What should stepson do?

[waggy]

i don't see how they can bill him for anything anyway. unless they are claiming he "stole" the item.

he NEEDS to call and find out WTF is going on. Also you haven't given us much info. you know he needs to call so why ask us to agree?

 

[TheNinja]

Yup, they need to call and find out what's going on. Also, you need to find out what the larger bills are for. And ya, Dollar General is kind of a low class joint if you ask me, but at least it was a job and the kid is willing to work. Half of the 25 year olds in this country are too lazy to find a job unless it pays them $75k to play on their ipad all day.

 

[Brainonska511]

i don't see how they can bill him for anything anyway. unless they are claiming he "stole" the item.

he NEEDS to call and find out WTF is going on. Also you haven't given us much info. you know he needs to call so why ask us to agree?

He doesn't need to call. He needs to do everything in WRITING. Or if he calls, follow up with a letter.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Does the employee manual say that if you screw up at the register you are responsible? if not, keep throwing the bill in the trash.

Unless he signed something saying he's responsible for this type of thing I would write a letter saying that the sale was made in good faith resulting in the company getting revenue for otherwise unreasonable merchandise. Also mention that you don't think it would look very good for Dollar General's behavior here to be made public.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Sounds like your stepson is old enough to figure it out.

 

[Paladin3]

In the US it is illegal to hold a regular employee acting in good faith financially responsible for damages or a company loss unless there is a contract in place stating such. He can be fired, but not charged for damages unless he was doing something illegal or agreed to pay restitution. Adding exorbitant fees or charges to any such restitution bill would be equally baseless unless your son signed a contract agreeing so such..

The only issues the company might have would be if they fired him for stealing, which they would have to prove, and they could only collect restitution for actual losses and maybe a tiny bit of interest over time. No court in the world would uphold an employer collecting restitution x100, but your son would have to respond to any law suit or they get the default judgment.

You stepson needs to figure out exactly who's billing him and why. Is this some dirt-bag collection agency? Sounds like we all have only half of the story here.

Also, because he is an adult, his former employer is legally prohibited from discussing anything relating to his employment with you. You son will have to handle this himself.

 

[MotionMan]

OP, you have given the correct advice. He has seen fit to ignore it. That leaves you with three choices:

1. Keep badgering him until he does something or you do No. 2;
2. Let it go and let him live his own life;
3. Step in and take care of the situation.

There is not much more advice you can get here since we really have no idea what really happened or what your relationship with him is really like.

MotionMan

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I don't think they can actually make you pay restitution for something like that unless you actually agree to it (which many companies will try and con you into doing).

 

[Perknose]

l. BUT there's nothing to go on other than the bills and what he says happened.

However he is the type that does not care to hide anything. he tells us everything else we don't want to know oddly enough. lol.
But the bills are there, they did go up long after he was fired...why i don't know. for what none of us know. They more or less say the same thing. bill for a bottle and each time it went up. Lawyer fee's maybe? that's all i can think of.

So, OP, you have seen and read each bill first hand, or are you just taking your stepson's word for what they say?

If you have and that's all they say, without any further explanation or itemization or any other wording whatsoever, it sounds and feels like a fishing expedition. Ianal, but I sincerely doubt if even the $20 bill is legally enforceable.

Since this is bothering you (it would bother me in your position), I suggest you take charge of this situation.

To begin with, I would question your stepson closely as to what else could possibly be behind this, given that you say is open enough with you. But that's just me.

Then, armed with the bills themselves and any and all other documentation, plus any and all background info from your stepson, I would contact whomever is on that bill and threaten bad local publicity.

I also wouldn't pay those effrers one single dime.

 

[mattpegher]

In the US it is illegal to hold a regular employee acting in good faith financially responsible for damages or a company loss unless there is a contract in place stating such. He can be fired, but not charged for damages unless he was doing something illegal or agreed to pay restitution. Adding exorbitant fees or charges to any such restitution bill would be equally baseless unless your son signed a contract agreeing so such..

The only issues the company might have would be if they fired him for stealing, which they would have to prove, and they could only collect restitution for actual losses and maybe a tiny bit of interest over time. No court in the world would uphold an employer collecting restitution x100, but your son would have to respond to any law suit or they get the default judgment.

You stepson needs to figure out exactly who's billing him and why. Is this some dirt-bag collection agency? Sounds like we all have only half of the story here.

Also, because he is an adult, his former employer is legally prohibited from discussing anything relating to his employment with you. You son will have to handle this himself.

This.

It is highly unlikely there was any thing in his employment contract that stipulates financial responsiblity for items sold. This is Dollar general. Now as for recovering damages for theft, these can only be rewarded by a judge.

He should ask in writing for the bill senders to send an itemized explaination for all the charges in writing. He should review the contract of employement, if he even had one.

This sounds like a scam.

 

[Locut0s]

Well it seems like a real dick move on the part of the store and or manager to bill him $20 for the bottle AFTER firing him. Is that even legal anyway? I remember when I worked at 7-11 as an assistant manager there were certain things they refused to do, like forcing someone to pay for a mistake out of their wages, apparently because they were worried it could get them into legal problems. At any rate it really is stupid of them to just ignore the bills/letters.

 

[Locut0s]

Every time you respond to a troll, God kills a kitten.

WTF Olds backing someone up in a thread about someone's son making a stupid mistake? Am I in the right dimension? Since when did you become, "nice"?

 

[Fritzo]

Wrap the latter around cinder block, then mark it "Return to Sender, Postage Due."

Unless they're willing to sue you (they won't), just ignore them.

 

[Locut0s]

In the US it is illegal to hold a regular employee acting in good faith financially responsible for damages or a company loss unless there is a contract in place stating such. He can be fired, but not charged for damages unless he was doing something illegal or agreed to pay restitution. Adding exorbitant fees or charges to any such restitution bill would be equally baseless unless your son signed a contract agreeing so such..

The only issues the company might have would be if they fired him for stealing, which they would have to prove, and they could only collect restitution for actual losses and maybe a tiny bit of interest over time. No court in the world would uphold an employer collecting restitution x100, but your son would have to respond to any law suit or they get the default judgment.

You stepson needs to figure out exactly who's billing him and why. Is this some dirt-bag collection agency? Sounds like we all have only half of the story here.

Also, because he is an adult, his former employer is legally prohibited from discussing anything relating to his employment with you. You son will have to handle this himself.

Yeah this is exactly what I thought was the case.

 

[AMCRambler]

what was obvious is the fact i mentioned he has NO MONEY. NO JOB EQUALS NO MONEY.
So that's $820.00 for a half empty bottle. I can understand why anyone would not want to pay them after getting fired, $820.00 for a half bottle worth no more than $5 that they made half their money off of on his sale to begin with.

I never said he does not pay his bills. Actually he does when he has money, but it takes money to pay bills. That does not make him a loser, he tries but ATM he thinks this is stupid and he is ignoring it since he can't pay.

So lets recap for those who can't read. DG made half of their asking price for half bottle of something they really coulndt otherwise sell. So them asking him for half is reasonable. Asking for a total of $820.00 after like 4 months i think is not so reasonable. I told him he needs to call, but you know, he's going to have that attitude then he's going to have to lay in the bed he makes. I'm not defending his actions, but the other comments are getting stupid. Obviously paying them $820.00 would make it go away, maybe.

i still think DG's being dicks about it. half the bottle price is a no brainer, even full bottle price is a no brainer but DG's first bill was way more than cost of bottle and now its silly prices.
Frankly i don't give a crap how he deals this, just gathering reasonable input. But its not unreasonable to see how someone would not want to pay their asking price....now if they didn't fire him, then i can see some fee's being reasonable in order to kee his job but their getting a bit extreme and they can do what they want.

Write a letter back to them stating that they need to provide documentation that this amount is indeed owed. They need to show register logs showing the transaction with your son's employee number on the sale and the price it was sold for. Then they need to produce an inventory listing with the actual price of the item. The burden of evidence is on them and if they can't produce this then they have no case. Get this in writing and save any response to this letter along with all the other correspondence. Also send it by registered mail with a signature required so that you can prove that the letters were received by them and subsequently ignored.

If they respond back that they have no evidence or they don't directly respond back at all you can write another letter stating that they have failed to prove that this money is owed and that as such there is no debt to pay. Having this all documented should he receive a summons to small claims court will the only thing you would have in your favor.

The other problem with all this is they have all his relevant info so this could get sent to collections and end up on his credit report. You will have to have the documentation above to give to any of the credit agencies to get that expunged.

That's the best I can come up with. Either that or send them a check for $20 via registered mail and make sure you get a copy of the cancelled check showing you paid them.