My whole family consists of gamers; my husband is a professional game developer. We have been regular customers at this store in the past, and were generally satisfied with it; but that is all over now. Here's why:
My son wanted to buy Skyrim, so we stopped there and did some browsing. My daughter has Crohn's Disease, which is nasty, unpredictable, and potentially life-threatening as well as extremely painful. When you have a restroom emergency as a Crohn's sufferer, it is a full-on EMERGENCY with red flashing lights. She was in severe distress, so I went to the counter and pretty much begged the manager to let her use the restroom; he refused.
I ran out of the store with my daughter to find another bathroom, but returned later to explain why we are no longer going to give them our business - EVER. Their defense of their refusal of my daughter, who was in extreme distress, was that it is against store policy to let customers use the employee bathroom. I was told that they could all have lost their jobs if they had allowed it.
I *seriously* doubt they would all have lost their jobs; this is melodramatic excuse-making at its finest. I'm sure it *is* the store policy not to let customers use the employee restroom, since it is the function of bureaucracy to make policies like that.
However, when a policy causes a business to inflict unnecessary humiliation and pain on a customer, it's gone too far. ""But I was just following orders"" is an outdated, poor excuse for being cruelly inconsiderate of another human being - especially a very ill child.
Businesses are there to serve the customers, period. When they fail to consider the needs of their customers, they deserve to fail as a business.
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