Racism, Discrimination, illegal contract from Marks & Spencer what are my options?

Mistral001

You said you pretended to look it up in the system. This is basically being deceiptful with the customer, and if a customer knew that you were doing this they would be very angry. I know I would.

pimento

I don't think M&S are racist, the branches I shop at in the west end of London have loads of black women and men working in them.

WolfSong2000

I do get genuinely annoyed when people play the race card uneccessarily. Working in the USA this summer, a black male work colleague came up to me and one of the first things he said to me was "do you date black guys?". He couldn't understand why I was so shocked and dissaproving with regards to what he said *rolls eyes*.

The race card is played far too often these days, and have others have said, it makes it harder for genuine cases. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that the fact that you didn't get the job has anything to do with race, and to be honest I think you're clutching at straws. In fact, I cannot, off the top of my head think of any place where a black person could go that could be seen as "unusual", however when I walked into an ethnic (African) food store a few years ago, aside from being the only white person in the store, the whole place went silent the minute I walked in. I didn't take offence, or assume people were being racist. I went about my business, was pleasant, got what I wanted and left. And I would have no issues about going back.

ILW

I cannot see any racism in the OP.

flowerbomb1979

Don't you worry that crying racism when you cannot cite actual evidence actually does the cause for equal rights regardless of skin colour a complete disservice?

You went for a job, there were other candidates, you were unsuccessful. It happens to everyone at some points in their life. You need to deal with it, dust yourself down and move onto the next.

Most likely everyone at some time could have called discrimination without actual evidence.

*It's cos I'm a woman of childbearing age.
*It's cos I'm too old.
*It's because I'm a gay man.
*It's because of my skin colour.

Mostly it's none of these things and it's just that you weren't the right candidate for the job.

redped

MDW wrote: »

My manager was funny to me too, i had to take some days off because i came down with a fever and i had back problems - i believe it was due to me working in the freezers and pushing the heavy loads. When i came back into work, he made a sarcastic comment to me and these were his exact words - "Did you enjoy your days off"

While a lot depends on the tone of voice used (which can't easily be conveyed on an internet forum), I'd take his comment as a joke. It's something I've heard many times in the workplace after someone has been off sick, and it's always been said in a jokey sense. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "My manager was funny to me too".

You're young and haven't had much experience in a work environment - over time you'll realise that you sometimes need to have a thick skin, not matter what colour your skin is.

LALON1983

Are you not able to request written feedback?

I personally do not think you have a case, no sense of discrimination what so ever. It could have been that you issued a refund without providing any alternative suggestions such as :

- The item has been dispatched, but has not arrived ( its role play), but it could have been delivered to a wrong store ( most likely reason) - could have called other stores first : hey I found it, but is it been delivered to X store : Are you able to attend this store ........ I print of a map, give you directions ( if the customer said yes)...

- Did the customer ask for a refund straightaway, or did you suggest a refund without providing any alternatives .


- if I ordered a cake that went missing, surely there would be a similar products available in the store, even at a slightly cheaper/ more expensive cost, you could have offered to show the customer around the store to help pick out an cake (I use to work in a department store in my teens on Oxford street but in clothes..)


- or, calling near buy stores for a product similar to the one that went missing

- Apologies, highlighting special offers regarding similar products in the store

- After offering at least two other solutions, the customers say ' no, I rather just have a refund' then issue a refund

- I don't know the details of the special offers, but you could have provided them to the customer etc

- and asked the customer if there is anything else that I can help you with before the customer leaves.


- Remember, if that one customer leave the store unhappy, they will talk, tell other people, as a result M&S will loose customers etc


They was most likely looking for a much better solution than just issuing a refund.. Hopefully, you will get an alternative interview and apply the above customer service skills.

I would also suggest that you do not play the race card, particularly with when there is clearly no case of it. I could bet 1m that if any person just issued a refund they mostly likely would not get through the first stage, apply your solution to real life: the company gets a bad reputation, the company loses money ( as the cake was made, dispatched - incurred delivery costs) the customer would never shop at any MS store ever again etc

jackieblack

Mistral001 wrote: »

You said you pretended to look it up in the system. This is basically being deceiptful with the customer, and if a customer new that you were doing this they would be very angry. I know I would.

It was a role play - I doubt they allow interviewees access to actual systems and even if they did there wouldn't be anything to look up because it was a fictional situation!

MDW

flowerbomb1979 wrote: »

Don't you worry that crying racism when you cannot cite actual evidence actually does the cause for equal rights regardless of skin colour a complete disservice?

You went for a job, there were other candidates, you were unsuccessful. It happens to everyone at some points in their life. You need to deal with it, dust yourself down and move onto the next.

Most likely everyone at some time could have called discrimination without actual evidence.

*It's cos I'm a woman of childbearing age.
*It's cos I'm too old.
*It's because I'm a gay man.
*It's because of my skin colour.

Mostly it's none of these things and it's just that you weren't the right candidate for the job.

You have a fair point.

redped wrote: »

While a lot depends on the tone of voice used (which can't easily be conveyed on an internet forum), I'd take his comment as a joke. It's something I've heard many times in the workplace after someone has been off sick, and it's always been said in a jokey sense. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "My manager was funny to me too".

You're young and haven't had much experience in a work environment - over time you'll realise that you sometimes need to have a thick skin, not matter what colour your skin is.

I agree i guess, in this situation, it is hard to say, wether he said it in a jokey type of tone or whether he meant it in a serious way.

LALON1983 wrote: »

Are you not able to request written feedback?

I personally do not think you have a case, no sense of discrimination what so ever. It could have been that you issued a refund without providing any alternative suggestions such as :

- The item has been dispatched, but has not arrived ( its role play), but it could have been delivered to a wrong store ( most likely reason) - could have called other stores first : hey I found it, but is it been delivered to X store : Are you able to attend this store ........ I print of a map, give you directions ( if the customer said yes)...

- Did the customer ask for a refund straightaway, or did you suggest a refund without providing any alternatives .


- if I ordered a cake that went missing, surely there would be a similar products available in the store, even at a slightly cheaper/ more expensive cost, you could have offered to show the customer around the store to help pick out an cake (I use to work in a department store in my teens on Oxford street but in clothes..)


- or, calling near buy stores for a product similar to the one that went missing

- Apologies, highlighting special offers regarding similar products in the store

- After offering at least two other solutions, the customers say ' no, I rather just have a refund' then issue a refund

- I don't know the details of the special offers, but you could have provided them to the customer etc

- and asked the customer if there is anything else that I can help you with before the customer leaves.


- Remeber, if that one customer leave the store unhappy, they will talk, tell other people, as a result M&S will loose customers etc

- the

They was most likely looking for a much better solution than just issuing a refund.. Hopefully, you will get an alternative interview and apply the above customer service skills.

I would also suggest that you do not play the race card, particularly with when there is clearly no case of it. I could bet 1m that if any person whether they are

I will request if i can have a written feedback form

I agree with the points you have made, looking back now, i believe maybe i could of done something a little better and there's no point in taking this case any further, well i could but it would be a long process and i probably stand a 20 - 80 percent of anything happening in my favour.

Time to move on i guess.

MDW

ILW wrote: »

I cannot see any racism in the OP.

I understand why most of you are saying that they cannot see any foul play in involved in terms of my skin colour, and no, there isn't any evidence i can use to say there was direct indication, racism was involved but it was one of those things where you could tell you just wouldn't of stand a chance. Even when i was led up to the waiting the room, the lady who i bought me up there was very funny with me, moody and gave me some really nasty looks.

Obviously, they weren't anything to me which i could deffiently say there were being racist about, but you don't have to say anything to be racist, there's other forms of doing so.

Anyway looking back, i think i was wrong to bring the race card into it, even though i believe this was a factor in me not getting role and like what someone else said, perhaps i could of handled the role play better or perhaps i didn't have what they were looking for, or someone else who applied for the same position was a lot better than me.

The funny thing is, i have been into that store many times, and i have never seen a black or Asian person working there.

I just really won't know as they didn't tell me the reason why.