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Report: #255459

Complaint Review: Sears Roebuck Company - Hoffman Estates Illinois

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  • Reported By: Pataskala Ohio
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  • Sears Roebuck Company 3333 Beverly Road Hoffman Estates, Illinois U.S.A.

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I wrote a complaint letter to the Compliance Committee in regards to my husband being fired after 20 years of dedication to this Racist company. I had sent the letter below to the NAACP in hopes of some kind of support and nothing has happened not even a response from sears or the NAACP. So I just want to get this out there in case anyone else has encountered the same situation. Thank you for reading and if you have a suggestions of what I should do please contact me!

NAACP
Shirley Miles
Director- NAACP Region III
17117 W. Nine Mile Road, Suite 1021
Southfield MI, 48075

Dear Shirley Miles:

I am writing this letter in regards to my husband Greg. I feel he was discriminated against from a company he had dedicated over 20 years of his life to.
Greg was an appliance repair technician for Sears Roebuck, CO for over 20 years. Just like any hardworking minority family we wanted to bring in extra income to our household so we started a repair business on the side. Greg dedicated the summer of 2005 attending classes to get the business plan created, registering the name and trade marking etc. We worked hard together to accomplish this. We began promoting the business last year by advertising in the phone books, word of mouth and direct mail.

With Sears still the backbone of supporting our family with income, benefits, and so on there were no intentions of soliciting Sears customers. It states in their employee handbook that it is against company policy. But when customers turned down repairs with Sears because they were too costly, on occasion they would ask if Greg could recommend a company, and of course he would recommend GT Repairs (our company). He never stated that it was his company whatsoever, and always left it at that.

n March 20, 2007 Sears Roebuck, CO suspended Greg when they claimed that a customer called one of his managers and told him that he was soliciting them. All of a sudden it felt as though they had given the cold shoulder to a hard working man that had been there longer than any of his supervisors above him all because of an angry customer that just wanted to take their frustrations out on the last employee that they came in contact with from Sears. The managers treated him like a criminal and even his supervisor that attended our wedding last May wouldnt comment on the situation. After the first week of suspension I did research and used that knowledge to write a complaint letter to their ethics committee (see attached letter). After another week they just gave him the run around and never even stated that he was fired, checks seized and so did our benefits. I received response from the committee and all they can say is that my complaint will be taken seriously and that they will be investigating this case and told us to call to follow up, but we cant seem to make any progress.

I feel that my husband Greg is the model for all the hardworking Black American men in America and I am not going to sit quietly and let this corporation just brush him to the side like he was never there. This company got another F in your 2006 Consumer Choice Guide, http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/economic/NAACP_ConsumerGuide06.pdf Sears really needs to wake up. We are asking for any support that you can give, and advice as to what we can do.

I thank you for taking the time to read this letter. If you have any questions regarding this matter please email or call. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Tanesha
Pataskala, Ohio
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/19/2007 11:46 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/sears-roebuck-company/hoffman-estates-illinois-60179/sears-roebuck-company-sears-very-racist-and-discriminating-towards-their-employees-ripoff-255459. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
14Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#14 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sears isn't racist.

AUTHOR: Angela - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 25, 2008

As an ex-employee, who was also a manager, I can say that Sears is definately not racist. The store manager of the location I worked at was asian. In fact, we had very few white people, as most of everyone else was either black or hispanic.

It is company policy that an employee can not own or work for a business that is in direct competition. It's an issue with integrity. You aren't even allowed to use company property, such as telephones to conduct business for another job, even if it's in a completely different area.

Every company that I have worked for has that policy. It doesn't matter if he didn't tell them it was his company. When they look up your husband's company, and see that it was the same person who they talked to in Sear's, they're going to know, and they're going to wonder if he lied about the price of repair so he could get there business. That's why they have those rules in place.

This clearly isn't a race issue, especially since you didn't bring up the white person getting a verbal warning in your letter to the NAACP. How do you know about what the white person did or got? Anything that goes on with employees at Sears is confidential on a need to know basis, and I know for a fact that Sears takes problems with integrity very seriously.

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#13 UPDATE Employee

Company policy

AUTHOR: Mary - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I am an employee of Sears and it is very clear in our company handbook and training that soliciting is not allow. I must agree with the company here, if he recommended his own company, then he is soliciting, it doesn't matter if he tells them he owns the business or not. In our most recent training sessions this is addressed very directly and examples of employees that have lost jobs because of this very same thing was given. I hate to hear of anyone losing a job, I hope things gets better for you soon.

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#12 Consumer Comment

Still don't see what race has to do with this

AUTHOR: Joey - (United States Minor Outlying Islands)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

If Sears was a racist organization, why did they bother to hire your husband in the first place? Were they less racist 20 years ago? It's interesting that you state Sear's policy on the matter, and subsequently report that your husband violated the policy, then complain that race was the reason for his dismissal. I'm sure that there are other employees trying to compete on the side (no matter their skin color); your husband just got caught.

Please,
leave that card in the deck.

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#11 Consumer Comment

Still don't see what race has to do with this

AUTHOR: Joey - (United States Minor Outlying Islands)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

If Sears was a racist organization, why did they bother to hire your husband in the first place? Were they less racist 20 years ago? It's interesting that you state Sear's policy on the matter, and subsequently report that your husband violated the policy, then complain that race was the reason for his dismissal. I'm sure that there are other employees trying to compete on the side (no matter their skin color); your husband just got caught.

Please,
leave that card in the deck.

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#10 Consumer Comment

Still don't see what race has to do with this

AUTHOR: Joey - (United States Minor Outlying Islands)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

If Sears was a racist organization, why did they bother to hire your husband in the first place? Were they less racist 20 years ago? It's interesting that you state Sear's policy on the matter, and subsequently report that your husband violated the policy, then complain that race was the reason for his dismissal. I'm sure that there are other employees trying to compete on the side (no matter their skin color); your husband just got caught.

Please,
leave that card in the deck.

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#9 Consumer Comment

Still don't see what race has to do with this

AUTHOR: Joey - (United States Minor Outlying Islands)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

If Sears was a racist organization, why did they bother to hire your husband in the first place? Were they less racist 20 years ago? It's interesting that you state Sear's policy on the matter, and subsequently report that your husband violated the policy, then complain that race was the reason for his dismissal. I'm sure that there are other employees trying to compete on the side (no matter their skin color); your husband just got caught.

Please,
leave that card in the deck.

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#8 Consumer Suggestion

It IS standard business practice

AUTHOR: Christine - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

My husband owns a company that handles a very niche business. When he found out one of his employees was trying to sell the same type of parts "on the side", he was immediately fired. In most business it is against policy (which you admitted) to set up a business in direct competition. Good for your husband for trying to make it on his own, but don't cry racism when he gets caught going directly against company policy. This is why there are policies in print. It's just business.

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#7 Consumer Comment

Funny

AUTHOR: Robert - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, July 06, 2007

In the letter to the NAACP I see no mention of a white guy doing the same thing and not being fired. Only in a rebuttal do I see that claim. Why is that? I would think that if this ROR were true, the letter to the NAACP would FOCUS on unequal treatment - 2 folks violate the same policy, the black gentlement is fired and the white guy isn't.

Seems like another attempt to play the race card when someone doesn't get their way or gets caught breaking the rules and suffers the consequences.

I have a small business and if one of my employees did this, he/she would be fired on the spot.

Another thing that I notice is that the gentleman who is supposedly being discriminated against doesn't write the letter to the NAACP - his wife does - making it heresay. She has no standing to make an actionable complaint. HE should have written the letter.

Racism has many faces. The most obvious is discrimination is denying a job or housing. But another face of it is shown when someone plays the race card in an attempt to coerce someone or business into giving preferencial treatment. The preferencial treatment in this case in to NOT FIRE someone for a clear violation of corporate policy.

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#6 Consumer Suggestion

Want some cheese for your whine

AUTHOR: Ben - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Although I dont like sears, I agree 100% Sears isnt racist.. if anyone is racist its this Lady. He worked there for 20 years... whaaa whaaaa whaaa quit whinning.... I'm tired of listening to black people cry racism everytime they dont get what they want.. You people have more rights and chances then any white person these days.. You should be thankfull he worked for 20 years... he probably got the job cause he's black.. Go get an education or do something constructive with your time instead of on wasting on the internet looking for sympathy.

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#5 Consumer Comment

Sears is racist?

AUTHOR: Mike - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, July 02, 2007

Ok, first of all I posted prior to seeing your rebuttal posted, and you NEVER mentioned this other emplpyee in your original post, so how was nayone to know?

As for Sears being racist, your husband worked in the company for 20 years according to you, so how are they racist? They were simply laying low and waiting for enough time to pass before firing him? No, they fired him because he broke a major rule of the company. Nobody knows the curcumstances of the two cases, so we only have your word that they are exactly the same thing. Maybe they were both asked to stop doing outside business and your husband refused and the white guy didn't.

My main question to YOU would be, why did you not bring up Mr White Man in your letter to the NAACP, and only after you were called out her bring it up?

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#4 Author of original report

Read my rebuttal before you comment back

AUTHOR: Tanesha - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, June 30, 2007

Please make sure you read my rebuttal before you comment, here I will paste it again.

why would an employee who gets caught doing the same thing who just happens to be hmmm white, gets a verbal warning.

Did that make sense now?? If you're going to stick with company policy then play by the rules for all employees, white and black.

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#3 Consumer Comment

How is this racist

AUTHOR: Mike - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, June 29, 2007

Why are you playing the race card? YUour own post states WHY he was fired

"It states in their employee handbook that it is against company policy. But when customers turned down repairs with Sears because they were too costly, on occasion they would ask if Greg could recommend a company, and of course he would recommend GT Repairs (our company). He never stated that it was his company whatsoever, and always left it at that."


**So your employer says you can't, you do it anyway, you conveniently leave off the fact that it's YOUR company you're recommending, and then claim racism as the reason.

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#2 Author of original report

Yes it is racial discrimination..

AUTHOR: Tanesha - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, June 29, 2007

I know business very well. And I do know the Sears Policies and procedures. And since I know business very well I know it's all politics. Do you really believe companies play by these rules?? Wow they have you brainwashed well. If they followed those so called policies and procedures manual, then why would an employee who gets caught doing the same thing who just happens to be hmmm white, gets a verbal warning. But when my husband does it all of a sudden those policies and procedures are followed straight out of the book.

But thanks for your comment anyway.

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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sears business policies

AUTHOR: Stockboy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Friday, June 29, 2007

I worked for Sears for the several years. I have come to know their business practices and feel that many other companies follow the same set of business ethics.

As an employee you can not have a business that is in direct competition with your employer. If you do and your current employer finds out you are typically releaved of your current position. That is just standard business practices.

I have seen the same business practice in my experience at Sears and do not find it racist or discriminating in any way except to weed out those who use Sears business to their own advantage.

Most people who know business know you can not offer the same service as your current employer and if the employer finds out remain an employee.

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