Dear People who don’t complain,

You should! I don’t view it as a bad thing, instead I just view it as accountability. It  is what you have to do in order to get what you want. Peep this:

Video about the Racist Receipt

So after watching the video, I immediately went to www.journeys.com and sent a nice little email. See Below:

Subject: Racial Nonsense
Message: I recently heard a news story about a store of yours in Kansas City. A racial slur was printed on a receipt given to a young black man. I don’t want a gift certificate or anything, and I hope you have heard about this, I am just wondering as a concerned consumer what actions are being taken against this nonsense. The answer will determine where I spend my money. Thank You.

The very next day, I received this email:

Dear Katrina,

In October 2008 Genesco learned about an incident that occurred in a Journeys store in Kansas City involving the appearance of a racial slur on a customer’s receipt.  Upon learning of the incident, our corporate office immediately expressed sincere regret for the occurrence and made a commitment to promptly investigate how the incident happened and to identify any and all steps that the company could take to prevent anything similar from occurring in the future.  Though the company continues its efforts to put proactive remedial measures into place, the factual investigation is now complete and has revealed the following details about the incident.

The company’s investigation revealed that the offensive language was entered into the Kansas City store’s register in early September 2008, but was not, at that time, used for a customer transaction.  Rather, one of the store’s employees created an unauthorized and fictitious customer record, using the racial slur as the customer name and associating it with a generic phone number.  On October 17, while processing a customer return, another employee input the generic number in an effort to shortcut the company’s normal return procedure of entering the customer’s actual contact information.  Regrettably, this number pulled up the fictitious and offensive customer record that had sat dormant in the register since early September.

At the time the company learned about these events, the employee who originally entered the offensive language had already been terminated for an unrelated violation of company policy.  The employee who processed the return on October 17 was terminated shortly after the incident was reported.  Though she maintains that she never saw the offensive language and had no intent to use it, her use of a fictitious phone number and/or customer name was itself a violation of company policy.  The company’s investigation did not uncover any evidence that any of the other store employees were involved in the creation or use of the offensive entry or that they were even aware of its existence prior to this incident.

The language was confined to the single register at issue, and records indicate that it was only associated with the one customer transaction on October 17.  The store acted promptly to delete the offensive customer record from the register.

On a broader scale, Genesco’s technology department has installed a program on all of the company’s registers that will prevent the future creation or use of offensive or derogatory customer entries.

As they concluded their investigation of this incident in November 2008, Genesco and its management reaffirmed their profound regret for the distress to the customer and to the entire community that the  incident  caused, and their commitment to pursue the implementation of measures designed to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again.

Thanks,

Director of Customer Service

Nelson Boren

NK

See?! That’s all I wanted. I don’t even shop at Journeys! But it’s about accountability! I charge everyone to hold everyone accountable, and not necessarily about all things racial. It can be anything! I guarantee you, the world will be a better place.

Sincerely,

miskatrinaelise

Advertisement