Retail concerns

[Bean19844]

Hi all. Hope everyone is doing ok. Been suggested too me from a few friends too speak to you guys on here regarding an issue my wife has.

Yesterday my wife was running her shop by herself when a customer walked in and said he wants these cookies collected in 30 mins and theres the money then stormed off as she told him it will be an hour as the cookies have to prepped and cooked still.

After this the oven went off, so she had too deal with this 1st otherwise the cookies wouls have all burned and been fit for the bin. After this approx 30 mins later she put the money in the till and swapped the £20 not for four £5 notes out of her purse as she needed some extra change as someone sent all the change off to the bank so her collegue was going too do this for them as there manager has told them its fine to do as even he does it.

Shortly later her area manager turns up with this customer who turns out to be an undercover investigator for the company and decide to do a till search. Theyve suspended her as the orginal £20 note was not in the till and was found in her purse. Theyve taken the serial numbers prior to this. Theyve already accepted that the till count is correct but they are making a fuss over the fact that she changed the momey around and that is not acceptable and that she is a theif. They decided to do a search with 1 male staff conducting the primary search whilst another female recorded all the items. He made her turn her bra out as well so thats upset her on top. Personal belongings was obviously found and they decided to make herpty her hand bag to check for me money, even though the till count is correct and they have verified this whick makes me question do they have enough supporting grounds to conduct this search legally.

Anyways she is currently suspended and been in pieces and feels like her life has just been turned upside down as they said ahe may not have a job after this.

Can they really look at sacking you for swapping some notes around too get some change sorted as they sent the change float back by mistake even though her manager told her its fine to do so.

Sorry for the long post friends. Any help will be much aprecciated

Allen

[Snoopy1948]

Re: Retail concerns

The first thing that springs to my mind is that this was all as the result as some form of undercover sting that must have been prompted for some reason. Was there a history of the till being short? You say that she was called a thief and yet there was no evidence of theft, as I see it. It also seems excessive that a personal ( and intimate ) search has been made on your wife despite there being no losses on the day. Was any mention made of reporting this to the police? And what if your wife had not changed the money up? Would the matter have simply stopped there?

If everything is exactly as you say, then the firm appears to have acted to excess. But there must be reasoning behind all of this and your wife is entitled to know exactly why that is.