Let me start by
saying I didn’t hate working at Pencils in the beginning. It was
actually enjoyable working Cashier and Easywreck. I started working
at Pencils in August 2010, I went in for my interview took the “Tech”
test (Which is what they call certifying you for computer work) and
got the job. In the beginning we had a great and friendly management
system. A talkative but very friendly store manager, a sometimes
bi-polar but still friendly Ops Manager, and an awesome young Sales
Manager. The first thing I noticed is that I was hired for Easywreck
immediately. Well that’s what I went to my interview for. When I
asked the store manager he said “Its Pencils policy to keep you on
register for 3 months”. That was fine I can kind of understand his
point, my last job was stocking produce at a grocery store so I had
no knowledge of the register. Well 3 months came and went; I spent my
time at register and also working on computers at the same time at
the customer service desk. Being a pencils cashier is terrible on a
side note. When you’re not being harassed for not getting enough
customers to sign up for the god awful “Rewards” program the
management is hounding us to sell the terrible PRP and FRP shit, oh
and don’t forget the ridiculous expectations to have 10 PRP’s a
week and 30 Sign Ups a week. Now that 3 months was up I thought that
I’d be getting my Black tech shirt and finally put my knowledge to
use! Wrong! Every week I would ask the Store manager “Can I get
into tech now?” And he would respond casually “We have to clear
it through our district manager”. I was so annoyed. Don’t hire me
for something and have me sit in limbo for 4 or 5 months jackass!
Anyway January of 2011 came rolling around and I finally found myself
an Easywreck! Hurrah! Well not really hurrah. Aside from the SLIGHT
pay raise there was absolutely nothing good about working in that
department. I constantly had to lie to customers about manufactures
warranties to get them to buy “Extended Service Plans” through
Pencils which could sometimes be half the price of the laptop. Not to
mention the bullshit “Setup” plans that any 13 year old kid could
do. That would cost about another hundred dollars. Oh and don’t
forget Office 2010 and Norton 360 which Pencils wants us to shove
down customers throats. I didn’t like lying to customers so I
wouldn’t. I would give them the straight facts (That I knew, not
what pencils thought it knew) and let them decide but when a manager
would hear me that would seem repulsed by the idea that I didn’t
want to sell useless shit to customers. I was never written up for it
though only talked to by the awesome Sales manager (he was rarely
serious about anything). While working in that department I had the
misfortune of meeting someone with the last name “Champion”. He
was another Easywreck and had his head so far up his own ass it was
crazy. He would constantly let us know how well he was doing and how
he knew everything. He was truly a douche, but unfortunately my
nature led me to trust him and even consider him a friend which was
the worst thing possible. A few months went on at the same pace then
came the middle of the year. The store went low com (Which means we
didn’t have enough sales to keep normal hours and whatnot) and the
awesome Sales Manager left followed by the store manager who was
replaced by a pig-faced douche from another store nearby. He had the
same attitude as this “Champion” fellow and thought he was the
king because his store averaged more Tech money than any other in the
district. In this time frame a few new techs were hired and
immediately given black shirts. I asked the new store manager (Who I
didn’t hate at the time) “I had to wait 3 months why don’t
they?). He replied “Change of policy”. That was it. A few months
passed by and my “friendship” with this “Champion” guy and
his girlfriend evolved. My girlfriend was friends with his and I even
sold him a custom built computer that I was getting rid of (although
he claims he built it). Anyway fast forward to September. Me and my
girlfriend were joking about with “Champion” and his girlfriend
and came to an idea that we might move in with each other and split
all the bills. By this time “Champion” was an Easywreck expert
and was even fuller of himself. We went to look at a place and
everything seemed to go alright. Then all of a sudden he decided he
would make the rules of the entire furniture placement. My girlfriend
didn’t like it and so we called it off. The friendship pretty much
ended there. So fast forward another two months of complete bullshit
of lying and stealing customer’s money by selling them useless
things. Anyway it’s now November in my story and things have slowly
degraded the relationship between my manager and “Champion”. One
night “Champion” asked me to close the store with him and I
agreed. I was closing down the Easywreck counter and doing last
checks on computer locks and paperwork and he asked me “What do you
really think of Easywreck?” now at this time I still thought he was
a decent enough of a friend and I answered honestly. “I think it’s
a scam practically, I believe that really do rip people off for plans
that don’t cover jack shit. And I believe that we also lie to them
and pressure the customers to but stuff they really don’t need”.
That was the last conversation we had that month as it was the end of
November. The next day I worked, the Pig-faced store manager took me
into his office and suspended me for two weeks. I was so confused I
asked him why he had suspended me. He said “It’s because you
stole information from customers and left computers unlocked when you
closed with “Champion, you have two courses of action, right here I
have a form you can sign to quit or I can submit this is Human
Resources.” I told him to submit it to human resources because I’m
human I can make mistakes maybe I did leave a computer unlocked but
stealing customer information? That was ridiculous. So two weeks came
and went while I was suspended, lost my Easywreck shirt and title,
and another Easywreck was fired because corporate found out he had a
criminal record (which the store manager did not check for when he
was hired) Two weeks came and went and my hours were dropped from 35
to 8 hours a week. I filed for partial unemployment and got it.
Nothing ever came out of the case I have asked about it several times
and haven’t got an answer. “Champion” left the store to go be
an Easywreck expert at the store that the Pig-faced Manager came from
and everything seemed to cool down for a while. The original Ops
manager left in January which made things worse because she was the
only manager who was defending me at this point. I worked only one
day a week for a few months. Around the month of April my work days
went from one to two. The Pig-faced manager still tries to talk to me
about improving the store and sales and I just look away from him and
nod my head. I rarely actually hold a conversation with him. I hate
this place so much but can’t really quit because my area has a lack
of employment right now. So that’s my story. I’m still working at
Pencils but hopefully someone will call back with an interview for
me.
