Helen Dewberry, of Jefferson Twp., said she had an issue with the business manager of the Sleep Number store near the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp. in what she described as an emotionally upsetting experience.
Dewberry said she made the purchase in November, and when the product was delivered Dec. 11, she had misplaced her initial sales slip and did not remember some of the information on the bill that arrived. She said after three calls and not being able to reach a person, she called the store again Dec. 13 and said she would be coming in-person.
When she arrived, she said she was directed to a seat at the empty manager’s desk, and about 10 minutes later, the manager came over. She said she tried to tell him she wanted someone to go over the figures with her, but that he picked up the phone and shoved it toward her.
“I said, ‘Sir, I got dressed to come down here to talk to a person, not on the phone again,’ ” Dewberry said.
Credit: Marshall Gorby
Credit: Marshall Gorby
Dewberry said the manager then told her she had to leave, but she said she wasn’t going anywhere without an explanation of her bill. The manager said he was going to call the police, and she called her husband.
“I said, ‘Honey, you better get down here because it looks like I’m going to jail,’ ” Dewberry said.
Miami Twp. provided this news outlet with the 911 call placed by the store manager, who told a dispatcher the woman was “all on fire that we’re screwing her.”
“She’s threatened to go to the news and lawyers and our company policy is, once you do that, we just send you to our lawyers,” the manager said. “She refuses to leave my store. I don’t have security to remove her. My GM says the only thing I can do to get rid of her is have you guys come by and ask her to leave the premises.”
The manager said Dewberry had called family members, telling the dispatcher, “they’re probably all on their way here to punch me because she called me a racist because I’m a white man and she’s a Black woman.”
A sergeant and two officers from the Miami Twp. Police Department responded. Dewberry was escorted out the door and the police told her she was trespassed from the store. She said the police were firm but did not mistreat her and were doing their job.
The Dayton Unit NAACP said they made calls to the manager, went to the store in person and tried to reach district managers on Dewberry’s behalf, but have not received any return calls.
White said Dewberry is “simply seeking a meeting with the manager to discuss the purchasing contract and an apology for an unwarranted and unneeded escalation of the matter.”
“It is hoped that the company would consider providing the manager with bias-free training and positive customer service,” White said. “This is not an acceptable way to do business to any member of our community.”
Reached for comment Tuesday, Sleep Number’s Dayton Mall location referred this news outlet to its corporate headquarters in Minnesota. Julie Elepano, a spokeswoman for the company, said “while this is a regrettable incident, we empower our store teams to do what they feel is necessary for the safety and security of our customers and themselves.”
“Because Ms. Newberry (sic) became verbally aggressive with our team, and refused to leave after multiple requests, police were called to defuse the situation and ultimately remove her from the property,” Elepano said. “Additionally, all Sleep Number team members participate in Code of Conduct training related to implicit and explicit bias on a consistent basis; the team welcomes a chance to discuss Ms. Newberry’s (sic) invoice with her once again.”
A Miami Twp. spokeswoman, asked if the incident was properly handled, said that “the Miami Twp. Police Department works with the utmost care and consideration to ensure that each incident we respond to is handled in a respectful manner for all parties involved.”
