CVS Fires Woman for "Theft" of $36 by Letting Customers Use Her Rewards Card, Sparks Debate

We've probably all been at the checkout aisle of a supermarket or any retailer with a rewards/points system and asked the cashier to scan a "communal" membership card for us so we can get that extra 20 cents off the can of corn, or to enable that buy one get one free offer that's extended to members only.

Back in the day, not having your physical card with you was a problem, as these systems usually didn't allow employees to look up customers' phone numbers to key-in their membership numbers. These days, all you need to do is punch in the ten digits associated with the account and you're good to go.

But what if you don't want a store to have your personal information? What if you just want the discounts associated with the membership, but don't necessarily care about the cash rewards or free turkey/socks/etc. the retailer is handing out, then you may just ask a worker to use one of the "communal cards" or to just scan their own.

And a CVS employee would oblige customers who were of this mindset until it got her fired.

A TikToker by the name of Shannon, who posts on the popular social media application under the username @shaaanmarie, shared the story of how she was let go from her position at CVS after letting customers use her rewards card.

She says in the clip: "I got fired from CVS and I'm still mad about it to this day, to this day even though this was, six years ago I still only shop at Walgreens and I'm gonna tell you why. Because f--- CVS let me explain. So when I was nineteen I was working at CVS, putting in overtime I made all the clearance signs, by hand, unpaid, on my own time, loved that company, loved my job..."

Shannon then went into how all of her hard work went unappreciated by the business, "And during my training you know how you get like the extra care bucks, like they print out on your receipt or at least they did at the time, and I was told if somebody doesn't have a phone number with CVS you can put in your own phone number."

Ultimately, what Shannon was told in training, apparently was against company policy or something had changed and she wasn't informed, because she continued to use her own card for customers who didn't have an extra care membership. "So I did that every time. And I acquired the extra care bucks. And it wasn't a lot, it was maybe like five, six bucks? Like once a month or like once a quarter, I don't remember."

Shannon went on, "It was nothing, but I spent them, it's like a coupon, and one day corporate came in, district manager came in and they called me into the office and I was not aware that this was not allowed with the company so when they asked me if somebody doesn't have an extra care number do you ever put your own phone number in? And I was like yes every single time."

Apparently corporate didn't like that, because Shannon pantomimed them narrowing their eyes at her, "And they were like [glare] you can't do that. Like that's not allowed that's theft. And I was like well that's how I was trained and...their minds were blown and they said that's not how you were trained nobody else at this store uses their personal phone number to get money back and I said of course they don't they use the Jenny Craig number it's like the thing in this store."

Again, corporate didn't seem to like that very much, "And they were like [mind blown] again I don't know how they didn't catch on to that. Anyways, they fired me, accused me of theft and then sent me a bill in the mail to CVS, saying I owed thirty six dollars. F---- outta here you're a billion dollar company."

Shannon, clearly frustrated and appalled that a massive company would send one of their employees who used to work unpaid hours for the company would send her a bill for thirty six dollars said she refused to cover the bill. "I didn't pay it, anyways I went into CVS like the same CVS maybe like five months and they still have my same clearance sign that I made, by hand painted. So I took that s*** f*** CVS."

TikTokers who saw Shannon's post said they would refuse to shop at CVS out of solidarity. Others said that they were going to call out of their shift at the popular pharmacy retailer after hearing the way corporate treated the TikToker.