DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Black Delivery Driver Replaced After Customer Wanted Whites Only

I know you guys seen this. i'm aware we got some managers in this group, wanted to know what y'all thought about this:

https://gma.yahoo.com/black-delivery-dri...topstories.html

A manager at a Virginia Lowe’s replaced an African-American delivery truck driver with a white employee after a customer requested that only white people deliver packages to her home, which the home improvement and appliance retailer says should have never happened.

After getting a call last week on the truck from a manager telling him to bring the package back so someone else could deliver it, Marcus Bradley said, "I asked him why I couldn't do it and he said, ‘Because you're black,’” according to ABC affiliate WSET-TV in Lynchburg-Roanoke.

Bradley, delivering for a Danville store, says the manager told him the customer asked Lowe's not to send a black delivery person, the station reported.

ABC News has been unable to reach Bradley, and the woman who requested a white delivery driver declined to comment to ABC News.

What's Behind Door Number 3? Refunds for a Lowe's Customer

But Alex Brooks, who said he has worked with Bradley for 11 years, told ABC News today he was in the truck when the Aug. 3 call came in from the manager.

"I was embarrassed because I got the phone call," Brooks said. "I think that's kind of how he [Bradley] felt, too. Marcus was more shocked at Lowe's doing this. He couldn't believe that the place he worked at would go along with this woman's wishes."

Brooks, who is white, added, "The weekend before this delivery, everybody told us that this woman in the store wouldn't deal with any of the black customer service representatives or salesmen. She said she didn't want any black delivery drivers, so they knew beforehand."

When they returned to the store, Brooks says he was asked to go back out on the delivery with another white driver, but refused.

"I told him I wasn't going to do it without him [Bradley]," Brooks said. "I just don't think it's right."

In a statement to ABC News, Lowe’s said, "There had been a customer who had requested only white delivery drivers to deliver an item to her home. After we learned of a situation that a manager had pulled the driver from the delivery, we did a quick investigation. The three managers who had been part of that decision are no longer part of the company. We have zero tolerance for behavior of that kind.

“We have apologized and our senior vice president actually went to the [Danville, Virginia] store last week and spoke to the delivery drivers personally and apologized on behalf of the company. We wanted to make sure they knew they had our full support."

Although saddened and hurt by the incident, Bradley told WSET he plans to continue working for Lowe's.

"I mean, I gotta work. I'm going to keep going to work like I've always done,” he said. “But I would think Lowe's would take it into consideration to think about what they're doing the next time.”

To me a stronger statement would have been for Lowe's to tell the woman that they would be refusing her service and why, where she can shove it, and that she could take her business elsewhere.

I guess I'd have to know more about the management decision to pull him from the delivery, but I'm wondering if canning those 3 outright may be a bit harsh? That's the problem with customer service: what do you do when the customer "is always right" when they are wrong?

That's what i was thinking.

i sucks for those 3 because like you said, the customer is always right.

but that had to be a tough pill to swallow man.

The 3 that got fired, what race were they?

im guessing white. the people that fired them were most likely white.

I think the black driver has a very good lawsuit against Lowe's for discrimination. Rather that was company policy or not he was very much exposed to company backed (the fired managers) discrimination.

The woman should have been told to take her business elsewhere.

Humans are stupid.

Lowe's definitely should have simply refused her business and issued a refund of any money taken. At the least, they should have simply taken the item back to the store and informed her that it was ready for pick-up.

thats the thing. the black driver been really calm about it. he didn't lose his job(for what, really).

the biggest thing is the managers. how were they suppose to handle the situation?

customers always right = fired.
tell the customer to take business elsewhere = racist person calls the media, fired.

i mean damn.

We need to do away with the customer is always right.

I have to do customer service and frequently they are ridiculous. I get trashed on the internet because I tell them to shove it when they are really unsavory. Oh well. 99 problems and they arent one anymore.

People think they can behave however they want because the customer is always right.

And I'm not so sure he has much of a case against Lowes.. I mean for what exactly? He was still paid, wasn't fired, wasn't passed up for promotion, wasn't demoted, wasn't removed from his job except for one location, no indication that management had created a hostile work environment prior to this incident.

Let's play with the known facts a little shall we? What if he makes the delivery anyway, and when he delivers the package the old bat cusses him our and calls him all sorts of racial slurs. I would presume that he would become greatly distressed right? Wouldn't he then have a lawsuit against Lowe's because they sent him to make a delivery to a woman who they previously knew did not want a black person making the delivery, and there for should have known it likely he would have been subjected to such treatment? Does the company have an obligation to its employees to protect them from such treatment?

The initial correct answer for Lowe's would have been to tell her that all of their delivery people are professional and that the person who delivers her item is the person who delivers her item. It doesn't happen all that often but occasionally when someone calls 911 they demand that a black police officer or a female officer respond. Dispatch tells them that's not an option, the officer who responds is the officer who responds. (they do TRY to accommodate requests for Spanish speaking and crisis intervention trained officers when appropriate, but in the end, you still et what you get).

So this lady, did she live alone? Lowes delivers some pretty big items
and they may be too big for a lone woman to bring inside her house. The
delivery man or men must bring them into her house and she is scared of
who it is that will be in her house. For some unknown reason, she fears
Black men the most, thus the request?

Perhaps a fear issue more than a racial issue?

so fearing a black guy somehow isn't a racial issue?

do you actually read your post out loud before you click submit?

Fearing someone solely because of the color of their skin is the very definition of a racial issue.

Humans are indeed stupid and some of them are pathetic too.

So all my friends returning from the Vietnam war who feared, mistrusted, or hated Asians were all Racists?

My son's friends who returned from The Iraq war hating Arabs were Racists?

And this Idiot, pathetic, stupid woman is a Racist even if she is
terrified of Black males due to a bad past experience and doesn't
want them in her home while she is alone?

Lowes is stupid….tell her to take her business to Home Depot. As far as her being afraid of black men, I know a guy that's afraid of big white dogs (black/brown/the rest are fine). Is he racist?

a dog isn't a human. but good try.

yes.

Wow. Thanks for the answers.

They have to respect her religious liberties.

you must have missed my point. but thanks for trying.

i must have,

next tim i'll compare a black jet to a blue helicopter, hopefully you'll note my analogy.

oh yea, comparing black dudes to dogs? cool beans.

I wasn't comparing dogs to humans. Nevermind. Not worth it. Carry on.

"Ignorance leads to fear. Fear leads to hate. And hate leads to the dark side."

-Sigmund Freud
-Yoda


Woman missed an opportunity at a 'teaching moment.' Could have changed her life, in some small way.
Some folks are comfortable only with what they already know.
That mindset usually leads to an old person who really doesn't know much.

Oh well... her loss- whatever her motivation.

I have just been called everything but the White Devil and you show up quoting Yoda!
What a world, what a world. Cool.

Somehow I'm still surprised to see stories like this. So freaking depressing.

That's Master Yoda. .

Read the Charleston church thread for some inspiration.

It does seem like the 3 managers who were fired were in a no win situation. How do they satisfy the customer, who obviously had extremely strong racist views ... which many people would disagree with .... and not be seen as racist when/if they do so?

If it were me, and I were a manager, I probably would have politely told the woman when she was trying to order, that we are a non discriminatory workplace, and that we do our best to not see Black or White, but to only see people ..... and if she required only people of a specific race deal with her, that I am sorry, but we cannot accommodate her.

Then I probably would have lost my job too,

Seriously? Sometimes I don't know what to think about you. There are times when you are insightful and even wise. Then you go and act like you have know clue what's really going on. Someone on the management should have been a leader and said "No". Or at the very least picked up the phone to their supervisor and let them decide a course of action.

You were a Fireman, if someone's house was on fire and injured people on scene, but they requested a response by all white Fireman because they didn't feel comfortable with anyone else administering First aid, as Fire Chief how would you handle that?

I have no problem with the delivery manager doing what he did in calling the delivery driver back because they had already taken the woman's money. What should have happened is when the woman first came into the store and they found out she was racist they should have refused service.

The customer is not always right. I have tossed several of them out of the dealership before and told them to never come back.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Contrary to popular belief, the CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT!

The punishment was harsh but not without some merit. Suspension without pay, demotion, retraining are all better options UNLESS they did this before showing a pattern. That will bring a new wrinkle to the mix.

I've been in management for too many years to count, my response to the customer is simple, we'll bring the item back to the store and issue an immediate credit to the customer for the purchase.

If she wants to take me to court, let her explain on the witness stand why she's a bigot.

Look, once again I got involved in a Racial thread where I have little clue. Once again I find myself in over my head.

As you have noticed by now there are some subjects I feel passionately about and I post with passion. Religion, Abortion, and America being the most passionate.

To the Fire Dept question, no one cares what color your skin is when they are in trouble. Not an issue. If somebody requested White only rescue, I would have sent in two Black Firefighters to save her butt and we all would have had a good laugh afterwards at her ridiculousness. She would have been hugging and kissing on those Firefighters and showing up at the station with the Media in tow to thank her saviors.

I read where all you members are upset with this situation. Some are leaving, many state they find it depressing while many "Likes" are posted agreeing.
Three people got fired and can no longer feed their families.

OVER WHAT??? Some crazy lady wants White only delivery!
It's on the News, it's in the papers, it's on the Net!
Crazy lady acting Crazy! Yet it has upset you like the world just ended. It has you depressed like the whole White world is saying Black is bad.

This is not the world, this is not how most of the population thinks!
I see the protests out there and they are Black and White mixed crowds!

Seems to me that everybody has gone a bit crazy these days.

I heard about this and it's an interesting story from a number of perspectives... The first thing that jumped out to me is Lowes is taking a PR hit for it even though I think they were trying to do the right thing, 3 guys were fired for trying to do what they thought was the right thing, the black driver has to feel really crappy because he was reminded again that there are racists out there and because his managers got fired for trying to do the right thing... the only person who comes out of this unscathed is the racist woman. Sure, on a national level, everybody thinks she's an arse but as for her daily life, it will continue normally.

It's easy, in hindsight to say, this is what I would have done... but when the stuff is on the truck and when the woman is making such an odd request... your instinct as a manager is to take the path of least resistance to satisfy the customer because your primary fear is negative publicity from the customer. I'm fairly certain that the managers, when this decision were made, feared a lawsuit or negative press from the driver far less than they feared negative press from the customer. In hindsight, that might not have been right, but I understand it.

Now, I think there big blunder was in how they handled the PR after the fact... what they should have said was that they pulled the black driver for HIS safety. If she is that much of a racist, do you want to put your driver at risk? Then they should have admitted they made a mistake and, as others have said, given her the option to pick up the merchandise at the store or return her money.

Then they should have used this a training moment for those managers and all of their other managers.. If Lowes doesn't have a policy covering such an event that these guys were aware of and that they broke, then they shouldn't have been fired. Firing them was a knee jerk reaction by Lowes to try to save face when I don't think they needed to. The managers aren't racists, the managers didn't discriminate, the managers made a decision for which they were not trained, on the spot, to try to make a customer with unreasonable demands happy and diffuse a bad situation.. I don't think they deserved to be fired at all.

50 /60 years ago that might have been the norm in parts of the Country .. Now it makes head lines , I'd say that is real progress , NO ?

I didn't read all of the replies so maybe I missed it, but, this may be wrong of me, but if I took the call and the request was made, then why not just wait until a white driver was free to deliver? There was no need to even bring up the matter, unless the black driver was the only one, which I doubt. The guy that took the call messed up by sending someone that she did not want. He should have waited and there was no reason to even bring "color" into it.

I think much of this is a result of the highly litigious society we live in. So many people are looking for an easy payday via lawsuit, and courts are awarding crazy money to people for stupid things. Its very easy for people to get trapped between doing what is right, and doing what is right. Let's say that they turned the woman away and she complained. I'm curious to know if Lowe's would have backed the managers' decision just as fiercely?

I don't know how much you follow the local news, but about 2 months ago I investigated a guy for having child porn (the suspect had a side job hired out as a Santa Claus. That's the pic the news released if him). Anyway, he had taken his computer in to get worked on. The tech came across some of the materials and called us. Well, when I get there, the tech is trying to make a copy for us because he planned on giving the original back and said he wanted us to come up with some other reason as to how we got it and knew it was his (the suspect's). After basically telling him it doesn't work like that, I asked him what the concern was.

He said he didn't want people (his customers) to know he did that kind of thing i.e. called police when he finds things like that. I said wait a minute, you're telling me that you are afraid of losing business from people who have child porn??? He said well..

He did go on to explain that as a computer repair tech, when people bring their computers in, they trust him with some extremely personal stuff. They trust that any dirty pics or home movies aren't going to end up on the internet (customer service). I understand that.

So here was a guy who got caught between doing what is right, and doing what is right. The right thing being protecting people's privacy, and the right thing being informing authorities about a danger to society.

On a side note, the suspect was 63 and a search warrant turned up hidden cameras in his bathroom. He also had very young grand kids that would come to visit. I am very comfortable knowing that my efforts helped put him in jail and that this predator is most likely going to spend the rest of his natural life in a Federal prison somewhere.

How many times have I told you to stop tossing midgets? They're people,not toys.