Use A Gift Card at Best Buy = Get Arrested

something similar happened to me at home depot, I'm a property manager, and had a bunch of stoves from different places fail at the same time, so I ordered online and had stoves sent to multiple places at once. This for some reason caused home depot to place a fraud alert on my commercial credit account.

a week later I was trying to make a purchase for a water heater at home depot in person. The charge wouldn't go through, the police showed up, and home depot's main office kept insisting I had to verify stuff like my tax id. I was 50 miles away from my office so I couldn't give them my tax id. they then insisted they had to call my office # they had on file, I told them that # was forwarded to my cell phone and they'd just be speaking with me again.

The police were ready to take me away, but I convinced them this was a big mistake by home depot's incompetency. Basically i had commercial cards with many other retailers on me, and my company is named after myself. After 2 hours a supervisor at home depot's main office finally removed the fraud alert after getting me to verify some more information.
 
article said:
So, Best Buy then called American Express using the number on the back of the card and spoke with one representative in India, who said the account number didn't match.
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maademperor said:
How did the girl even know the CS was indian though?
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good catch! she doesn't mention she spoke to the rep, only that the rep was in India. How did she know that? Obviously something is fishy here...

you know this person is leaving out a LOT of details, since it's her side of the story.
Of course she won't say "I was yelling and cursing at the cops, telling them to fuck off"

the cops did what they were supposed to.
 
on top of that....

article said:
On top of that, upon my exiting the police station finally after being released, ANOTHER young guy around my age was brought in from the very SAME Best Buy for THE EXACT SAME REASON - trying to make a purchase with a gift card, the only difference being that his gift cards were Master Cards.
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how does she know this other person was being held for the same reason, except they were MasterCards?
Is she psychic or something?
Because you know the police wouldn't tell her, especially while they investigate.

or maybe she had a quick convo with the guy while he was in cuffs being escorted in?
 
Arcygenical said:
I don't agree with frivolous lawsuits - but she needs to sue someone for this.
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It's not frivolous when the point is to send a message to a retarded retailer and their goon buddies. You don't feel a lady up over gift cards when you don't know her.

And the B&M guys wonder why this whole Internet thing is taking off.
 
It is 100% on the idiotic Best Buy employee. If you call the AMEX *credit card* line, of course they'll tell you the gift card # is not valid. Poor training and just general comprehension FAIL.

That, and calling the cops, really? Just refuse the transaction and save yourself the trouble that all this publicity causes.
 
TwistedAegis said:
It is 100% on the idiotic Best Buy employee. If you call the AMEX *credit card* line, of course they'll tell you the gift card # is not valid. Poor training and just general comprehension FAIL.

That, and calling the cops, really? Just refuse the transaction and save yourself the trouble that all this publicity causes.
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You're looking at the article from the "victim's" point of view. There's a huge chance that she's embellishing and exaggerating her story - that there might be more to it than she admits. For all we know, she might have raised hell and made a scene. Of course she's not going to mention it in her tirade. It'll cause her to lose sympathy points amongst her readers.

Apparently it's working. A lot of you are believing her without even reading the other side of the story. And the funny part is a lot of you cry "injustice!" when you're the one doing injustice by refusing to see both side of the story, and immediately calling Best Buy and the police department names.

See the irony here, fellas?
 
DellAxim said:
Ok, I can understand why police frisk people for their own protection. How the hell does that protect the person being frisked?

As for this situation, knowing totally that I had done nothing wrong, I would start screaming "KIDNAP! KIDNAP! RAPE! FIRE! HE HAS A GUN!" at the top of my lungs.
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Hi All

The person in custody could be suicidal.
 
beowulf7 said:
Time for a lawsuit.
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there's already too god damn many sue-happy people in this country.
we don't need any more. They all need to die and rot.


and sue for what, exactly? incompetence that did her no true injustice?

Of course it sounds like there was injustice, when the story is one-sided. :rolleyes:
of course she won't admit to being beligerent. Of course she won't mention how she was causing "a scene."

But she WILL (indirectly) be admitting she's psychic by knowing this other kid was being hauled in for the same thing with Master Card gift cards as she was leaving the building :rolleyes:
 
PurduEE said:
So if you were dragged out of your local BestBuy in handcuffs, having done nothing wrong, you'd just be cool with it?

How about if you were there with a friend?

How about if your boss or a co-worker happened to be in the store?

There is a value to a person's reputation in the community. If you can't appreciate that, it's likely that you're too young to have one. As far as the bestowing of wealth, it doesn't appear at this point that anyone has even apologized to this woman. I think she deserves at least that.
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Yes, I would be cool with it actually, to the point where I wouldn't make a fuss about it assuming I were not mistreated or unduly detained past a reasonable amount of time.

A real friend would understand once explained. A superficial friend isn't worth my time and I wouldn't be there with them anyway. Aside from the obvious jokes, etc that would arise from the situation, my friends know the type of person I am and know that I wouldn't be doing anything wrong to be arrested, so in the event this happened they would know better and not believe the "party line news story" without knowing all the information at hand. Superficial friends, the kind that wouldn't be there for you in a time of crisis or wouldn't tell you if something isn't good for you, would just believe the party line without any thought past that

A boss would also understand, see above. :) As long as I was not there on company time and I did no wrong, they shouldn't care about the situation. I wouldn't and I certainly wouldn't let it affect my work duties. Any such issues that arose at work at that point, from the incident, WOULD be cause for grievance. Same with co-workers.

There is a lot of value to reputation, however if someone's reputation can't survive a flashy headline when in fact they did no wrong, their reputation was all fluff to begin with. I very much appreciate my reputation, and I would ignore anyone I knew whom believe so easily that I did something wrong without hearing all the information.

The kind of reputation a person would need to have in your last paragraph that would get smeared so easily, is the superficial kind that wouldn't hold anyway for long. :)

So...she should get an apology "just cause"? Why does she deserve it even? If, just assume for a moment, if everyone involved followed their instructions to the letter. No wrong actions were taken by BB, AMEX or the police. Whom exactly is at fault? None of them are going to offer an public apology and none should be given. That is the "Suck it up" portion of my original post!

If any of them apologize, they could be held at fault I believe? And really, if I read about one issuing an apology, I would say they ARE at fault and she should then sue them. A person does not and should not receive an apology unless they were wronged. If they were wronged, it can be proven and a suit should be brought against them. If not, they don't have to say a word.

I'm very hard on matters like this, I'm not a fanatic or unreasonable this is just my opinion of course and believe it or not, my opinion is actually changeable as I prefer to discuss matters and can sway my thinking when properly reasoned with.

It doesn't happen often. :)

This is the kind of situation that has lead to silly suits over the years, companies having to cover their rears even with common sense on their side and of course one of many reasons why laws have changed to support such suits happening, instead of changing to prevent or diminish suits!
 
Troz said:
Bullshit. You can feel a weapon through a shirt just fine, no need to cup a chick's breast because of a supposedly bogus gift card.
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To be fair, she said they frisked her "under her shirt", and not "touched my breasts" or whatever.

What likely happened was that the female officer simply briefly reached under her shirt, felt her stomach to see if anything was present, and then removed her hands. It's a fairly common procedure, and they do it to anyone that's under arrest usually...
 
Azhar said:
You're looking at the article from the "victim's" point of view. There's a huge chance that she's embellishing and exaggerating her story - that there might be more to it than she admits. For all we know, she might have raised hell and made a scene. Of course she's not going to mention it in her tirade. It'll cause her to lose sympathy points amongst her readers.

Apparently it's working. A lot of you are believing her without even reading the other side of the story. And the funny part is a lot of you cry "injustice!" when you're the one doing injustice by refusing to see both side of the story, and immediately calling Best Buy and the police department names.

See the irony here, fellas?
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Fully agree.

I like the old line: There's three sides to every story: your side, their side and the truth.
 
best_buy-customer-service.jpg


As they edged ever closer she realized..her shirt was missing a button.!
 
best_buy-customer-service.jpg


As they edged ever closer she realized..her shirt was missing a button.!
 
To all those saying she was "detained", and not "arrested", I say bullshit. She was taken by the police in handcuffs to jail. That's my definition of "arrested". Whether it's the actual legal definition used in court or not is irrelivant. If that happened to any of you, you'd say you were "arrested" too.

And those that say they'd be "cool with it" are so full of shit I don't even know where to start.

And again, those trying to place blame on one or the other - all three parties failed miserably in this situation.
1. Amex is stupid.
2. Best Buy employees are stupid and they should have no authority to call the cops
3. These cops should have NEVER taken this woman away in handcuffs.
 
DellAxim said:
To all those saying she was "detained", and not "arrested", I say bullshit. She was taken by the police in handcuffs to jail. That's my definition of "arrested". Whether it's the actual legal definition used in court or not is irrelivant. If that happened to any of you, you'd say you were "arrested" too.

And those that say they'd be "cool with it" are so full of shit I don't even know where to start.

And again, those trying to place blame on one or the other - all three parties failed miserably in this situation.
1. Amex is stupid.
2. Best Buy employees are stupid and they should have no authority to call the cops
3. These cops should have NEVER taken this woman away in handcuffs.
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4. some [H] readers are stupid for making judgment without getting the whole story.
 
Regardless of the details, the summary is enough to say enough is enough.

Try to use valid gift-card
Issuing company too stupid to understand the question of it's valid
Employee underpaid and not trained properly
Police understaffed and can't spend the time to determine if there's even been a crime
Innocent person gets in trouble

Employee needs training
Issuing company needs to rethink it's business model
Person should get personal apology's from the business and the credit card company
Cop's should make sure there's a crime before detaining anyone for any reason.

And WE should stop allowing this shit to happen here, DON'T shop at the business until they can train the people that work there properly, DON'T buy the gift-cards from a company that can't even figure out if it's valid. Get more police out there, it's a hard job, they need the help, and they, like us, need to remember people are people.

Think you can't do anything, wrong, do something before we loose our freedoms, one by one, little by little.

What if it was your wife, your daughter, your mom, that this happened to. What if it was you.
 
So after reading all that, I got the following points:

1. Best Buy are douches
2. Amex are douches
3. The police are douches.
4. Indian customer support are douches.
5. The victim may sue and is a douche

And somehow it has something to do with socialism. Is that about it? Just trying to summarize it all.
 
kledar586 said:
So after reading all that, I got the following points:

1. Best Buy are douches
2. Amex are douches
3. The police are douches.
4. Indian customer support are douches.
5. The victim may sue and is a douche

And somehow it has something to do with socialism. Is that about it? Just trying to summarize it all.
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I think there was also something about how frivolous lawsuits are ruining society and making jesus cry.
 
kledar586 said:
So after reading all that, I got the following points:

1. Best Buy are douches
2. Amex are douches
3. The police are douches.
4. Indian customer support are douches.
5. The victim may sue and is a douche

And somehow it has something to do with socialism. Is that about it? Just trying to summarize it all.
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Well kittens die and the gates of hell opens and Satan is set free too. Plus it has something to do with the world ending in 2012, but I'm not sure how.
 
BiGx5MurF said:
something similar happened to me at home depot, I'm a property manager, and had a bunch of stoves from different places fail at the same time, so I ordered online and had stoves sent to multiple places at once. This for some reason caused home depot to place a fraud alert on my commercial credit account.

a week later I was trying to make a purchase for a water heater at home depot in person. The charge wouldn't go through, the police showed up, and home depot's main office kept insisting I had to verify stuff like my tax id. I was 50 miles away from my office so I couldn't give them my tax id. they then insisted they had to call my office # they had on file, I told them that # was forwarded to my cell phone and they'd just be speaking with me again.

The police were ready to take me away, but I convinced them this was a big mistake by home depot's incompetency. Basically i had commercial cards with many other retailers on me, and my company is named after myself. After 2 hours a supervisor at home depot's main office finally removed the fraud alert after getting me to verify some more information.
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Innocent until proven guilty right... except that decided you were guilty until you proved yourself innocent. Reality Bites.
 
jtm55 said:
Hi All

One thing that always amazing is how everyone tries to find fault with the Police. These are the very ones who GOD forbid were to have any type of mishap will sream at the top of their lungs for the Police. Just amazing.
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uh yeah... definitely fault with the police for not telling the incompetent employee to die in a fire.... not to mention they could have held the women at the store, made said calls, and been done with it instead of making a scene.

on the upside, if she goes after bestbuy for this... she will at the very least have an entirely furnished house and then some
 
j-sta said:
there's already too god damn many sue-happy people in this country.
we don't need any more. They all need to die and rot.


and sue for what, exactly? incompetence that did her no true injustice?

Of course it sounds like there was injustice, when the story is one-sided. :rolleyes:
of course she won't admit to being beligerent. Of course she won't mention how she was causing "a scene."

But she WILL (indirectly) be admitting she's psychic by knowing this other kid was being hauled in for the same thing with Master Card gift cards as she was leaving the building :rolleyes:
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I agree that frivolous lawsuits suck and are leaches to society. And yes, we only heard her side of the story. Maybe the truth is that after that AmEx card got rejected, she threw a fit, became belligerent, and that's why BB had to call the cops.

But if she acted civilly and BB still called the cops and the cops still arrested her like that, then she'd have a legit cause to sue - probably both parties.
 
beowulf7 said:
I agree that frivolous lawsuits suck and are leaches to society. And yes, we only heard her side of the story. Maybe the truth is that after that AmEx card got rejected, she threw a fit, became belligerent, and that's why BB had to call the cops.

But if she acted civilly and BB still called the cops and the cops still arrested her like that, then she'd have a legit cause to sue - probably both parties.
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How so? Using fake credit cards is no different than theft. They should have called the cops and she should have been taken in for questioning for using fake cards, just like what happened. It doesnt' matter if it was a legit card or not, they followed through like they were supposed to and were given bad info. So they responded to the event just like they should have. Just like the guy above who Home Depot thought was using a stolen account. There is no difference between you paying with fake money, stealing items, or using fake credit cards / gift cards. All result in you getting an item for nothing while the store loses out on its money. If the store has the reason to think you are trying to steal from them or are using a stolen credit card / store card, they should call the police and you should be questioned.

The only reason this seems wrong is because she was found to have been using legit cards in the end. However what if she was using real fake cards or was paying with fake $20 bills? Then would you have a problem that she was take to the police station or that anything else happened? Yes they could have tried to call American Express, but how long to you keep her at the store trying prove she is telling the truth? 5 minutes? 5 hours? Again, look at it from the standpoint that she could lieing. How long should they waste the time of the store employees and keep officers tied up on this one case when they could take her to the station and do everything there. It isn't like they got the answers they were looking for on the first call to American Express.

It isn't that her card was rejected, they said it was a fake. There is a difference. If you overdraw your account you don't get the police called on you, they just don't sell you the item. You try to pay with a fake credit card then they call the cops on you.

Yes this sucks for her (and for anyone else that this has happen to) however the ONLY people that she might have the slightest case against is American Express, although even then it might be hard pressed. Best Buy and the cops acted how they should have for a person using counterfit money or credit cards to buy goods. No she wasnt' actually using a counterfit card, however all information provided to them said that she was so they acted accordingly given that fact.
 
yep, I almost wish this had happened to me now :(
I could use some money and electronics and appliances and stuff
 
Exavior said:
How so? Using fake credit cards is no different than theft. They should have called the cops and she should have been taken in for questioning for using fake cards, just like what happened. It doesnt' matter if it was a legit card or not, they followed through like they were supposed to and were given bad info. So they responded to the event just like they should have. Just like the guy above who Home Depot thought was using a stolen account. There is no difference between you paying with fake money, stealing items, or using fake credit cards / gift cards. All result in you getting an item for nothing while the store loses out on its money. If the store has the reason to think you are trying to steal from them or are using a stolen credit card / store card, they should call the police and you should be questioned.

The only reason this seems wrong is because she was found to have been using legit cards in the end. However what if she was using real fake cards or was paying with fake $20 bills? Then would you have a problem that she was take to the police station or that anything else happened? Yes they could have tried to call American Express, but how long to you keep her at the store trying prove she is telling the truth? 5 minutes? 5 hours? Again, look at it from the standpoint that she could lieing. How long should they waste the time of the store employees and keep officers tied up on this one case when they could take her to the station and do everything there. It isn't like they got the answers they were looking for on the first call to American Express.

It isn't that her card was rejected, they said it was a fake. There is a difference. If you overdraw your account you don't get the police called on you, they just don't sell you the item. You try to pay with a fake credit card then they call the cops on you.

Yes this sucks for her (and for anyone else that this has happen to) however the ONLY people that she might have the slightest case against is American Express, although even then it might be hard pressed. Best Buy and the cops acted how they should have for a person using counterfit money or credit cards to buy goods. No she wasnt' actually using a counterfit card, however all information provided to them said that she was so they acted accordingly given that fact.
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I agree if they were knowingly fake cards, then she should've gone to jail. But BB immediately assumed "guilty until proven innocent" rather than the other way around. And now we know she was innocent and has rightly sued BB. That's terrible of BB to acknowledge that one of their retarded reps misread the #s to AmEx and yet won't refund her the $. WTF? It'll cost them a lot more now.
 
beowulf7 said:
I agree if they were knowingly fake cards, then she should've gone to jail. But BB immediately assumed "guilty until proven innocent" rather than the other way around. And now we know she was innocent and has rightly sued BB. That's terrible of BB to acknowledge that one of their retarded reps misread the #s to AmEx and yet won't refund her the $. WTF? It'll cost them a lot more now.
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First, "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply here and even if it did, Best Buy isn't the government.

Second, everyone is screaming here when the system worked as intended?

Best Buy doesn't decide who get detained or arrest and who doesn't, the police do, and unless Best Buy lied (which doesn't appear to be the case from the story) they are not at fault for anything.

Third, she was never arrested or formally charged with a crime. Believe it or not, the police (ymmv by jurisdiction) are allowed to detain individuals for short periods of time before formally arresting and charging them if they have reason to believe a crime has been committed. They did this and subsequently ascertained after further investigation that she had not done anything criminal and released her without charges (i.e. the system works).
 
beowulf7 said:
I agree if they were knowingly fake cards, then she should've gone to jail. But BB immediately assumed "guilty until proven innocent" rather than the other way around. And now we know she was innocent and has rightly sued BB. That's terrible of BB to acknowledge that one of their retarded reps misread the #s to AmEx and yet won't refund her the $. WTF? It'll cost them a lot more now.
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But that is what you and the others are over looking they where known fake cards. Or at least according to the info that BestBuy was given they where. Assuming that person did in fact give the wrong numbers to the rep then it is their fault that the cards where said to be fake. I myself and not 100% sure I can believe the entire story given still. This new article seems to contradict what orginal story given by the woman.

She stated that the cards were reported to point to different card numbers, here they just say that the wrong numbers where given (which would probably more likely come back as a invalid card than it pointing to another card). Also if the guy was taken in for the exact same problem, did the same cashier check him out and screw up his card numbers also when reading them to the rep at master card?

The ONLY valid reason she has to sue bestbuy is because they basicly stole from her by taking her money and not giving her the items she paid for.



devman said:
First, "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply here and even if it did, Best Buy isn't the government.

Second, everyone is screaming here when the system worked as intended?

Best Buy doesn't decide who get detained or arrest and who doesn't, the police do, and unless Best Buy lied (which doesn't appear to be the case from the story) they are not at fault for anything.

Third, she was never arrested or formally charged with a crime. Believe it or not, the police (ymmv by jurisdiction) are allowed to detain individuals for short periods of time before formally arresting and charging them if they have reason to believe a crime has been committed. They did this and subsequently ascertained after further investigation that she had not done anything criminal and released her without charges (i.e. the system works).
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Correct, Innocent until proven guilty doesn't fit here. As I pointed out before, you can be considered a suspect and arrested before you are proven guilty. That is normally how it works, you are found to be a suspect, you are arrested, you go to court and get a trial to see if you are found guilty or not.

I fully agree with the rest of your post
 
devman said:
First, "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply here and even if it did, Best Buy isn't the government.

Second, everyone is screaming here when the system worked as intended?

Best Buy doesn't decide who get detained or arrest and who doesn't, the police do, and unless Best Buy lied (which doesn't appear to be the case from the story) they are not at fault for anything.

Third, she was never arrested or formally charged with a crime. Believe it or not, the police (ymmv by jurisdiction) are allowed to detain individuals for short periods of time before formally arresting and charging them if they have reason to believe a crime has been committed. They did this and subsequently ascertained after further investigation that she had not done anything criminal and released her without charges (i.e. the system works).
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Yes, but BB can't cry theft without reasonable cause. And assuming that a cashier was 100% accurate in reading the #s over the phone is a bad assumption.

Wasn't she handcuffed? If so, wouldn't that count as being arrested? :confused:
 
The person is right to be angry. She was arrested without any solid proof and time and money were wasted in this situation. Best Buy, Amex, and the police are all at fault.
 
beowulf7 said:
Yes, but BB can't cry theft without reasonable cause. And assuming that a cashier was 100% accurate in reading the #s over the phone is a bad assumption.

Wasn't she handcuffed? If so, wouldn't that count as being arrested? :confused:
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Not law enforcement's problem if the information they received from a corporate employee turned out to be inaccurate.

Even if the employee read the numbers wrong, IT HAPPENS. Said employee shouldn't be fired. Someone had a job to double check the number's, whether it was the BB or AMEX and it seems that simple step could have been the cause of all this trouble.

People make mistakes, if everyone got fired for making mistakes we would all be unemployed and broke.

If this lady has never, ever made a mistake - she can sue whomever she wants. But since that is not possible, I reiterate my original statement cause I already thought about all this - Suck it up lady, grow up and move on!
 
TheCommander said:
The person is right to be angry. She was arrested without any solid proof and time and money were wasted in this situation. Best Buy, Amex, and the police are all at fault.
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I'm angry for all the frivolous lawsuits that happen all the time.

Where is my free lunch?

Anyone else want to join in on the class action law suit I am going to bring against everyone and anyone I can link to these lawsuits, including the government, the court system, lawyers, companies and news outlets? :D
 
Inacurate said:
Not law enforcement's problem if the information they received from a corporate employee turned out to be inaccurate.

Even if the employee read the numbers wrong, IT HAPPENS. Said employee shouldn't be fired. Someone had a job to double check the number's, whether it was the BB or AMEX and it seems that simple step could have been the cause of all this trouble.

People make mistakes, if everyone got fired for making mistakes we would all be unemployed and broke.

If this lady has never, ever made a mistake - she can sue whomever she wants. But since that is not possible, I reiterate my original statement cause I already thought about all this - Suck it up lady, grow up and move on!
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I never said the employee should be fired just b/c of her misreading the card #s over the phone.
 
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