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Okay, do all of you remember my topic about "What part of NONE SOLD TO DEALERS does this family not understand?" Well, I finally got the courage to stand up to them when they tried ONCE AGAIN to buy up a whole shopping cart full of 12 packs of Pepsi and another shopping cart full of 12 packs of Mountain Dew along with about 20 Ben & Jerry's ice creams. Once I saw the carts and knew for sure that was indeed what they were doing, I told them I could not sell these to them due to our policy regarding None Sold to Dealers and our right to limit quanities. Well, naturally, (there was three males; one about 60s, the other two around late 20s/early 30s) after I pointed out to them that I (along with nearly everyone else including management) knew that they were going to resell the sodas in their stores for much higher markups he (the shortest of the two younger ones) LIED to me (again!) that they were not for the store. So as a nice gesture, I offered to let them buy ONE SET of five (that was our limit on the Pepsi products). He tried to have me do one set each person but I wouldn't have none of that.
But here's where it gets really bad. This individual not only made the standard threats of reporting me to management/corporate, but he had the nerve to pull the ****ing RACE CARD on me. He accused me of refusing him/his family service because of their race (they're Indian; I'm white) and I flat out told him that no, it was because of them reselling our stuff, not his race. If it weren't for the fact I was so shocked initially by the allegation (and indeed, it took me the next few hours afterwards to get over that initial shock of being called a racist), I would have not sold them anything and would not have hesistated to have called the police for trespassing had they continued to refuse to leave (this was 11:30PM-12AM so I could not call a mgr for backup). In the end, because I had already pointed out the limit quantites, they only got five Mountain Dews and the ice cream (luckily the ice cream wasn't on sale for much).
So what happened afterwards? Well, it just so happened the customer behind them knew of their scheme and after they left, wrote a signed/phone numbered testominal to go with my own written report about them pulling the race card on me (and that I was very professional/polite about refusing them service/asking them to leave) and that she too knew they were buying the products to resell in their stores (again, we have a strict no dealers policy that thankfully we're really starting to crack down on) and when I called our first asst. mgr (our second-in-command at our store) about the situation, he confirmed that under the circumstances, I did handle the situation well and that our GM has told this family personally not to come to our store.
I guess my main concerns are two fold. One, did I go far enough? That is, should I have gone ahead with my instinct and had the police come after they refused to leave (I politely asked them at LEAST 3-4 times)? Of course, now that they had the race card pulled on me I won't hestiate for a second to do so if neccesary. Second, could their actions (pulling the race card and refusing to leave) have constituted not only reverse discrimination, but also creating a hostle work enviroment (it did also prevent me from servicing the two honest customers behind them)? I can't just let this family get away with what they did, I just can't. These were way beyond SC's for sure.
But here's where it gets really bad. This individual not only made the standard threats of reporting me to management/corporate, but he had the nerve to pull the ****ing RACE CARD on me. He accused me of refusing him/his family service because of their race (they're Indian; I'm white) and I flat out told him that no, it was because of them reselling our stuff, not his race. If it weren't for the fact I was so shocked initially by the allegation (and indeed, it took me the next few hours afterwards to get over that initial shock of being called a racist), I would have not sold them anything and would not have hesistated to have called the police for trespassing had they continued to refuse to leave (this was 11:30PM-12AM so I could not call a mgr for backup). In the end, because I had already pointed out the limit quantites, they only got five Mountain Dews and the ice cream (luckily the ice cream wasn't on sale for much).
So what happened afterwards? Well, it just so happened the customer behind them knew of their scheme and after they left, wrote a signed/phone numbered testominal to go with my own written report about them pulling the race card on me (and that I was very professional/polite about refusing them service/asking them to leave) and that she too knew they were buying the products to resell in their stores (again, we have a strict no dealers policy that thankfully we're really starting to crack down on) and when I called our first asst. mgr (our second-in-command at our store) about the situation, he confirmed that under the circumstances, I did handle the situation well and that our GM has told this family personally not to come to our store.
I guess my main concerns are two fold. One, did I go far enough? That is, should I have gone ahead with my instinct and had the police come after they refused to leave (I politely asked them at LEAST 3-4 times)? Of course, now that they had the race card pulled on me I won't hestiate for a second to do so if neccesary. Second, could their actions (pulling the race card and refusing to leave) have constituted not only reverse discrimination, but also creating a hostle work enviroment (it did also prevent me from servicing the two honest customers behind them)? I can't just let this family get away with what they did, I just can't. These were way beyond SC's for sure.
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