Posted by
sgtmajorbrad on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:57:48 PM
Do you know who is serviced by the charities that receive
your donations? Do you care? I do and think that we should take care of our own
before we consider caring for the illegal alien already leaching off of our
society.
We have a local grocery chain in the Dallas
area called Tom Thumb. This is a Safeway store in disguise. Many years ago we
had Safeway stores but they fell from the public’s favor because of high prices
and a variety of other things that included rude and disgruntled personnel. To
Safeway’s credit this Tom Thumb is a far cry from the original Safeways I
patronized in the past.
One of Tom Thumb’s pride and joys is to solicit for
donations to charities. I was solicited to donate to breast cancer research at
the beginning of the month. Since I have become an activist against illegal
immigration I’ve come up with a query as a response to requests for donations.
It is simply, “Can you assure me that
this donation will no go to service illegal aliens?” This statement has
taken many a check out person by surprise and their response has been no. At
the beginning of the month I received a different response from a checkout girl
named Patti. Patti assured me that this donation would no go to service illegal
aliens and rang me up for a one dollar donation. She was very cheerful until I
asked her to note her assurance on my receipt. This request shocked her and became
very nervous fumbling to find a pen. Her assurance barely legible she stopped
her scrawl trying to remember how to spell illegal. I assisted her memory where
she finished her scribble and passed it to me. I passed it back and said you
forgot to sign it. Seeing this was completely illegible I queried her name to
which she replied Patti.
On my trip back to the house it struck me funny that Patti
should get so apprehensive at my request to sign her assurance on the receipt.
I thought she is just affirming corporate policy so why should she be
apprehensive? I decided to find out from their corporate management if Patti’s
assurances were true or was a deception on the part of one of their employees.
Surely this wasn’t the case and Tom Thumb really did consider the preference
for those legally entitled to be here.
I looked at the Safeway Website and contacted Alina at
Business Ethics were she referred me to the customer service hotline. Here is
where I wish I wrote down the name of the individual that serviced my call. I
then talked to a lady that initially was pleasant and seemed to be helpful. I
explained my quest of verifying Patti’s statements by asking for the name of
the charities sponsored by Tom Thumb. She took my information and consulted
with her manager and after a time they come up with a website NBCAM.questions@yahoo.com. I
replied that this wasn’t good enough because anyone could have a yahoo email
address. I wanted to speak to someone either at the charity or a corporate
representative that could answer my question. I then asked to talk to her
supervisor. She replied that her supervisor was busy and she would return my
call. I said that I spend quite a bit of time on the phone and let me give her
my email address to give me a time to contact her back or provide a means of
getting me an answer. She expressed frustration with this request by a groan
and I queried was there a problem with my request! She replied she was going to
hang up if I didn’t give her my email address. I again queried what is the
problem with my request when she hung up on me. I called again and got another
representative and asked to speak to a manager. After assuring the reps efforts
wouldn’t suffice I was placed in contact with Reggie
Reggie was very helpful and courteous. She directed me to
the public affairs office here in Dallas
to Connie. Connie , a delightful lady, gave me the numbers for the local
charities where one of them responded to my request for information. A. Terry
told me over the phone that illegal aliens are not eligible for treatment but
may get diagnostic services from the charity.
This
affirmed my suspicions that there were no safeguards against donations being
used to service illegal aliens. Angered I composed a letter to the CEO of
Safeway, Steven Burd, and explained the circumstances of my request. I ended the
letter:Because I have
verified that an illegal alien may get services from my donation I’m requesting
the return of my donation. Attached is a copy of the sales receipt indicating
the assurance written by Patti and the $1.00 donation marked as breast cancer. Please
mail the check to… In closing I find the actions of Patti objectionable and
deceptive. Her and Tom Thumb’s integrities are now suspect in my mind and will
probably persuade me to take my business someplace else.
It is now nearing the end of the month and I’ve heard
nothing from the Tom Thumb store or Mr. Burd of Safeway. It cost me a dollar to
test the integrity of the grocer and they have earned one less shopper. I’m
sharing this story so maybe you’ll consider the same!