Facebook user Princess Ong Fontanilla shared her unfortunate experience at a famous fashion boutique last May 21.
According to her, she was in the mall together with her family because of its 3-day sale. They headed straight to a famous fashion boutique as soon as they entered the mall. They immediately looked for clothes and tried them on, knowing that the fashion retailer has three floors, they stopped at every floor and checked the different on-sale items.
Afterwards, they headed towards the cashier. The queue was a bit long and as soon as she was near the cashier, she opened her bag to get her wallet but to her surprise, the bag was already slashed and her wallet was gone!
Due to shock, she shouted “Yung bag ko!”
The people behind her started shouting “CCTV, CCTV” and another one reported the incident to the guard. That’s the time that a security guard approached her and asked her what happened. She said that her bag was slashed and her wallet was gone.
So the guard reported the incident via radio and another guard approached them and ask what happened, this time Princess asked for a CCTV footage which the guard agreed to.
They waited for around 10 minutes; unfortunately, no CCTV footage was shown to her. Instead different guards just approached her and asked what happened, by the time another guard asked them the same question, she shrugged it off and asked to speak with the manager instead.
As soon as their family was complete and was waiting for the progress of the investigation, they also noticed that her mom’s bag was slashed as well; thankfully, nothing was stolen from her.
The irritating part is that the guards seemed to be lenient as if what’s happening was normal.
“Wala man lang sense of urgency. Another thing is yung isang guard, sabi niya ‘Actually Ma’am, hindi kayo yung unang nanakawan ngayon. Meron nang 2 sa supermarket at 1 sa Uniqlo.’ How is that supposed to make me feel? Dapat ba akong ma at ease dahil hindi ako yung una or mas mag alala dahil hindi pala ako yung una pero wala parin silang ginagawa. Ako na yung pang-apat pero wala paring alert response plus maaring nasa vicinity pa ng H&M yung gumagawa,” she said.
As soon as the manager arrived she asked what happened and assured them that they will review the CCTV but they won’t allow Princess nor her family to view it because it’s their security policy. After that, the manager left and went to the CCTV Monitoring Room.
Princess’ mom knocked on the door where the manager entered and they were informed that someone already contacted the Customer Relations Security (CRS); unfortunately, no one’s answering so her sister asked what could they do because it seemed like they are waiting for nothing.
That’s the time that the manager advised them to file an incident report and go to the Police Station to report the incident and ask the police to request for a copy of the fashion boutique’s CCTV.
While they were on the way to the CRS, the boutique’s security head said that they are also having problems with the management of said boutique. As soon as they reached the office, they were surprised that the people in the office are clueless about the situation; they said that they didn’t receive any call.
The CRS Supervisor was looking for the store manager; unfortunately, the manager didn’t accompany them to the office. They decided to call the manager on the phone but he’s not answering so the guard personally went to the manager.
One of the officers in the CRS assisted them to the Police Station near the mall to request for H&M’s CCTV footage. The manager of the store, together with the guard, followed them afterwards. They were surprised to see a different manager.
“We asked him if he’s the supervisor… but he said ‘manager po ako… Actually, nandun po ako sa may cashier counter kanina nung narinig ko po kayo, may inaayos lang po ako sa baba,” the manager said.
They headed back to the store at around 9 PM and the manager was able to let them view footage of the CCTV using his phone. According to the manager, these were the only clips they could extract – short clips with unsynchronized time. They asked for the 2nd floor CCTV footage but they were informed that the CCTVs are limited in the area.
Until now they are still coordinating with the store and the police; they still don’t have the complete CCTV footage.
We hope that this situation will be resolved soon.
For people who love to shop especially on sale, let’s be vigilant in our surroundings to avoid the situation like this.
Read her full post here:
