Posted on 12/04/2005 3:29:59 AM PST by beaversmom
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Wal-Mart apologized to a black man who was falsely accused of trying to pass a bad check when he went to the store to buy thousands of dollars' worth of holiday gift cards for employees at a manufacturing company where he is human resources manager.
"I keep going over and over the incident in my mind. I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was treated like this except that I am black," Reginald Pitts said.
Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called sheriff's deputies last week to arrest Pitts after he handed over a $13,600 check to pay for 520 gift cards for employees at roofing supplier GAF Materials Corp.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said Friday that the company does not tolerate discrimination. "We probably could have handled it better, but I won't know until we complete the investigation," she said.
Pitts' company eventually bought its gift cards from Target.
This is ONE incident in ONE store and you're trying to extrapolate it to indicate a Walmart policy???????
Email today... I get one or two a day. I own seveal businesses. I get lots of solicitations...
Stingy...electric carts... miserly... business wise... prviding carts... to challenged individuals (cripples? Even I'm PC on that one...).
I have posted before about the young man with cerebral palsy, that greets us in Martinsburg, WV. He sits there hour after hour saying "welcome to WalMart". He is extremely happy to have the job. Nobody else gave him the time of day...
Policy??? Nope...but it will be Wal Mart that will pay the bill. From Benton will come a barrage of "training" memos etc etc. This is just a bump in the road for Wal Mart, nothing to be concerned about.
Lots of facts here. Called the guard shack? Walmart didn't want to depend on the phone numbers given to them by Pitts. All they could find was a number to an unattended phone. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/02/Tampabay/Racial_profiling_fear.shtml
Thems expensive cards at over $26 each.
There was no false arrest. I do believe the sheriff didn't see any need to arrest anybody.
What occurred was an inconvenience caused by a failure to communicate and coordinate. By no means do I believe it was caused by racism.
I would need to know who called who before even beginning to assign the blame to Wal-Mart.
And it doesn't change the fact that all this man had to do was leave the check with Wal-Mart and arrange for either pickup or delivery of the gift cards to his company at a slightly later date. And I still believe that if the usual procedures employed by other businesses had been employed, the entire situation would not have occurred in the first place. Verbal assurances over a phone only work if the call originated from Wal-Mart to a number known as belonging to GAF.
I've dealt with check fraud artists. They are slick operators. Nothing said so far changes that from the description of the situation so far, that this man could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was there from the company, empowered to pay for, and pick up the gift cards. The person who normally handled GAF's account was not in the office, and there is no reason for other managers, unfamiliar with GAF's account history, to be any less suspicious of this man.
I have personally held up transactions similar to this on the basis that we were unable to verify a person's identity or authority. In most cases the customers appreciated the lengths we went to ensure that we weren't being defrauded because it protects them and us for us to do so. In most cases where fraud was suspected, we offered free delivery on the next business day, to the place of business.
You wouldn't believe how many people refused to take us up on that offer and insisted on taking product immediately, and how many times these attempts at purchases were unknown to the companies in question when contacted later to inquire if they were still interested. Or how many times we'd been given false phone numbers...
Thanks for that link. That gives a lot more details. From what I read in that article, I have to side with Pitts on this and not that particular Wal-Mart. I don't know if what they did was racially motivated, but Wal-Mart handled this one very poorly. I say they need to make amends in some way.
No one, and I do mean no one employed by Wal Mart is allowed vacation time after Halloween. And yes I am a Wal Mart cheerleader who finds their explanation suspicious.
Walmart is at fault here. But why didn't he just use his Citibank visa or MC to order them online with trackable delivery instead?
Yes, MY paper...the one I pay for...and have delivered to my driveway.
I'm sorry you have so little to do with your time.
They did and also called his company as well as had his ID, company Business Card and called his company accounting Dept. What else needed to be done???????????
Read the article a little closer, this company bought $50,000 a year in gift cards. This guy had all the ID he needed and they called his company and his bank. What else should they have done. He was Black and that Manager still called the Police.
Well he has all his ID, they called all the numbers and everything was above board. He was Black and that was that.
Tell me do you realize a lot of busines is done with check and an big checks at that. They called all of the numbers he gave them , was verified and they still called the cops. He was Black and this was the result. By the way he was the first black sent to pick up gift cards, everyone else was White and no hassle. What about that??????????????
He was at the service desk for two hours while this was going on. Sound like a fraud to you??????????
Now that is an incredibly ignorant comment to make!
Has anybody here thought that maybe WalMart called Citibank who may have been unfamiliar with the name and description of the man who was trying to pass a check for $13k drawn on their bank?
Ditto. Had it been me, I would have made previous arrangements, wired the money, or brought in a cashier's check. We're not talking about a $20 check.
520 cards for 13,600 bucks, thats $26.154 a card?
THE STORY SMELLS
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.