coming Mr Asraf and gang.

Whatcha gonna do, when the complaint letter runs wild on you!

[KiraDude]

A letter to TRU would do them good !

Any grounds for suspicion would render a check w the customer. however, the TRU staff shd offer his sincere apologises when e truth is out - he has made all those involved spend time - making trip dwn etc/

Wat GM pointed pointed out is rite - if we r 2 purchase e item fm e flea mkt stall, we will nt even ve receipt/ or even contact no. 2 e stall owner.

in this instances, hw shd we deal w e situation ? let e police confiscate e item ? or do we simply bring e police bk 2 CSC n clear our names ?

Leslie, any comments/ advise on this ? :thinking:

[Koo]

How I view is Asraf is looking for a "victim" which turns out to be MSth08.( HHs like Leslie,Zhiyong, helps out one and other). Lesile also sould sent a compliant letter too as Asraf was force to apologised not sincere at all.

I have a few "accidents" like this, it turn out that their ego needs to be kicked from time to time. They are the scum of the earth, just get whatever you want from other sales personnel/outlet. :thumbsup:

(ex. vivocity addias have a malay sales person scolded me when I made a simple comment that a pair of shoes which my cousin got at a cheaper price. I said this back this back to him, if you cannot take a comment dun work as a sales person.:evil: )

[thevers]

Hi,

Sorry to OT a little. May I know where is this CSC Flea market thing? First day in the forum, may miss out a little. Hehe hope to hear some replies soon! Many thanks!

Best Regards,
Vers

[y1ch]

Afterall, what evidence does Asraf have to prove MSth08 stole the toy?

All because of him he wasted everyone's time and didnt even bother to apologise.

Now if this spreads fast enough, I think no one will be willing to shop at TRU because they bring inconvenience to people's shopping. And it's not ONLY TRU sells toys~ L-)

Now i will keep my receipts! :D

[Stunner24]

Afterall, what evidence does Asraf have to prove MSth08 stole the toy?

All because of him he wasted everyone's time and didnt even bother to apologise.

Now if this spreads fast enough, I think no one will be willing to shop at TRU because they bring inconvenience to people's shopping. And it's not ONLY TRU sells toys~ L-)

Now i will keep my receipts! :D

But it all depends on what type of paper and ink used for the receipts. I know ATM ones use thermal type. So the printing on the receipts won't last long :(

[Koo]

But it all depends on what type of paper and ink used for the receipts. I know ATM ones use thermal type. So the printing on the receipts won't last long :(

Yes, those thermal printed receipt will fade rather fast in a few days. It is quite useless to keep those type of receipts. Worst, if a person is a smoker with a lighter the thermal printed receipt may gone case after a puff.:|

[Godmaster]

Afterall, what evidence does Asraf have to prove MSth08 stole the toy?

MSth08 didn't do such a thing in the 1st place. So there's NO EVIDENCE of any sort that this Asraf can provide. He just came up and did what MSth08 described in the 1st post of this thread.

[Leslie]

OK guys, calm a bit ah.

The thing about shoplifting ("theft in dwelling") is it is a seizable offence - ie the store can detain those it suspects of doing the deed, until the police come by. I don't think the problem here is with the right to protect their property, so much as it is with the attitude of the staff, and the somewhat overzealous policy of suspecting people on less than solid grounds.

As for "evidence" ... well, what happens is when they are brought into the picture, the police are empowered to take statements from those concerned. They will then do their own investigation and recommend whether the AGC should charge, or drop the matter. If there is no strong case (ie the store's word against the customer's, no actual eyewitness, the presence of a receipt, other supporting statements etc), it is less likely the matter will escalate to a charge. However, nobody will know the outcome on the incident on the spot lah. In this case at least TRU decided not to waste everyone's time further once the receipt was produced, so no statements were recorded.

Anyway the real fellas to make a complaint against TRU are MS08th, Zhiyong and mebbe Nelson. I was mostly just there as a facilitator and to try to make sure my frens didn't kena bullied, so I don't think I'll make any complaint on my own behalf.

I would like to caution all who are reading this not to embellish the story, especially if you don't have first-hand knowledge of the incident ... just to avoid any unnecessary trouble lah of course. Do be careful when entering stores and try to avoid bringing in items that may cause confusion wor.

I was pleasantly surprised that the 2 officers who attended to the case were polite, so at least we didn't have to kena attitude from them too :)

[des_yeo03]

so much as it is with the attitude of the staff, and the somewhat overzealous policy of suspecting people on less than solid grounds.

Thats the whole point of this issue, attitude....This Asraf ***hole (dun mind me, but you shld have seen his attid at that point of time) didn't bother to talk politely and threaten to call the police once he gets to know we do not have a receipt for the item, shows how simple minded some ppl can be....:whistling

Man i m boiling up just thinking of his face expression, trying to intimidate and all...Sheesh....Well, real gentleman of Dennis to still shake his hand in the end, i wouldn't have done that, not to that kind of person....

And lastly to add, Toys R' Us should really come up with better security and system in preventing the same thing from happening again instead of accusing customers as thieves, cameras not working and all? Whats all this? Laughing stock man.....Oh and do try to educate your staff more....Whats customer service to them nowadays i wonder.....:thinking:

[wyvern]

Btw, I just come to think of this.... If indeed there is shoplifting in TRU, shouldn't the cameras caught the deeds...? One of the best proofs comes from the closed-circuit TV right...? :)

[des_yeo03]

Btw, I just come to think of this.... If indeed there is shoplifting in TRU, shouldn't the cameras caught the deeds...? One of the best proofs comes from the closed-circuit TV right...? :)

Good question, i was questioning the staff there, best is to view the cctv, they cannot give a proper explaination on why thats not feasible....:angry:
I think Dennis will have a better explaination for that since i din really get to hear what excuses they come up with....

[MSth08]

Regarding the issue of CCTV, I remembered one of the staff mentioned that the CCTV was pointing at the Transformers section...:beatup:

As for the entrance and exit, I vaguely remembered they mentioned it isn't pointing at that direction. :beatup: :beatup:

From this unplesant incident, the ToyR' US supervisors at Vivo City really don't know how to handle such an incident.

Nelson and I need to ask them for the updates instead of they provided us with the updates while we were waiting in the office for their investigation team and the Police to arrive.

Worst of all, the attitude and behaviour of the staff Asraf is definitely gave a bad image to Toy’R US.

[Lord Nike]

Toys"r"Us song: I don't wanna grow up...

Applies to employees too :evil: :evil: :evil:

[y1ch]

MSth08 didn't do such a thing in the 1st place. So there's NO EVIDENCE of any sort that this Asraf can provide. He just came up and did what MSth08 described in the 1st post of this thread.

Yes NO EVIDENCE. when there is no evidence, then they dun have the rights. and there was no need to trouble MSth08. i just think they called the police is just a way of scaring people.

[MSth08]

i just think they called the police is just a way of scaring people.

huh...? do u know what you are implying?

does it mean any tom, dick or harry can just call the police to scare people?

[Lord_Angelus]

They mostly act that they know alot.

Vivocity TRS It is very easy to steal the toys out. The place is so big and so many ****** people at there. -_-

Edit: No vulgarities please.

[Koo]

Toys"r"Us song: I don't wanna grow up...

Applies to employees too :evil: :evil: :evil:

Add on: Applies to the employers and customers too. It is quite true.:laugh:

[miloape]

wah cause so much trouble i wun buy from toyrus in future liao so bad service one. say a bad thing is that *** try to be smart but they dun have the brains lah i am not trying to be racist here but its the fact. i seen alot of shoplifters get caught b4 most of them the police officers are all very good and will understand the case from start and wun jump to conclusions one. i think from start they already know that he is innocent

[Godmaster]

Don't generalise people because of the black sheep mentioned here miloape, although it's really some no-brainers who caused this incident to happen.

[miloape]

i been thinking wat i said was too wide. sorry dude ... anyway wat i mean was that they always try VERY HARD to pin point our wrongs but the problem is that we are quite flawless. He must have envy us why we have the money to buy toys and he doesnt :D

[Decade]

http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Online%2BStory/STIStory_129262.html

too bad its not up in the papers itself. dont mind me replicating it here

Accused of stealing action figure at Toys 'R' Us
I WANT to relate an extremely unpleasant experience at the Toys 'R' Us outlet at Vivocity.
On June 10, I entered the store together with four of my friends. In my bag was a DC Superheroes 'Steel' action figure.

At about 3.50pm, on my way out of the store, I was confronted by a shop employee.

He asked that I open my bag for inspection. I did so, whereupon he discovered the action figure and demanded that I produce a receipt for it.

I politely explained to him that the action figure had been bought by my friend (Zhiyong) on my behalf sometime in May, and that it had been passed to me that very day. As a result, I did not have the receipt.

He told me aggressively that if I could not produce the receipt immediately, the police would be called in. I was surprised and annoyed that he was accusing me of stealing the action figure, but was not afraid of being investigated as I had nothing to hide.

I was escorted to the back office. I requested that my friend Nelson accompany me as he was the one who had collected the action figure from Zhiyong and passed it to me. An employee was posted to guard the door. Later, Vivocity security officers were also called in.

While inside the office, Nelson and I requested that the staff do a barcode scan on the action figure to ascertain whether it belonged to the Vivocity outlet. They told us there was no such tagging system in place, and that they were waiting for the 'PI' and the police.

By this time, more than an hour had passed. My three other friends were still waiting outside for the matter to be resolved. While waiting for the police to arrive, I contacted Zhiyong, who agreed to rush down immediately with the receipt. Around this time, Nelson and I were joined by another friend, Leslie, who attempted to reason with the staff.

Shortly after Leslie arrived, we were joined by a man who introduced himself as the shop's 'consultant'. His manner was brusque and he dismissed my explanation.

The police arrived and carried out investigations and I gave my explanation.

The 'consultant' later told us that the shop would not be pursuing the matter further. He also said that he would not apologise for my detention as they were within their right to do so, but that he would apologise 'out of goodwill' for the 'inconvenience' caused.

My friends and I have no issue with the shop trying to protect its property or exercise its rights. We do, however, strongly feel that we were treated shamefully and disrespectfully in the exercise of its rights. This is not the correct attitude for a service-oriented organisation.

In light of this incident, I suggest that Toys 'R' Us consider and implement certain measures:

>>A counter for customers to deposit items that are likely to cause confusion;

>>An employee posted at the entrance to do a bag check on customers before they enter the store premises;

>>A policy that requires an eyewitness account of wrongdoing or some other strong evidence before any accusation is made;

>>A large and noticeable signboard informing that other toys should not be brought into the store unless accompanied by proof of purchase;

>>Better screening and customer training for all relevant employees; and proper training for all store supervisors on how to handle an incident such as this.

[Decade]

http://spug.sg/forums/showthread.php?t=87993


not bad got noticed by another forum...

[des_yeo03]

Well, can't expect ST Forum to post every little details out, but they miss out on the whole point of this complain....The attitude of Asraf....:shooting:

[Koo]

It seems sammyboy also have "borrowed" the topic too. A bit lost in their loads of topic so hard to find the actial topic posted there.:( (They mostly pick up topics reflecting a very dark side of SG)

[MSth08]

Well, can't expect ST Forum to post every little details out, but they miss out on the whole point of this complain....The attitude of Asraf....:shooting:

yalor...realli :bang:

by the way, i have asked a friend of mine who is working in the retail shop regarding the barcode scanning system. below is his reply :
With regards to bar code scanning it is currently impossible for us to determine that the product is ours by bar code alone.

The standard in retail loss prevention is usually based on eye witness testimony not presumption of guilt. When we are not sure we DO not accuse the customer.

i've sent in a complaint letter to TRU by post and fax yesterday, requested them to reply me within a week.

[miloape]

they used to had collection point for bags and shopping bags at tampines toyrus and they had a security personal there to remind ppl to deposit in their bags before entering. but after they renovate i see that they had ambolish the system and everyone and anyone could walk in n out without depositing their bags.

for the scanning system as i work in retail too understand that most products would have diff barcodes take TF products for example have all diff barcodes for diff products but wat i understand is that most bigger shoppings like robinson metro isetan uses their own type in code for certain products with same category and price example all the TF classics $26.90 as 233567 and all TF movie toys as 233599. so when you asked the personal to scan to check their quantity they wun have any idea how many "bubblebee" or "optimus" they have. their own type in code is for them to have easier stock take and easier calculation of how many pieces they sold that month.

i think that they will not have any reply for this matter as their internal consultant already told u that he would not apologise for your detention as they have their rights to do so. i would strongly recommend that you write to consumer society i dunno what they call it but its for complaining of unhappy of companies and their products and services they will help you to take "action"

[MSth08]

The TRU manager has called me this morning to apologise regarding the unpleasant encounter and incoveniences caused.

He has mentioned that it is their fault that their staff didn't handle the situation in an appropiate manner.

They have already counseled the staff involved and will continue to train their staff to operate more proficiently to minimize any discomfort to the customers.

I requested a letter of apology from him, it is despatched and delivered to my house in the late noon. A gift voucher and a freebies of TRU key chains are attached with the letter of apology inside the envelope.

I appreciated the fast response from the TRU manager, expected the letter of apology to be sent by post instead of despatched.

Anyway, I won't step into TRU anymore.

[KiraDude]

I requested a letter of apology from him, it is despatched and delivered to my house in the late noon. A gift voucher and a freebies of TRU key chains are attached with the letter of apology inside the envelope.

Anyway, I won't step into TRU anymore.


bro,

my 2 cents - dun waste e voucher. :D

[[soundwave]]

Please sell the voucher for cash. That's a more feasible way.

[MSth08]

the gift voucher will be a gift for someone. :)

the hero who proved my innocence with the purhased receipt. ;)

[darkmaul]

the gift voucher will be a gift for someone. :)

the hero who proved my innocence with the purhased receipt. ;)

ur that friend is truely a PAL.... gd that u have such a fren beside you... :supz: =D> :salute: