Hello, I work for Geek Squad in Best Buy in Sacramento, CA. I've worked for the company for 2.5 years. I've always gotten along with the staff and my managers have always respected my work ethic and my ability to get things accomplished without needing much guidance.
This holiday season my mother came into the store to purchase a new computer. She also brought along her old computer, which used to be mine when I lived with her, to get a data backup performed before recycling the computer.
Policy at Best Buy at my time of hiring was that you could use your employee discount for the purchases of immediate family. To the best of my knowledge, this policy had never been changed, and I am almost certain that I never signed any documentation acknowledging a change in this policy.
So I proceeded to use my employee discount on her purchase of the data backup. Keep in mind that I am a very qualified Geek Squad technician and I could have performed this backup at home for free, and that much of the data on the machine was mine. I convinced my mom to come in and purchase the backup so that I could have the convenience of doing it at work, and at the same time help my Geek Squad precinct hit budget for the day.
After Christmas, I had the store manager pull me into the office and tell me that corporate contacted her and needed some kind of statement from me as to why I used my discount for someone else. I stated basically what I've already stated in this post and emphasised that I obviously wasn't trying to cheat the company if I had my mother come in and pay for something I could have done at home for free. The manager then asked me when I worked next and said she'd keep me updated.
Two days later I came into work and clocked in and started to work. The store manager came up to me and asked me what I was doing. She said that I wasn't supposed to come into work until the issue was resolved. I told her that she never said anything to me about suspension and never had me sign any official documentation. She didn't have a good answer for me, so I clocked out and called HR as I walked out of the store.
As of right now I have called HR to file a complaint and am waiting for an actual case worker to get back to me. It's been 1 week as of today since I've worked and I am a college student who lives alone, so the money I'm losing is very important to me. Speaking to another store manager, the only response I got was "I have to wait for HR to get back to me to let me know if you're fired or not".
My question is this: if I am fired, what legal action can I take against the company?
My direct Geek Squad manager never confronted me. No store manager ever had me sign any documentation for suspension, or even let me know I was suspended until I went into the store and started working and had the awkward confrontation with the store manager. And I'm almost certain that over the 2.5 years that I've worked there, I never signed any paperwork acknowledging a change in policy for employee discount.
This is a very important matter to me as this was the job that was going to get me through college and paid my bills (barely) each month. I've put 2.5 years into this job and as a PC technician it is infinitely valuable to be able to put on my resume. I have been an extremely good employee, always going above and beyond the call of duty and constantly receive compliments from customers and other employees.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
This holiday season my mother came into the store to purchase a new computer. She also brought along her old computer, which used to be mine when I lived with her, to get a data backup performed before recycling the computer.
Policy at Best Buy at my time of hiring was that you could use your employee discount for the purchases of immediate family. To the best of my knowledge, this policy had never been changed, and I am almost certain that I never signed any documentation acknowledging a change in this policy.
So I proceeded to use my employee discount on her purchase of the data backup. Keep in mind that I am a very qualified Geek Squad technician and I could have performed this backup at home for free, and that much of the data on the machine was mine. I convinced my mom to come in and purchase the backup so that I could have the convenience of doing it at work, and at the same time help my Geek Squad precinct hit budget for the day.
After Christmas, I had the store manager pull me into the office and tell me that corporate contacted her and needed some kind of statement from me as to why I used my discount for someone else. I stated basically what I've already stated in this post and emphasised that I obviously wasn't trying to cheat the company if I had my mother come in and pay for something I could have done at home for free. The manager then asked me when I worked next and said she'd keep me updated.
Two days later I came into work and clocked in and started to work. The store manager came up to me and asked me what I was doing. She said that I wasn't supposed to come into work until the issue was resolved. I told her that she never said anything to me about suspension and never had me sign any official documentation. She didn't have a good answer for me, so I clocked out and called HR as I walked out of the store.
As of right now I have called HR to file a complaint and am waiting for an actual case worker to get back to me. It's been 1 week as of today since I've worked and I am a college student who lives alone, so the money I'm losing is very important to me. Speaking to another store manager, the only response I got was "I have to wait for HR to get back to me to let me know if you're fired or not".
My question is this: if I am fired, what legal action can I take against the company?
My direct Geek Squad manager never confronted me. No store manager ever had me sign any documentation for suspension, or even let me know I was suspended until I went into the store and started working and had the awkward confrontation with the store manager. And I'm almost certain that over the 2.5 years that I've worked there, I never signed any paperwork acknowledging a change in policy for employee discount.
This is a very important matter to me as this was the job that was going to get me through college and paid my bills (barely) each month. I've put 2.5 years into this job and as a PC technician it is infinitely valuable to be able to put on my resume. I have been an extremely good employee, always going above and beyond the call of duty and constantly receive compliments from customers and other employees.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
