Best Buy’s Stupid Check Policy

Last week, I had a very strange experience while shopping at the local Best Buy stores.

The elderly lady customer in front of me was writing out a check as would many customers in any store.

What surprised me was exactly how this check was being processed by the cashier.

He first put the check in facedown and the check was read by the register. He then did this a second time. Afterwards he turned the check to the reverse side and did it again twice more.

What the real surprise was that after all this scanning of the check; she was required to sign her name on the credit card pin pad. Now of course, if you are thinking like me, then this is raising a HUGE red flag!

Why in the world would anybody need to sign their name on an electronic device after they had signed their name on the check they just presented?

My thought is that Best Buy wishes to capture as much information about its customers in a transaction as possible whether legal or not.

When I got to have my transaction, I asked the cashier why the customer had to sign on the electronic pad when she signed her check. His response was that the check is electronically stored and that the signature was needed for processing the check.

Huh?!?

Since when is a double signature needed for any processing of any type of payment especially since credit card transactions under $50 require no signature at all?

It seems apparent to me that the cashier is completely clueless as far as how transactions are handled and given how Best Buy requires and stores personal information; it appears that this cashier falls in line with being the type of employee the company loves.

What really surprises me is that Best Buy’s privacy policy doesn’t guarantee that the personal information given is protected or that they will give it out to any third party that they wish to. To opt out of their stupid policy, you must either write an old fashioned letter to them or email them of your desires. I find these two approaches highly undesirable as neither gives the type of satisfaction of that gives immediate results.

I try not to make any transaction over $50 when I shop there (I always with a credit card). I try never to make a return as I wish not to give out my license to them. I also try to keep under the radar so that none of my personal information is tracked unlike what companies like Staples has done to me in the past.

What finally set me back at the end of the lady’s transaction was when she asked the cashier where Staples was located. When he couldn’t tell her, I almost felt like telling her, but I figured she already had her identity stolen once today, she didn’t need it stolen twice. And why in the world would I ever want to give Staples any business anymore anyway?