Down With The King
My friend Bryan sent this out and I just wanted to make sure that everyone hears about how
Sexual Harassment are taken seriously in a corporation we trust to nourish ourselves.
Hey Everyone
Attached is a letter that I have written to Burger King regarding an
experience with them. I will be sending it out on Monday, first thing. It's
a little bit long, I know, but I encourage you to read it and I would
appreciate any feedback on how to make it better. Also feel free to forward
this onto other friends and co-workers. If you don't read another word in
this e-mail, at least know that Burger King is an evil corporation and don't
eat there.
Thanks!
Bryan
_________________________________
May 22, 2004
Burger King Canada Inc.
401 The West Mall
Toronto, ON
M9C 5J5
To Whom It May Concern
RE: COMPLAINT FILED ON APRIL 20, 2004
I am writing to provide you with a full account of my experience with one of
your locations (Store # 11980 at 1560 The Queensway) plus the response I
have received from your Canadian head office, customer service department.
On Monday, April 19, 2004 my girlfriend, Shelby Cornwall and
I, Bryan Bolton, went to the above-mentioned store because of an
advertisement showing a $3.99 Whopper Combo. All signs outside and inside
stated "Every Day Value $3.99" so I was confused when I made my order, and
the combo was now $4.49. The employee informed me that it was only a special
on Wednesdays. Not wanting to argue over $0.50, I held onto my receipt
intending to call the store the next day, explaining my confusion with your
advertising.
However, by the time we left the store, a burger combo was
the least of our concerns due to a further experience with your employees
that night.
While eating, the staff was in the back, being loud and
obnoxious. A few times during our meal we noticed the staff looking over at
our table. My girlfriend felt very uncomfortable because she had the
impression that they were checking her out. This did not make for a pleasant
dining experience for either of us.
As we were leaving the store, the situation escalated. I
walked out the door first and was holding the door open for Shelby. As she
came out the first set of doors, I heard a whistle and turned around to see
my girlfriend tell your employees to "F*** Off". Immediately, I went back
into the store and approached the counter, where the server came out from
the back. Shelby continued to go outside, upset, not wanting to come back in
the store. I asked the server, who had just whistled at my girlfriend? He
told me that they were all just in the back talking and that nobody said
anything to my girlfriend. At this point, I simply told him that I was
unimpressed with whatever just happened, and I walked out. As I was walking
to my car, I looked back in the window to see the server walking around by
the window, smiling as if he didn't care about anything that just happened.
When we got in the car, Shelby told me something that I had
not heard as we were walking out. One of your employees said, "Check out
that ass!" which was followed by the whistle. We are unsure of which
employee made these remarks because we were not facing them.
Based on this experience alone, we have vowed never to eat at your
establishments again. In making a complaint regarding this incident and in
an attempt to come up with a result that we can live with, I have become
even more frustrated, upset and angry at the responses taken by the store
manager and your customer service department.
The following day (Tuesday, April 20, 2004 at 9:05 a.m.) I called the store
to speak to the manager, however, I did not get an answer nor was I able to
leave a message on voicemail. I then called Consumer Relations in Florida,
who provided me with the head office phone number in Canada because I was
not able to find this information anywhere on your website. I left a message
for the customer service department to call me back as soon as possible.
Later in the morning, at 9:45 a.m., I called the store and was able to speak
to the manager. The manager took down all of the information from our
experience, to follow up with the employees who were working. I was then
insulted with the offer that he would give us a free meal if we would come
back to their store. To say that a couple of free burgers can compensate for
rude, sexual comments, is appalling and should never be offered under these
circumstances.
It took a few days, several phone calls along with messages before I finally
spoke to someone from head office. In each of my phone messages to your head
office customer service department, I advised of the times that I would be
available each day I called, and would appreciate a call back as soon as
possible. My phone calls were returned, conveniently when I was not around
to answer the phone. I didn't end up speaking to your representative, John,
until I called and asked the secretary to page him. I understand the concept
of deflecting complaints to an answering machine to allow customers to calm
down before speaking to them. Under our situation, this only escalated my
anger. This situation should have been dealt with immediately and should
have been communicated to me, the customer, in a much timelier fashion.
Once I was able to speak to John, to find out how the situation had been
dealt with, I was not provided with any assurance that our complaint was
taken seriously. It was explained to me that the store employees who were
working that night had been spoken to. The employees denied ever saying
anything to my girlfriend. So I was told that nothing else could be done for
me. Obviously these employees do not want to lose their job and will say
they had no involvement. Unluckily for us, it is a "they-said, we-said"
situation. So, fair enough, I couldn't expect much to come from it. I
couldn't ask for the employees to be fired when ultimately we do not have a
witness. So after talking with John in customer service, calmly and
rationally, I asked for a letter to be sent to me, to provide us with some
form of satisfaction that the proper measures had been taken by your
organization. I expected some kind of assurance that Burger King takes
sexual harassment complaints seriously and that someone had taken our
complaint seriously. This way, we would know without a doubt that
discussions at the store level had taken place. As of right now, I have only
heard lies from your employees, to my knowledge and firmest belief, your
employees said something that night. When I made the request for a letter to
be sent to me, John told me that he would not send me a letter. First off,
this confused me because I was not asking for a letter admitting that there
was any wrongdoing. Secondly, it further upset me that Burger King
considered this a closed topic. Here I am, your customer, left without any
acknowledgement that anything I have said has been considered for a minute.
During this phone conversation I had to tell your representative what it was
that I was looking for; I spoon fed the result I expected. One little
request, that could have satisfied me and perhaps kept me as an occasional
customer. However, your representative told me that he would pass the
request onto the store manager. I told him that I would appreciate him doing
that and it would make me happy. I then had to provide my address so that
this letter could be addressed to me. The entire time I was giving my
address, I was given the impression over the phone that John didn't care
about doing this for me and I am not confident that he was even copying my
information down.
To ensure that my request was being dealt with, the following day (Friday,
April 23, 2004) I stopped in at the store location and was able to speak to
the store manager. Once again, I felt that Burger King had let me down. I
asked the store manager if he had spoken to head office regarding my request
to have a letter sent to me. To a large degree, I wasn't surprised when the
store manager looked at me, not knowing what I was talking about. At that
point, I explained to him my request again. I told him that I had spoken to
head office and they were supposed to have told him that I was looking for a
letter, just telling me that Burger King has dealt with the situation. The
store manager then advised me that letters are not sent from the store
level, they would only be sent by head office. I thanked the store manager
for that information and I left with full intent of calling head office, yet
again, demanding that this letter be sent to me immediately. There is no
reason why this complaint, nor the run-around and hassle should have gone
on, especially for more than a week.
On Monday, April 26, 2004 I called John at head office customer service,
because I wanted to discuss my request yet again, since it had fallen on
deaf ears last week. Once again, I left a message explaining when I was
available. I did not hear back from him on Monday, so I called again on
Tuesday and left another message. John managed to call back on Tuesday, once
again when I was not available, asking me to call him again. So on
Wednesday, I called him only to get his voicemail. Then I called him again
Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. to get his voicemail. I find it foolish to
have a phone number for someone who never seems to be around. Maybe it's
time to get another customer service agent, or an 800 number so the public
can actually speak to someone.
On Thursday, April 29, 2004 after leaving yet another message for your
customer service department, I spoke with my girlfriend. She was still very
upset from the whole experience and crying. These employees of yours made
her very self-conscious about how she looked. So I hope you are getting the
picture that I'm painting. I have a girlfriend on one end of the phone, she
has been affected by comments that your employees said ... and then on the
other end of the phone I'm getting a voicemail of one of your employees who
really does not seem to care about my complaint and he doesn't appear to be
interested in resolving the situation. Now here I am, with days passing and
getting more upset with how your company has dragged this on and escalated
the situation. After reassuring my girlfriend that she should not worry
about what these kids at your store said, I was livid and called your head
office back immediately to get this situation over and done with. I was not
going to allow this complaint to fester another day. Since your employee
John does not take his phone off voicemail, I called the main line and had
the secretary page him yet again. Over the course of two weeks, I only spoke
to your representative twice and each time was only because I had the
secretary page him. This is completely unacceptable, and I would hope that
you could at least agree with me on this much.
When speaking to John this time, he further aggravated me with more lies and
accusations directed at me. To say that this is poor customer service is
being kind. I did not call Burger King with a complaint about your service
to have it turned around back at me, telling me that I have done something
wrong. The stress and anguish this has caused me, is unforgivable. If this
is how your company deals with all consumer complaints, you will not stay in
business. If all of your representatives are as thoughtless and uncaring as
my experience with John, your entire company needs to re-evaluate your
hiring process. I'm not surprised that your frontline employees will lie to
save their jobs, when head office employees are being just as cruel to
customers. During this phone call I was told that the store manager accused
me of coming into the store stating that 'head office sent me there to pick
up all of the files about this case.' At this point I attempted to explain
to your customer service rep that I didn't even know you had files at the
store, and told him once again that all I went in there for, was to ask if
they had received my request to have a letter sent to me. He then told me
that legally Burger King does not have to send me a letter and that because
I went into the store that he will no longer communicate with me and will
not send me any form of communication. I told him that this is not a
complaint about "cold fries", this involves something a lot more serious and
whether it is or isn't legally required to send a letter, given the
circumstances a letter would have been the right thing to do. I never asked
for someone from your company to admit they did something wrong. I never
asked for any kind of compensation. All that I wanted, all that it would
have taken, was a letter saying,
Dear Mr. Bolton
You made a complaint. // We took these steps to investigate, and these are
the results. // We thank you for your feedback, should you have any further
questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely, John
...slap it on some letterhead and send it to me. It would have taken 10
minutes to write, and saved you a lot of customers and money. Now, after all
of this, my thoughts about Burger King will never change.
The actual complaint is bad enough as it is. Sexual harassment should never
be taken lightly, as I feel it has been in this situation. Your employees
have poisoned the environment with their derogatory comment to the point
that we would never consider eating there. But the way that your customer
service department dealt with our complaint and my lasting impression is so
bad that I have sent this story off to everyone I know. I work in an
environment with over 200 employees that I communicate with almost every
day. Although I do not trust a word from your employees, you can mark my
word that each of my co-workers has been made aware, never to eat at Burger
King again. I have also e-mailed every one of my friends with this
experience and asked for them to never eat at any of your locations. Every
single person that I have told about this was also asked to tell someone
else they know. Every person I meet and every chance I get, I will tell this
account as long as you have stores around. Seeing your stores close down due
to lack of business will be an ongoing commitment that you have from me. I
am also interested to find out what the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and
the media thinks of this experience.
I don't expect you to write back because legally you don't have to, and you
said that you would not send me any form of communication, however, I hope
that you are taking this letter seriously and actually caring what I have
told you. Overall, for your company's sake, I hope that this situation was
actually dealt with appropriately. I would hate to think that a major
corporation such as Burger King thinks that they are so big that what one or
two customers have to say is not important. It would sicken me to hear,
somewhere down the road, that another girl goes into a Burger King store
where an employee says something degrading and it leads to something even
worse.
Sincerely,
Bryan Bolton
