on duty during Gloria's first visit, the customer service clerk who had taken Anna's report, and the regional customer relations team that had been closing complaints at Eastside for months. Malcolm requested the records from the previous six months, including complaints submitted by people who had never purchased a vehicle. He wanted to know whether his mother's experience had been an exception or an example.
The first video was worse than he expected. On the screen, Gloria entered the showroom wearing her depot work shirt, walked politely to reception, and asked a question. Derek looked toward the bus, laughed, and dropped the catalog at her feet. Later, the camera showed his hand moving sharply against hers near the silver van. There was no audio on that particular angle, but the sequence afterward required little interpretation: Kelsey arrived with the barrier posts, Derek directed their placement, and Gloria stood outside the plastic while several employees watched.
Malcolm replayed the hand movement twice, each time seeing something different. The first time he saw an employee striking his mother, and his anger was immediate and personal. The second time he imagined a stranger standing in the same place, perhaps someone without an influential son or a business big enough to bring an account the size of Gloria's. The second viewing hurt more because it showed him what might have happened if Anna had not intervened.
"Show me the footage from this morning," he said to the security supervisor. The man pulled up a wide camera angle that included the visitor lot, reception, and the commercial display area. Gloria's bus was clearly inside the marked space, leaving a full parking lane unobstructed. Derek confronted her almost immediately after she entered, moving from reception into her path. When Anna approached with the folder, he leaned toward her and gestured sharply at Gloria, as though ordering her to remove an unwanted object from the room.
Fiona set the video aside and opened the complaint register. "We have eighteen reports in the period you requested that contain similar language," she said. "Some are about wait times, but others mention being told they didn't look qualified, being discouraged from asking for vehicle details, or receiving no response after requesting a test drive. Most were closed by a branch-level manager using the same resolution code." She turned the tablet so Malcolm could see the phrase: customer did not meet purchasing criteria.
"What criteria?" Malcolm asked. Fiona shook her head. "There isn't a verified credit review or financing request attached to most of these files.
Several customers never reached that step. The notation appears to mean an employee decided they weren't worth spending time on." Malcolm read the first three complaints and realized what his mother had meant by reading the answers rather than merely looking at the numbers.
One complaint came from a contractor who arrived in muddy work boots after an early shift and was told the commercial vehicle desk was too busy to meet with him. Another was from a retired woman who had been asked to return with a family member before discussing a purchase, even though she was buying for herself. A third described an employee laughing at an older man's pickup before he was shown a new one. The customers had no obvious connection beyond the fact that someone had judged them before listening.