PhotoDude.com

Fri. Aug 26, 2005

Neiman Marcus, Not Fit For Dogs?

They say no good deed goes unpunished. It would appear this is particularly true at Neiman Marcus in Atlanta. And this is one time I’d love to see that cliché inverted. Because the wrong party is being punished.

What’s known for sure is that a longtime Neiman Marcus employee climbed onto the hood of a pricey car to assist two poodles left inside as temperatures outside hovered around 90 degrees.

Valerie Cheatham, 46, was fired two days after the incident, which was captured by Lenox Square cameras.

“I walked out the door, saw the dogs, went back into the store and got the phone number for Fulton County Animal Control and wrote down the tag number,” she said. “I went out a second time and checked the doors and they were locked.”

Cheatham went back inside and picked up a little paper bowl and a bottle of water.

“I’m 5-2,” she said. “I took my shoes off and got on the hood.”

That’s when everything went to the dogs. By the time she was in a position to reach down through the sunroof, the car owner “came out and called me fat and ugly,” Cheatham said. “She was just screaming.”

Cheatham said Ramona Lindsey screamed for her to get off the ”$80,000 car.”

According to Cheatham, Lindsey also said: “I hope you’re somebody because I’m going to have your job.”

AJC: Leap to help goes to dogs

And she did. Yes, rather than thank her for the concern for her pets, Ms. Ramona Lindsey of Peachtree City, Georgia, apparently complained to Ms. Cheatam’s employer that she’d nearly damaged the paint on her high-priced chariot attempting to save two measly dogs that could be easily replaced. After all, Ms. Ramona Lindsey of Peachtree City, Georgia, had apparently already made her choice about what was important to her, and it wasn’t her dogs. From the story, it appears clear that her shopping and her car took priority.

Ms. Ramona Lindsey of Peachtree City, Georgia, is, according to the article, unavailable for comment. One wonders if she would ask, “Don’t you have a right to risk, even kill, your own dogs in this country anymore?”

Thankfully, an upstanding company like Neiman Marcus knows exactly which side its bread is buttered on. They know it is better to risk a PR disaster and create potential legal liability by firing an employee … rather than have one unreasonably angry customer! If it wasn’t for all those pesky poor people with computers sending them unreasonably angry e-mails…

Neiman Marcus executive Ginger Reeder, at company headquarters in Dallas, said the luxury retailer had been flooded with e-mails from angry Atlantans who read about the incident on Web blogs run by animal lovers.

Most accused the store of firing the employee because the car owner was a “big-time spender.” Whether that is true, nobody knows, Reeder said.

“We’ve had random e-mails from a lot of people, mostly from customers saying, ‘How dare you terminate a woman for wanting to help a dog.’ We thank them for their opinion. Some have been harsh,” Reeder said.

Cheatham was fired two days after the Aug. 2 confrontation. Reeder, who described the employee as a “glorified secretary” for the precious gems department, said the termination did not result from the car incident alone [...] A police report, which identified Cheatham as a “precious metal assistant manager,” said an officer was approached by witnesses who pointed out the dogs. Then Neiman Marcus security was contacted, and mall cops were called in. They checked on the dogs within 10 minutes, the police report said. Lenox Square officials said it was 20. Neiman Marcus cameras recorded pictures of the incident.

Those “random” and “harsh” e-mails over your “glorified secretary” aren’t random, they’re targeted. At you! And they are harsh because you seem to gladly and willingly leave the perception you care more about ruffling one customer’s feathers than two overheated dogs locked in a car on a hot August Atlanta day. You leave that perception by using words like “random,” “harsh,” and “glorified secretary.”

It’s my opinion this leaves the perception you are both inhumane and money grubbing, and, yes, people find that disgusting. “People” equals “potential customers,” in case you’ve forgotten. If you’ve reached the level of “executive” of a hoighty-toighty retail chain and you don’t know your business is all about perceptions, you’ve risen above your level of competence. If you don’t realize that every word you emit on this topic will be parsed and spit back at you, you should simply keep your PR hole shut: “Neiman Marcus does not comment on employment matters.”

Instead, we get this: “Reeder said Cheatham shouldn’t expect to get her job back. ‘Typically we don’t do that when people are terminated,’ she said.”

Will Ms. Reeder and Neiman Marcus realize their own actions have moved this outside the description “typical”? Will they take action to protect their greater company interests rather than cling to the condescending tone they’ve taken so far? Highly and grossly unlikely, I’d say. In my opinion, this type of event allows a company to show either how smart or how stupid they are, and Neiman Marcus appears dumb as a box of rocks.