Papa John's Store Calls Woman Racial Slur In Receipt

Papa John's Store Calls Woman Racial Slur In Receipt

By Laura Hibbard | The Huffington Post | 1/8/12 12:08 AM ET

"Minhee Cho went to Papa John's for some fast food goodness. Little did she know, she would get it served with a side of racism.

At around 12:30 p.m. today, Papa John's customer Minhee Cho tweeted a photo of a receipt she received at a Papa John's restaurant in uptown, New York City.

In it, under the customer's name section, the restaurant employee who rang up the order used the racial slur "lady *****y eyes" to describe her.

@mintymin
Minhee Cho
Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn't "lady *****y eyes" http://t.co/RLdj2Eij
January 7, 2012 5:06 pm via Twitpic

SEE PHOTO: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...an-racial-slur_n_1191434.html?ref=mostpopular

Cho posted the photo to her Twitter page, where it was quickly retweeted by hundreds of people. By 3 p.m., the photo had been viewed over 25,000 times.

When The Huffington Post reached the Papa John's in question for comment, the assistant manager - who only gave her first name as Marjani - said she was unaware of the incident.

"I apologize," she said in a phone interview. "I'm sure they didn't mean any harm but some people will take it offensive." She added that she "had an idea of who it was," based on the time of the receipt.

Marjani went on to say that this was the kind of behavior that would result in disciplinary action, but declined to go into further detail on what she planned to do.

Papa John's has yet to respond to the incident in a statement or its Facebook and Twitter accounts, but with such a PR disaster on their hands, they most likely will soon.

UPDATE: Papa John's has responded to the incident on Facebook. A post on its official page reads:

"We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issue in New York. This act goes against our company values, and we've confirmed with the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the employee is being terminated. We are truly sorry for this customer's experience."

The company has also addressed the matter on its Twitter feed, tweeting to multiple people that "We have issued an apology, are reaching out to customer & franchise employee is being terminated."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...an-racial-slur_n_1191434.html?ref=mostpopular
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OMG...a girl can’t even order a pizza nowadays without getting a racial slur in return for ordering a “Papa John’s Supreme”...what would have happened if she ordered a “sushi pizza with extra veggies?”

I cannot imagine an employee with a mentality that allows him/her to use ‘Lady *****y Eyes’ as a valid name for a customer...and then give her the receipt?? It was prolly a high school kid on pot that wasn’t really thinking clearly. I love Papa John’s Pizzas and cannot wait to go in and hassle them a little before I hand over my cc.

 

I saw this story yesterday. I was shocked how many people who were commenting on it thought the employee being terminated was going too far.

Excuse me? ANY employee who makes a personal attack against a customer should be terminated on the spot.

I don't understand how anyone could see it any other way.

 

Sounds to me like a kid trying to be funny that didn't know any better. I don't know that they were trying to be mean. The restaurant has to let them go, not just reprimand them, for PR reasons.

 

Could be, but if the kid doesn't know any better, then he's useless. And as far as the company's reasons for termination, sure PR is a factor. But getting rid of a clueless moron? Even more important.

 

.....

1) Not knowing the age or intelligence of the employee it is difficult to know what the proper answer is.

2) A young high school kid with his first venture into the business world makes alot of mistakes, and they would call for a retraining of the employee. I don't think of it as a "personal attack" on Minhee Cho, but was an example of the employee's perhaps inability to spell the lady's name correctly.

3) an adult employee would be treated differently and fired for his insensitivity, but a high school kid trying to make a few 'Papa John; bucks displays the right sort of business acumen that few kids want, so I give him three cheers for having a job, but am taking back two of them for racial insensitivity.

We all need to work on the art of forgiveness....

 

You don't have to be a rocket-scientist to work for Papa-John's. I think normally, if this wasn't seen by the customer, a pull-aside and slap upside the head would be sufficient. Since the customer got a hold of this and proceded to broadcast it then at that point termination became necessary and an apology was in order.

 

His age is irrelevant. If he's too dumb to see what he did was wrong, then he's useless as an employee. Being terminated will be a good experience for him. Of course, that's assuming he's simply DUMB. Furthermore, I'm all for forgiving as well. That doesn't mean he doesn't suffer any consequences for his actions. And termination is entirely appropriate in this case, regardless of his age. A person who puts such a blatant insult on a customer's receipt is either flat out racist or simply a moron. Either way, good thing he's being terminated.

Good riddance.

 

Wow, the cashier did that is a real dick.

 

I had thought about that angle as well. However, the receipt clearly shows it was a walk-in customer. And then of course, the fact the lady was actually there would perhaps be a clue to not put insults on her receipt.

Insulting customers should not be tolerated by any business. A person who doesn't understand that walking into it is simply useless. This will be a good lesson for that person. Perhaps next time he'll think about the customer. That's how it works in retail.

 

The employee has been fired.

 

I agree. Anyone who has an unpleasant experience in a restaurant/store that's taking your $ should report it to higher-ups. I did several yrs ago when a friend & I went out to lunch at a well-known Mexican restaurant where we'd eaten many times and always got good service.... that day we didn't.

We decided to eat in the lounge - less people, less noise (we tho't) to talk about something. We got seated and the tv was on full blast plus a blaring radio coming from the kitchen..... no one else was in the lounge to watch the tv. I politely asked the waiter, who'd been there for a long time, if he could turn down the tv a little and he muttered 'I'll see' and did nothing about it.... when he came to refill our drinks, I made it a point of looking at his name tag.

When we went to register to pay for meals, I asked the rude jackass for the form to fill out that asks about what kind of service we got. Then he smiled, 'Oh yes! Here it is - fill it out and give it to me and I'll mail it off"...... hearing that made me even madder and asked him 'do you see "stupid" stamped on my forehead?'

I filled it out, explaining everything about the unnecessary noise, unfriendly, snotty attitude and a week later got a letter from the main office w/2 free full-meal tickets and a big apology, telling me if I have another problem w/an employee, to let them know right away.....

I called my friend saying 'let's go out to dinner' and when we went back into the lounge, it was very pleasant,low level noise and friendly waiters/waitresses.... I asked our smiling waitress "where's 'Leroy'"? meaning the rude jerk we had the last time we were in there - "Oh, he's not here anymore'....... the service had been great ever since........

That's what you have to do when you get lousy service - complain. The companies who care about their customers will fix the problem and get rid of the rude jerks......

 

Free pies for a year!!

lol


Oh... I support the employee being fired.

 

Absolutely - a respectable business won't have racists and/or morons working for them........

As they say 'word of mouth is the best type of advertising'........

 

How much you want to bet that she had no concept of tipping and that she probably deserved it? Plus she lives in NYC AND SHE IS ORDERING FROM PAPA JOHNS TO GET PIZZA?! "Lady *****y Eyes" is generous for such an idiot. Should have called her worse than that. Plus she posted it on Twitter. What a loser and an attention whore. Hopefully people in NYC laugh when they see her. "Oh hey there is lady *****y eyes the dumb broad that orders from Papa Johns when she only lives in the city that has the greatest pizza in the world!! HAHAHA!"

The person did that should be given an award. The liberals that cry about it should be grounded up and used as toppings on pizza.

 

Your experience is precisely how things should work. Customers give feedback, management responds.

I suspect your incident with "Leroy" wasn't the first time he'd shown a bad attitude about customer service, and management probably appreciated your input. Personally, whether right or wrong, I assume people who do these types of things have done so already and that management is hoping to document another case so they can get rid of people like this. It's a fine line for them, as losers like to sue for wrongful termination even when they deserve it.

Furthermore, I can't help but wonder what would happen in this Papa John's incident if the offender weren't fired. Let's say he was allowed to continue, and repeated his offense. The next person may be more aggressive about their complaint and seek legal action. That person could then show that management knew this person was a racist, and hit the company hard for knowingly keeping a racist employed.

And rest assured there's a certain segment that would be piling on in such a situation. Funny how it's almost certain that same segment is calling for mercy in the Papa John's situation.

 

Huh? Why should she tip for an in-store order? Secondly, even if it were for delivery, she's under no obligation to tip. However, the employee is obligated to treat customers with respect- even ones that don't tip.

 

Woops, I thought it was a delivery. If it was delivery she should have tipped. You don't mess with people that handle your food. The customer isn't always right and if it's a situation where tipping is normal and you don't you should be treat horribly. If she had complained right then and there to management, or later on did so fine. She has that right. To post it on twitter, and try to get media attention, she really comes off as an attention whore to me. In a perfect world, in my opinion, every pizza place in NYC that reads this should never serve her again, ever. If customers don't treat people with respect they deserve zero respect.

Plus, serves her right for not going to a local pizza place in NYC. They would have treated her like gold. Most pizza places in NYC do. At least from what I remember when I lived there. But regardless, tip the people who handle your food. If you don't then don't complain about the consequences when you act like a cheap low life.

 

Right. If companies want to keep a thriving, happy, profitable business, they need feedback from their customers....

Hopefully, this kid learned a lesson. Maybe mom & pop will talk to him about what's acceptable and not when you're working w/the public......

 

Dude. You sound like a freaking psychopath.

 

Meh, sounds like a term of endearment.

 

The feeling is mutual so it's all good.

 

Oh my gawd, the outrage, surely she should get Gloria Alred to defend her and get millions. So now some stupid kid can destroy your whole life? Give me a break, you call the store you tell them what happened, they correct the situation, no reason to try to sully the name of a whole corporation over one idiot. I think she should apologize to all the other employees who are not racist and where besmirched by her media attention.

Nothing to see here, everyone move on.

 

I agree, even without the racial slur, customer service is important. Customers deserve your respect until they give good reason for one to act otherwise. This is pretty basic and fundamental in any business, especially the service industry.

 

Do you listen to burzum by any chance ?