Speedway Superamerica - ryan Ingram terminated for customer complaints Indianapolis Indiana

I have or should I say had worked for Speedway for 11 years. I am 53 years young and I have been a loyal manager the entire time of my employment. On 3/10/2008 I was called into my office by the NEW D.M. and his side kick (andy, another DM). once intering my office Ryan proceedes to start yelling about me receiving 3 customer complaints. He gave them to me to read and upon reading them I pointed out that he was aware of 2 and the 3rd was not my store. He jerks them out of my hand and said they were all on me and they were all on my store. I only knew of 2 and I told him he was aware of them and I even had a phone number for one gentleman for him to call back that I informed him of the week prior and he never came to the store like he said he would and when I called his phone he never would answer it. he said that I was wrong and after discussing it with HR and the RM I was terminated.

Once I got home I called HR and they were to investigate the complaints and call me back , which never happened, I had to call again 2 days later, now are you ready for this, I now had 6 complaints and I was never informed on any of them but the 2 I knew about, interesting no? Now mind you Ryan is a young ,wet behind the ears DM and I had been with the company 10years longer than him and I was a threat.

Prior to this incident I had to call another DM when my store was down because Ryan did not answer his phone, another time the morning of the termination, I had to call Gary Cambell ,the head of maintance,over a problem concerning my store because once again Ryan did not answer his phone. Ryan seemed to have a habit of not answering his phone , not just when I would call but all the store managers in my district.

Anyway I am now unemployed and I have filed for unemployment. Well guess what on 4/01/2008 my case was denied. Speedway said I violated company policy. I have never seen nor heard of a policy on customer complaints. I looked in the ops manual and one does not exist. they also said I was denied for thnhis policy that is UNIFORMLY ENFORCED. If that is the case no one would be working at Speedway because everyone from time to time has come across a customer that no matter what you do you cant please and they call in.

All complaints are suppose to be researched to see if they are legit and than solved but trust me they are not. I believe that Speedway was just looking for reasons to get rid of all of us that make alot of money and have been there a long time. I also have that info from another DM. He kept telling me to watch my back and make a paper trail to cover my a*s. Its amazing that now all the new DMT,MITs and other manager trainees are very young and are only starting out at 10 dollars per hour and I was making twice that.

I honestly think that this DM was retaliating against me because I went over his head, which is a shame. I loved my job and I was totally blown out of the water when this hit. I had absolutely no write ups in 11 years. Every review was Outstanding, Manager of the Quarter, Went to the trade show in Ohio 3 years running for being Best in Class, came in 2nd for fund raising and I was terminated for supposed 3 complaints. Amazing!! I cant say to much more because I have to go to court for the appeal on my unemployment but I will let you all know the outcome.

Vicky
New Whiteland, Indiana
U.S.A.