What IS the procedure for banning an SC, anyway?

[mjr]

I asked this in a thread, but I thought I'd make it a separate thread by itself.

I assume it would vary from establishment to establishment. I don't know the procedure. My time in food service I never had to ban anyone.

Is there some sort of "official" procedure? Restraining order? What?

I mean, if you're going to ban someone, the person is obviously abusive/adversarial/etc, so you're unlikely to get their name, address, and a photo of them.

As an example, let's say you ban Joe Scumbag. What's to keep him from coming in on a different day when you aren't working, or perhaps when you're off shift? A lot of places don't really have full shift security, so I doubt that would work. It's not really feasible to tell everyone what he looks like, unless you're able to get a picture of him, and post photos of it all over the store (like a "Wall of Shame").

Come to think of it...would a "Wall of Shame" be legal for banned individuals? That would be pretty interesting. Go into a retail establishment/grocery store/restaurant, and see pictures of people who have been banned, and the length of their ban.

That might be a deterrent...then again with SCs, it might not be.

[HiddenMica]

I have a small store, we have yet to ban anyone in my store. My old store we banned a group of kids for a year as they were destructive and all that. It was easy because they were known to be that way by all the managers at night so when it was decided they were out. We gave them another chance a year later and they were ok after that. Not as bad.

You have to be careful with posting a wall of shame as that could be seen as public humiliation and you might be able to be sued for slander. I've yet to have to take a restraining order out on anyone but if someone did enough physical damage to the store to get to that point then I am not doing my job as a manger in controlling the situation to stop it from getting to that point.

There are some people who can't be controlled, but most you can talk down out of their anger and appease to the point where they won't be breaking things. I hope I never have to do that again. Been witness to it once, the boss was amazing. She fired four people on the spot for getting the customer that mad to begin with as they were almost egging him on...

Seriously though, I have called the cops on people and banned them, but never filled out anything more formal that incident reports as to why said person is being banned from the premises and for what reasons. Nothing legal. As a private company we have the right to not serve people we don't want to.

[EricKei]

IANAL, of course.

If a company has a procedure at all beyond "MOD's discretion," it almost certainly requires that the worker(s) seeking to ban the individual take the matter to the management team and let them sort it out. Ideally, with as much evidence as possible -- and complaints from *other customers* would likely carry the most weight, here.

With rare exception, places can choose to refuse service. Beyond that, part of management's job is to keep the peace and try to make as many of the customers as satisfied/happy as possible; if ONE SC is causing everybody else grief, the SC is the one that needs to go. Remember, being allowed to shop somewhere is a service -- a *priveledge* the owner of the place chooses to grant, on his or her own terms. Not a right.

On the "Wall of shame" --

Well, if you're at a store/restaurant/whatever, you're in public anyway, so "privacy" is probably not a concern unless a banned person's name/address/etc are published.

Slander (well, really, libel, but I'm perhaps splitting hairs - Ssssslander is ssssspoken ) only applies if their is provable *malice* and *mistruth* involved. Posting someone's picture, with no name or other identifying info, and no explanation beyond "These people have been banned from these premises - please alert Security or a manager if you spot them" would likely not be enough to make a charge like that stick, as there is no deception going on; malice would be hard to prove, I would think. It may be better to post something like that in an employees-only area anyway, all the same.

[Kittish]

At least one of the c-stores I worked at had a binder under the front counter with pics of banned ex-customers culled from the security tapes in it. Mostly people who'd been caught stealing (or trying to), or had passed bad checks. Cashiers flipped through it a couple of times a week to see if there were any new additions. Well, I did at any rate. But the binder lived under the counter, out of sight and reach of customers.

[Tama]

A few grocery stores near here would ban people for bad checks and had short lists of names taped near the register.

[Argus]

A few grocery stores near here would ban people for bad checks and had short lists of names taped near the register.

Just names? Nothing to identify which "John Smith" (or whatever) had given the bad check? Last time I checked, the local phone book listed a dozen people with my first and last name.

[mosspack1]

Back when a a couple of small independent stores near here took checks the owners had a "wall of shame" for bad checks. That was their banned list. I personally had no problem with it because a person would get a notice from the store and the bank so it is not like someone made a mistake and did not know. In all the years I went to those store I never saw any checks taken down so I assume it was a permanent ban.

[Sapphire Silk]

As long as the manager/owner is not discriminating against a protected class, every business owner has the right to refuse service.

So, a manager or owner can tell any customer "You are not longer welcome here." That's all it takes. If they return, they are trespassing and the police can be called.

[mjr]

So, a manager or owner can tell any customer "You are not longer welcome here." That's all it takes. If they return, they are trespassing and the police can be called.

See, this I think is the issue.

Unless the manager/owner is there from open to close, and lets everyone who works there know what the banned individual looks like, then they could always show up when that manager isn't there, and hope that people that don't recognize them (which would most likely be most of the employees) aren't there.

[Monterey Jack]

Back when a a couple of small independent stores near here took checks the owners had a "wall of shame" for bad checks. That was their banned list.

Did it look anything like this?

[HiddenMica]

They don't have to prove intent to cost a company money. :/
They can sue you, but that doesn't mean they will win. It will still cost the company money to fight it. Only takes one jerk to do it. Let the owner decide, don't do it yourself. If he/she does it then it isn't on your back. It's just safer to keep your nose out of it.

[Tama]

That is pretty much the kind of list I mean. With no clarification on the off chance that there was someone else with that name...

[justhere]

There is a store I shop at that used to post copies of the bounced checks they'd received on a wall right by the cashiers so everyone could see them. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that wall the first time I went in there and the newest check was from the jerk who'd dumped me by leaving me a voice mail message.

[KellyHabersham]

At least one of the c-stores I worked at had a binder under the front counter with pics of banned ex-customers culled from the security tapes in it. Mostly people who'd been caught stealing (or trying to), or had passed bad checks. Cashiers flipped through it a couple of times a week to see if there were any new additions. Well, I did at any rate. But the binder lived under the counter, out of sight and reach of customers.

We have a section like that on the library's staff website for "customer incidents", but they normally don't include a photo unless that customer has been banned from all libraries in the system.

[Plankton78]

We have a pretty small store and we've only banned three people. We only ban them because they got arrested by the police on store premised. In the store manager's office, tacked to the wall, is all three of their mugshots with a BANNED title above all three. Technically it's a ban wall, Lol.