The Obligatory Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Refuses Bathroom Access to 5-Year-Old Post
June 24, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
So here’s my obligatory Worst Customer Service Ever: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Refuses Bathroom Access to 5-Year-Old, Who Then Has Diarrhea In Front Of Them post. The short version of the story is that the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory heartlessly denied assistance to a sick child, laughed at the mother when she complained to the manager later, and apparently are in violation of the Uniform Plumbing Code in CA. So while the customer was certainly not served, justice may be.
I don’t despise some minimum wage slave who simply adheres to a policy she’s been taught - although some mercy and common sense were certainly called for. But the manager is guilty of some seriously bad judgement, if nothing else. She was slow to return the phone call, arrogant with the customer, clueless about PR and the viral nature of the web.
I had forgotten all about that.
That is one of the worst cases of customer service I have ever heard. I am the mother of a 2 1/2 year old little girl. I mean, come on. Anyone who has spent 10 minutes in the company of a child will tell you - when they’ve gotta go, they’ve gotta go. Wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if everyone would just, “do unto others . . .”
This happened to someone I know at an antique mall in Bisbee, AZ. The person, who suffered serious nerve damage after her heart stopped, has a problem. The manager of the antique mall absolutely refused to help her.
I think these places should be exposed.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
There are always two sides to every story - I guess I was fortunate and never experienced this particular problem with any of my three children (who are now grown) but then again if one was sick I didn’t haul them to the mall. I know when I’m ill the last thing I want to do is go shopping. So often I see parents subjecting their poor children to this particular behavior and I find it very selfish. Take the poor kid home and put them to bed where they belong………
Click through to read the article, Cathy. I agree sick kids belong in bed, but this child became ill suddenly. That’s happened to my daughter, and also to me - where we haven’t felt perfectly well, but not that bad either, and then suddenly had symptoms overtake us.
When I was 19 I was sacked from a Little Caesar’s Pizza for letting a 4 year old with an emergency in the back to use the employee restroom. They said it was a violation of the policy regarding security of areas with cash.
I had no problem with the firing. I’d do it again because it was the right thing to do.
All of you need to get a life. The employee was just following procedure and didn’t want to risk getting fired. I mean its a mall why would you go to a store then one of the restrooms in the mall. Why the hell would you boycott Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory because of one employee’s mistake. I mean its horrible what happened but there is no need to boycott the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to get back at them for one employee’s mistake.
My gripe, as I said, Susan, is a lot less with the lower level worker and much more with the manager who was arrogant with the customer. Why would you go to a store? Because they were - according to the article - right outside it when the child got sick.
I’m sure the mother of the child was not in the most pleasant of moods when she confronted the manager. Your child is in distress, your emotions get elevated, the world slows down as you try to address the situation, and unfortunately the people around you are unable to discern your plight. I can see how the mother is frustrated and I can see how a manager could get bent out of shape with an angry parent in their face. Regardless of what each side testifies, the stressed mother appears to have been embarrassed and probably had her feelings hurt and that’s horrible. But vengeance is not the answer and I cannot see a need for “justice”.
1. The employee did what they should have done. I wouldn’t risk my job either. Rules are rules.
2. Malls are packed with bathrooms. Use the public one.
3. It’s the parents fault, not the employee or manager of Rocky Mountain Chocolate, that they had a child. This is something that happens with children and no one else should have to deal with it other than the parents.
I know that i’m not a child but i’ve been turned away from bathrooms when I was in desperate need. No one is an exception. Parents need to stop blaming everyone else and take some responsibility. You had the child … deal with it.
Please: READ THE ARTICLE.
The mother phoned the manager after the fact.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate had a legal obligation to provide the bathroom:
The owner and manager were obligated to know and comply with the law.
Plus, the manager was an idiot for not managing a customer complaint better - laughing arrogantly is NEVER under ANY circumstances an appropriate response to an upset customer.
It’s not difficult to do a google search and find out for yourselves what exactly california law says regarding restrooms and businesses open to the public.
The reality of the situation is that stores in malls are NOT required to provide facilities to customers in their stores. Only businesses over something ridiculous like twenty thousand square feet are required to have bathrooms inside the business for public access. The mall that is housing the store is required to provide facilities. Like it or not Bella Terra is an outdoor mall. There are bathrooms all over Bella Terra. If it were the case of the law requiring the business to provide a restroom for customers, wouldn’t you think to hear/read/see something about a pending lawsuit? Fines leveled at the business for violating the law? Some sort of monetary reprisal (because that’s the only real way to punish a business?) No.
The manager is not the owner and cannot change the general construction of the store. I also sincerely doubt that this woman was laughed at. Who behaves that way, honestly?
The owner has the power to provide public restrooms for the customers, but if you’ve ever been in a candy store, you know how small they are. That goes double for the one in question. Have you ever really been there? Do you have any idea how tight everything is packed in that mall? I mean come on, there’s no place for a bathroom. I’m sure there is a bathroom in their store, but it’s for employees. Which means it’s likely it cannot be accessed without going into the food prep area behind the counter. California health codes are insanely strict, and insurance becomes an issue with non-employees behind the counter. Any business owner can tell you that.
It’s a really unfortunate situation, and I think everyone attacking the business is reacting to the one side of the story being told.
As a parent, I know that my child doesn’t have explosive can’t hold it diarhea out of the blue. There are other symptoms that go with it, and I would not be taking a sick child out anywhere, let alone an open air mall less than twenty miles from the coast to have candy. But that’s just me.
If all of you were really looking to be ‘more holy’ you might want to try looking at the whole picture, and not the alarmist corner of the portrait. I’m sure you’ll all feel better when you find out later that this woman was just an entitlement minded selfish human being who was too busy yacking it up to pay attention to her daughters pleas until it was too late, and rather than looking like the careless parent she is, she chooses to point fingers at others.
Because the business didn’t actually violate any laws, and this woman has no other way to exact revenge upon these people for the awful sitaution that occurred, she’s lashing out the best way she knows how.
As a parent myself, I’m here to tell you that kids CAN get that sick, that fast. I’m happy for you that *your* child apparently never has.
I have no reason to disbelieve the account provided in the article, which states
Not that a store remodel is required; the point is that the person the mother had the conversation with was the person who should have been most motivated to provide a customer service oriented answer.
a) they were outside, so that wasn’t exactly a newsflash…
b) the store employees “never offered me any alternatives” so even if the store wasn’t legally obligated to provide a bathroom, the VERY MINIMUM of decency demands they inform her of where the nearest one was
c) the owner and manager were apparently one and the same; evidently what I lack in holiness I’ve made up for in reading comprehension. What’s your excuse?
d) this “entitlement minded selfish human being” isn’t suing, although any insurance company would - whether she is right or wrong about the legality of bathroom access - quickly pay her off to go away.
e) your doubt of the customer’s account of being laughed at is based on what, exactly? As for your failure to believe such things happen… sorry to break the bad news to you, but it DOES happen. I’ve been the recipient of some astoundingly bad customer service, including in-your-face laughter at complaints.
f) my point was originally and still remains, that the owner/manager that this woman spoke to on the phone afterwards, lacks good judgment, customer service skills, and an understanding of how the web works.
All of this would have been avoided had either of these two things happened - the store employees, instead of refusing “multiple” times, had simply pointed her to the nearest public bathroom, OR the store owner said that she was sorry for or at least regretted their failure to do so and she’d make sure they knew to do so in the future.
Interestingly, in a followup article the franchise owner claimed she later apologized to the mother (although the mother disputes this) so evidently she’s catching on.