Newcastle retailer goes to court over past Walkers rewards points

A retailer has taken PepsiCo to small claims court over the Walkers Counts For More rewards points they allegedly missed on account of the irregular and absent visits to the store by sales representatives.

Rajvinder Singh, of Camperdown Stores in Camperdown, Newcastle Upon Tyne, says sales reps for Walkers, employed by agency McCurrah, were not visiting the store regularly since 2014-15, – “what should have been continual monthly visits became one or twice a year,” she says – and they had to do much chasing to resolve the issue in 2018, when they were given new brand racks and new sales reps were put in charge.

But it didn’t last long, Rajvinder says, as PepsiCo discontinued rep visits alleging past incidences of aggression in the shop. She claims that the issue of aggression came up only after they asked about reimbursing reward points they missed out due to the absence of the reps.

“Because we were pushing for the points that we missed out on, that’s when it became a PepsiCo issue, which was really unnecessary,” she comments.

“You’ve given the store two stands, give us a new rep, and you’ve apologised for the past, then the lawyer sent a letter from PepsiCo, saying due to past incidences in the shop of aggression we are no longer able to send a rep to the shop.”

Rajvinder refutes the allegations, saying the store has been unjustly labeled and accused.

“I’ve asked for evidence of these incidents. What’s the due diligence in the protocol? Should there not have been a visit? Should there not have been a letter? Should there not have been a warning? No protocol was followed. No response to the appeal for evidence. No response from PepsiCo whatsoever,” she says.

PepsiCo, however, maintained that a complaint was raised by their sales representative about the way they were treated in the store.

“We have a duty of care to all our employees and if they inform us that they have been left feeling uncomfortable or unsafe during the course of their store visits we look into the detail of what happened and take any precautionary measures,” a PepsiCo UK spokesperson told Asian Trader.

They added that Camperdown Stores was taken off the call list as the representatives felt uncomfortable and did not want to return.

“It is not appropriate to go into the detail of the interaction. However, we were satisfied after carrying out a review and speaking to the relevant parties that the appropriate step was to take the store off the call list. I think it is fair to say there was a difference in opinion of what is acceptable, professional behaviour and we would never put one of our sales representatives in a position they were uncomfortable with,” the spokesperson said.

On the issue of rewards points, the spokesperson clarified that the Counts for More scheme, which was retired in mid-2020, has been a discretionary programme where they offered vouchers to stores which sales representatives attended if certain criteria were satisfied.

“We had previously acknowledged that Mrs Singh was dissatisfied with our service overall so as a gesture of goodwill we offered her some Counts for More points which were credited to her account. Customers did not have any contractual right to these vouchers and so we do not owe Mrs Singh anything,” the spokesperson claimed.

Allegations of racism 

Rajvinder, however, alleges that the multinational has abused corporate power and legal base to undermine a small business, using a racial stereotype.

“I don’t think they would treat Asda, Morrison’s, or a white shop owner [in this way]. What does it say? Often one can get labeled as aggressive if you have an opinion, you know, the angry black man, the angry black woman scenario,” she says.

“What incidents happened that allegedly were a safety issue? Who are these people that are so called complaining about incidents? Just because a black man said, I don’t want a rep today, or I’m busy, all of a sudden that’s aggression? And, when you’re being accused of something you should also go through a process of diligence and provide the person with the due diligence, and I’ve asked for evidence and here I am being not given evidence.”

PepsiCo said they do not share details of internal investigations as a matter of policy, but asserted that they found no evidence to substantiate the claims of racist behaviour and unfair treatment, after Rajvinder raised the issue through the independent Speak Up line, which is a PepsiCo initiative to ensure compliance to its Code of Conduct.

“We understand that Mrs Singh didn’t feel that there was any behaviour from anyone working at the store that should have made our representatives feel uncomfortable but nevertheless it did,” the spokesperson said.

“We found no evidence to suggest that our actions related to this matter were in any way related to her accusations of racism. We are comfortable that they are unsubstantiated and without merit.”

PepsiCo confirmed to Asian Trader that they have now received notification of a County Court claim related to this complaint, and denied the allegation by the store that they are not co-operating with the process.

“We have not and would not ignore this, we have been delayed in our response only because it was addressed to an employee who has left the business and it had not been rerouted internally. This claim has now been referred to our legal department and will be handled appropriately,” the spokesperson said.

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