Banning customers ?

[Chrish]

Any story on successfully banning customers who curse at your staff? I have recently told someone for the first time in my career that they should find other pharmacy. This person has already filed a complaint with corporate saying I was the one who treated them unprofessionally when it was the other way around. I also notified my DM about firing this customer right after I hung up with them. I haven’t heard back from DM.

What does normally happen in this situation? Does corporate normally back you up if that person has been verbally abusive beyond acceptable limit of day to day retail? Please share any experience..

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[WorthlessOxygen]

I only ever banned 2 people, both required calling the police

 

[Rouelle]

When I worked retail, I fired a patient for mocking a technician’s appearance and referring to her with a racial slur. I notified my district supervisor first and he said no, but I fired the patient anyway. It had to happen.

 

[Dred Pirate]

I banned a drug seeker, but really it was just me telling them not to come back - as far as I know they never did. It isn't like I had any legal authority to do so. In the hospital (ED) we trespess patients all the time. Basically that means if they come back, and once they are discharged they have to leave immediately or they are arrested.

 

[quickpic007]

When I worked retail, I fired a patient for mocking a technician’s appearance and referring to her with a racial slur. I notified my district supervisor first and he said no, but I fired the patient anyway. It had to happen.

Really wanting to know what the racial slur is!

Where do these DMs draw the line?! Is it employee or patient based? In my area, many older folks I assume use these slurs widely, but I have never had a serious instance at a regular store I was assingned to.

Did float to a store where the term "boy" was used, to describe a 25 year old technician, didn't turn into a refusal of service though.

When is the Use of the Word "Boy" Evidence of Racial Animus in the Workplace?

When is the use of the word "boy" evidence of racial animus in the workplace? Read more here!

www.wmalabamalaw.com

 

[rph3664]

When I was in retail 20 years ago, telling a customer not to come back was a firing offense per store management, even if they were trying to finagle drugs from us. The closest we ever came to this was us all deciding that if a certain notorious drug seeker came in, we would tell him that there was an investigation going on, and we couldn't fill prescriptions for him until it was over. I'm not the one who was working that day, thank heavens, and we never saw him again either.

And yes, we DID try to tell our store director that satisfying some of their needs could cost the STORE its pharmacy license, not just our jobs. Didn't matter, as long as the cash was green.

 

[mentos]

Only time I've seen a customer banned was if they stole something from the front store.

 

[PharmtoCS]

When I worked retail, I fired a patient for mocking a technician’s appearance and referring to her with a racial slur. I notified my district supervisor first and he said no, but I fired the patient anyway. It had to happen.

Sounds like the tech could have a valid EEOC complaint on her hands. If the company knowingly allows patients/customers to harass and discriminate against a worker then said employee may claim a hostile work environment.

You probably saved the company from an EEOC complaint.

 

[meltyblend]

I banned a customer, back when I used to be PIC, who was always arguing with us about getting his suboxone early. When I told him it's too early, he started getting rude and eventually started accusing me of violating HIPPA (this is through the phone btw). He happened to catch me on a very bad day and I had no patience for bs. Told him I wasn't going to play this game with him anymore especially not after he threw a script at my staff pharmacist the last time he was here. This will be the final script of suboxone we'll fill for him and he can tell me where he wants his meds transferred. As soon as I got off the phone with him, I called up his doctor and told them to never send his suboxone to my store again. When he came to pick up a few days later, he again threaten to report me and was going to sue me. Told him to go ahead with whatever he wants to do but he's not allowed to fill here anymore.

He never showed up in the store again (his wife or gf picked up for him after that). He came through the drive thru one day to apologize to me saying he understands if I never fill his script again. Never heard anything from management about it so if he complained it never got back to me.

 

[Xenophylia]

During my retail experience, we had customers do everything from making racial slurs against staff to threatening staff with outright violence. Corporate wouldn't ban any of them, but some of them were given gift cards to encourage future misbehavior to make up for whatever "inconvenience" caused the behavior. Also we were forbidden from involving the police when personally threatened with physical violence. Gotta love retail- those were the days.

 

[WorthlessOxygen]

Also we were forbidden from involving the police when personally threatened with physical violence.

**** that. If you're legitimately being threatened no one can prevent you from calling the police

 

[Xenophylia]

**** that. If you're legitimately being threatened no one can prevent you from calling the police

And while that may be true, no one could prevent them from firing me by knowingly going against their will. They knew they could triumph over any lawsuit by simply bankrupting the would be defendant as they drew out the legal process. They'd done so to others. It was a toxic company. And surprisingly not one of the "big 3". And I also know they hire people to monitor social media, including these forums, which is why I won't name them. They know who they are...

 

[WorthlessOxygen]

And while that may be true, no one could prevent them from firing me by knowingly going against their will. They knew they could triumph over any lawsuit by simply bankrupting the would be defendant as they drew out the legal process. They'd done so to others. It was a toxic company. And surprisingly not one of the "big 3". And I also know they hire people to monitor social media, including these forums, which is why I won't name them. They know who they are...

I'll take unemployed over unalived if it's legit

 

[Sparda29]

Any story on successfully banning customers who curse at your staff? I have recently told someone for the first time in my career that they should find other pharmacy. This person has already filed a complaint with corporate saying I was the one who treated them unprofessionally when it was the other way around. I also notified my DM about firing this customer right after I hung up with them. I haven’t heard back from DM.

What does normally happen in this situation? Does corporate normally back you up if that person has been verbally abusive beyond acceptable limit of day to day retail? Please share any experience..

I've done it a couple of times in independent.

 

[panicatthepharmacy]

Only time I've seen a customer banned was if they stole something from the front store.

That was a pro move back in the day; someone pisses you off, grab a bottle of expensive perfume or some other security-tagged item from the front store and slip it into their purse. The situation would generally work itself out when they tried to leave the store.

 

[Chrish]

I've done it a couple of times in independent.

Easier to do it when it’s private business vs corporate

 

[Xenophylia]

I'll take unemployed over unalived if it's legit

Yeah and that's the problem. Most people are full of crap. But a few of them aren't....

 

[Xenophylia]

That was a pro move back in the day; someone pisses you off, grab a bottle of expensive perfume or some other security-tagged item from the front store and slip it into their purse. The situation would generally work itself out when they tried to leave the store.

Sadly with a lot of corporations even that wouldn't work anymore. The place I worked for had a "no confrontation" rule. The store security guy could only follow them out into the parking lot (?) but could not intervene otherwise so most shoplifters simply got away with it.