Shopping Discussion

Is this normal? Aritzia made my mom insert her credit card when she didn't agree to buy the item.

  • Last Updated:
  • Jan 25th, 2018 1:54 am
Sr. Member
Jan 4, 2010
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Waterloo

Is this normal? Aritzia made my mom insert her credit card when she didn't agree to buy the item.

My mother had a strange experience at Aritzia on Wednesday. When she went to check the price for a pair of pants, the cashier scanned the pants and told her the price. She was thinking of buying it but decided she wants to put the pants on hold. The cashier then told her to insert her credit card so she can cancel the transaction.
My mother didn't buy the pants yet, she only had her card out in her hand. She asked the cashier again why does she have to put her card in if she didn't buy the pants? The cashier was rude and told her she had to do it so she can cancel the transaction. She was confused so she ended up putting her card in....and then they told her to do it again. So they made her purchase the pants and then refunded her. What is kinda practice this?
She showed me the credit card receipt for both the purchase and refund. They didn't give her a store receipt.
Both transactions are less than a minute apart.
I don't understand why they had made her do that...it seems very sketchy.
Last edited by tinbitz on Jan 18th, 2018 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
72 replies
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Sep 21, 2010
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Complain to head office on her behalf...At least it's a name brand so hopefully you'll get an answer. It's obviously beyond her, sorry to say.
Hard work, inheritance, interest on interest accumulating, and stock and real estate speculation. It's all good.
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Feb 7, 2017
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Sounds sketchy for sure.

Guessing the Cashier was up to something...

Either she wanted your Mom’s CC info
Or she was trying to up the sales she made for the timeframe she was working
(Be damned the return / refund)

I agree with @tranquility922 report this to HQ
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Commissioned sales.
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yup SPH - sales per hour
I find complaining in writing works as you have all the facts for head office to check, plus they will need somehow to send you some kind of compensation (coupon, discount, etc) and make sure to check your credit card statement
Last edited by Omakase on Jan 18th, 2018 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sep 27, 2003
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Sounds like they wanted the sale, and refunds may not possibly affect the stats of the individual. Definitely shady practice and I'd recommend filing a complaint with the store's head office.
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May 28, 2012
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My daughter was at the checkout and two employees were having a brief squabble over who was going to get the sale...I've heard they need to have a certain $$ sales to get work hours.
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Jan 15, 2017
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Could be an inexperienced sales person who didn't know how to do a price check and instead did a purchase transaction. Or, it could be a sales person who wasn't listening to your Mom wanting a price check and instead just started a purchase transaction.
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May 18, 2009
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complain on social media like on facebook. Its all about social exposure right now
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Oct 13, 2009
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definite shenanigans. complain to the store manager.
Re: Procurement, Life & RFD
nasa25: say you won it in a raffle. That's what I do with like 86% of my purchases
infinityloop: Lying to your SO seems like an unhealthy long term strategy
nasa25: lmao
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Mar 14, 2005
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tinbitz wrote: ...
My mother didn't buy the pants yet, she only had her card out in her hand. She asked the cashier again why does she have to put her card in if she didn't buy the pants? The cashier was rude and told her she had to do it so she can cancel the transaction. She was confused so she ended up putting her card in....and then they told her to do it again....
Ur mom needs to get self-confidence/self-assertiveness/brains. If the salesperson was rude, and u haven't bought anything yet, just leave the freakin' store ASAP or else yell loudly at the employee so that everyone nearby knows exactly what the employee is trying to pull on u. Personally, I refuse to shop at Aritzia ever because I hate this company and their sheep customers.
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^i tend to agree with you. If stuck up had a store, it would be Artizia.
Re: Procurement, Life & RFD
nasa25: say you won it in a raffle. That's what I do with like 86% of my purchases
infinityloop: Lying to your SO seems like an unhealthy long term strategy
nasa25: lmao
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Nov 2, 2015
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I never heard that and its not good !

and I don't really like Artizia becasue of overprice and bad return policy. Zara or M is better
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skeet50 wrote: Could be an inexperienced sales person who didn't know how to do a price check and instead did a purchase transaction. Or, it could be a sales person who wasn't listening to your Mom wanting a price check and instead just started a purchase transaction.
Wouldn't matter if she did that. She should still be able to cancel the whole transaction without making someone pay.
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This may sound shocking, but salespeople r just like regular people, like u and me. There r morally questionable people in the population. Ya, u expect this behaviour from car dealership salespeople, Rogers customer service reps, etc. When there is no financial incentive for them (eg. commission, sales targets), their on-the-job behaviour seems normal or maybe they behave lazy and unmotivated. But when there is a financial motive guiding their actions, beware! So, can u really trust what comes out of a salesperson's mouth, lol?!?
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tinbitz wrote: My mother had a strange experience at Aritzia on Wednesday. When she went to check the price for a pair of pants, the cashier scanned the pants and told her the price. She was thinking of buying it but decided she wants to put the pants on hold. The cashier then told her to insert her credit card so she can cancel the transaction.
You're not making any sense, or I'm not reading your post, correctly. If I read your first paragraph correctly, you say the cashier scanned the pants, told your mom the price and then your mom asked her to put them aside. You then say that the cashier asked for your mom's CC, to cancel the transaction. Well, how did your mom pay for it, in the first place? Does your mom not know how CC work?

You then go on to say that when your mom gave her CC, they used it twice, once for the transaction and a second time, for the refund. What did your mom do in this time? Stare at them? My guess is there's more to this story. I cannot think of any time when a store clerk ever tricked or made me pay for something, without my consent and then refunded me the $. The sales people are regular persons, not some mischievous, street-smart cheaters.

Just saying.
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Your mom should have just turned around and walked away after she was told she "had" to. If the cc doesn't touch the machine then no purchase or refund is possible. Let the store sort out any accounting errors if the sale happened to be entered erroneously (or fraudulently) in the point of sale system.
Sr. Member
Jan 4, 2010
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Waterloo
Yes everyone, I know what my mother should have done and I have talked to her yesterday. She's not well right now, so what would be obvious to us wasn't that obvious to her. I wanted to investigate to see if they were trying to take advantage of her or maybe I'm wrong it's a normal practice they do to cancel transactions.
I have since emailed Aritzia.

Thank you for everyone who gave me insightful responses.

And to those who think I'm attacking retail workers or I'm lying trying to start crap. Just no.
Last edited by tinbitz on Jan 18th, 2018 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Micelli_Illuminatti wrote: You're not making any sense, or I'm not reading your post, correctly. If I read your first paragraph correctly, you say the cashier scanned the pants, told your mom the price and then your mom asked her to put them aside. You then say that the cashier asked for your mom's CC, to cancel the transaction. Well, how did your mom pay for it, in the first place? Does your mom not know how CC work?

You then go on to say that when your mom gave her CC, they used it twice, once for the transaction and a second time, for the refund. What did your mom do in this time? Stare at them? My guess is there's more to this story. I cannot think of any time when a store clerk ever tricked or made me pay for something, without my consent and then refunded me the $. The sales people are regular persons, not some mischievous, street-smart cheaters.

Just saying.
the OP post made sense
cashier scanner, and told the price. No sales happened here
cashier told her to insert the card, so that she can cancel transaction, but it was actually ring in the purchase.
then cashier told her to insert again, this time was to refund.
So cashier lied, something is really fishy
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Simplest explanation:

The cashier didn't know how to do a price check, and started a purchase transaction instead.
Once you mom said she didn't want the pants, the cashier didn't know how or couldn't cancel the transaction. (May have needed a manager override.)
She decided to complete the in-progress transaction, then process a return transaction.

Cashier is dumb as a sack of rocks and even less useful.

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