"Still I'm in shock": Customer wants answers after being choked at MEC

A man is speaking out after he was pushed to the ground and choked by a loss prevention officer at the Vancouver Mountain Equipment Company store earlier this month, all while he was trying to make a return.

Amir Ghasemzadehnaghadehi is questioning why store employees allegedly suggested he was lying about his Yeti cooler being defective, and why the company’s CEO deemed it “professional” for the store manager to watch while he was choked.

“They judged me. They took me as a person who was not a decent citizen for an unknown reason,” he told Daily Hive. “Still I’m in shock.”

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He was trying to return his Yeti cooler to the store in Mount Pleasant on June 18 because the drainage valve didn’t work, he told Daily Hive. He even tried buying a replacement part for it, but it didn’t help.

MEC is known for its Rocksolid Guarantee for item quality, and Ghasemzadehnaghadehi thought the return would be no trouble. He estimated he bought the item a year and a half ago, but now that summer is back, he didn’t want to spend another season with the faulty cooler.

However, when he got to the store, the manager wouldn’t accept his return, saying that customers who aren’t happy with items need to return them in fairly new condition. According to MEC’s online policy, “items returned for satisfaction reasons must be in resalable condition.”

Ghasemzadehnaghadehi argued that it wasn’t that he wasn’t satisfied with the cooler — it was that it was defective. That’s when the manager allegedly accused him of lying and suggested he sell it on Facebook Marketplace instead.

The manager told him to take the cooler and leave the store, and a security guard and loss prevention officer came over. In the video that Ghasemzadehnaghadehi’s wife recorded during the incident, the loss prevention officer is seen taking him to the floor and placing both hands on his neck.

That’s when a police officer who was shopping in the store came over and asked if Ghasemzadehnaghadehi was being arrested — to which the store manager allegedly said yes. When pressed about whether he was shoplifting, that’s when the employees clarified they just wanted him out of the store.

Out on the sidewalk, the officer informed Ghasemzadehnaghadehi that he’d be arrested for trespassing if he went back inside. The customer and his wife went home after the troubling incident, leaving the cooler on the sidewalk outside the store.

“Why did she assume that I’m lying? Maybe she assumed that I’m trying to scam her?” he said of the manager.

He’s trying to make sense of the violent incident, especially since he’s been a MEC customer for eight years — and Yeti coolers have a five-year warranty.

In a statement to Daily Hive, MEC CEO Eric Claus said the store manager and team “acted appropriately and professionally,” but confirmed the third-party loss prevention officer was removed from the store for his “unacceptable” actions.

But for Ghasemzadehnaghadehi, the statement stirs up bad emotions.

“What exactly was their professional manner? Because they didn’t punch me along with the security?” he said.

Ghasemzadehnaghadehi never wants what happened to him to happen to another customer, and that’s why he’s raising awareness.

“I’m sure other people have been through this. The only difference is they didn’t have the opportunity to record it.”

Daily Hive has reached out to Yeti for comment about the defect Ghasemzadehnaghadehi reported for his cooler, but has not yet heard back.