Tulsa, OK — Kendriana Washington, a Black woman who was trying to pick up her prescription at a CVS Pharmacy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she received poor customer service from the store’s employees. She said one told her she didn’t have enough money, and another called the police on her because she didn’t like the tone of her voice, as seen on a video she recorded and posted on social media.
When it still didn’t work, an employee identified as Debbie came to help but it still didn’t go through. Washington asked if they could try another register, Debbie allegedly told her that she didn’t have enough money on her account.
Disappointed, Washington went into the store to get money from the ATM. After getting the amount she needed, Washington came over to the counter, showed Debbie the money to continue the transaction and told her that she is filing a complaint because she discriminated against her.
Debbie then called another employee identified as Tanya who started apologizing to her. But Washington couldn’t just accept her apology after being accused of not being able to pay. That was when Tanya told her that she didn’t like her tone and threatened to call the police.
Washington began recording the incident. In the video, Tanya can be seen holding the phone to her ear. Washington said in the video, “This woman is calling the police on me when I have cash and I’ve asked her several times to process my payment. She’s calling the police because she doesn’t like the tone of my voice. They messed up my prescription three times.”
Tanya can be heard saying on the phone that Washington was “refusing to hear her out,” trying to play the victim, as Washington said. Tanya went on saying that she was “yelling at the top of her voice,” which she denied and said she was just having a “stern tone.”
After hanging up the phone, Tanya told her that her right to be assisted has been “forfeited” and police would arrive to escort her out. Ironically, Debbie, who called Tanya up in the first place, came back to complete Washington’s transaction in just about two seconds.
Washington posted the videos on Twitter, claiming the whole ordeal happened because she is Black, to which CVS replied saying, “We do not tolerate any practices that discriminate against any of our customers, and we take your experience very seriously. Could you please send us a DM with your phone number and full name so that we can pass this along to our team to further assist?”
Moreover, CVS issued a public apology to Washington and said that after conducting a thorough investigation, “the two employees who were involved are no longer employed by CVS.”