HEB Rip off at the bagger area. Groceries do not make it to your car. San Antonio Texas

 It's also the customer's job to make sure the bagger didn't leave anything behind, you do realize most of them are teenagers so they get distracted easily and sometimes forget. By the way it's not a scam, it's an honest mistake.

It's not a scam. We have lots of new baggers all the time, they are generally the ones who do this. We are supposed to flip the last bag up to make sure it is empty before a new order starts anyway. I used to forget to put stuff in the cart when I first started too, especially when the customer distracted me with a complete narrative of their life story.

. MOST of the time it is the customer who is so eager to get out of the store that they blow over the bagger and zoom away WHILE we are in the process of loading (my toes have been run over MANY MANY times) and I have to say "HEY WE AREN'T DONE, COME BACK".

Just like some customers forget to put ALL of their items on the belt, baggers might forget to put stuff back in. We are all human.

Alright, I've been working for H-E-B the past few months and can safely say that this company is one of the most lenient companies I have ever seen.

I'm a bagger at H-E-B so these things tend to happen when an item is left behind. Now, you have several factors to take into account before you go off and accuse the entire stores' employees of 'stealing' your things. That really is obnoxious.

A Baggers Job Consists of the Following:
1) Greet customer with a smiling face and 'Hello, how are you doing today?'
2) Help the customer unload their cart efficiently (personally, I like to organize it before hand i.e. cold with cold, dry with dry, produce up front, than canned goods etc...)
3) Ask which they would rather, paper or plastic?
4) Bag said grocery items (making sure heavy on bottom and examine it for tears, because plastic does tear, all the while keeping in mind how heavy the bags should be depending on the factors of age, physique, and if they have any noticeable injuries that would hinder them)
5) Carry on a conversation with the customer (generally it will be with whoever is accompanying the customer paying, if anyone at all)
6) Load cart, heavy on bottom, and once that is complete you ask them if they would like any help out, if not bid them farewell and if so drive their cart to their car. (I work at an H-E-B in a ritzy 'city/town' so generally our customers are s****.> For starters, a register can get messy on busy days i.e. paper bags/wine bags on the counter top behind the small bag rack and occassionally things will slip behind it and go unnoticed if it gets too crowded. No one can honestly say they have NEVER seen a backed up register before, where things are toppling over each other. (It's really a race, the bagger has to keep up with the cashier trying to raise their IPMs while the bagger has to organize all the groceries and pack them into bags, put them in the cart and make sure nothing gets left behind and when there is a large order, don't be surprised if something's missing)

If we notice an item left behind said bagger will be sent running after the customer, I've even chased them into the far back of the parking lot, and return the item. Now, would Walmart do that for you? No, they wouldn't. What about Krogers? Probably not. And Bashes, Albertsons, Fry's? As if.

Often enough customers are in such a hurry that they shoot off with their carts when there are still things not packed. (we catch their attention before they get far in this case, and some even glare at US as if it's OUR fault their lives are so rushed. If you don't have time to shop calmly then...don't. Duh. Even if you do shop, don't take it out on the employees-- we deal with nonsensical things far too much.)

Whenever an item is found (long after the customer has left) a cashier or bagger spot it, think 'Oh crap' and do either one of two things: a) they leave it by the receipt machine in case said customer comes back for it or b) put it under the register as a return item.

Also, if you purchase something thin and long (i.e. a slice of salmon packaged in plastic or McCormick sauce mixes) they slip under the conveyor belt on the way down, only to be found later when the registers are cleaned thoroughly around 6-7pm.

So, when you decide to point a finger just make sure there wont be ten others pointing at you. Than you look like a bratty fool.

Look why dont u stop complaining that HEB forgets things. First of all its your stuff if you can put it in the cart u can put in a bag and take it to ur car. At least HEB has baggers and do they favor of bagging stuff and carrying out stuff for lazy people that cant do it themselves. Does walmart have any baggers??? HEB has way better customer service than walmart. If I dont see a bagger when im checking out i do it myself because its not fair to the cashier that they have to do twice the work. So if i were u John bag ur own stuff so that way u cant blame anyone else but urself. And always look to make sure there is no bags left even on the hangers because most of the time a bagger leaves it there is when someone needs them to go and get something for a lazy customer who cant get it themselves.

Look why dont u stop complaining that HEB forgets things. First of all its your stuff if you can put it in the cart u can put in a bag and take it to ur car. At least HEB has baggers and do they favor of bagging stuff and carrying out stuff for lazy people that cant do it themselves. Does walmart have any baggers??? HEB has way better customer service than walmart. If I dont see a bagger when im checking out i do it myself because its not fair to the cashier that they have to do twice the work. So if i were u John bag ur own stuff so that way u cant blame anyone else but urself. And always look to make sure there is no bags left even on the hangers because most of the time a bagger leaves it there is when someone needs them to go and get something for a lazy customer who cant get it themselves.

Look why dont u stop complaining that HEB forgets things. First of all its your stuff if you can put it in the cart u can put in a bag and take it to ur car. At least HEB has baggers and do they favor of bagging stuff and carrying out stuff for lazy people that cant do it themselves. Does walmart have any baggers??? HEB has way better customer service than walmart. If I dont see a bagger when im checking out i do it myself because its not fair to the cashier that they have to do twice the work. So if i were u John bag ur own stuff so that way u cant blame anyone else but urself. And always look to make sure there is no bags left even on the hangers because most of the time a bagger leaves it there is when someone needs them to go and get something for a lazy customer who cant get it themselves.

Look why dont u stop complaining that HEB forgets things. First of all its your stuff if you can put it in the cart u can put in a bag and take it to ur car. At least HEB has baggers and do they favor of bagging stuff and carrying out stuff for lazy people that cant do it themselves. Does walmart have any baggers??? HEB has way better customer service than walmart. If I dont see a bagger when im checking out i do it myself because its not fair to the cashier that they have to do twice the work. So if i were u John bag ur own stuff so that way u cant blame anyone else but urself. And always look to make sure there is no bags left even on the hangers because most of the time a bagger leaves it there is when someone needs them to go and get something for a lazy customer who cant get it themselves.

I actually work for HEB, and have been a cashier/bagger at the store.
And you have to see it from an employees perspective.
As a cashier you are expected to scan the items very fast, they actually time the amount of items you can scan. Ask a cashier at heb what their IPM's are (Items Per Minute) and I am sure they can tell you.
Also you have to talk with the customer, bag the items, process the payment, answer any questions they have, and act friendly!
They scan multiple customers through every day.
I had no intentions of "stealing" a customers groceries, but sometimes I would forget to put a bag in the cart.
As an employee I was not making any money off of it.
And normally the customer comes in and gets the items, or they just come in the next time with a receipt and the manager would give them a refund.

I can't speak for the particular store you go to and say that they are not stealing items or anything.
I can speak for the stores I have worked at that it's an honest mistake when it does happen.

I would recommend talking with a store manager and letting them know the problem.
HEB is all about customer satisfaction and they can't fix the problem unless they are aware that it exists.

This happens a lot. Things get left behind. From my experience (and I do have a lot) about half the time, it's the bagger's fault. The rest of the time, it's the customer.

When it's the bagger's fault:

Sometimes there's a bag hidden from view by the cashier, depending on how the register is set up. Sometimes it's in plain view, right in front of their eyes, and they just miss it. Either way, it's their fault. They should be paying better attention. The good ones only do this when it's busy and they're trying to work too hard or too fast. The bad ones do stuff like this when there are no customers, and they've only bagged one order in the last hour and they still can't seem to focus on their job. (For the record, we hate the bad ones even more than you do. They make us all have to work harder, and we don't shed a tear when they're inevitably fired.)

When it's the customer's fault:

If you leave it in your basket when you're loading your car, that's your fault.
If you're not paying attention when you're loading your groceries onto the belt, and you put it with someone else's groceries, it's your fault.

If you're on an express lane, and you don't end up with your groceries, it's almost always your fault. This is the most common one. People say that they went through register 1 or 2 and the bagger didn't give them their groceries. 99% of the time, there's no bagger on register 1 or 2. They're express lanes. If you really have 10 items or less the cashier can easily bag your groceries while you pay. It's your responsibility to pick up all of your groceries.

I do shop at this HEB, quite often, but I am one of those people who watch every item as they scan it & make sure I have all my bags before I leave the check out counter. I have never left any groceries behind.

This is a common problem with stores that have "Courtesies" or "Baggers". The position is considered entry level and is often given to high school and college kids or people with limited skills. I have been in the grocery business for 2 years. I started as a cashier at one store, and am now a database manager and assistant to the store manager at a different store.

Most stores have a policy that if you leave something there, they will set it aside for you if you should come back and ask for it. At the first grocery store I worked at, the cashier would fill out a slip specifying the item, what lane the item was left at, what time the customer was there and any description of the customer. Sometimes if the left item was noticed right away, we could get the customer's info from their check if they paid by check or a name from a credit card slip if they paid by card. If the customer called the store, we made sure they got the item when they returned or issued a refund at their next visit.

Ask your store what their policy is in these situations. If you provide your receipt and are a good customer, they will likely give the item to you.

To prevent this from happening in the first place, watch your items. Be sure you have completely unloaded your cart. I have had customers come back for items they thought were lost, but they were left in the cart or fell off the belt and were sitting on the floor.

Once your groceries are bagged, watch the courtesy clerk. See that they check the bagging area. Ask if you can check it yourself. As you load your vehicle, peek in your bags to see that you have the items you expect to see. If you think something is missing, check more closely. Then check your receipt. If something is missing, bring all of your bags back into the store and ask a manager to go through them. If the item is missing from the bags but appears on your receipt, they should give it to you.

Customer vigilance is always necessary in any kind of store. People make mistakes. I don't believe this is so much a rip-off as carelessness. If you are vigilant as a customer, you will catch these mistakes and get them corrected before you get home. Catching these mistakes also keeps the employees on their toes and alerts management to carelessness so it can be addressed.