My original post on 28 January, in which the manager of a Kidd Valley location made an offensive sexual remark to me.
Since then...
The email I received from the HR manager of the Ivar's/KV corporation:
Dear Ms. O'Lastname:
Thank you for alerting us to the situation you experienced in our Bellevue store yesterday. We are very sorry for any unpleasantness and hope to resolve the issue and restore your confidence in our Company.
We appreciate your detailed account. Sonia [Lastname], Kidd Valley Director of Operations and I will meet with store manager Rod [Lastname] today to investigate the complaint.
We will contact you as soon as possible following the investigation.
Thank you for your support and patronage.
Ed [Lastname]
Director Human Resources
Ivar's / Kidd Valley
On 1/31 (c/p'ed from my own LJ):
I spoke with Sonia [Lastname], the Operations Manager for KV. (Apparently KV and Ivar's are both under the same corporate umbrella.)
From what she said, she and the HR guy who emailed me yesterday talked to him separately and have not yet compared notes. However, Rod was apparently extremely apologetic (nice to know he didn't apparently try to pretend he didn't do anything wrong?) and WANTED MY CONTACT INFORMATION SO HE COULD APOLOGIZE DIRECTLY. Eugh. She told him absolutely not, that was out of the question, and I thanked her for doing so. She apologized repeatedly on KV's behalf, told me how mortified she was that something like this had happened in one of her restaurants, and asked for my address to send me a gift certificate.
I told her I would not be returning to that or any other Kidd Valley restaurant as long as Rod is still a KV employee, since I'm not interested in providing my money or my patronage to a restaurant that would allow someone who did something like that to continue their employment, and she assured me that she understood completely, but that in this case, disciplinary actions are up to Ed the HR guy and she hasn't gotten a chance to talk to him yet. I asked her to keep me informed so I know if/when I can go back for yummy burgers, and she assured me that she would.
I then proceeded to hear absolutely nothing for the next month. On Saturday (3/8), I sent the following email:
Mr. [Lastname]*:
As it is now over a month since my original complaint and I have received neither the gift certificate offered me by Ms. [Lastname]** nor, more importantly, the follow-up I requested to let me know whether the store manager who made offensive comments to me would continue to be employed with Kidd Valley, I am forced to assume that nothing has been done about the incident. I am disappointed in the lack of follow-through shown by the company, and I do not expect that I will be returning in the future to either Kidd Valley or Ivar's, if this is how complaints to the management of those restaurants will be handled.
Sincerely,
Ginger O'Lastname
*Ed [Lastname], the HR Manager for the parent corporation that oversees Ivar's and Kidd Valley.
**Sonia [Lastname], the Director of Operations for the Kidd Valley chain.
Tuesday morning (3/11), I got the following email:
Dear Ms. O'Lastname
On behalf of all of us at Kidd Valley and Ivar's I want to apologize profusely for the mix up in getting the gift card to you following your incident at our Bellevue Kidd Valley. Somewhere along the line the ball was dropped and you were the unfortunate victim of our inability to accomplish what is most important to us all; making our guests happy and appreciated.
Although the only excuse I can offer is miscommunication, you do not deserve to hear about our internal issues. I take very seriously my role here at Ivar's and Kidd Valley of taking care of the needs of our guests, especially when they have been wronged. The fact I was on vacation during this time, again is no excuse. There are no excuses for doing the wrong thing.
Although we truly understand your disappointment with all of us, we hope that we can once again try to gain back your patronage but more importantly your respect by offering you a gift card. If you would not mind sending me your mailing address, I will a gift card to you by Federal Express for double the value of our original offer. I apologize that you have to provide this to us again.
With embarrassment I look forward to hearing back from you.
Bonnie [Lastname]
Assistant to the President
Ivar's Inc & KV Holdings, Inc.
Now ... okay. That kind of irritated me, for a couple of reasons. First, why exactly are Ed and Sonia not addressing my concerns about their own lack of follow-up? Second, what the heck does the president's
So I replied:
Ms. [Lastname]:
I do appreciate your apology, and I understand that sometimes things can slip through the cracks. Further, your gift card offer is generous, but will be unnecessary unless you can give me some assurance that Rod [Lastname] is no longer employed with your company - I am not willing to patronize an establishment that allows their employees to act in such a fashion.
Thanks for your time,
Ginger O'Lastname
That was Tuesday morning, around 10am. It is now FRIDAY morning, and I have still received no response from either Ed, Sonia, or the president's secretary. They're obviously real concerned about repairing my opinion of them.
TL;DR version: Manager of small-chain restaurant makes skeezy sexual comment, I complain to corporate, corporate apologizes and offers me gift card, I say okay but please let me know if he continues to work there because I'm not going back if he does, they say sure thing. They never deliver gift card or let me know anything. Five weeks later, I email expressing disappointment in the way they handled the whole thing and get a response from the corporate president's secretary making excuses and offering me bigger gift card, I respond with thanks but no gift card necessary if you guys didn't fire the dude, they completely ignore my email.
Note: I'd even accept a response along the lines of "I'm sorry, we are not allowed to disclose the outcome of our investigation." I wouldn't like it, but I'd accept it, because it would be something other than totally ignoring my request for follow-up, and not being familiar with HR laws, for all I know they really AREN'T allowed to tell me what sort of repercussions he suffered. But as it is, all I can figure is that they didn't do anything about it, which to me says that this company has no issue whatsoever with such behavior.