Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/10/redditors-legal-free-cheesecake-hack-is-neither-legal-nor-new.html
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Yep. That’s what I was doing, Trying to help educate security people. That’s why I grabbed that armload of jeans and ran like hell out the front door and down the street. Now they’ll be aware that this is something they should watch out for. I’m a public servant, really.
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mildly shocked (shocked) that “Return of edible products is prohibited” isn’t a general rule. (just think of any nosh in a box after the customer has had a chance to do a bit of rudimentary re-sealing) At least place the returns desk logistically outside of the receipt checkers’ station; since this thief is somehow getting around the checkout with the second cake without paying for it.
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Girl, they know.
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You can generally return packaged food, or even fresh food, from stores. Let’s say you buy a watermelon. It looks and feels perfectly fine. You get it home, cut it open, and the inside is rotten or full of bugs or I don’t know what. You should be able to get your money back for that. I have done this before (not with a watermelon, but with other food that seemed ok in the store but turned out to be bad), and have gotten my money back. I have also returned packaged, sealed foods that don’t need to be refrigerated. Like when I accidentally purchased the wrong variety of peanut butter. The only thing I try to keep in mind is if the item is going to have to be discarded if I return it, even if it’s unopened. And that’s true for any refrigerated or frozen items because the store has no way of knowing how it was stored while you had it. I don’t like to contribute to food waste, so things like that, unless it’s actually inedible, I won’t return.
But yeah, what this redditor was describing is clearly illegal. I have no idea what made them think it was legal. It’s theft by deception.
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That’s why they usually mark through the item you returned - and if you used a debit or credit card it is flagged as a return in the computers so you can’t just keep dragging out the same old receipt.
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I ordered frozen sushi tuna from Costco that arrived half thawed, probably because it was delayed a couple days (that’s how UPS works around here). Maybe it was fine, but I wasn’t going to take the chance and the terms stated that it was returnable in-store. So, I did. They were a little confused since it was food, but they took it back.
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It’s fine. They’re eating a whole Costco ice cream cake every day? They’ll be dead in less than a month.
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Taking a receipt into the store and grabbing items off the shelf and returning them? What about this is supposed to be new? Do people think that store security has never heard of this?
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They don’t need those toes anyway. /sarcasm
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I believe I’ve found the problem. No, they do not.
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He should’ve just gotten a job driving a cheesecake truck.
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Wait until they figure out they can do this any store, with any type of merchandise! This is just the start!
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experienced loss prevention professionals in the thread explained that this type of fraud is well-known and actively monitored.
Yeah, it’s like a 5-year-old’s complex thinking.
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If it was an old school store they’d add a photo to the wall of shame: “Do not serve this person.”
turns out a store’s return policy isn’t a binding contract and they don’t even have to accept your business if it turns out you’re too much of a hassle. (we had a few locals banned from Home Depot when I worked there decades ago)
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I’ve worked retail customer service before. Just because something is a loophole, or even explicitly allowed, doesn’t mean that the store will honor the return. They can decide not to do business with that person and turn them away, generally this will happen with people that are known scammers/grifters that like to buy and return things habitually, return stolen goods, etc. Generally when it gets to the point of a customer being denied a return a case has been built against them by management and loss prevention, so if they were to complain to corporate or go to another store they have supporting documentation to show that the customer is acting in bad faith.
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Here I am assuming the person who posted that was just a trolley.
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This isn’t an unusual strategy for shoplifting. When I was selling computers in the 90s, someone tried this kind of thing (buy the product, try to return a packaged and unpaid-for product in the store.) It didn’t help that the receipt we issued to customers had the serial number logged on it and the customer entered the store empty-handed before trying to make the return. We were able to nail the criminal for shoplifting, ID, and credit fraud. We found out later the customer had a microwaved credit card and fake IDs. They thought that we would not try to charge the purchase back to the card and just hand them cash.
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So you’re telling me that the bulk candy bins aren’t there just to curb my low blood sugar while I shop?
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That’s just theft by way of social engineering. Sort of like going to a store and saying “I want to return this” with something you didn’t buy from that store in the hope that you’ll get money for it.
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