Probably, each of us has at least once had the opportunity to observe how some customer is ready to literally “peck out the brain” of a cashier or manager in a store because of an annoying mistake. In this case, the situation did not develop quite as standard. This incident occurred at a Target store in Swansea, Massachusetts. Manager Tori Perrotti, over the years of working in the trade, has become accustomed to daily communication with rude customers and has already learned to get out of different situations quite diplomatically. But she never expected that she would have to deal with a buyer who would make such an unreasonable demand, and then do everything possible to ruin her career and life.
It all started when David Levitt-a self–proclaimed “award-winning journalist” and a well-known Twitter troll-entered the Target store. Making his way through the aisles between the shelves, David noticed an electric toothbrush “Oral B Pro 5000”, which was used for demonstration. When he saw that a suspiciously low price was set for this demo model, he happily grabbed it, ran up to the cash register and waited for the cashier to scan the barcode. The excited cashier immediately realized what David was doing and politely explained that this dental electric brush was intended only for demonstration purposes. In confirmation of her words, the woman pointed to the inscription “DISPLAY”, in capital letters made above the price tag, which by default was set at $ 0.01. But David Levitt was a man who was used to getting what he wanted.
Overwhelmed with a sense of his own rightness and armed with limited knowledge of the “Law on Consumer Protection”, he demanded to call the manager in a voice trembling with arrogant indignation. Tori Perrotti, who was watching the scene at the checkout from a distance, already realized that she needed to intervene before the buyer threw a full-scale tantrum. The situation was escalating at an alarming rate, but Tori was confident that she would be able to cope. The girl approached David and tried to talk to him calmly, but, as it turned out, she underestimated how far he was willing to go to get his way. Suddenly, he took his phone out of his pocket and, holding it up to the girl’s face, took a picture and uploaded it to Twitter to show his 210,000 followers. This photo, which depicted a completely unperturbed Tori, the Twitter troll signed as follows:
“This Target manager does not comply with Massachusetts laws regarding product prices.” David was sure that with the help of live tweets on his account, he would document in detail how events unfolded. When the “journalist” saw that his tactics of intimidation and public shaming did not work, he decided to act differently. Trying to demonstrate all his authority and strength, he called the police and posted another smug message on Twitter: “I had to call the police because Target refused to sell me a toothbrush.” David clearly expected the fans to sympathize with him. And he did not suspect at all that all his actions would have very unpleasant consequences for him. In the series of tweets that followed, Levitt’s followers showed clear indignation that he had called the police in vain, because the incident was quite insignificant.
Fans even noted that the law is also not on David’s side. One of the subscribers said: “Let me be blunt. You’re bothering the police because of an obvious mistake made by Target employees that you want to exploit! After all, we all know that such toothbrushes are not sold for one cent. Why did you publish a photo of an employee who is just doing his job in good faith?”. Unexpectedly, David found himself struggling to justify and defend his actions. He even stated that he “didn’t call 911” and explained to the police that “it wasn’t an emergency” and they “could take their time.” Then the events took a completely unexpected turn for the self-confident “journalist”: Twitter users paid attention to Tory and began to support her! One of the subscribers left such a comment:
“As a former salesman, I want to hug this girl.” One woman sympathized so much with Tori that she decided to open a GoFundMe account and raise enough money to send her on a well-deserved vacation! People were fascinated by how the battle between the rude buyer and the well-mannered manager developed, so donations began to arrive very generously. Just days after the story went viral, a GoFundMe account raised over $35,000, which was successfully donated to Tori Perrotti. After receiving the money, the girl decided that instead of going on vacation, as the creators of the account planned, she would donate all the money to charity.