[Closed] Anyone work in Retail / Security?

I think the Police would struggle to do the resource on this, tbh. A lot of variables - if you have the transaction number I'd go back to M&S and ask them about it, if the shirts are attributable to a receipt then maybe, but this is unlikely.

There are so many tenuous possibilities here that it's unlikely given that plod won't pick up known-stolen items on fleabay and gumtree.

1. Might have taken them back for a refund

2. Might have gone to the local store but who says it's local to the thief

3. Might be the only one who returned said item at said store within said timeframe

4. Might be able to link up CCTV with the returns

5. Might be able to identify the perp

I think your chances are the square root of nack all. And that's before anyone states it's 'an insurance issue'.

Would depend on the POS system used by the store, seems like a modern system would keep a database of transactions but there's plenty of shops out there still using ancient tills.

I suppose it can't hurt to ask but it seems unlikely to go anywhere, especially based on the assumption that the thief did in fact return the shirts, and that it could be used as any kind of evidence.

This is presumably linked to your previous thread about jewellery. But where does the return of the shirts get you?

There are so many variables in what you're trying to prove here. Its taken this long to realise you're lost the shirts (which is fair enough, they're low priority) so its hard to say certainly that she took them rather than you've just misplaced them.

But unless she's told you that she's exchanged them for a credit note then how do you know she hasn't kept them? Swaped them? Given them away? Sold them in the pub? and if she has returned to M&S then why the nearest branch? It could be any, especially if the local one is  a food store?

Thieves have kids too - no reason to think they would have returned the goods.

Even if they had returned them, I think M&S policy is to only refund to the purchase card unless you jump through a lot of hoops.

If I were a thief I'd just chuck them in a ditch if I didn't need them.

That what the scrote did to all my a-level certificates and other paper work they stole out of our car.

Edit: I just realised this might not be your common or garden thievery, so maybe worth it, but it's tenuous...

There was a woman whose 'job' was taking clothes off the rail in M&S, scuffing up a seam with her nail and then claiming a cash refund at the till. She did this for years at 100s of stores, making a small fortune out of it....

Genuine question - do M&S not require receipts then?

Genuine question – do M&S not require receipts then?

these days they probably do. In the olden days because they only sold goods they manufactured themselves they could have a pretty lax returns policy as they operated on the assumption that anything returned to them must have been sold by them them so they treated the item itself as proof of purchase

You could also use them as a cash machine too - in the early days of switch a lot of my fellow students would buy stuff on switch then take it straight to the returns desk and get a cash refund.

Genuine question – do M&S not require receipts then?

My Google Fu has failed me, but they knew who she was as she was on a documentary about M&S many years ago. They had her photo by the till in every store at one point....

Sounds like a great business plan that 🤔

So the police keep telling me they need two bits of evidence, I know it is a long shot but I am hoping this might be the second piece.

For background, the thief is cleaner who we sacked but then came back whilst we were on holiday.

The shirts were actually blouses for my 13 year old daughter, thief does not have a daughter, hence me thinking she may have returned them for credit note instead

Thief is local and we only have one M&S within 30 miles

They were definitely stolen, daughter laid out new clothes on bed before we went on holiday, we came back, straight to school, only one pack of shirts. Daughter and wife are both super organised so no mistake at our end. We hadn't put two and two together before, sounds obvious now but hadn't thought anyone would nick a £13 pack of school shirts

I wouldn't expect the police to follow this up on its own but as part of a bigger picture of our crime and the other local crimes linked to the same person (four thefts that I know of)

Genuine question – do M&S not require receipts then?

For a refund yes, but I think you can get a credit note without a receipt

but I think you can get a credit note without a receipt

I think before you spend any more energy on this angle you need to turn that 'think' into a 'know' - I'm sure they did once, really as a mechanism for people exchanging unwanted gifts - but I'd doubt they still do.

I think before you spend any more energy on this angle you need to turn that ‘think’ into a ‘know’ – I’m sure they did once, really as a mechanism for people exchanging unwanted gifts – but I’d doubt they still do.

M&S website confirms you can return stuff without a receipt and instead of a refund you will be given a credit receipt.

I think OPs problem may be asking M&S for the footage. They won’t give it to anyone who walks in off the street, they will probably pass it to the police,  but getting them to follow up on it is hard work, IME they get defensive if you start giving them leads.

Is this something we can expect police to pursue?

Haha, dream on! Maybe 20 years ago.

Police called back and said they are going to speak to the store so fingers crossed. I know it is a long shot but you never know!

Maybe yes maybe no. Not M+S (another well known high st chain) but we can only go back 30 days on our digital cctv system, can go back 90 days on our (IBM) till info. They are also 2 seperate systems, and our tills are not that high tech, we need a till number and date / time to help find it. If not i would have to scroll through each till transaction manually looking for it (25 tills and about 10, 000 transactions a week).

Andy, do you have the ability to search if a particular item was returned and, if it was, check time and date? If you then have this info you could marry it up with cctv (assuming you still have the recording)

Having had a pretty big burglary myself, I'd suggest it's much easier to try to forget about it. Sweating over all the details won't help you put this behind you.

Afraid not but M+S may have better systems than us. In my experience the smaller retailers have better systems than some of the big names. Our system is basically the same as when i joined in the 90s.

If someone came in to me with the limited info you have i would not be able to get the info needed (without spending hours and hours trawling individual transactions). However i could contact HO who have a loss prevention team who could search for any refunds for a certain item (but they would need to know what product code they were searching for) and i am not sure if they would invest their time into it to be honest (it is used more for legal claims/company issues etc due to effort needed).

Normally i get customers saying they had an issue on X day at roughly Y time at Z till. Then i have a narrow window to look at and get the info, or they bring in a receipt with all this info on it (often why shops cant help without a receipt).

Afraid not but M+S may have better systems than us

They were archaic which is why their stock control was so terrible and they could only react to a fashion trend 12-18 months after it was over....

I believe they have since upgraded to a punch card based mainframe, so will be joining the 1970s.

"thief does not have a daughter, hence me thinking she may have returned them for credit note instead"

I would have though they are surely more likely to end up on ebay:

Any of these near you?

[url= https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=girls+blouse+marks+and+spencer+BNWT&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=LL186BD&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=3&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50 ]ebay[/url]

and they could only react to a fashion trend 12-18 months after it was over….

bang on time for their target market then 🙂