The Rewards Card – Who REALLY Benefits?

You can call them rewards cards, membership cards, wellness cards, preferred customer cards, or any of dozens of other names.  Just don’t call them favorable to the customer.  As previously mentioned in a past blog, Staples has been using their rewards cards to link to credit card numbers and from there link to email addresses.  The sad thing about all this is that there is NO WAY to opt out of this at all!!  At least that is the information that I got from them before the BBB shut down my claim.  Certainly, linking credit card information to rewards cards without customer knowledge is not only a scam, but is just bad business.  But then again, what isn’t unethical with anything Staples does?  Welcome to this blog (as if you didn’t know that already)!

My first experience with a rewards card was way back in the mid-1980’s with a company called Waldensoftware.  For those of you who are not aware of this company, it was a part of the Waldenbooks chain before Borders took over the company.  At that time the Walden group was owned by the Pre-Sears Kmart Corporation.  The store that I shopped in was located in the late Newington Mall in Newington New Hampshire.  The store was located 2 doors down on the right hand side beyond the late Montgomery Ward store.  The store was about the size of a mall bookstore at the time. More information about the company can be found at http://waldensoftware.com/

During its existence, I was a member of Waldensoftware’s Preferred Customer Program.  Unlike a similar program being run by the Waldenbooks division, this one allowed for more aggressive rewards to the point that I was toward the end of its existence getting $10 back in coupons for about every $50 I spent with the company.  At the time I was buying a lot with the company for myself and other people as well.  However, it was during one of my visits to the store that absolutely floored me.  The store manager told me that I was the top customer of ALL of the New England stores and was in the top 10 customer purchasers of the ENTIRE company.  It was at this point that the proverbial bell in my head rang loudly.  WALDENSOFTWARE HAD BEEN COLLECTING DATA ON MY PURCHASES!!

While today this is a common practice even though it is usually NOT told to the customer, it still proves that these so-called rewards cards benefit the companies far more than the customer would ever benefit.  Eventually, the company would be sold off to Electronics Boutique and would eventually close as the mall would eventually become an empty shell of abandoned stores.  The mall would eventually be demolished and become part of the retail history.  More details of this late mall can be found at  http://deadmalls.com/malls/newington_mall.html

After Waldensoftware was history, I signed up for the Waldenbooks Preferred Reader card at the local mall.  At the time that I signed up for the card, Waldenbooks had been operating two stores in the local mall.  The one closest (and the larger or the stores) to Sears was more like a bookstore, the one at the other end of the mall (now occupied by a GameStop) was more like a bookstore/software store hybrid.  While this store wasn’t a Waldensoftware store, it had about more software than its companion store at the other end of the mall.

About a year and half before Waldenbooks had closed their larger store, one of the managers had told me that I was its top customer and once again I felt that same anger that I had years earlier about the data being collected about my shopping habits.  I just wonder if after Borders closed if my shopping habits along with my email address was sold to Barnes and Noble.  I really hope not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.  After all, like Staples, they did lie to their customers all the time and always stated that they never “sell, give away, or rent customer information” .  So much for that when they sold my email to B&N!

One thing that always bothered me most about some rewards cards was the fact that they are charging for them.  During the final year of Borders existence, a customer could sign up for the Borders Plus card for $20.  Sadly, the company didn’t last a full year for anyone could take advantage of it.  No matter how many times they tried to push it onto me I always flatly said NO to it as I knew better that this card along with all other cards that you have to pay for are a rip-off!  Ironically, the price of the Books-A-Million card cost $20, but the B&N card costs $5 more.  How stupid do these people think we people are!  However, I will say that back when the Waldensoftware card was around, it was $20 a year until the very end, but at least I took the company for over $1000 in coupons over its lifetime.  I was also a member of the Suncoast Motion Picture Company’s card as well, which cost $20 per year, but again I made up with lots of coupons.  Originally, Best Buy charged for their Reward Zone card, but eventually got smart and stopped charging for it.  Apparently, they knew it wasn’t selling so they had to make it free.  Let me say that I was the exception to the rule for many of these cards as I did excessive shopping for many people (and was reimbursed by them + interest), but for the everyday shopper NONE of the rewards cards would be beneficial if they had to be paid for.  I think it is ironic that any company doesn’t want to collect data on ALL their customers and open their cards availability for free.  Then again companies like Staples enjoy scamming as many customers as possible which is why their card is free.  But what cost is free when you have your information stored without your permission with no way out?  That is a question I will touch upon from time to time.

Up Next:  Selling the FREE Staples Rewards Card (or not)

Who’s Drawer is It Anyway?

Handling money shouldn’t be brain surgery.  You enter the amount the customer gives you and you read the amount of change to give the customer back.  Sound simple, right?  Why is such a major issue in all retailers.

Back in the days of Woolworth, every register was a community drawer.  This means that if you have a code to run a register then you can run any register in the store.  At the start of an employee using a register, they would input their employee number into the register and sign the sheet that hung on the side of the register.  Along with their signature were spaces for time on and time off the register.  The time function could be accessed with the press of the time key on the register.  Occasionally, an employee would forget either to sign the slip or forget to put their employee number in the register.  However, this was rate to happen, but it did happen.  At the end of a busy day, it would not be uncommon to have at least 3 sheets stapled together with names of those who signed into the register.  Each sheet held 10 names which meant at least 30 different register changes during the day.  When the registers were upgraded, the sign in sheet disappeared and the employee only needed to input their employee number at the start of using the register. 

In the old days, if there was a problem with the register, either an overage or shortage, it was not uncommon to unroll the journal tape and examine each transaction to find where the error occurred.  Most times the error was found, but occasionally it wasn’t.  The newer registers unfortunately didn’t change this at all.  When the guilty party was found (if found), the employee was confronted with the error transaction and was written up accordingly.  Since I always kept care of transactions, I never got written up during my time at Woolworth.

On the other hand, HQ treated every register like a sacred shrine.  When a cashier came in for the day, they would go to the cash office.  Normally, the employee would press a buzzer and be let into the office.  If nobody was around, a manager would have to be paged.  The cash office person *(or manager) would give the cashier a drawer with $100 in it.  It was the responsibility of the cashier to count this money and make sure it was all there.  If there was a shortage or overage at the start, it was noted on the money count sheet that was with the bag that the cash came out of.  After counting the drawer, the employee was escorted to wherever they was supposed to go with that particular drawer.  Nobody else could ring on a register with somebody else’s money drawer.  This was policy, no exceptions.  When the employee took a break, went to lunch, or did anything else, the drawer would be placed in the office with a locked cover over it until the employee returned.  At the end of the day, the employee was escorted to the cash office where the employee would count their money.  When the employee was finished counting, they paged a manager to check the drawer.  My drawer was always excellent, not off by more than a penny either plus or minus.  Other employees sometimes were not so lucky.  One day in the cash office, there were about 7 of us in there, mostly girls except 2 guys and it was VERY HOT in there in more ways than one.  No wonder shorts were preferred clothing choice.

When I started working at Staples, they did pretty much the same procedure as HQ did.  This lasted for about a year or so until the company decided to simplify their cash handling procedure.  The simplification basically made all registers community registers.  This meant that anybody could run them as long as they were programmed into the main computer as a cashier-enabled.  Of course, this created the scenario of the “I am not responsible” for each drawer.  Of course this meant that if there was a problem with a register usually the office person had to find the error.  However, one of the office managers, Karen, NEVER spent the time to research the problems and found it much simpler to pass the blame on ALL USERS of that particular register, even if they had just one transaction.  Karen’s excuse was that she was “just too busy to do her job properly”.  So instead of doing her job, she would rather have people like me, who hardly ever has a problem with their register to suddenly get a LOT of sheets to sign basically admitting to the error even though it was NEVER my fault.  What was bad about these sheets is that they were put in my PERMANENT RECORD and never removed!  I remember 1 day that she had me sign about 10 of these sheets (she had about 40 of them altogether).  When I questioned her about them, she just said to me “Just sign the F* papers!, it WON’T EVER MATTER!”.  Certainly, I should have gone along with my instincts and never sign any of them especially knowing that they were NOT my problems to begin with.   What is worse about that is that 10 years later, these same sheets were used against me in my case against Staples as part of their proof that I was a bad employee!  Talk about altering the truth to satisfy your side of the story!  Sadly, NOBODY believed me that these were not truly mine alone and I was being convicted because of somebody else’s laziness 10 years earlier.  I was always reluctant to sign these sheets and for good reason.  Unfortunately, it took 10 years and the loss of my job to find out that good reason.  Just part of the fraudulent information used against me and more proof of how low blow Staples REALLY is!

Up Next:  The Rewards Card – Who REALLY Benefits?

The 50th Post

This being my 50th post I decided at this point to reflect on what has happened up to this point.  To be honest, I am rather disappointed at where this blog sits at right now, but in other ways I am not surprised.  I really thought that coming out of the gate I would get much more support from former Staples employees as well as some employees still holding on in the company.  Instead, I have found more sarcasm than anything else at this point.  It bothers me to think that up to this point that much of what I have written has been criticized by people who may not get it or who think that I am just being lazy for not having a job at this point in time.  I expected to see more comments here in this blog, but the only comments I received was from one person and myself on my very first post last year.  It makes me wonder if people are purposely ignoring all this because they just don’t care or they don’t want to hear about other people’s problems.  I believe it is a little bit of both.  Maybe people are ashamed of being a part of this blog as they would feel personally attacked by it.  That is not and should not be the case under any circumstances.  What I present here in this blog is the TRUTH which Staples denies all the way.  Since nobody from the company has ever responded or probably ever will, I will assume they don’t care what I write because they are done destroying me for now.

Destroying me you say.  Yes, as I celebrate and not in a good way, my 3 year dismissal as of yesterday (March 18th) from Staples, it should be noted that it has been a living hell since then. 

Let’s go back to that faithful day 3 years ago.  It was around 12:45pm on a Wednesday.  It was a rainy damp day and as I had been anticipating when I arrived at work, the assistant manager was waiting for me at the door.  In all honesty, I was not surprised that I would get terminated as I sat in the manager’s office with a friend, a weasel, and a liar all in the room with me.  I actually expected this to happen long before now as the new manager who was in the store for the last 6 months had done EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to intimidate me and make my every day a nightmare.  It was bad enough that I was struggling with my health at the time, but it was aggravated even worse by the almost daily onslaught by the fiery manager.  What really surprised me during my dismissal conversation were 2 things that were told to me.  What were those 2 things…well that I will get to in a future post…stay tuned. 

All I will say about those 2 things is that it led me to file a complaint against the company with the state.  Sadly, the results were very unsatisfactory as I will explain later.  The lies that Staples brought up against me and the information about me couldn’t be further from the truth.  However along the way before my case went to trial, Staples decided to seek its revenge against me.  They decided to BLACKLIST ME,  INTIMIDATE ME, HACK MY ACCOUNTS, AND WORST OF ALL STEAL MY IDENTITY! 

Yes, you read all that correctly and in future posts I will discuss all of this.  Its bad that they wanted to destroy me, but they did.

As I head toward the 100th post, I am hoping that this blog catches fire and becomes a more widespread interest from former and current employees and anybody else who has ever shopped at Staples.  After all, the BBB closed my complaint against Staples without answering the real question of why they store credit card information.  Sad that the BBB don’t care about consumers any better than that.  Let’s strengthen this blog and make it work after all the company doesn’t even know it exists.  At least I have one savior moment in my life!

Up Next:  Who’s Drawer is It Anyway?

Credit Card Sign-Ups

Way back in the days of Woolworth, there was a lady who worked out front of the Sears department store who had the job of taking credit card applications. Her name was Barbie.  As I looked out the front window of Woolworth, I could see her 2 doors down at the end of the mall working her kiosk at the corner of the front entrance.  Most times she just sat in her chair bored with nobody around, occasionally someone came around to fill out an application.  The table she worked at had a bunch of different items on it that were given away as free gifts for completing an application.  Most times the stuff was junky stuff, but occasionally there was a gem amongst the items on the table.  Such gems were like cups with Sears logo on them, umbrellas with Sears logo on them, and other items with Sears logo on them.  Since my mother knew the lady quite well, she quite often made out fake applications to get the free items.  The reason that Barbie allowed for this was that she was paid a commission for each application taken in and paid an additional commission if the application was approved.  Even though Barbie was paid an hourly wage, she still wanted more no matter if the applications were real or fake.

When Sears and Kmart merged, Barbie found herself no longer at the Kiosk as this position disappeared and so did the commission.  She became an hourly associate until she retired from the company, but she no longer made what she had when doing the kiosk.

While Woolworth didn’t have credit cards and HQ didn’t push them, it was Staples where the credit card sign ups happened in my retail career.  When I started at Staples, there was somewhat of a push on the credit cards.  For each Staples credit card application successfully completed, the employee would receive a dollar for their efforts.  Not a lot but still a little incentive.  Originally, employees called in the credit card applications themselves, but after so many fake applications were discovered, the management had to call in the application to get an approval,  Eventually the incentive went away, it didn’t last a year and the employees no longer were enthusiastic about doing credit applications.

With interest rates when I started around 20%, the cards were not very enticing.  As of this writing, the interest rate is at 29.99% and certainly not very encouraging for the employee nor the customer.  Although, I noticed that I had around 1 or 2 credit applications per week   I guess people will always desire to spend too much and love those high interest rates.

Up Next:  The 50th Post  . 

New Feature added

I have added a Facebook like so that you can share this post with others – enjoy the new feature!

Your Receipt – Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!

Back in the old days of Woolworth, the receipt was made of REAL paper and the cash register required a ribbon to make it work.  Along with a customer receipt, the register also generated a journal receipt that was wound around a second spool that was locked in the register.  When either of the rolls turned red or green along the edges (depending on the manufacturer of the rolls), it was near time to replace that particular receipt roll.  The customer receipt roll was easy enough to install, but the journal roll required a manager to open and change that one.  The manager would then take that roll and label it with the current date, register number and their initials.  It was then placed in a bag which was taken to the office at the end of every day.

When the registers were upgraded, the old fashion dual spool system was replaced with a cartridge system that was just snapped into place.  Otherwise, the same procedures still applied and the receipt rolls were in fact still real paper.

Staples started out on real paper rolls, but was simplified by being a single roll system.  The journal was kept on record in the main office on the computer instead of a physical tape roll.  When the company swapped to the modern touch screen system, the paper rolls disappeared and was replaced with thermal paper rolls. 

Unlike regular paper, thermal paper have a waxy-like feel to it and over time, it fades.  Not only does it fade, but sometimes the print disappears completely and the customer is left with a blank paper.  It seems that the sun causes this fading and can also cause the paper to look burnt along the edges to make it look like an old fashioned colonial document.  Certainly this is not good for either the employee or the customer as the receipt is effectively garbage after a period of time.

Sadly, most all companies use thermal paper nowadays as it is cheaper and doesn’t require a ribbon.  The downside is that the receipt becomes crappy after a few days and really isn’t good for any tax records.  I really would like to see real paper come back, but I don’t see that happening anytime in the near future.

Up Next:  Credit Card Sign-Ups

Maine Human Rights Commission Screws Up Again!

This commentary refers to the following news article:

http://www.wgme.com/news/top-stories/stories/wgme_vid_11104.shtml?wap=0

I believe it is totally wrong for the MHRC to ask both sides to try and settle out of court.  In the words of Suze Orman, “Are You KIDDING ME?”  Why do people go to the MHRC in the first place?  To have lunch at McDonalds?  Seriously, when someone spends months on a case to get to this point and the best they can offer is to have them work it out between them. HA!

You can NEVER have a hostile employer try to work with a damaged employee.  It won’t work and doesn’t work.  I know first hand about this.  Employers have NO INTEREST in solving the issue at hand.  If the MHRC isn’t man enough to resolve the problem, then maybe they should be dissolved once and for all!  As I will be discussing in a future post, the MHRC is absolutely the MOST CLUELESS GROUP of PEOPLE EVER!!!

It don’t matter how bad the crime or the discrimination, the MHRC should not pass the buck to the parties involved.  If I could have done that with Staples, I would be back employed with the company again, but their lies to the commission has left me out of the employment ranks.  Yes, Staples is REALLY THAT BAD OF A COMPANY!!

Much much more to come…stay tuned….