Issuing invoice at the end of the working time

[Tibetian]

I had very unpleasant and sad experience at one of the sport chain store on Croatian coast when I wanted to buy fishing rod for my child. I was in the store before end of working time, but when I got to the counter supposedly this working time was over. Shop personnel start complaining that they have now problem to issue invoice. Another employee came and said that she has a way to issue invoice, but shop manager told her not to do it. Instead, they called police, and police nailed me to the floor, broke my nose, handcuffed me and took me in a squad car to the station in front of my crying children!

In police station I was told they will keep me till the morning with my children scared in the car if I do not make a statement which didn't state that police worked in interest of chain store rather than me as civilian, and that they tried to falsely accuse me if not giving my ID.

My question is, was the shop obliged by the law to issue invoice and was my rights violated?

[G-man]

Regarding your question on store's obligation to issue an invoice, in my opinion, they were not obligated to do so, especially since the store is bounded by central electronic bill-issuing system (so-called "fiskalizacija") governed by the Ministry of finances, and if they had issued an invoice after working hours, they would have commited a violation by doing so and held accountable for it. I'm not familiar if there is a statute proscribed exception during the tourist season in cases like yours, so keep that in mind.

 

As for the police treatment, no hard feelings for what I'm about to write, but I find it very difficult to believe you were treated in a described way, if you only asked of a possibility of issuing an invoice. Something else must have happened to trigger the reaction of the police. Croatia is not a "police state" and the governing of our law enforcement authorities has strict rules, as it has very strict penalties in cases where those rules are breached.

 

However, if you're convinced you did absolutely nothing wrong, I advise you to file a complaint against police brutality to the Chief of police.

 

I'm very sorry you've experienced such treatment and I hope it won't happen again.

[Tibetian]

I am confused with this - don't they have other mean of invoicing? As this was exactly what one of the cashier said that she can do, but shop manager which was very arrogant said that he wants to go home and not to do it in spite.

Also shop security was very arrogant and when police came he claimed I was steeling, while money was on cash desk and police saw this is not a case. I asked police to take note that I was falsely accused by security and ask police to ask shop employees if they have means of issuing manual invoice and if they are obliged to do so. Police did nothing of that but attacked me. Thus they protected rights of corporation, but were not interested in protecting my rights.

I also asked police to identify security officer which falsely accused me, but they refused to do so and then to identify them self, which should be the case in non police countries?

 

Later on in police I was threatened not to state in report that I feel my rights were not in interest of police but only corporation rights. They took the paper I wrote 3 times and said I will stay there till morning and won't be able to take my children to our current residence if I do not ride report they liked.

They seemed not to have problem of me writing about excess use of force, but had problem to write about my rights not being protected and about identification. All this was done by chief of police and beside above stated he was exceptionally polite.

[Spitfire]

I am confused with this - don't they have other mean of invoicing? As this was exactly what one of the cashier said that she can do...

 

Yes, they have bound book of invoice. Bound books of invoice is a special kind of paragon-bloc certified by tax authorities for the purposes of fiscalization but the law stipulates that the issue only in case of failure device for issuing invoice or a power failure.

[G-man]

I am confused with this - don't they have other mean of invoicing?

 

Already explained by Spitfire. Plus, it doesn't apply after working hours because of the reasons already stated.

 

I asked police to take note that I was falsely accused by security and ask police to ask shop employees if they have means of issuing manual invoice and if they are obliged to do so.

 

These questions aren't police matter. At least not in Croatia.

 

Police did nothing of that but attacked me.

 

Once again, very sad that it happened, but it's still difficult to believe that they engaded in a physical confrontation with you if you did only what you've described here, and nothing else.

 

I also asked police to identify security officer which falsely accused me, but they refused to do so and then to identify them self, which should be the case in non police countries?

 

They were not obligated to identify the security officer because it wasn't their job, but they should have stated their names and badge numbers. You could have asked for these informations in the police station.

 

Later on in police I was threatened not to state in report that I feel my rights were not in interest of police but only corporation rights. They took the paper I wrote 3 times and said I will stay there till morning and won't be able to take my children to our current residence if I do not ride report they liked.

 

In that case, they should have arrested you and read you your rights, among which there is a right to an attorney, who would made things a lot easier for you. If this is how things happened, you were possibly misguided and for that you can file a complaint against police procedure.

 

All this was done by chief of police and beside above stated he was exceptionally polite.

 

Even he has someone to answer to.