My apologies for not getting back to this thread sooner. I wrote my original post early this morning while I was eating a quick bite before heading out the door(I normally try to head out by 5:15), so I didn't have time to put a lot of thought into what I was writing, along with the fact that I was still pretty upset.
I want to thank everyone for their wise council and kind words. The Bible tells us to seek the council of many, and I consider all of you very wise peers.
Yes, I've had time to calm down a lot, but I am still upset about the whole episode. Faith's manager who witnessed the altercation actually reached out to my wife today to ask how she was doing and confirmed nearly verbatim what Faith had told us. The manager had emailed a report of the incident to DSW's corporate HR department, ostensibly to counter any complaint filed against the two of them by the customer. My wife says the manager apologized for not stepping in sooner and said she couldn't believe what this woman was actually saying to Faith.
It started when the customer was trying to use a coupon on her phone that came from a grey website, if not actually fraudulent. Faith tells me this is something that is quite common they deal with. And when they tell a customer it's not actually a DSW coupon and explain it, a customer will usually say something like "oh, I didn't know that...good to know" or something along those lines. The barcode on the coupon will come up as invalid and it's no big deal. This woman flew right into a rage and claimed it had to be valid and wanted Faith to do an over ride on the barcode. The more Faith tried to calmly explain she couldn't do that, the more enraged this woman became. She began hurling insults starting with how incompetent minimum wage retail cashiers are, then began using some very profane language in a very loud voice. The part about her being a nurse at TGH came out when she compared how she was being treated as a customer to how she treats her patients and would be fired in a second if she did this.
At that point Faith said she was shaking uncontrollably and she was starting to cry and quickly excused herself before she really broke down. The manager took over and somehow calmed the customer down enough to let her complete her purchase at full price. The manager told my wife she had never seen anyone act like this customer did in public and was shaking with emotion herself and just wanted to finish the transaction, get the woman to leave, and go check on Faith. At the very end the customer said she wanted to file a formal complaint against Faith and that "that little ***** ought to get fired for treating her so rudely". Well, that just really pissed her off she said and evidently she really laced into this woman and told her off pretty well. She got a small round of applause even from the customers waiting in line and the woman grabbed her bag and stormed off saying both she and my daughter would be hearing from corporate when she filed complaints.
So yeah, I wasn't actually there, but have corroboration that it was a pretty bad scene. Maybe some of you think my daughter is a little snowflake princess who needs to grow a thicker skin and grow up. But I have to say if it was as bad as it seems to have been that in all of my 58 years no one has ever treated me like that and those who started down that road were quickly put in their place.
Yes, I've been accused of being a helicopter parent and I spoil Faith a lot. I had a lot of anxiety over her moving 400 miles away to go to school, and if her older brother wasn't already up there, I may not have agreed to it. But it was her dream and she worked so incredibly hard to make it happen. When we came back from taking her up there, I went into her room and saw all the pictures and cheerleading memorabilia, it really hit me hard and I sat down on the floor and cried for the first time in many years.
My wife took the high road and "open letter" approach, mostly as catharsis I think. She is very upset as well and I hope she doesn't take it any further. The first thing she did was track her down on social media, so yeah, we know who she is and a lot about her.
Here is the open letter my wife posted on her own social media page. Her words are probably more eloquent than mine:
An open letter to Latanya(the woman who verbally assaulted and attacked my daughter at her job yesterday)
You obviously were either having a bad day or just a bad life to think that your behavior towards our 18 year old daughter was in any way justified. Your hostility was unprovoked and your demeanor well beneath what any decent human should have, much less than what someone who may work in the healthcare field should be displaying in public.
Let me tell you what you did to our child. She already suffers from anxiety and the mere fact that she puts herself out there in the retail world to get through college is a miracle in itself, but you decided make her suffer even more yesterday and for no apparent reason other than she was attempting to do her job that she loves. Our daughter worked hard all through high school and graduated with over a 4.0 gpa. She not only received a high school diploma but also a 2 year associates degree while only 17 years old. She has worked in retail since she was 16 and has earned an opportunity to finish her degree at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body and goes above and beyond to be both professional and pleasant to everyone she meets. And then came you.
You literally had no self awareness yesterday as you continued to escalate your anger and targeted our daughter because it was convenient for you. You must have felt so powerful to publicly humiliate her and torture her right in front of her manager who witnessed the entire episode. I could have been any customer in that store and watched you scream at and belittle an innocent young girl all because you were not getting the answers you were expecting. As a victim of your tirade, our daughter began to shake uncontrollably and had to excuse herself from your attacks as she was crying so hard and was practically inconsolable.
Obviously you know nothing about what it is like to struggle with anxiety and how an ambush like your offensive and intimidating performance made her literally fear for her life. No one should ever have to be subjected to such bullish behavior and for what??? Not being able to use a bogus coupon to apply to your purchase? And even after your belligerent display was witnessed, you still had the audacity to try and file a complaint against HER? Seriously??
I pray to God that if you do work in the medical field at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital that no patient is ever dependent on you for their medical care or their personal well being. You owe our daughter an apology and if you are any kind of a real woman, you will humble yourself and ask her to forgive you. We all have bad days, but we all don't have to treat young girls trying to work their way through college like our own personal punching bag. We consider ourselves to be very understanding parents, but you took your "bad day" way too far and you caused intense mental anguish and real fear to another human being… Not just ANYONE, our little girl, and I'm sure if you are a mother, you would feel the same way if someone did this to YOUR child.
