An Open Letter to Norman Hamann

Norman, can I call you Norman.  I will anyway.  Let me be honest..you are an idiot.  Twice now you have decided to make the news. This was the first time:

and this is the second time:

 

Are you totally insane?  By the looks of the numbers from WGME’s Facebook page, many think you are an idiot, others think the cops were.  Still others thought both parties were.  Either way it don’t matter, what you did is make an ass of yourself.  Did you learn nothing from your suspension from Staples?  Is your memory so short-term that you forget your past experiences?  And what is up with the YouTube name of BoyScout399 – no REAL Boy Scout would ever be such an idiot as this.  And this second video looks like something from the 1980’s of VH1 Pop-Up Video show.  Can you say lame? 

Seriously, you are now a law student?  What bank did you rob to afford to do this?  Or was this just a lie to the police to make yourself look less of a jerk?  Maybe this is why you unfriended me on both MySpace and Facebook, you knew you were a complete loser.

Hopefully the next time we read about you, you will be in prison.  After all, Scott Zimmerman needs a cellmate.

Why I Had to PERMANENTLY Block a “Friend”

I am posting this to both of my blogs as I feel it is important enough to be said in both of them.

When I joined Facebook back in April 2009, I was reluctant.  My reluctance was based upon my wonder of who wanted to ever friend me.  I felt a need/want to join after I lost my job at Staples in order to feel some existence.  I had friended a few former Staples employees (1 of which I lost – details in a future posting) and a few people I went to high school with.

However, one of those schoolmates seemed to have changed even more so after how I knew them in their post-high school existence. This person turned into someone who was non-acceptable to society.  My parents even warned me not to have any contact with this person under any circumstances.  This person was not even allowed to come over to my house.  If I wanted to meet them, I had to meet them somewhere far enough away so nobody knew I was doing it.

Eventually, this person, who I had known since junior high, disappeared from life.  I thought that getting this person back after years would make this person a changed person.  Was I ever WRONG!

Since friending them on Facebook, as well as MySpace as well, I have been nothing but constantly harassed by this person.  Anything I would write would be criticized to the point of being bullying.  I know enough about bullying to avoid it at all costs, but this person didn’t.

I had changed my Facebook settings back in November of last year to have them not see anything I posted, then lifted it in January after a probationary period.  This was a huge mistake as the unapologetic hatred continued.  Now I have had no choice, but to finally block them completely.  I have NO plans on releasing this block ever because the stress and constant harassment became way too much to handle.  Their Romney-esque approach to society issues made me too angry to allow them to continue being a friend of mine.  There is a point in everybody’s life when one says enough is enough.  Real friends don’t kick friends further down, only bullies do and sadly this “friend” is nothing but a bully.  Sad to lose a friend this way, but until this person straightens themselves out, which I don’t ever expect, I see no change in their blocked status.

The Company’s Money is Safe with Me?

During my last 2 years of working at Woolworth, I also started working in the cash office.  I did this mostly on weekends and during the week when someone was on vacation.

This job was performed in the morning, before the store opened. Given about 2 hours before the store (and the mall opened), I had to get anywhere between 15 and 25 cash bags balanced and get new bags ready for the next day.  This was a very stressful job mostly because it was usually a race against the clock to be done before opening time.  The reason I had to get done before open time is that I usually was assigned to the customer service desk at store opening time. 

If I was lucky, I usually had about 10 to 15 minutes before store opening to use the bathroom and take a drink before positions, but most times I was running back and forth finishing up the cash office while running the service desk.  Of course, it was a virtually impossible task which was required of me.

Besides doing the cash office on weekends, part of the job on weekends required me to go around to every register in the store around 2pm and do a cash pickup from all the registers.  I would then take all the money back to the cash office, count it, and then do an afternoon deposit to the bank in the mall.  Usually I left the deposit bag in the safe until the following Monday as it was difficult to get to the bank on weekends.  It was not uncommon on Monday to have as many as 4 or 5 deposit bags from the weekend especially if a Monday was a holiday. 

I did this position until my very last day with the company.  On the day following my last day, the company was going to do a completely different approach of counting bags which basically threw all the money together rather than counting each bag separately.  I was so glad that my last day came when it did.

I find it interesting that Staples never trained me for the position of cash office during my 12+ years with them.  After all, I had put on my application that I had previous cash office experience as I also had put that I had previous front-end supervisor experience.  It makes me wonder if Staples really cared about me as an employee or just wanted to abuse me as a customer service person.  I guess they really hated me from day one…but then again no surprise there.

Of course, I held other positions at Woolworth as well, which is the subject of my next blog post.

Staples, unfortunately, was a one-position job…not a bit of variety in nearly 13 years..

Up Next:  The Other Woolworth Positions

Woolworth vs. Staples – Battle of the Returns and Exchange Policies!

In this blog post, I will be comparing how returns and exchanges were done at Woolworth and Staples by comparing the differences between them.  I will also throw in the occasional Target and Best Buy policy as well as I have dealt with both of these companies for returns as well.  I have never done a return at Walmart so they are not included in this post.

Cash Returns with Receipt 

Woolworth – In order to get a cash refund, the customer had to supply their name, address, phone number (optional) on a return form.  They had to sign the bottom of the slip as well.  Many customers didn’t like providing this information and sometimes refused.  However, no info meant no money back, rarely did a manager ever make an exception to this policy.

Staples – In order to get a cash refund, the customer had to supply their name, address, phone number (optional) on a return form that printed out from the register.  If the customer didn’t fill out the form completely, no return for them—NO EXCEPTIONS!

Winner:  TIE – Neither company had an easy policy regarding cash refunds and both required personal information to be given out to get refund.

Credit Card Returns with Receipt

Woolworth – All that was needed is the same credit card used to purchase the merchandise, employee swiped card through reader, receipt came out, customer signed receipt and got refund back upon their credit card within 5 business days.

Staples – Same procedure as Woolworth.

Target – Similar procedure as Woolworth/Staples, but customer DID NOT need to sign credit refund slip.

Best Buy – Call it Best hassle.  Before issuing a credit back to customer’s account, the customer MUST present a valid id (driver’s license preferred).  This information from the license is input as part of the return information and thus logged into their computers.  This is so VERY VERY WRONG as this will lead to IDENTITY THEFT!!!  This is why many people no longer shop at this company anymore and who can blame them?  Hacker’s paradise!

Winner: Target – What is easier than NOT having to sign anything?  Simple Straightforward.

Returns WITHOUT Receipts (Cash Refunds Only)

Woolworth – The company had a big blue binder in which was logged a customer’s name (in last name ordered sections) , address, phone number, and driver’s license number or any other id (including credit card numbers!)  A customer was allowed 3 times to do a return without a receipt then they were cut-off..  However, if this book was ever lost or stolen, identity theft would run rampart as this book contained a lot of personal information not for the general public.  I never liked this approach, but just accepted it.

Staples – The old method was to fill out a merchandise credit slip that the customer put their name, address, and phone number on.  This was a paper slip that looked like a check and had to be validated by a register imprint to be legal.  It was not uncommon to hear of books of merchandise credit slips being stolen, but they were worthless without a valid register imprint.  Eventually, the credit slip went away and the customer information was input directly into the register.  A cash card was issued for the amount of the return.  These were similar to gift cards, however, because of how they were numbered they were NOT interchangeable.  Customers were only given a certain number of non-receipt returns before they got rejected.  Ironically, the first day the program started, one of the first customers got their return rejected under the system.  It did  seem funny that this happened this way.  However, if anybody hacked the Staples computer system (not that hard to do actually-I did it one night), they would have access to all the customer credit card information, driver’s license info, and personal information. 

Winner:  TIE – Both companies open the door wide to identity theft, although it was much easier to keep track of a binder than trying to protect an entire computer network.

Credit Card Returns WITHOUT a RECEIPT

Woolworth – Under NO circumstances were they allowed.  Any of these transactions would be cash refunds without receipts.

Staples – If the item was found on any receipt from any of the Staples’ locations, within a couple years of purchases, then the credit would be given back on the same card.  Otherwise, customer ended up with store credit.

Winner:  Staples – System worked almost like magic to put credit back, but then again they store much more information than they should anyway.

Merchandise Exchanges 

Woolworth – Even though the instruction manual allowed for them, our particular store prohibited exchanges to be done in one transaction.  Return had to be done first than purchase was made.  Clumsy way of getting the job done.

Staples – Could be done all in one transaction.  Originally, returns had to be the first part of transaction, but eventually register software was updated to allow returns anywhere in transaction.  Straightforward approach and easy for the most part.

Winner:  Staples – No contest here.

Summary

So who is the winner in the return arena:  Target

Biggest loser of returns: Best Buy

Staples finishes 2nd as they win 2 out of 5 contests and Woolworth finishes 3rd as they didn’t win a round but did manage a tie in 3 rounds.  However, both Staples and Woolworth opened the door to identity theft, but not nearly as bad as Best Buy.  Still, no company is safe when they store any customer information even if it is as simple as an email address as my complaint with Staples was with the Better Business Bureau.

Of course, nothing is as fun as being head of all the money in the place as being head of the cash office, which is the topic of my next blog post.

Up Next:  The Company’s Money is Safe with Me?

Staples’ Customer Service Approach – A Prisoner’s Story

As I mentioned in my previous posting, the Customer Service Desk was used as a punishment that lasted throughout the remainder of my existence with Woolworth.  After leaving that company, my next stop was HQ, the 7 week hell of nothing but a bad experience.  I was hired initially as a customer service desk person there, but I never even got 1 second of training at that counter.  Strangely, I couldn’t even tell you where in the store that counter actually was as I only visited it once on a store tour during my (dis)orientation with the company.

When I started at Staples, I was hired as a cashier, but within a few short weeks, I was training for customer service.  The training here, as with Woolworth, was a mixed result.  Being trained again by 2 females, led to 2 completely different approaches of how to handle the position.  The day person Maggie always seemed to be a very stressed and angry employee, whereas the front end supervisor was always nice and considerate of the employees. 

The most stressful part of the position beyond exchanges and returns was the sale of fine writing instruments.  I had NEVER seen anything that was as bad as dealing with the sale of pens.  It wasn’t just selling them, it was the maintaining them and keeping the inventory in order.  Many times I came into work and found at least 3 to 4 pens that needed cleaning.  It wasn’t a simple procedure as these pens were fountain pens and needed a thorough cleaning.  Each pen took approximately 20 minutes to clean so that it was sparkly and this was bothersome to many of the employees who ran the counter.  Between doing returns, showing pens, and cleaning pens, the position was very stressful. 

Since the pens were locked up, customers always needed to shown the pens and sometimes this could take up to an hour of time if the customer wanted to see many items.  After about 7 years of this, the pens were moved to a display on the sales floor and  no longer required employee intervention.  Of course, Staples discontinues carrying a lot of pens, but the stress was gone.  I will give more details on the reason for the pen inventory drop in a future post. 

Unlike Woolworth, Staples pretty much kept their Customer Service people very close to the front end as they needed them all the time, basically chaining them to the register.  Although sometimes I did manage to run away and quickly return to my post.  It was always with the hope that nobody would ever find out especially the management.  More of a prisoner in a very gated area than a free person to roam as one would want.

Between Staples and Woolworth, there were many similarities in how returns and exchanges happened, but there were also some major differences as well, which is the subject of my next posting. 

Up Next:  Woolworth vs. Staples – Battle of the Returns and Exchange Policies!