With an estimate of 6.1 billion dollars lost in retail theft in 2023, it’s no wonder that the American Retail corporation, Walmart, has to be strict on its customers.
From 24/7 surveillance to trained personnel to even the people who check receipts at the front of the store, it’s evident that the store takes serious precautionary measures. But at what point do these measures take it one step too far?
After what was meant to be a speedy merchandise return turned into an alleged interrogation for one shopper, the customer turned to TikTok to share his story. Posted just two days ago, Gustavo Serna (@gustavoserna) claims that Walmart perceives him to be a “thief,” garnering him over 149,300 views and 6,270 likes. Serna caught part of the interaction on film in his two-part series.
Standing at the Customer Service desk at his local Walmart, Serna films himself as he tries to return a fog machine, bought just in time for the holiday season.
“I’m here at Walmart, I had the receipt and everything like that. The lady didn’t believe me,” Serna begins.
Serna claims that the woman behind the counter believes Serna had previously stolen the merchandise, because its packaging lacked an orange sticker. Allegedly, placing an orange sticker on the merchandise at purchase is a protocol by some stores.
Does Walmart put orange stickers on electronics?
However many viewers of the story claimed to have never seen such tactics at their stores.
“There is no one giving out orange stickers at the Walmart where I live,” one mentioned.
“My Walmart doesn’t even put stickers on anything,” another added.
Regardless, Serna continued on.
“The lady before me tried returning something too, but she ain’t need no orange sticker, but I do,” Serna says.
The Walmart protocol
Feeling singled-out, Serna questions why store-workers believed he was the type of person to steal.
“So what we’ll have to do is get somebody from our asset protection to pull the cameras on it,” the worker says to Serna.
“Even though I got a receipt right there?” Serna questions back. “So y’all think I stole it, even though I have proof that I bought it?”
The worker tells Serna that they simply need to confirm he had walked in with the merchandise before completing the return. At this point, Serna informs the worker that he’s filming the entire interaction and wants to be as accurate as possible.
“This is crazy, the lady before me had a receipt, she ain’t need no orange sticker, nothing like that,” Serna says.
“She did have an orange sticker,” the employee quickly says back.
“Oh, word. That’s cap.”
Serna looks toward his phone and tells viewers that he believed the employee was not being truthful.
He continues to tell her to go ahead and look back at the security footage, as he allegedly has nothing to hide.
“I ain’t got no reason to steal nothing. […] I got my receipt and everything. That is crazy, huh?” Serna asks viewers.
“Tone it down,” says the worker faintly in the background. However, Serna refuses.
“You can have a receipt with proof that you purchased something and you are trying to return it, but they don’t want to believe you,” Serna says.
Serna then stands to the side and watches as the employee explains the situation to another Walmart worker. She asks him at what time he entered the door then proceeds to have her co-worker look-up the footage.
“Crazy brother, they’re gonna have me wait her another 30-45 minutes just to prove I ain’t steal something,” Serna concludes the video.
Was he able to return the item?
However, after multiple viewers asked Serna for an update, just yesterday Serna publicly posted the rest of the story.
Now at home, Serna looked back at the entire experience and gave viewers the context and conclusion they asked for.
“I have two forms of income,” Serna explains.
And though the employee never called Serna a thief to his face, he admitted that he still felt that way.
“You don’t have to call me a thief, because look at what you’re doing, look at the actions you’re doing right now,” Serna says.
“Your actions speak louder than words could ever,” Serna says.
@gustavoserna Crosby Walmart #fyp #foryoupage #walmart #crazy ♬ original sound – Gustavo Serna
Walmart holds the line
He then told audience members that he waited for 30 minutes to be approved to make the final return on the product. Despite approval, the employee then allegedly further asked why he had to make the return in the first place.
This was then followed by the employee claiming that not all pieces were in the fog machines box and Serna would be unable to make the exchange.
“She didn’t look properly, she really didn’t,” Serna exclaims.
As Serna looked for the missing screw the employee had mentioned, allegedly it had just fallen beneath the product, as though she didn’t even look.
“Make it make sense,” Serna pleads to his viewers.
After taking a breath, Serna shares that he never received an apology for his wasted time, nor for how he was treated.
“I have no reason to steal whatsoever,” Serna concludes in his follow-up.
So while it’s unclear whether the Walmart employee was simply following store protocol or if she was taking it one step too far, it’s obvious the interaction made Serna uncomfortable.
The Daily Dot reached out to Gustavo Serna (@gustavoserna) via TikTok direct message and Walmart via their press relations page for comment.
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