Former TK Maxx Loss Prevention Manager - available for questions !/ reviewed 09.2015

[maxxer]

Hi Maxxer

 

I have called tkmaxx customer service and they do;t want to know about the refund, all I can say is good for you that you'v left them as from now I will never shop there, they a bunch of [edit]s, selling items that they say is almost 60 % less then retail but the fact is that their items are mainly last season or defected and that's why the original store never sold it, and employ [edit]s as security , shame on them I hope everyone finds out about them.

 

Wow. A change of heart since your last post then, saying how much you liked the stores......

 

In my time, we dealt with a fair few unhappy customers. My simple words are ' you don't HAVE to shop here - and the best way to hurt us, is not to give us your money '.

 

People seem to forget. Its not their god given right to shop in a particular shop. If you want to hurt tk's, then take your cash elsewhere.

 

Then again, people always wanted the 'bling', and not to pay proper prices for it. I still get upset if I have to now pay £125 for a pair of jeans, rather than £30. (And it makes my eyes water to go into a debenhams and see their prices).

 

To let you know about the clothes though - only a small proportion of it is 'past season'. I personally can't see how a different pattern on a t-shirt makes it so 'last year' (unless its got the year on it in big letters.....)

 

They get deals, because sometimes they agree to buy a load of 'overstock' from the manufacturer, sometimes its end of line stuff, sometimes they agree to buy a load of slow moving stock, as long as they can buy some of this years top selling stock (I remember a ck t-shirt in bright orange - we had loads and loads of them in, and I can see why ck sold them to us !)

 

So, 'money talks'. Take yours elsewhere.

 

Just to add - for those people saying tk's have targets:

 

The STORE has an arrest target, NOT each individual investigator.

 

Each week, the store submits their arrests to head office, and a spreadsheet is produced. Each district, and region is graded against its year target, either 'red or green'.

[old bill]

It doesn't sound strange at all, Old Bill. Some idiot grabs a passing hausfrau and drags her into the manager's office, makes her turn out her pockets and handbag and realises he's made a mistake. She's recovering her nerve now, and talking about calling the Police or a solicitor. Idiot realises he's looking at wrongful arrest, assault and/or disciplinary action. Easiest thing in the world to pick up a lipstick or whatever's handy, and drop it in her bag.

 

My very firm advice to any innocent person who is stopped in a shop is to firstly ask loud & clear "are you arresting me?". If the answer is not a loud and clear "Yes" then walk away. If they do say that they are arresting you, then tell them you will wait peaceably for the police to arrive.

 

Stay within a few paces of where you were stopped, sit down if you can (it may be an hour before an officer arrives). Keep your bags and pockets secure, do not allow anyone to search you or examine your property. If you have a mobile phone, call a calm, reliable friend or relative and ask them to come to support you. Also call the Police and check that an officer is on the way, and also that they understand you deny the allegation completely. Ask a passing shop employee to call the duty manager, and when they arrive tell them that you will be making a complaint about the security guard's false accusation. Ask them to provide contact details of their head office.

 

If you have paper, start keeping a diary - the exact time and place you were stopped, what words were said, the name of the security guard etc. Ask nearby witnesses if they would mind being contacted by the Police to give statements, and if they will leave you a phone number for that purpose. If you don't have paper, use text or voicemail messages to record contemporaneous details.

 

You may be upset and angry, but stay calm and measured in your conduct - no swearing or shouting. Keep your head held high, try to make eye-contact with passers-by - shake your head in disbelief, roll your eyes, tell them you've been falsely arrested - you have nothing to be ashamed of and you are deserving of support and sympathy. The Police officer will arrive soon, and you will be proven to be innocent.

 

Okay as long as the security officer and store manager aren't complete numpties or the security officer isn't a Rent-A-Thug.

 

 

When I was in the police force, if we found an alleged shoplifter was, in fact, innocent, we would obtain the name of the security officer and manager and give them to the innocent shopper with advice to sue them and the store involved.

 

 

The reaction we would get from the security officer and manager included having the marital status of our parents questioned at the time of our birth and being compared to a certain part of the female anatomy.

 

 

If there was clear evidence of assault, battery and/or unlawful detention, then it was the security officer and manager who went for a ride to the police station.

 

 

What retail managers and security staff don't seem to realise that if two of them are present when an innocent person is illegally detained or their bags/person searched - and it does go on - they can both be accused of and be proceeded against for being an accessory to or of aiding and abetting an offence.

Edited May 12, 2012 by old bill

[ScarletPimpernel]

 

In my time, we dealt with a fair few unhappy customers. My simple words are ' you don't HAVE to shop here - and the best way to hurt us, is not to give us your money '.

 

People seem to forget. Its not their god given right to shop in a particular shop. If you want to hurt tk's, then take your cash elsewhere.

 

Very sensible, and exactly my feelings.

[old bill]

Just to add - for those people saying tk's have targets:

 

The STORE has an arrest target, NOT each individual investigator.

 

Each week, the store submits their arrests to head office, and a spreadsheet is produced. Each district, and region is graded against its year target, either 'red or green'.

 

That is a very dangerous practice. It leads to indiscriminate and, in some cases, unlawful arrests. Whatever has possessed TK Maxx'x senior management to adopt such a practice and who was the clown who suggested it to them?

[rebel11]

I think you first mentioned TK Maxx targets, someone else on the site has confirmed that security guards are given targets.

'Store', 'Security Guard', it doesn't make sense.

 

Just to add - for those people saying tk's have targets:

 

The STORE has an arrest target, NOT each individual investigator.

 

Each week, the store submits their arrests to head office, and a spreadsheet is produced. Each district, and region is graded against its year target, either 'red or green'.

[Urthebesthing]

Hey Maxxer

 

You have been a good advocate to tkmaxx,

Im beginning to suspect your intentions could you bee a double agent!! lol,

 

 

Its true it use to be a good store for me to buy my cloths but not the only one, and yes I will never shop at tkmax again and encourage others not to.

 

 

they are not the only cheap stores around, plus if you check their cosmetic product most of them are cheaper by at least 10% on the net so they are lying when they say its half price. but you atre wrong about their current season clothing calim, 99.99 % of their cloths are last season and usually end up to be sold up to 70% less at the original store.

I advise everyone to verify this information.

 

Finally after reading many complaints about them on forums I begin to understand their dishonesty, and specially the recent oxford court case for the RLP unreasonable charges, which Im pleased to say that they have lost.

 

so just be happy that you are not part of their team anymore or are you?

[maxxer]

That is a very dangerous practice. It leads to indiscriminate and, in some cases, unlawful arrests. Whatever has possessed TK Maxx'x senior management to adopt such a practice and who was the clown who suggested it to them?

 

Don't the police have targets (ahem, I mean 'detection rates').........

 

Just because a store has a target, doesn't mean the lp team will risk their jobs over some silly arrest.

 

It was made quite clear to loss prevention staff - if you don't have the elements of proof to make an arrest, then don't. If you did falsely arrest someone, then, again, it was made clear that disciplinary action would be taken, up to and including dismissal. I did see one lad sacked for a false arrest.

 

There are many security out there that I wouldn't trust to breathe correctly, let alone arrest someone. On the other hand, I know a lot of very very good people, who know their law, and know what they are doing.

 

There are 'bad eggs' in every job that's done. I've met some officers who simply can't be bothered with dealing with people, and simply want an easy shift. This was becoming more and more aparent as the police cuts came in last year - almost although their supervisors were telling them to bin the job asap.

 

The over riding chorus from people in here seems to be - 'let the police deal with / handle the suspected thieves'. I'm more than happy to do that, as long as the police: arrive within 3 hours of being called, actually deal with the incident rather than trying to get rid of it as soon as possible, and are active at deterring the offences in the frst place.

 

 

Security would never have to go 'hands on' if the police reacted quickly to situations. Some boroughs in the met don't carry the town link radios for their towns

- so a simple 'word in the ear to leave town' from an officer when 'johnny druggie' is spotted by a shop acting sus, turns into johnny druggie stealing from 10 shops, till he goes into one with security, and gets caught. Now the officers called, have to deal with 10 thefts, from 10 shops, rather than none....

 

I've worked in some small towns, for tk's, where if you shout up an issue, the police are right there. They also stop people on behalf of the shops - so no security being 'thuggish' etc. And you know what, it works.

 

Ps: our lads used to write their own statements and do their own evidence packs. How many security do you know that can do that ?

 

No, I don't work for them any more.

 

As writing on a forum such as this is totally forbidden, I'm damn sure I left the job before risking it by writing on here.

 

I say again: if you don't like the store, don't shop there.

 

I worked for them for a number of years, and visited head office a number of times. I saw the buyers making their deals, so that's how I know it works.

 

To be honest, I don't really care about the prices - my job wasn't to sell the stuff, it was to prevent and apprehend the people taking stuff from the store, or ripping it off with refund fraud.

 

Perhaps I won't answer questions 'hijacking' my thread and asking about customer service issues again.

 

I mean, what the hell could I do about your purchase anyway ????

[Urthebesthing]

Maxxer

 

you chatting nonsense, and I think I touched the nerve )) , nice try.

 

how low desperate are tkmaxx and rlp staff

[Sidewinder]

Urthebesthing - I have seen nothing in Maxxer's posts on the forum to suggest anything other than what he has said.

 

Please refrain from attempts to flame others into an argument.

[rebel11]

Sorry, that doesn't stack up, the key word is 'prevention', the police actually prevent crime, they intervene at the earliest opportunity, funny as that might sound, but it's true. If an individual goes into a TK Maxx store, then starts to act suspiciously, the Secuity Guard or staff would be happy to watch the individual on the CCTV or on the shop floor, at no point would they actually intervene to prevent the attempted theft. No, they've got targets to meet. The police will have year on year stats and will go about reducing those stats through various strategies.

 

Don't the police have targets (ahem, I mean 'detection rates').........

 

Just because a store has a target, doesn't mean the lp team will risk their jobs over some silly arrest.

 

It was made quite clear to loss prevention staff - if you don't have the elements of proof to make an arrest, then don't. If you did falsely arrest someone, then, again, it was made clear that disciplinary action would be taken, up to and including dismissal. I did see one lad sacked for a false arrest.

 

There are many security out there that I wouldn't trust to breathe correctly, let alone arrest someone. On the other hand, I know a lot of very very good people, who know their law, and know what they are doing.

 

There are 'bad eggs' in every job that's done. I've met some officers who simply can't be bothered with dealing with people, and simply want an easy shift. This was becoming more and more aparent as the police cuts came in last year - almost although their supervisors were telling them to bin the job asap.

 

The over riding chorus from people in here seems to be - 'let the police deal with / handle the suspected thieves'. I'm more than happy to do that, as long as the police: arrive within 3 hours of being called, actually deal with the incident rather than trying to get rid of it as soon as possible, and are active at deterring the offences in the frst place. Security would never have to go 'hands on' if the police reacted quickly to situations. Some boroughs in the met don't carry the town link radios for their towns - so a simple 'word in the ear to leave town' from an officer when 'johnny druggie' is spotted by a shop acting sus, turns into johnny druggie stealing from 10 shops, till he goes into one with security, and gets caught. Now the officers called, have to deal with 10 thefts, from 10 shops, rather than none....

 

I've worked in some small towns, for tk's, where if you shout up an issue, the police are right there. They also stop people on behalf of the shops - so no security being 'thuggish' etc. And you know what, it works.

 

Ps: our lads used to write their own statements and do their own evidence packs. How many security do you know that can do that ?

[Urthebesthing]

Iv just asked maxxer a simple question because iv been cheated of £90 pound from TKmax,

 

 

I just wanted to know if they could have looked into their CCTV since I have the receipt and the time of purchases to identify the faulty item that I was returning that in fact it was theirs,

 

 

I have tried talking to their customer service but they didn't help me, so you can imagine my frustration. and maxeer was an employee for them so if he knew that could have the cctv i could pursuen them in a civil court and make them produce the cctv footage. that was all. so there was no need to go around the bush!!!

 

Thx

[Anus Horribilis]

No, you didn't just ask him a question. You made insulting and sarcastic comments towards him. Please don't do that.

[Urthebesthing]

hey im not here to insult or be sarcastic, maxxer put himslef forward for questioning and this is forum so Im free to speak my mind.

[citizenB]

Only within the boundaries of the Forum rules and with respect, you have not asked questions - you have made statements!

[maxxer]

Had a good chat with one of the guys who is still employed by them today.

 

Rlp have sent out a letter via the stores email system, entitled 'olmypics'.

 

They remind retaillers that they ca persue civil recovery in any country, and will write to the 'offender' in any country, so continue to use civil recovery on any non uk nationals you catch.

 

Even I know taking someone to court in a different country is virtually impossible, especially for such a low amount.

[old bill]

It sounds to me that RLP may have gotten it badly wrong. If the legal system of another country does not recognise Civil Recovery or Civil Recovery is illegal, as you say, there isn't a cat in hell's chance of a claim succeeding.

 

I can't see HMCTS wearing the sending of summonses to other countries. The cost alone would not justify it. If RLP are not being given the correct legal advice, it could result in tears before bedtime.

 

Personally, I feel RLP is taking one hell of a risk trying to do what they have said and it could come back on them.

[cerberusalert]

RLP must live in 'Cloud Cuckoo Land' if they think they can pursue in other countries. Even if they were stupid enough to try through a foreign court system the cost to them in time, money & energy would far outweigh any income they hope to derive from it.

 

Then of course there's the little matter of not being able to obtain a CCJ in the UK against a non-UK resident without which they would be unable to pursue in another country, even if that country had a reciprocal agreement with the UK such as;

 

the Brussels Regulation,

the Lugano Convention,

the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933

the Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters

or the Reciprocal enforcement; the Administration of Justice Act 1920

 

to name but a few.

[rebel11]

Also an 'International Matrix' would be required.

[ScarletPimpernel]

The point here is that RLP won't be taking anyone to court in other countries, and nor will their retailer clients.

 

They are just talking about writing to people, and will be relying, as usual, on their letters bullying people into paying.

 

Is what they do legal in other countries? Perhaps not, but just as they can't bring court action against foreigners, foreign regulators may find it difficult to stop them sending out speculative invoices.

[cerberusalert]

A lot of foreign countries have far stricter rules on debt collection/speculative invoicing than the UK does & unless RLP are very careful they could find that it won't so much as come back and bite them on the bum but more likely rabidly savage them.

[old bill]

You and I are thinking along similar lines. On the other hand, it might be worth letting RLP try it and then get crucified by the British courts at the request of foreign governments. What they are advocating could well amount to the signing of Civil Recovery's death warrant in the UK.

[2Grumpy]

Not RLP execs being clapped in irons as they hop off the plane as they head off on holiday?

[old bill]

I very much doubt it. There is, however, nothing to prevent a foreign country's Interior or Justice Ministry asking the British Government to take action or exclude persons from entering a particular country.

 

 

It would need to be checked whether or not an EU national (including Brits) can be excluded from countries that are EU member states.

[spongebob1000]

Hi Former TK Maxx Loss Prevention Manager - available for questions !

Just out of curiosity can you tell me - How long does a Store keep its CCTV footage for from the shop floor? Can HO log in and check out a specific date say 6 or 12 months ago? Thanks

[old bill]

Don't the police have targets (ahem, I mean 'detection rates').........

 

Just because a store has a target, doesn't mean the lp team will risk their jobs over some silly arrest.

 

It was made quite clear to loss prevention staff - if you don't have the elements of proof to make an arrest, then don't. If you did falsely arrest someone, then, again, it was made clear that disciplinary action would be taken, up to and including dismissal. I did see one lad sacked for a false arrest.

 

There are many security out there that I wouldn't trust to breathe correctly, let alone arrest someone. On the other hand, I know a lot of very very good people, who know their law, and know what they are doing.

 

There are 'bad eggs' in every job that's done. I've met some officers who simply can't be bothered with dealing with people, and simply want an easy shift. This was becoming more and more aparent as the police cuts came in last year - almost although their supervisors were telling them to bin the job asap.

 

The over riding chorus from people in here seems to be - 'let the police deal with / handle the suspected thieves'. I'm more than happy to do that, as long as the police: arrive within 3 hours of being called, actually deal with the incident rather than trying to get rid of it as soon as possible, and are active at deterring the offences in the frst place. Security would never have to go 'hands on' if the police reacted quickly to situations. Some boroughs in the met don't carry the town link radios for their towns - so a simple 'word in the ear to leave town' from an officer when 'johnny druggie' is spotted by a shop acting sus, turns into johnny druggie stealing from 10 shops, till he goes into one with security, and gets caught. Now the officers called, have to deal with 10 thefts, from 10 shops, rather than none....

 

I've worked in some small towns, for tk's, where if you shout up an issue, the police are right there. They also stop people on behalf of the shops - so no security being 'thuggish' etc. And you know what, it works.

 

Ps: our lads used to write their own statements and do their own evidence packs. How many security do you know that can do that ?

 

Where some muppet of a "business consultant" has put their oar in, yes, police officers have "arrest targets", but the main strategy, in policing, is to prevent crime from happening in the first place. An increasing number of police officers are voicing concerns about the way the British police service is being run and the direction in which it is going.