Racist and Discriminative experience at BevMo! Milpitas CA
I placed two orders on Gopuff 9/2 : one has eggs and chips and the other has electrolyte drink mix powder , which were needed for my rafting trip 9/3.
Understood that if I was not able to pick up my orders before the store closes at 10:00pm, the order will be cancelled. I went to watch a move with a friend and was glad that after the movie, I could still make it there before 10 pm. When I walked in to the BevMo! Store at 709 E Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas, CA 95035 at around 9:50 pm, I told Chris, the cashier stuff, that I am here to pick up my Gopuff orders and my name is Sunny Xing. And I saw one that was behind him, he brought it to me but said he needed another staff to process it. I understood and waited for this lady ( then I found out she is the store manager per Chris). She asked " what is your name ", and took the order from me, I said "Sunny." She then asked " Can I see your ID?". I said sure and showed my ID to her and also mentioned Sunny is my preferred name, my legal name is Yuqing Xing. She said I can not give the order to you, I need to see an ID that matches the name I used for my order " Sunny Xing". I said I don't have it but I can show you my order details in the app and you can verify it. I also mentioned that I am here to pick up my husband's order and I have his order detail to show. She didn't even want to look at my phone and immediately said my husband has to pick it up himself with an ID.
Then I said, for my two orders, I don't have the ID that she wants to see, should I cancel the orders and rename myself in the Gopuff system to match my ID? She kept saying I need to see the ID that matches the account name of the order. And I said I don't have it and what can we do. She said I cannot give it to you.
I was mad but said ok while walking out of the store. Then I called Gopuff trying to solve the issue and get my groceries, and was lucky enough to talk to a customer service representative immediately about my awful experience. She quickly verified my order and account info and said she can talk to the store stuff and asked her to give me my groceries. The I walked back into the store and spoke to Chris about having the Gopuff rep online ready to talk to them, he said his store manager , the lady that discriminated me , is the right person to talk to.
It took several minutes for her to show up at the cashier and she didn't want to talk to the customer service rep and just said my order was canceled. In fact, my second order was still in process waiting for pickup. But she just said my orders were canceled. It was 9:59 pm. And then she walked to the exit yelling at me saying you need to leave and we are closed, multiple times, with no intention to solve the issue.
I was furious while having the Gopuff customer service representative online but had nothing else that I can do other than walking out, I didn't know with this bad attitude, what else bad can happen to me.
I still had the customer service representative online and was able to file a complaint to the local warehouse staff for being racist and discriminative, for not handling my orders that I already paid for.
The whole experience is awful and horrible. I normally don't post online or LinkedIn, but the. I realized this racist and discriminative experience might have happened to many others, those immigrants that have their preferred English names that never math their legal names.
No online platforms and delivery services require customers to use their legal name to register and receive the service and order.
A friend of mine told me at one time, she was refused to be given an order, and she was able to show the staff her Facebook page verifying her being herself. At least, the staff listened and cared about the customer.
I have never ever experienced something like this in my past 9 years living in the US. And I think it is not ok.
I don't want to say the whole experience with BevMo! ruined my night, or even my long weekend. It does help me reflect and I do see the needs of speaking up, being more vocal and stepping up fighting for the respect and the rights we deserve to have, as immigrants.
The attitude of customer service is key to any types of businesses. The reputation of one brand can be easily ruined by lacking of quality customer service.
I want to encourage everyone who can see my posts to speak up, share your stories, fight for what is right for you and don't let others think it is ok. No, it is not ok. We deserve more and better.
I will file a complaint at BevMo! store level and corporate level about this issue and hope it can be properly resolved.
Gopuff did posted 10-20 store credits to my account but the issue is beyond the money amount. read more