TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits

Re: What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits

DevilsPGD (devilspgd@crazyhat.net)
Tue, 23 Nov 2004 16:36:28 -0700

In message <telecom23.562.9@telecom-digest.org>
bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote:

> There are *very* limited ways for a cashier to themselves steal cash
> money 'from the store', and approximately _one_ way to steal from the
> customers, with 'computerized' registers.

> Doing multiple charges against a card is simply *not* one of them.
> The audit trail catches it at the end-of-shift, or over-night, at
> worst. And the records point directly to the perp.

Sure. However, since the customer can request cash back it's another
way to steal. The cashier fakes problems scanning an item, punches in
the amount manually as cash, and gives the customer the item.

The customer isn't over charged, so has no reason to complain.

The cashier's till is now over -- Now she just needs to grab the cash
at some point during the transaction.

> If the card never leaves your hand, they are correct. it could *not*
> happened via multiple swipes. *Unless* _you_ did it, in which case
> it =is= valid multiple charges. :)

With a credit card, you just call the company and reverse the charges
-- Unless Walmart can show multiple signatures you get your money
back.

With debit you can let the rep swipe the card as many times as you
want, as long as you only enter your PIN once. After entering your
PIN, unless the store can produce a receipt which shows you were not
charged, you should assume you were billed.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are generally correct as far as the
> plastic never leaving my hands. At the bank of cash registers, there
> is an LED screen facing the cashier and a side facing the
> customer. The side facing me had a place to slide your card, and a
> keypad to enter your PIN as needed. The cashier slides your item
> across a glass thing which examines it and reads the bar code, the the
> register makes a 'ping' noise and the display screen says what the
> item was and how much it costs. If the register does not make its
> 'ping noise' they slide it over the glass again until the register
> *does* ping. If it never will ping (I have seen that happen, then the
> cashier manually enters the price on the keypad on that side, But they
> work so rapidly I cannot keep up with them. With a debit card if you
> want cash back, you tell the cashier and that amount is added to the
> total you paid, and it is treated like amount due, total tendered
> (sale plus cash back) and change due (amount of the cash back). Bob
> Donaldson told me once that each cashier has to check their money box
> out of the office when they start their shift.

To prevent the fraud I described above, Walmarts around here cannot
give you cash back from a debit card unless the customer requests it
using the keypad.

A fool and his money are soon popular.

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