According to articles by the BBC and PC Pro yesterday, employees from Dixons Store Group International (DSGi) reportedly labelled their customers "stupid", amongst other things, in an unofficial Facebook group set up for DSGi staff. One of the posters apparently raised the question of whether or not employees are allowed to "cattle prod" stupid customers, however, many of them posted under their real names, something that may prove costly after DSGi has finished investigating the comments.
Upon being notified about the comments, DSGi said in a statement, "Delivering excellent customer service is at the forefront of everything we do, and so we are very disappointed that a small number of our colleagues have made these comments on a social-networking website."
"We will take the necessary action with any staff found to be acting inappropriately," they added.
DSGi owns numerous well known electronics retailers, including Currys, Dixons and PC World. Although the DSGi employees Facebook group was nowhere to be seen on Facebook at the time, possibly due to the investigation DSGi have now launched, PC World, Currys and several other related groups are still available for all registered Facebook members to see, along with the posts that employees have made.
This isn't the first time activity on a social-networking website has led to action being taken against employees, and many question whether or not that is an acceptable practice by employers. However, what action DSGi takes in the end, based on the fact that the staff and ex-staff insulted customers, remains to be seen.
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