RadioShack Customer Care

Maybe you need Civility 101.

I work at radioshack. We CANNOT force a $1 donation, that has to be selected on the credit card pad. All we can do on our register is clear the prompt, not accept it. I would like to hear from the Radioshack employees and to see your reciept. Also, resistors do not prompt a service plan offer. I believe the OP is lying.

Petsmart is notorius for doing this. I always make them refund it. I prefer giving to my local animal shelter on my own.

My point: if you want to donate to these charities or causes, find their website and make sure your money is actually going to the right place.

@Communist Pope: I like to give out my ex-wife's phone number. Man, I LOVE doing that.

@mythago:
you sound just like my F-I-L! The man is obsessed and can't go an hour without a vicking reference...it's getting kinda old and I now know more about them than I ever wanted too.

Yes, that's right, stores were ranked on how many customers gave to charity as a sales metric, right up there in acessory attach rates, and battery sales.I never got around to investigating why they did so,since the staff wasn't paid comission , so im curious what profit or tax benefit RS got for people donating to livestrong?

To the OP, never leave an RS store without checking your recipt.Employees do sneak stuff on the receipt to get a loudmouth DM off their backs. Its not often, but ive seen it happen.

@econobiker: I'll do the +1 for you since you've already taken care of addressing the other two. Thanks.

*Which is exactly the response I use, anyway. I pick my own charities, tyvm.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): GS cookies are the only thing I'll buy. No wrapping paper. No popcorn. No 'holiday' cards. One of the bummers about being unemployed was that this year I was only able to treat myself to 2 boxes of GS cookies. In years gone by, oh the joy of 5 or 6. Next year I'll have to say no, if I'm still not working.

@barb95: My grammar school education was the same, but I do not recall selling any sort of candy. Granted, we might be of two generations, but I do know my parents were paying tuition and doing the weekly envelope to the church. Ah, Monday mornings and the gospel quiz.

Inconvenience level to turn around, go back into the store and get the matter fixed: no big deal.

Inconvenience level to turn around, go back into the store to get the matter fixed, failing, then calling CC company and getting a chargeback: bit of a hassle.

Inconvenience level to drive home steaming, toss and turn all night while eating pillow, then next day looking up address to Tandy Corp, drafting a letter/email to same, and x-posting to Consumerist: major--put life on hold, stop the presses! This is one dollar those fat cats won't be getting! ("Don't you hate pants?")

I understand that many people are not very good with..."confrontation," but this is ridiculous.

@captadam: Well, if you're heartless, then I'm heartless too. I don't do it at movie theaters and I don't do it in the nyc subways.

@pecan 3.14159265: You're right. Good cause or not, no store should be stealing from customers. And let's face it, you're probably not going to get the tax deduction anyway (IANAL). And to pile on to the theme, how do we even know that RS (oh, sorry, The Shack) is going to give the entire buck to the charity? We don't.

Just in case no one knows this...Radio Shack is the Title sponsor of Lance Armstrong's (new) Pro Cycling Team....Team Radio Shack

@Woodside Park Bob: Actually, he did authorize the purchase by signing the signature capture pad after paying with his credit card. An itemized product list of your purchase (with pricing included) is displayed above the sig capture box. Pay attention, I say.

I would guess that the idea was to get us thinking of donating our own money, but then and there, every penny came from the bookstore's receipts, not extra money from my wallet, and there were no collection boxes or envelopes or such.

@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: Sociopaths who would actually pronounce a question like the cashier's don't care enough about the people they damage to keep them from doing damage again. Take it from someone else whose mom died of breast cancer.

@morlo: "I'm holding out for girls in bikinis." Maybe strategically placed jingle bells then...

@SkokieGuy: @vladthepaler: Excellent reasoning from both.

@pecan 3.14159265: He should never, ever have gone to Radio Shack to begin with.

Line crossed!

@wickedpixel: True..though next, someone's going to suggest that he should've never gone to The Shack to begin with. That's a line we do not cross here :-)

I'm sure that someone at Radio Shack corporate would know the answer. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, it's Livestrong (the actual organization) that needs to disclose how much is charity and how much is overhead.

@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: The funny thing is, at Nordstroms, they don't even look it up by your card, your phone number, or a receipt. I was returning a coat one time and the receipt had fallen out somewhere. I figured they could either look up my purchase or give me store credit, but the only thing the cashier did was scan the barcode on the coat's tags and tell me to sign the screen. And lo and behold, it had registered my refund to my card.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): The teenage girls collecting things for charity or the woman arguing with them on why there aren't condoms?

@Hogan1:
I wouldn't bother with the people who stole from me, but that's just me.

@GitEmSteveDave_HazEnvy: It's quite possible.

I would go right ahead now and report this to Kentucky's Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau.

Yes, the store/employee must have to get a certain number of donations and this is how they are getting there. The $1 back would not be enough, I would expect swift action. They can get in alot of trouble for this.

I always chuckle when the largest supermarket chain in New England, Stop & Shop, asks at least once a year if I would like donate a $1 to the Jimmy Fund. I am not rude, but each time I want to say...

"NO, but your multi-billion dollar company can donate $1 from your profits from this sale to the Jimmy Fund, that would be great. Thanks!."

Why don't these stores donate a portion of your purchase to the charity instead? Are they saying make nothing on each sale? I don't think so.

It's often as little as $50.

I buy girl scout cookies. That's about it. And I've started asking my friends whose kids are selling if I can just GIVE them $10 instead of buying something. (So far, oddly, nobody's taken me up on it.)

im all for charity, but stealing money to give it away is so robin hood.

@pecan 3.14159265: I'd also like to add something the cashier at Lowes told me last week. My dad paid in cash for whatever he was buying and she asked for his number, and he asked why and she said "Well in case you need to return that and you lost your receipt, we can look it up by your number."

I thought that was pretty good. She didn't ask for my number when I paid for my stuff and I asked why, and she said it was because I paid with my debit card, and they can use that to look up my receipt for the same reason.

@je suis whore: I like them because it places the burden on the consumer. If you hit yes the first time, you made a mistake. If you keep hitting yes because you forget it's there, it's totally your fault for not learning from your mistake. I prefer to get the message on the screen rather than get asked by the cashier, who probably doesn't even want to ask it, but has to.

@AstroPig7: Woah. That is why there are some things you just don't say. Sorry to hear about your wife's mother. I bet that cashier hasn't made the same mistake since then.

The IRS has limits as to the amounts that can be donated and legally deducted from your income tax

(can't deduct donations more than your income yada yada yada)

So, just tell the clerk/jerkwad that you have reached your legally allowable charitable deductions for the year and that the IRS will disallow the donation as it exceeds the allowable limits.

That and I object to the way they run their charity and don't want to donate.

@lannister80:

Does it hurt to consider trying them first though?

@sweenitodd: I just saw this scheme for the first time yesterday at Stop & Shop. It came up asking if I wanted to donate $1 to whatever and the pretty green "accept" button was to agree to the donation. Thankfully I read things but it would be very easy for someone to click the green button, since it is on the credit/debit card machine, thinking they were just approving the sale. I think it's very sneaky.

Publix is asking us to buy a $10 brown bag of groceries for a needy family, but these are items that PUBLIX SELLS in the bag, so it seems profitable. It's like a few cans of veggies and a canned ham.

I'm sorry, but if I'm going to donate $10 to a needy family for Thanksgiving, there is better food than a canned ham that can be had with that money. I mean, Wal-Mart is selling $5 turkeys this year.

They'd be better off buying $10 1/4lb Burger King double cheeseburgers for that $10 than eating a canned ham. BK isn't real food either, but it does fall somewhere higher than canned ham on the real food meter (but probably below most everything else).

Giving needy families canned food is lazy of these organizations, especially ones that skim money off for operating costs.

Exactly. I don't understand the appeal of letting the corporation have the deduction.

@subtlefrog: Some of the charities have started handing out shopping lists for their charity/cause. The approach and ask you to buy a few things for them while you are in the store. The last one I saw was a bunch of teenage girls collecting things for unemployed single teenage moms. A woman was arguing with them about why condoms weren't on the list.

Radioshack deprived the OP of a dollar that he can't use elsewhere.

Copyright violation doesn't deprive the copyright owner of the ability to sell a copy of the work elsewhere.

The same logic shouldn't be used because they are two different situations.

@tundey: Mistakes are actions that are done inadvertently. Theft is done on purpose. How is it that you (or anyone else here) know what the assistant manager's actions were?

@failurate: I went to catholic elementary school and had to sell a certain amount of candy each semester. We didn't have a choice, it was a requirement to fund certain things at the school. If we didn't sell the chocolate, we had to pay for it. Now, my family was not rich. My parents worked two jobs to give me a good education and could not afford to buy the candy. So I was that kid outside a mall selling my chocolates : )

A movie theatre I went to was running their yearly Will Rogers charity donations. Instead of asking customers if they would like to donate their hard earned money, they decided it would be easier to force it on those buying large fountain drinks. They had these really crappy signs printed out stating that any large drink will cost $5.00, instead of the normal $4.50, with the additional charge being sent to the Will Rogers Charity. Pretty shaddy to me. I worked at a theatre back in the day and was forced to verbally moleste people into buying "stars", with the proceeds going to Will Rogers.

I wouldn't go to that Cinemark any longer if they didn't have $4 matinee and $6 adult evening tickets (and very good film presentation).

@sweenitodd:

This is the most plausible explanation. More then likely this was actually an error on the part of the OP then shennigans on the part of RS. It's very easy to skim through the menus when making a purchase. For example Petco, IKEA, etc all have the $1 donation options. They're clearly labeled but if you are in a hurry you might just hit yes without looking.

As for running the gantlet of "beggars" getting into and out of stores ... that also is wearing thin. Especially during the holidays, which are now pretty much on us already, the stores are hectic enough without that added hassle.

The bottom line is that soliciting at registers, and allowing charities to beg in their doorways, allows the stores to "look good" but doesn't actually cost them anything ... after all, it's their customers who are doing the donating, not them. I refuse to do their work -- and make their donations -- for them. If the store wants to donate money to a cause, they can. No one is stopping them. And if they do, that's terrific. But the stores shouldn't be allowed to make themselves look good just because their customers donate to a cause.

Enough is enough.

When cashiers ask you to donate to a charity, try smiling sweetly and say "That's a wonderful charity, but I prefer to donate to it directly, so I get receive tax deduction for my money I give, not your employer".

"Pilfered Washington"? My, aren't you a hip blogger.

@Ursus Maritimus: They use your phone number to figure out your address. It's an easier way of getting your address rather than actually ask you your address. Now they're even asking for email addresses.

I'm signed up for various mailing lists for the stores I shop at. It's a good way of getting coupons. Once, when I was at a store, I used a coupon and the cashier asked me whether I'd like to give my email address to get coupons - and I had merely 5 minutes earlier given her a coupon I had printed from my email. I politely said no and moved on.

The ONLY way to donate is to hit accept on the signature capture device. It cannot be added on by the associate, unless it was one of the livestrong bracelets. Please pay attention before blaming people next time. KTHXBYE

How do they mail something to your phone? If I find out my phone signed up for a PO box without my knowledge, I'm gonna be pissed!

The more i read your comments, the more I like them.

While I wouldn't be at all surprised if a RS employee added the donation without his permission, it's also possible he accidentally tapped the screen and approved the donation without realizing it-- I in fact almost did it myself.

That combined with the inevitable guy in the parking lot who is out of gas and needs to get his sick kid to the hospital in some other city (because the absolutely massive regional hospital just a block or so away doesn't do this or that).
Grocery shopping just sucks now days.

Second every single stores asks me to donate at the register, if I donate a dollar every time I want to buy something in a store, I would be very broke. This does not include the beggers at the door or the candy bar salesperson that stands where the door greeter does in walmart. Yes we have had both here.

I don't care what store policy is, my policy is no donations at the register. I don't know where that money is going and chances are some of it is going right into the managers pocket. If I want to donate its going to be given directly to the charity that I want it to go to.

@tonberryqueen: I always say no and I'm never hassled further.

When they ask for zip codes, my dad likes to give the zip code for the NYSSCPA office in NYC. Why? I don't know. But he thinks it's hi-larious!

@GitEmSteveDave_HazEnvy: Maybe that's the case. He did pay with a credit card.

@JeffM: Money is money. He was literally, right outside the store. Yes, it's only $1, but it's $1 that the store took without permission. It's not acceptable to be stolen from, regardless of what was stolen.

I'm also sick of stores asking me to donate. Why would I ever want to make my charitable donations $1 a time so that some corporation can take the credit for it, and so that the money goes to a bunch of random charities that I have not done my due dilligence on? The cashier at my grocer did not even know what percent of donations the charity in question wastes on administrative expenses before doing good deeds with the rest.

That's simply inappropriate - for someone to be requesting my money without knowing much at all about the group that it will go to. That's like sending 18 year old missionaries out looking for converts to their religion before they know all of the history and rules that they are expected to believe in. Oh wait...

Now, if there's a pattern that's been established and the store refuses to refund the "donation", feel free to use the corporate route.

@halcyondays: All stores ask for phone numbers, though, not just Radio Shack. The phone number isn't about how you pay, it's so they can put you on their mailing lists.

@mythago: [[Obligatory post noting that you posted to the wrong story]]

but, it does keep readers on their toes

The touchpad that you pay from gives you the option of donating or not.....my guess is he hit the green accept button before reading the screen and did it himself...

@Woodside Park Bob: He could have just gone back to the store, gotten his $1 back, then sent a letter to corporate.

As if that isn't bad enough, my local supermarket often has groups standing outside of it asking for donations to some cause or another. I just say no and move on, but I wish they'd stop that.

Thats when you go back to the store and get your $1 back. problem solved for you. Glad i could help.