Palmer, Reifler and Associates, P.A.

[Morriganrane]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Louisianna
Collection for costs, regarding an action, that was later proven that I did not do.

Hello there all. So sorry to bother you all with what is apparently a common collection agency but, my situation isn't exactly the same as the others that I had pulled up with a search. So here it goes. I'm sorry if this is a wall of text and I will not blame you if I come back and it has been skipped over, but I'm not sure how to give the most information on my situation without listing everything.

I was an employee for a Video Game retailer for around 2 years. One day, a young man came into the store to return an item that he had bought at another of our locations. He seemed to know one of the other employees that was not there that day, but I did not know who this kid was. I was management on duty at the time and took the return as it was a 250+ dollar item. Both I and the other employee inspected the box for any use or signs that it had been opened and used before bringing it back. It had not. By store policy, an unopened item may be returned to the store within 30 days if unopened, he actually had longer then that as it was getting near Christmas time. He had bought it the week before. I do the return, no issue. I scan the receipt into the computer, ensure that the monetary amount for the item on the receipt and the amount of the return on the screen matched. I gave the kid his money back and he left.
Several weeks later Loss prevention came to our store. She was all very nice and sugar sweet. I have social anxiety. I have difficulty handling new situations or situations that do not have outlined guidelines. So regardless of what I did or not, I was a nervous wreck. I also have an illness involving physical and mental fatigue, as well as brain fog and rather poor memory. It was expected that she was there to investigate another incident that I was not involved with, which she did. While there she discussed that incident with me, but called me in again later to discuss some returns that I had made to people.

There were two. One, I will accept was marginally outside of policy, but was something that was common to keep the customer happy. Someone returns used item within 7 days he can get a full refund, within 30 he gets the same identical SKU. In this instance he was a few days over the return for a full refund, he would have to get the same SKU. The customer was angry as he had bought the same game used 3xs and all, reportedly, did not work right. He wanted a new copy of the same title, paying the $20-/+ difference. I allowed this. We were getting merchandise back that would be gotten back anyway, we were still getting a sale. The used item was, at the time, maybe $30, new item was maybe around $50. Yes, okay. I accepted that it was technically against policy, except for the fact that that I would have gotten in trouble for not keeping the customer happy. No win situation.

Here is the important bit.
She brought up the other return. This SKU's price tag was $250+. I was confused. The only item with that SKU that I could remember taking as a return was the one described at the start of this that definitely had a receipt. What she had down on her end was that I used just some random receipt(an item with similar name but costing significantly less) and it was a receipt from something bought at our store(there are always return receipts laying about as we do not file & keep them). I argued with her that the only one I remember taking was the described and it had a receipt from a store in a different area(our printers are different models, so the text looks different in each) I did not scan the wrong receipt.Since I remembered that transaction fine, I assumed that there must be another return made somewhere and she wasn't talking about the one I remembered at all, maybe another employee had taken it in under my name, as similar had happened often before with a computer glitch, employees would be logged into the transaction as a different employee. She was Adamant that no such mistake or error could ever be made and that it was me. I started thinking that maybe, in my brain fog on another day, I had actually made a mistake somewhere, it was unlikely as I double check everything knowing my issues, but maybe I had. Checking the date, no it was the date of the one I remembered. She was also Certain that I must know the kid that returned it. I discussed that with my manager later and he had apparently recognized the name and the kid as a friend of one of our other employees and had told her so, she made the assumption that he was friends with me too then, making her statement sound like a fact. He apparently informed her that he was sure that I was not. I am 24 though appear young, the kid was maybe 17. My manager and I had many mutual friends in common so he felt he could make a statement like that. So she was sure that I had given a friend money back for something that he shouldn't have gotten money back for. Never mind that we still had the perfectly resalable merchandise and didn't loose anything. She refused to talk to the other employee working with me that day who had seen the receipt himself(I had taken the transaction from him because it was such a high priced item) and had been there during the entire thing.
She had me write out an outline of the two returns, ordering me to write down exactly what she told me to write down, I just wanted to get it over with(the anxiety had my hands shaking) and went along without too much of an angry fight because she alluded that I would be keeping my job and retribution would be taken out of my pay. "I so&so took in this item costing the company $_" ...only ...I didn't cost them that first item at all. I went along with it because it was technically out of policy but the whole thing didn't feel right. When she started outlining that I should have taken the 250+ dollar item back as a maybe a 50 dollar item, loosing the store 200+ I balked. I no longer wrote what she wanted me to write, but ad libbed slightly, I wasn't going to admit to something that I didn't even remember and didn't think I did. I wrote close to what she wanted but modified to sound as if a mistake was made and I acknowledged that, but not anywhere did I say that it was me who caused it to happen. This lady apparently has a history of tricking people into saying they did something that they hadn't, something I didn't know at the time or I would have been even more wary.
In the end I am fired, but before I left, I asked my manager to look into it. I thought that I had actually filed the receipt because the return was so large. He talked to the other employee there that night then he found the receipt in the paperwork for that night. Having proof that I followed policy he called the LP lady. She was apparently perturbed that he dared look into it himself, got the information from the receipt and then hug up on him. I'm of the opinion that the mistake was a computer glitch, as the register scanners often act up.

Now, four months later, Palmer, Reifler and Associates, P.A. has started calling me. I tried calling them back to find out how much money they Think that I owe but it remains busy. I do not plan to pay them after the research that I have done, but would like to try to set myself straight with the Retailer if possible. I will accept the first item, even though nothing was actually lost, but in the event that the Retailer is still Adamant that I owe them for The 250+ item, what are my options with this? Do I have a legal leg to stand on?