The story began several years ago. Most of the sales staff are great people. My son has Aspergers on the autism spectrum. Being a gaming store which is his passion, he can be quite talkative and ask many questions of the sales staff. I have always tried to intervene if it looked like they needed rescuing. Likewise, on multiple occasions, I have been very specific about rounding up my son if it was approaching closing time to ensure the staff could get out on time. Two of the staff members have however been very passive aggressive with my son and basically called him stupid on multiple occasions. I've always let it go since my son did not realize he was being snubbed by these two staff members, due to his inability to pick up on those social cues.
It started to unravel last week when I had left my son to browse the games and pick new ones. I also gifted the store an entire PS3, not asking any money or trade for it, since we had replaced it with a slim model. While away from the store, I unfortunately had to rush somebody over to the hospital to visit their father who had just had a heart attack. As a result, I arrived back at the store 6 MINUTES late. Again, this was literally the first time I was ever late. However, I was not given the chance to explain the situation. Instead, one of the staff members, who had previously given my son horrible attitude on multiple occasions, laid into me and, in front of my son, basically called him a baby and made very clear that he did not enjoy spending time with him and that he wasn't a babysitting service and never to leave my son again. Particularly odd as my son is very high functioning and does not in any way, shape or form, need "babysitting". I was of course annoyed but only commented he didn't need to call me and my son stupid and left without causing a scene. I certainly didn't want to get into it with my son present. I figured he must have had a bad day. Not that it justifies such atrocious behavior of course.
I did, a couple of times, wander into the store to see if we could have a civil conversation about what had happened. Sadly, the offending staff member was never present so I figured I'd just let it go.
The situation came to a head today. My son brought some games to trade. Without me speaking, the other intolerant salesperson (sadly also the store owner) approached me. Without giving me a chance to even discuss the situation he indicated that he would not be willing to further trade with my son because I was late the previous week. At this point I tried to point out what was said by the other staff member. The manager doubled down, in front of my autistic son, stating "he had tolerated me and my son for 8 years" and that, as I tried to be civil, I and my son were to be banned. At this point, sad to say, I did lose it a little and unfortunately dropped a few F bombs while listing off all the times I had ignored their prejudiced behavior against his condition and all the times I had actively gone out of my way to ensure my son was not bothering them. The owner again insisted I leave and never come back. I agreed but my son had over $50 of store credit with them and they needed to return that first. Sneering, the manager noted that he didn't have to do anything and store credit wasn't cash. I noted that his actions meant that he wasn't letting us spend it however which meant he was keeping something that belonged to my son. Again, he stated as he owned the store, he didn't have to do anything. At this point, I noted I would have to call the police to get this resolved since that would be theft. It was only when I pulled my phone out and started to dial the non emergency state dispatch that the store owner decided it would be a wise decision to return the money he was attempting to steal. Thus, he reached into the draw and handed me $50 of cash. Even though still down about $3 of credit, I, as requested, left the store and assuredly will not return.
In summary, most of the staff are polite. Two, one of which is unfortunately the store owner, have repeatedly demonstrated minimal tolerance for dealing with my son's mild disabilities and are quite prejudiced. It is sad that there are still such people out there in the world. What could have been dealt with reasonably through a civil conversation unfortunately was blown up into a disgusting display of behavior by the manager, where he started lying about me always leaving my son after the store closed (it had literally never happened until last week when I was 6 minutes late). I have added up the approximate total of real cash (ie, not trade dollars) spent over the last few years and believe it to be right around the $1600 mark. It seems very strange to treat autistic individuals so poorly on multiple occasions. They are exactly the sort of individual who tend to frequent gaming and comic book stores. Absolutely disgusting behavior and a horrible way to repeatedly treat fellow human beings. read more
