After a fellow Pencils associate directed me to this blog, I thought I'd like to share my story as well as my current situation. I'd like to begin by saying that my manager is a straight-up hardass, and that's all there really is to say on the matter. He is twice divorced and for good reason. He constantly makes fun of his associates, and commonly makes passive-aggressive jabs at them. I'm not excluded, and as of recent I'm probably his favourite one to pick on. And that's on good days. On bad days he actively looks for reasons to be mad at people. He pushes completely unreasonable expectations for the sales of those god-awful Extended Service Plans (often times totaling half the cost of the computer) and Computer Setups (which, along with the ESP, can total the cost of the computer). Why anyone would want to spend an extra $100 for someone to take the 15 minutes to set your computer up is beyond me, but that's an entirely different story. Being one of the top stores in the company for attachment sales doesn't really help his expectations either.
At any rate, a lot of the time the management will stand behind unreasonable expectations under the guise of saying that it's "store policy" (having to clock in five minutes early, for example). Not only is it completely ridiculous to EXPECT your staff to clock in early, it's a whole different level to punish them for not doing it. I was actually written up for clocking in on time and not early. They looked up every time that I had clocked in over a period of a month and a half, and told me that every time that I wasn't swiped in at least five minutes early, that I was late (keep in mind that our store time is a couple minutes slow; if you clock in at 9:58 according to downstairs, it's actually 10:00 at least upstairs). When I was told that the reason I was written up was because it was "store policy", I actually physically asked to see the policy that they claimed existed. Of course, no such policy existed, but I was reassured that it was still what management expected, so I was still expected to do so. Long and short of it is, I've been looking for other work.
Now, don't even mention the horrible TSP (Team Sales Plans or some shit) that they use as a replacement for commission. For every little accomplishment that our associates make (getting a high survey response, a lot of ESPs, etc.) we allegedly get a certain amount of money thrown into a pot which at the end of each quarter is split up amongst the associates.
Not only have I NOT ONCE seen this "quarterly bonus", but apparently when people do get it it's usually only in the amount of $30 dollars-ish. That's just utter crap. Not only do they push us to sell these completely unreasonable plans, we also have no benefit for doing so aside from the praise of our management whose pockets we've just filled with cash. I don't understand how we have the drive to sell these plans under the guise of "giving the customer what they need" when we have absolutely no incentive to do so. How many times have I tried selling something to a customer to have them get frustrated at how unreasonable the prices are, to have me only agree with them, and then explain that I hate the whole system and am looking for a new job. The funniest thing is, most of the time they completely understand where I'm coming from, and respect me as a person for doing so. Now THAT's earning customer trust.
Oh and even then, all of the laptops we receive are immediately brought to our tech room and set up, under the expectation that we will sell that Standard Setup every single time. If we do, then the customer can walk out with it; if the customer has even half a brain and knows what they're paying for, they don't buy it. Then they have to wait a day for us to wipe their laptop before they can even take it home. Of course, that's only if they want to hold on to their hundred bucks. That's a bait-and-switch if I ever saw one. And then we are thrown to the dogs and have to deal with the frustrated customer who just wanted to buy a laptop and leave, and now has to pay and wait a day before they even get a machine because we wanted to inconvenience them enough to convince them to pay for something they don't need.
I could go on for hours, but I just had to get a lot off my chest because I hate working at Pencils with a burning fiery passion.
Signed,
At any rate, a lot of the time the management will stand behind unreasonable expectations under the guise of saying that it's "store policy" (having to clock in five minutes early, for example). Not only is it completely ridiculous to EXPECT your staff to clock in early, it's a whole different level to punish them for not doing it. I was actually written up for clocking in on time and not early. They looked up every time that I had clocked in over a period of a month and a half, and told me that every time that I wasn't swiped in at least five minutes early, that I was late (keep in mind that our store time is a couple minutes slow; if you clock in at 9:58 according to downstairs, it's actually 10:00 at least upstairs). When I was told that the reason I was written up was because it was "store policy", I actually physically asked to see the policy that they claimed existed. Of course, no such policy existed, but I was reassured that it was still what management expected, so I was still expected to do so. Long and short of it is, I've been looking for other work.
Now, don't even mention the horrible TSP (Team Sales Plans or some shit) that they use as a replacement for commission. For every little accomplishment that our associates make (getting a high survey response, a lot of ESPs, etc.) we allegedly get a certain amount of money thrown into a pot which at the end of each quarter is split up amongst the associates.
Not only have I NOT ONCE seen this "quarterly bonus", but apparently when people do get it it's usually only in the amount of $30 dollars-ish. That's just utter crap. Not only do they push us to sell these completely unreasonable plans, we also have no benefit for doing so aside from the praise of our management whose pockets we've just filled with cash. I don't understand how we have the drive to sell these plans under the guise of "giving the customer what they need" when we have absolutely no incentive to do so. How many times have I tried selling something to a customer to have them get frustrated at how unreasonable the prices are, to have me only agree with them, and then explain that I hate the whole system and am looking for a new job. The funniest thing is, most of the time they completely understand where I'm coming from, and respect me as a person for doing so. Now THAT's earning customer trust.
Oh and even then, all of the laptops we receive are immediately brought to our tech room and set up, under the expectation that we will sell that Standard Setup every single time. If we do, then the customer can walk out with it; if the customer has even half a brain and knows what they're paying for, they don't buy it. Then they have to wait a day for us to wipe their laptop before they can even take it home. Of course, that's only if they want to hold on to their hundred bucks. That's a bait-and-switch if I ever saw one. And then we are thrown to the dogs and have to deal with the frustrated customer who just wanted to buy a laptop and leave, and now has to pay and wait a day before they even get a machine because we wanted to inconvenience them enough to convince them to pay for something they don't need.
I could go on for hours, but I just had to get a lot off my chest because I hate working at Pencils with a burning fiery passion.
Signed,
A Disgruntled Pencils Easytech Employee
If you were doing the setup package even half right, you'd know that just the initial power on/registration can take 10 mins. Plus up to 3 software installs.
ReplyDeleteThe Biggest reason i use to push it is the time it can take the customer to download and install the windows updates on their home internet connection, versus our (probably) faster connection, and the time to make the recovery discs (most HP laptops require at least 4, and take 2 hours)
keep it up, jackass
Hey buddy, guess what? The power-on is 10 minutes, the updates are another 10 or 20. You can still use the computer prior to updates if you want.
DeleteRecovery disks are a completely optional process that can be done anytime in the computer's lifespan. And HP laptops only make one copy, which we STILL make for the customer regardless.
Oh, and did you hear me say "We set them up as soon as they come in the store"? No software installs there.
Sorry, nice try, but fuck off.
I'm sorry, but 10 minutes worth of work and installing a few windows updates does not equal $100 worth of work. It's still a high-cost low-value service, and, like he said, if you have a half a brain you wouldn't spend the money on such a high-priced service. Plus having to wait a day for a computer just because you didn't buy that particular service is highly suspect at best, down right bait and switch at worst.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Thank you.
DeletePencils clocking policy is to clock in NO MORE than 5 minutes before your shift unless approved by a manager. If the manager wrote you up for this you need to call HR and raise hell
ReplyDeleteYou say that you are opening "all" of the laptops that come into your store and setting them up before the sell? This alone seems beyond idiotic to me. It must cost your store a huge amount of sales from that fact alone. Worse comes the obsolete charges that your P&L must be eating from holding on to them for that long, not to mention the margin losses from having to sell them at clearance prices when they drop in price.
ReplyDeleteCompany policy is that no associate or AM is allowed to punch in more than 5 minutes before start time without GM or even DM approval, depending on how strapped for hours your district tends to run. I dare say that if your claim of being written up for NOT punching in at least 5 mins or more early for your shift are true, then you, sir, have the makings of an excellent HR complaint.
As for this TSP thing you mentioned, it seems to me that you are confusing some sort of "bonus" payout with what we truly have. 'Pencils' does give a quarterly reward for high results, but this 'bonus' goes into your store's ASSSOCIATE fund, which is used to pay for funded associate events, not to be given out as cash to the associates. As far as I've ever heard, a Manager that takes those funds and hands them out as cash is one that will very quickly find themselves standing in the unemployment or food stamp line.
The bonus he is talking about is probably the easy way bonus. All easy techs are part of this and it depends on the sales for the store. The more we attach to a sale with the likes of TSP and Tech money the bigger our monthly pay out will be.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the EasyWay Selling Bonus? That 2nd check that we Techs receive every week that is usually around $1.17 on a good week? I can see how someone would be confused and not get his meaning. Honestly, 90% of the time, those things aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Most of them are $3 or less, with the one rare exception that hit hit a whole, whopping $11! Our last resident tech finished a year with over $50k in combined Tech/ESP sells and our department ran about 150% to comp for the year. Her total yearly bonus amounted to less than $200. It was insulting to say the least. She left and now makes $45k a year doing Level 1 Tech work for a local computer company, which is about the same thing as saying she talks people thru how to turn on their pcs and on a hard day's work, has to do what amounts to a few PC Tune Ups. Pencils really needs to learn about the Industry Standard pay rates for Techs and what they are asking associates to do for $7.25 and hour and bonus checks that cost more in gas to travel to the bank to cash than they are worth.
ReplyDeleteIt really is the pencils that you work for. The farther you go from the home office the worse they are, I'm very close to the home office and I've never been written up for not being 5 mins early, or even a half hour late. I've learned its the managers that make that up. I guess I'm the lucky one.
ReplyDelete1st. The setup.is a great value for most customers. Not everyone can fix/setup a PC. The average setup in my store takes 3-4 hrs. Because we do everything and don't pussyfoot around software titles and data transfers. The idea is to sell a coomplete solution not worry that you're going take advantage of a customer or piss them off. Just be honest with your customers. I don't need lie to a customer to sell a $1,000 basket.
ReplyDelete2. The bonus is different now but because I did my job my bonus was consistently over $200 after taxes. It really wasn't that hard I just kinda.show up and talk.to my customers... I give real, serious, professional suggestions and they usually buy it all.
Anyways, back to work... Which really isn't so bad haha