Adorama in hot water for not servicing someone due to political differences

Apparently a few weeks ago Brandon Straka who is the founder behind the 'Walkaway Movement' goes into Adorama to buy a mic.  Then an Adorama employee refused to sell the mic to Brandon because the sales rep didn't agree with Brandons political views?!

Another sales rep finally helped Brandon out and sold him the mic he needed.  

Adorma had posted this on their Twitter feed:

"The Adorama Management Team deeply regrets the incident involving an employee in our store. Please know this is not who we are, and does not reflect the position of our owners or other staff members. This is being taken seriously and is being addressed with the highest priority."


WOW, come on Adorama, you guys are there to accept payments for products, not judge and determine who get's what!  

I'm rather bothered by all of this.  

You should be bothered by this because it is bad business.  There are businesses I don't patronize because of their corporate political activities but I am not a business when I am the customer.  The businesses I don't patronize don't even know that I don't patronize them.

On the business side, however, I never refuse to serve a customer because of politics.  I refuse for former non payment, bad behavior or other purposes but never the customer's political beliefs.  Politics doesn't affect my business directly or that of Adorama.  What the sales rep did was simply bad business and was unacceptable.

Yes, that's what I said.  It's wrong on so many accounts.   

WOW, come on Adorama, you guys are there to accept payments for products, not judge and determine who get's what! 

Forgive me, but did you read Adorama's statement? They don't condone the behavior of that employee, nor take a position (any position) as a company. Why are you pointing at the company as being out of line?

The salesperson didn't do their job, their choice brought an issue to the attention of management, who have dealt/are dealing with it, and Brandon got his mic.

I don't see how this could work out any better, and I appreciate that Adorama, as a company, understands that personal feelings/positions shouldn't get in the way of business.

I would have fired that sales rep, no questions asked.  

No offense taken from me regarding your remarks. 

Haven't we learned from plenty of recent events that these people are extensions, AKA representation of the brand they work for?

Look at United Airlines for example - their last episode.  Who did the media come after, the defendants attorneys?  Not the people on the plane, but the brand.  And it was the brand, just like Adorama, that needed to do damage control by releasing press release with somewhat expected to say responses.   

I get it, I'm a fan of Adorama too, hence my disappointment.  I get it, one person said this.  However don't we have enough hate and discrimination already going on?  This is common sense.  

Their apology is sincere, and it was an isolated incident...Molehill to mountain, again?

Old news and they handled the situation.

I wonder if the sales person that started this is still there? 

I like Adorama, they are good people.  

Gammill wrote: No offense taken from me regarding your remarks. 

Haven't we learned from plenty of recent events that these people are extensions, AKA representation of the brand they work for?

Look at United Airlines for example - their last episode.  Who did the media come after, the defendants attorneys?  Not the people on the plane, but the brand.  And it was the brand, just like Adorama, that needed to do damage control by releasing press release with somewhat expected to say responses.   

I get it, I'm a fan of Adorama too, hence my disappointment.  I get it, one person said this.  However don't we have enough hate and discrimination already going on?  This is common sense.  

Not trying to offend anyone, of course. Trying to focus on the issues and think through them. Not enough of that going on, IMHO.

I see your example as apples and oranges. The fact that Brandon went immediately to another rep and got what he wanted clearly shows that the first rep was acting independently. In the United case, not one employee stood up for the customers, which would point to a corporate policy. That's why United had a PR problem on its hands.

I don't care about who the media went after. The media is in the business of selling (now), and they'll do whatever they think makes a story. Therefore, not relevant.

Yes, the employees are the customer-facing portion of the business, but how many of us have had our employers explain that we keep politics out of our business? Not many, I'll wager, because it should go without saying.

Yes, the company must do damage control, because people (like right here *cough* *cough*) conflate and ascribe attributes where none belong before getting the whole story. Or even after getting the whole story, which is the case here. You say you're disappointed in Adorama... why? It's very clear the company didn't err, an employee, acting independently did. And they stood right up for what (you preceive) was right, without hesitation. (United handles their mistakes very poorly, by all indications.) Had this been a company policy, the second rep would have done the same thing... perhaps?

Differences of opinion in political leanings do not, from where I sit, fall into the categories of hate or discrimination. Ignorance and stubbornness, maybe so.

I think it's very important to think through situations such as this and ascribe blame where it belongs, and not ascribe blame where it doesn't belong. On a case by case basis.

Who was it, B&H or Adorama that was sued for discrimination  a few years back?  I seem to recall one of them getting in trouble.  I want to say that was for employment though.  

Got me, I'm going to go shopping on both their pages now.  

Seems like Adorama addressed the inappropriate action of one employee. In my experience if it's a personnel matter it's often confidential and the company may not disclose specific action they may have taken. But they did take action.

This reminds me, I need to get an order in soon! Need a media card, and ink...

As far as these stories... Petapixel mostly rewrites info. from elsewhere. Their self described editor has a background in IT; I have more background in writing from high school journalism. Many of these type sites want people to 'click' and are dangling 'bait' that will drive traffic to their site.

Yawn, single incident.  Not changing my opinion of them.  

Many thanks to those who appreciated that this incident involved one, single employee - one of over 500 - who was working as a sales assistant in the store.
As Mr Straka confirmed, he was served quickly and efficiently by another employee.

As Mr Straka didn’t inform the store manager of the incident (which occurred on a Thursday evening), rather he went directly to Twitter - the first I was aware was when I started reading angry emails and postings on Facebook and Twitter, which started on Friday evening while Adorama was already closed for the weekend.

The matter was handled as soon as the background was understood.

HelenOster wrote: Many thanks to those who appreciated that this incident involved one, single employee - one of over 500 - who was working as a sales assistant in the store.
As Mr Straka confirmed, he was served quickly and efficiently by another employee.

As Mr Straka didn’t inform the store manager of the incident (which occurred on a Thursday evening), rather he went directly to Twitter - the first I was aware was when I started reading angry emails and postings on Facebook and Twitter, which started on Friday evening while Adorama was already closed for the weekend.

The matter was handled as soon as the background was understood.