Of course that's what she says in this single-source story. But don't let the missing elements of the story get in the way of your outrage. Flame on.

Wow, I don't think that we have EVER had a Menard's sucks thread.

And knowing Consumerist, this is 90% not true.

Sounds to me like blackmail. Not sure that's entirely legal.

KarmicDisaster: Wow, I don't think that we have EVER had a Menard's sucks thread.

Unless it's a NASCAR thread...

Whats Menards?

You gonna pay for that?

This happened to a friend of mine buying a funnel and some tubing for a beer bong, among a couple other things. The retarded clerk ran out after us to the parking lot, apparently remembering her mistake, and told us she had to charge us for the 2 feet of tubing (probably 75 cents tops). We had already waited forever as she went back to price the funnel, so we told her she was shiat out of luck. She told us she had our license plate (though barely arriving at our car) and said the sheriffs would be looking for us. We just laughed and turned the music up until she couldn't be heard.

/Ah, the good old days

Menards... when you want home improvement supplies, but you don't want to pay those high Walmart prices.

What do you expect is going to happen when you hire loss-prevention people who can't find any real losses to prevent?

IDIOT!

NEVER SIGN

make them call the police. if in that situation the police would have told Menards security "fark you, don't waste out time asshole"

I only know the song.

"Save big money at Menards"

What a Menard might look like.

The store should have called the cops.

How dumb must you be to pay 150$ and sign something with out fully understanding. If you did not steal you let them call the cops and work it out. This story reeks of bull crap.

Sounds like some upper-level manager will be getting a good bonus this year for the new revenue stream idea.

Someone posted the following story in the Janesville, Wisconsin CraigsList over the weekend.

Well that explains everything.

Semi-related? My kids (who are 2 & 4) LOVE the Mendards Jingle, "Save Big Money at Menards".

Good stuff!

This was either one of those "honest mistake" type incidents, or one of those "we're about to buy $300 worth of crap, let's hide these bits in the box" incidents.

I've seen both and people DO put stuff in open boxes to pilfer it...it happens.

If this was an accident, the lady was a total dumbass for shelling over the shakedown payment. Go ahead, call the cops. The cop will hopefully have a gram of common sense and will allow you to pay for the item and leave.

/I would have returned the whole order and told them to fark off.

It's really hard to feel bad for stupid people.

A story posted on craigslist with no confirmation. I love me interweb reporting!

If that's really what happened, the lady should have just called the cops herself. That's obviously blackmail.

MENARRRRRRRRRRRRRDS!

/okay, seriously, why would you sign anything you didn't understand nor get a copy of?
//my response: "Go ahead and call the police. I'll wait. No, let me call them for you from my cell."

Another Government Employee: The store customers should have called the cops.

FTFY

"Ok, call the police."

The end.

phone.

Cell phone.

Crap I need caffeine.

JWMthree: Sounds to me like blackmail. Not sure that's entirely legal.

You're not from around here are you?

AbbeySomeone: JWMthree: Sounds to me like blackmail. Not sure that's entirely legal.

You're not from around here are you?

What does your local sheriff think of your business practices?

I've said it before, and I've said it again. The quality of articles on Consumerist has dropped like a rock. We're like in Bizzaro world - they leave the Gawker umbrella, where ethics and integrity are not a high priority, go to Consumer Reports, and they get WORSE?

Northrup and Villareal come straight from the NY Post school of journalism. Sensationalist headlines with not a lot of content or even worse, misleading content.

Consumerist used to be a daily visit for me. Now, at best, it's maybe a 2-times-a-week visit.

This reeks of bullshiat, or stupidity. Signing something and paying $150 without getting a copy of the documentation? Yeah, not farking likely.

Lady, it's called a lawyer. Look into getting one.

That said, why do I think there's a big part of this story that is missing?

D_Evans45: This happened to a friend of mine buying a funnel and some tubing for a beer bong, among a couple other things. The retarded clerk ran out after us to the parking lot, apparently remembering her mistake, and told us she had to charge us for the 2 feet of tubing (probably 75 cents tops). We had already waited forever as she went back to price the funnel, so we told her she was shiat out of luck. She told us she had our license plate (though barely arriving at our car) and said the sheriffs would be looking for us. We just laughed and turned the music up until she couldn't be heard.

/Ah, the good old days

Wow, you're a dick. Cool story bra.

MDGeist: How dumb must you be to pay 150$ and sign something with out fully understanding. If you did not steal you let them call the cops and work it out. This story reeks of bull crap.

Yeah, just the other day I kidnapped someone I was about to murder, and she offered to let me have sex with her. What was she thinking? I don't even use condoms!

You never go full Menard.

I can totally understand being moved to tears and so emotionally moved so that signing such paperwork made sense. The brain turns off pretty easily when it comes to Fight or Flight. The thing is, Fight would have been preferred here.

"Go ahead, bring the police in, and I'm going to make sure you're prosecuted for holding me against my will! Then we'll see about the civil suit!" usually brings a swift end to confrontations of this sort.

Why did these people not have security call the store manager and then explain to said manager what had happened? I am in the process of updating & remodeling my second home in six years, and spend a lot of time & money in the big box stores, and have had to pull the old " Lowe's/Home Depot is right around the corner" routine on managers of both establishments and find it works quite well when you are an established customer.

"It's a giant spider invasion of savings at Menards!"

12349876: I only know the song.

"Save big money at Menards"

Ah yes. I know it well because they play it constantly when you're in the store. I think it's a social experiment to see how long it takes employees to snap and start hacking each other to death with garden tools.

Kazan: IDIOT!

NEVER SIGN

make them call the police. if in that situation the police would have told Menards security "fark you, don't waste out time asshole"

Pretty much this. Of course out of spite the store might then issue a criminal trespass notice and they'd no longer be able to go back. After that ordeal though why would they want to.

Of course, I'm having a difficult time believing this. A national chain engaging in outright extortion would have made the news a long time ago. I'd be more willing to believe if this woman had received copies of the documents she signed and provided them to the Consumerist as evidence.

Knucklepopper: Of course that's what she says in this single-source story. But don't let the missing elements of the story get in the way of your outrage. Flame on.

Precisely why I don't read Consumerist anymore. They'll post any bullshiat story and anyone half-intelligent will figure out is just a he-said/she-said story...no verification...no proof. All you have to do is write a QQ email to them and they'll post your story...but only so long as your story will adequately demonize any corporation.

My favorite Consumerist article was the about a fat lady complaining that an employee at some department store referred her to the plus-size department...because she was fat.

Depending on how hot she is, I can think of a few other ways she could have worked it out. And they could still call the cops to borrow some handcuffs.

At least in my state, one of the components of a shoplifting charge is intent. If they can't prove intent, then there's no case. They should have fought it.

When I moved from the Midwest to the East Coast a decade ago, I immediately missed the manic visage of the Menards Guy during every commercial break.

People who open boxes in store deserve this type of shiat. Take it home to try it out or ask a customer service rep to open the box so that it's not a complete mess when you put it back together.

Hey this one time I went into Wal Mart, and I picked up a can of tomato soup, looked at the label and decided that it was too high in sodium, and accidentally put it back in the space for the Cream of Chicken. The security guard on duty saw me do this, immediately confronted me, handcuffed me, and took me to a back room where I was savagely beaten and anally violated with a tire iron for 3 hours. Finally, an unmarked van drove me out to the country where I was thrown in a ditch and left for dead. After recovering my strength by drinking water in the ditch and eating grass, I managed to crawl home, only to find my house burned to the ground, with the words "Cross Wal Mart, Pay The Price" burned into my lawn.

Can I get a story up on The Consumerist too?

Is this the same person that had her baby taken from her at the airport?

If the fact that it's on Consumerist doesn't cast doubt on the validity of this story, then the fact that they got it from Craig's List really ought to do it. Wow. Who the hell keeps submitting Consumerist links?

Nick Nostril: Sounds like some upper-level manager will be getting a good bonus this year for the new revenue stream idea $150 in his pocket

FTFY

This story does have an odor of bullshiat but there is no way to tell for sure. I could see someone getting razzled by the experience, then signing the paperwork and paying the fine just to make it go away. If it was me however, I would have insisted that they call the police or done so myself. I would have refused to follow them into the security room also.