KMBC in Kansas City, MO says that a local man found a racial slur on his receipt after returning a pair of shoes at a store called Journeys. He got his money back without a problem, but found a nasty surprise waiting on the receipt.
By the time the Slaters noticed the racial slur printed on the receipt, the store was already closed for the day.
Hoping to get answers about how the words got on the receipt, the Slaters returned to the store the next day. But they said they never got a full explanation, only that the employee entered a generic code.
“And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice,” said Slater’s father, Keith.
“I really don’t doubt that this is the first time it happened. I’m sure it’s happened before, but this is probably the first time that somebody noticed their receipt and came back and asked about it,” Linda Slater said.
The store has fired the employee in question and issued the following statement:
“While we are continuing to investigate this incident, it now appears that an employee in one of our stores entered highly inappropriate statements in a form used to process a merchandise return. Needless to say, such an act was not authorized by Journeys, and will not be tolerated. This employee has been terminated.
“At Journeys, we pride ourselves on valuing and respecting every customer. We are shocked and sickened that a former associate could be responsible for an act so out of keeping with our culture and our values. We profoundly regret this incident.”
Man Finds Racial Slur Printed On Receipt [KMBC] (Thanks, Taryn!)
More From Consumerist
-
Man Sues Hooters Over Racial Slur On Receipt
-
Convenience Store Owner Calls Cops On Unruly Customer, Ends Up Getting Arrested
-
Delta Passenger Accused Of Slapping 19-Month-Old Across The Face, Using Racial Slur
-
Bowling Alley Operators Deny Telling Gay Couple They Are “Not A Family”
-
A Look Back At Customer-On-Greeter Violence At Walmart
Wow that is terrible!
Sounds like they took care of it. Maybe a free pair of shoes for the guy wouldn’t hurt, but they fired the asshole responsible and sent out a we’re sorry. Problem solved, example made, done.
Ouch! That hurts. I wonder how many people have had similar things printed on their Journeys receipts but never noticed.
Should read: Employee:Dumb Nitwit
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy–>: I think you mean “Soon-To-Be-Ex-Employee:”
It is terrible that it happened, but kudos to Journeys for the prompt action.
@drgmobile: Agreed. At least they didn’t simply respond that they were “taking it seriously”.
@MadameX: Or that they would be “re-training.”
Smart enough to reprogram the system, dumb enough to use it.
@mariospants: If I remember from having worked in retail, when someone returns things you get a list of “reasons” they are returning the item to choose from and then you have to enter the customer’s identification info to prevent fraud. Perhaps when the register asked for identification info, the employee just typed those words as the name. Pretty basic, if that is the case.
How could the employee not have known someone would see this, and worse, how could they assume it wouldn’t be tied back to them if someone caught it?!
@Toof_75_75: There’s nothing “pretty basic” about using a racial slur for the very people that ensure you have a job and a paycheck.
I’m happy the company responded quickly. I do take issue with saying it was, “inappropriate” because it was also offensive.
@CreoleSugar: I think he meant the process to stick one’s foot in one’s mouth in such a spectacular fashion was simple, not the decision to do so.
Journeys response was very reasonable, much better then the automated “We take racial slurs very serious” that many other companies might have issues.
How do we know what it really says, its blurred out. Nincompoop?
Journeys is so goth now, I don’t shop there anymore.
@midwestkel:
If you really need help with what it says…
Look at the keyboard in front of you, press the ANY key repeatedly…
@GrandizerGo: Whats the any key?
@midwestkel: I find it unlikely that the newspaper would run this story and that the company would fire the employee if it didn’t actually say what the customer says it did.
Still, they should have let their viewers see what it said uncensored.
@Rectilinear Propagation: Thats all I am asking for. I just find it hard that you can do a Google search and find worse things than that word or they can say it on TV but it has to be blurred out to put on a news website.
@midwestkel: Journeys? Goth? We must go to very different malls then, because our Journeys have been immersed in white kid hip hop culture for years.
@h3llc4t: The one I went to stopped carrying urban clothes, that was months ago though so they must of changed it back.
@midwestkel:
Does it matter what the “N” word was? About the only acceptable thing you could put after DUMB would be “NOWAY” or “NOT” (even then you’re asking for trouble), and I’m very certain it doesn’t say that.
Racial slur or not, the customer had a valid complaint on the first word, never mind the second.
Racial slur or not, the customer had a valid complaint on the first word, never mind the second.
@shepd: Good point.
@shepd: Thats true.
Wow, epic fail. This is one where the company did the right thing once they found out what that lowlife had done.
We at least they aren’t “taking this very seriously”.
The company did the right thing in firing that schmuck out the door. Seriously, what was he thinking? I check my receipts all the time. That, in additon with the follow up apology is good enough for me.
I’m impressed with Journey’s response to this.
So whats the slur? All I see is an N. Nitwit? Nerd? Nobody?
@El_Fez: It’s nagger, okay? Nagger.
@MayorBee is getting what plants crave: “Category: People that annoy you”
@MayorBee is getting what plants crave: I’m having a hard time believing you couldn’t figure out the slur. Were you hoping someone would spell it out for you?
@El_Fez: Please. Don’t be a brick.
@El_Fez:
“Dumb” already implies that the employee thought the customer was stupid; it makes sense that the next word would most likely be a noun.
I really doubt it would cause this much reaction if it were nitwit, nerd, or nobody.
@El_Fez: Poor Dumb Nancy, exploited by the liberal media once again…
@El_Fez:
The word of course was nigger.
It seems obvious, though I dont know why we keep avoiding listing it.
kudos to Journey’s for terminating the employee. What I’m surprised about (may cuz I live in the left coast and in the SF Bay Area) is that this sh*t still happens. But hey, it was in one of the flyover states, eh?
@big keytee: Another satisfied Palin voter?
I kid. I kid!
@big keytee: one of the flyover states, eh?
The residents of the Midwest thank you for your close-minded stereotyping. Have a nice day!
@Thrashy, grumpy young curmudgeon: Don’t worry, the real states will eventually sink your states and fill you with water, so we have EVEN MORE coasts.
Your tax dollars at work.
@lulfas: AH…so THAT’s the real reason that your idiot “flat earth” politicians continue to oppose anything resembling mitigation of global warming:
Step 1: Create havoc with the climate
Step 2: Sink the “fake” (per Palin) American states (such as New York, home of “911″)
Step 3: Sea rises eventually engulf lower lying coastal areas
Step 4: Coastline miraculously stops (thanks, Jebus!) erosion at geographic boundaries of “red” states (hey there, commie!) and becomes highly desirable.
Step 5: Your land had long ago been foreclosed on by China, so it really doesn’t matter to you anyway.
@dweebster:
Step 5: ???????
Step 6: Profit!
@theblackdog:
Whoops, that should be step 6 and 7
Pat: “Ok, Mr. Marsh. The category is… People that annoy you…”
Ok, in all seriousness. Yay for log keeping. If their point of sales system was really crappy, they may never have found the person responsible. I’m glad this company took appropriate action.
Don’t stop believin’ – there are a few good companies left after all.
I got a gas receipt once that said “Golden Panty” instead of “Golden Pantry.”
Not the same thing I know. I’m glad they fired the person who did this, and I hope she has a really hard time finding a new job.
@kittenfoo: If you buy Land O’ Lakes butter at Giant Eagle stores, your receipt shows you as purchasing LOLBUTTER.
The boyfriend and I discovered this last Thanksgiving, and it’s still awesome.
@h3llc4t: That is awesome. I would probably buy some just so I could show the receipt to people.
@h3llc4t:
OMG that made me LOL!
I’ll be waiting for that to come up on icanhascheezburger.com.
@kittenfoo: I got some loaded potato bites at Arby’s and the receipt said “Pot Bites.” But Golden Panty is better.
@lalaland13: “Golden Panty” sounds like the “prize” people would need to find in order to enter the secret lingerie factory in the porn version of Willie Wonka, “Willie Wanka.”
(Yeah, too much free time today).
@kittenfoo: When I was in college the local Edward’s Supermarket sold the “Finast” brand of generics, so when you bought saltine crackers they came through as “FINAST CRACK”.
Of course none of this tops “SHAW’S HOMO MILK”.
@BumpinUgglas: I get the giggles when someone buys the FLAMIN’ HO(t Cheetos) that they sell for 99 cents at the convenience store near my job.
talk about your all time backfires. hope that employee learns something from this, though i doubt it.
@blockbustarhymes: I would be willing to wager that for the rest of his life, the employee who did this will tell anybody who will listen how a “dumb n*****” cost him his job.
@Rey: I don’t think he’d use the asterisks.
@blockbustarhymes:
Agree with yo 100% BlockB. I’m not even gonna ask “what was she thinking”, because it’s obvious she wasn’t thinking. But I’m still amazed that there can be people so stupid. If you want to think am an “N” word, go ahead, it’s within your rights. But to put it in a receipt that the customer takes with him? Doesn’t that knucklehead heard of something called identity theft? Because of it people are being more and more careful with papers that have info about them, including register’s recipts.They’re reading them before either throw them away or shredd them. Of course, with her 1900′s mentality, she may not even know what “identity” is.
@blockbustarhymes: On a superficial level, I think this individual will learn not to do this again, even if she doesn’t internalize what happened and change the way she feels. I *do* think that the company that hired her has learned a lot about who they pick to be representatives of their company.
I’m still not getting how this happened. Customer names are almost always keyed in manually, particularly if it’s a return. As the slur appeared in a customer name field it makes sense that someone would have to manually type it in. Or, if the CSR did a phone number lookup, they would verify the name (“I have you under Bob Smith at 123 Generic Road, is that right?”) before proceeding. I’m not sure I’m buying this “six or seven different choices” business.
@h3llc4t:
Perhaps this person’s last name is Dumass? The system could easily do a lookup as the employee types, giving suggestions along the way. After “DUM” you probably wouldn’t have many choices left, and the cashier got stupid/lazy.
Okay, likely story, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Okay, likely story, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
@shepd: Since the statement from the store says that they fired the person who changed the system to include the slur, I agree that it’s possible that the cashier and the person who made the change aren’t the same person.
Also: Dumar
I tried to think of more ‘Dum…’ names but couldn’t.
Am I reading this right?!? Is that actually an option in their computer system?!?
@warf0x0r:
I was just thinking that. The employee would had to have selected it AND it was an option?!
“the employee entered a generic code.”
“And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice,”
@bl8675309: I’d hate to see the OTHER codes.
@warf0x0r: Probably a text box you manually enter information into.
@D0rk: Or maybe someone reprogrammed some programmable choices.
@samurailynn: Talent like that is needed on the McCain/Rove team right now. Election coming up soon!
@warf0x0r: Computers can be reprogrammed, as this one was. Someone changed a benign option into an offensive one.
@El_Fez: It’s probably “Nilla.”
@zibby: Alright, enough gawker for you.
And if I EVER see you use Bankster, you know I’m calling you out. Pistols at sunrise.
Looks like the company did the right thing here.
I work at a LBS, its not a chain, and we track customer info incase there is an issue with the product or payment, and we need to track them down. We use a system where entering a bit of info brings up several options. One we found the other day was Mexican. Thats all it said. If it was used (it was saved so somebody used it) an angrey customer would have had the right to come and unleash hell. Glad they fired that person.
@MarioAquilinus:
How is that a bad thing? If it said dirty mexican, (opposite of dry)back…etc, sure, outrage away, but just using it as a way of remember a customer isn’t bad…unless I’m misreading your post.
We try our best greet our first class pax by name onboard, so the ticket counter agents usually make little notes to describe each pax visually to the FA’s… I could see how comments like “Japanese; short; mole on nose” could be taken as offensive…but in reality, it’s outrage over a non-issue.
@RedwoodFlyer: Here is how it’s bad: Mexican is a nationality, not a race or ethnicity. Tell me, how do you distinguish a Mexican from a: Honduran, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Panamanian…you get the idea. It’s insulting to people of other nationalities to use Mexican as an ethnic catch-all term. This is especially true when there are inclusive terms one could use, like Latino.
Likewise, if you’re using “Japanese” when what you mean is Asian, that’s no better. I’m sure Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, etc., wouldn’t appreciate being lumped under the category “Japanese” just because they all share certain physical traits.
The bottom line is that when you categorize every person in Latin American as a Mexican, or everyone in Asia as Japanese, the message those people hear is “they all look the same to me.”
@JiminyChristmas: No, actually the bottom line is that “stupid nigger” probably wasn’t one of those tracking phrases, catch all or otherwise.
Hats off to Journeys for not “taking this seriously” and leaving us to believe that the employee is still happily employed.
@RedwoodFlyer:
So you’re comfortable typing dirty mexican, but can’t bring yourself to type wetback?
Go eat a steak, drink a beer, pee standing up and then realize that they’re ONLY WORDS!
@RedwoodFlyer: Um, why are we defining customers like that, anyway? It’s just racial profiling for marketing purposes. If I discover that the majority of people of a certain skin color doesn’t buy as much of my product, how do I react to that? Likewise, if they buy MORE of my product than other races, how do I react? In any event, someone isn’t getting served. Do you want to be the customer profiled as being less profitable to the business based on your skin color or gender? I didn’t think so.
Note to companies and their PR departments everywhere: this is what you should mean when you say you’re “taking it seriously.”
Maybe I’m just skeptical, but when I hear a statement from a company like this, I can’t help but wonder if they actually fired the offending nutsac or are just saying it to save face.
I could see how someone would be pissed off if they saw “Dumb Nagger”
When I worked in a nightclub, we were encouraged to keep track of our open tabs by typing in some descriptive words about the customer so we wouldn’t mix up charges. Maybe Journey’s employees can do the same thing.
Wonder if they really fired the employee or just claim they did. That Journeys store in question is just blocks from my house.
@darkryd: Well, head on over and report back. If they lied about booting the idiot out the door that would be even BIGGER news.
BTW – ask if the “Bigoted Nimrod” is still working there.
Does anyone think that this receipt could be faked ? It is rather simple to do.
@adent1066: I doubt that they would fire an employee if there were any suspicion that this was a fake. Of course we don’t have the whole story here, but their reaction sounds like they checked their system (which I’m sure kept a record of the transaction) and found that, in fact, this was the case, so they took action.
@adent1066: Joy! Yay! Someone had to blame the victim, and here you are!
@little stripes: my thoughts exactly…
@ideagirl:
As I said to little stripes, I wasn’t blaming the victim. I was only questioning whether there was any possibility of the item being faked. Lawsuits are a powerful incentive to create fraud.
@little stripes:
Calm the f*&^ down. I wasn’t blaming the victim. I just wondered if the receipt could be faked. I guess you never heard of fraud. Additionally, there was a day between the incident and when it was reported. Also why the hell would someone do something so stupid as to put something like that in writing when it would no doubt lead to them losing their job.
@adent1066: Most receipts today are printed with thermal printers. This technology uses thermochromic paper and a heated printing pad to essentially burn the text onto the paper. Now, I don’t know if that’s the case here, but it wouldn’t be “easy” to fake that type of receipt, and unless this store is using registers that are 10+ years old, it probably doesn’t use an old dot matrix ribbon printer.
Oh man did I laugh.
I think I’m going to hell.
@Shadowfire: I laughed, too. My my laughter was directed at the stupidity of the clerk.
I’m guessing they meant, “The employee picked the ‘generic’ option, and had to enter some text. They chose poorly.” However, I confess I would love to see a company try to explain away something like this with:
“It’s not the employee’s fault at all! They accidentally picked the ‘Dumb Nblur’ code from the list of 6 or 7 choices.”
@BeerFox: Maybe it was a list like this:
1. WRONG SIZE
2. DAMAGED
3. GIFT RETURN CREDIT
4. PARENT RETURNED AS INAPPROPRIATE
5. IDIOT TEEN GIRL (ANY RACE)
6. STUPID WHITEY
7. DUMB N(BLUR)
@econobiker: 8. STUPID ENOUGH TO SHOP HERE, THEN REALIZED IT.
@econobiker: 8. SPITE
@BumpinUgglas: Ah, but you can’t return an item purely for spite. And you already said spite, so…
A few years ago, we took our kids out for dinner and had our names on the waiting list for a table. We went to the hostess stand after a while to check and see how we were progressing to find that the hostess had stepped away for a bit…but her clipboard remained in easy view.
We were the “old parents.” Doesn’t quite compare to being called a “dumb ne’er-do-well,” but it did get us a round of drinks on the house.
At the Staples I used to work at, a fellow employee was entering customer info for rewards cards into the computer and replaced the customer’s name with “Asshole Faggotron.” The customer got a few pieces of mail addressed to this name and complained to corporate. Corporate was a bit slow at getting back to him about it so he reported it to my store. My manager, Wanda, made quick work apologizing for the situation and vowed to have the name removed and even gave the guy $100 in “sorry we screwed up” store vouchers.
@ratboycom: Surprised the customer didn’t get on the 6pm news. Didn’t a cable company CSR rename a customer “Stupid Complaint B*tch” a few years back???
@ratboycom: I wonder if the manager took that employee into the back for some Gitmo-style “enhanced employee review” with some of their multi-sheet staplers. THAT would be “taking it seriously.”
I find it interesting that it was one of 6 or 7 codes that all employees had to choose from, and no one ever said anything. how long was that an option, and how many employees saw it and said nothing.
I agree that this is horrible, and as an african american, I find it very offensive. But why is it blurred out? We all know what it says. You guys never blur out words like “fuck” etc. Censorship is blasphemous.
@trinidon2k: It looks like the original news report blurred it out.
@trinidon2k: So we can pretend that we’re being “sensitive” when we’re really avoiding the impact of the issue? It’s OK for the OP to discover the real words on his own receipt, but we must make every damn thing “inoffensive” when reporting it.
Kind of like it’s perfectly OK to kill and torture and blow people up in the movies and on television, but pity the network that allows a woman’s nipple to be exposed. THAT might “offend.”
I’m not surprised. Most places that deal with the general public find different ways to amuse themselves. One time my friend called in to order a pizza. Gave the usual info like name, number, address. His name is Rick, by the way. And when the pizza got delivered the name on the printout said “Dick”. Not as offensive as “dumb n—–”, but just an indication that things like this are not uncommon.
Also knew someone that worked in a tech support call center. Whenever a difficult customer called in, the CSR’s would assign the following code to the trouble ticket.. 1D-10T (idiot).
I’ve worked at several places where we could use that field to put in a quick descriptor or customer name, and it doesn’t seem that far-fetched that someone else other than the employee who completed that transaction could have entered that into the system. Such a field practically exists to be abused by disgruntled employees, and “Dumb N**ger” is TAME compared to some of the things I’ve seen it used for.
@StandishAnteater: Which addresses another issue – when employees are underpaid, under appreciated and abused either by customers, management or both, this is BOUND to happen. The customer absolutely didn’t deserve it, and the employee was absolutely in the wrong. However, it’s important to figure out WHY it happened in the first place. Happy employees usually mean happy customers. Let’s treat EVERYONE like human beings, not just the most profitable group.
@alexawesome: Well stated. Retail often doesn’t treat its employees all that well, unfortunately.
Having worked retail in the past myself, I can say it’s not always especially easy.
Well, what do you know? A corporate apology that
1) takes action
2) actually apologizes
3) does not take anything “very seriously”
@m4ximusprim3: Nono, “Bankster” is out of the question. I don’t think that one is going very far.
Quite a Journey
Ugh, this was probably the work of some dumbass teenage (In mind and/or body) employee who thought it was just so uproariously funny and clever of him.
I used to manage a personal ads service that dealt with about 800 papers across the country. If anyone ever, ever saw the things written on the client’s information screens we all would have been sent to frigging Gitmo.
Why isn’t there a riot in KC over this…..oh yeah, it’s the midwest. Not the west coast…or the middle east.
Eh, the N word. Now had he called him a sally, that’d be a real insult.
I really can’t believe that message printed out on the receipt. Can you believe how shocked the guy must have been to see that? I guess I wonder why the employee thought he would get away with it?
@CreoleSugar: He was quoting a South Park episode, where Stans dad goes on Wheel of Fortune.
A similar thing happened to a friend of mine when he went to a chain restaurant. The top of his receipt said “FAT GUY” so he asked the server about it when he went to pay. She made up a really lame excuse, so he asked for a manager. He gave a completely different excuse that made absolutely no sense. None of us has been back there since.
I hope the employee here learns something from this, as well.
They killed the employee? That’s a little harsh. Perhaps they should have said that the employees EMPLOYMENT has been terminated. I sure hope the employee him/herself hasn’t been terminated. That’s just mean.
I work at a Journey’s store. When a person goes in for a return or exchange, you have to get their name, telephone number, and zip code at least. You manually enter in all of this information. What happened is that the person doing the return typed in this information themselves, foolishly thinking that it would not be printed in the receipt (but would be submitted into the computer’s customer logs). You can be certain that Journey’s fired this employee, I’m sure this will be big news in our local branch, should make for interesting conversation.
Wow, screen your employees a little better next time.