Day Twenty Three
I should have blogged yesterday because I couldn’t. I was just too irate.
I suffered no major issue from the marathon that was going on around the store, and the only effects we saw from the Lady Gag concert down the street was a number of customers in interesting outfits (which really just made it fun). And if the patrons from Jerry Seinfeld’s show a few blocks away on the other side even showed up I had no way to tell.
No, folks, I’m absolutely outraged and utterly pissed off at our liquidator.
See last week when the fixture sale began and I learned one of those nice chairs I wanted was going to be $90 plus a 10% just because we can’t fuck you directly “Buyer Premium” I said no way. Really, they really are charging and extra 10% just because they can. There’s no help loading or moving allowed, everything is as is and final sale. And sales tax goes on after, so there is no reason for that extra 10% seeing as they are already charging just under new prices to begin with. But my DH pointed out the chairs were still like $250-$300 new, and I looked it up, he’s right. So I put back in for one and my GM, nice as she is, pulled me aside Wednesday and told me there was one left and if I could pay for it then I could have it. So I did.
Friday, a full week after the fixture sale started Borders sent out an email confirming–as you’ve probably guessed–that employees are supposed to get a 25% (before the stupid 10% thing) discount on fixtures. Guess what I didn’t get because the liquidator “forgot” to mention it to the managers at my store? Yeah, exactly. And guess what the liquidator, who purposefully didn’t tell us that, refused to give? Yes, exactly.
So I’ve been working for him for three weeks. I’ve been on time every day. I’m picking up extra hours this week and next for people who quit with no notice. I have been honest in my purchases, haven’t stolen from him when I probably could have. I have personally stopped multiple other people (customers that is) from shoplifting and the douche thinks it’s okay to outright steal $24 from me.
Oh, but he brought doughnuts in to work for us on Friday, right? So that makes up for it?
At this point, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was never really sticking around for him, it’s always been for my managers, who are just as screwed as the rest of us and I still think deserve more decency and respect than all their workers quitting on them. But yeah, I have a real problem working for the store after this. I’ve clearly fallen on the side of “Borders has fucked me over” now and quite frankly I can’t wait for this whole thing to be over.
I will never, ever work for Borders again and I’m pretty sure I’ll never buy from them again either.
I suppose I’m just adding a little paranoia to the mix, but I knew of a person in a similar situation who found out later the employee discount had been applied to the purchase. The manager had pocketed the difference on the sly. It came out months later and nothing was done about it.
I would be suspicious, if I hadn’t found out by walking in on my manager yelling at the liquidator over it. Of course if I had that kind of a manager I would have jumped ship as soon as I heard we were closing.
Does this count as fraud? It’s such a small amount that I’m sure individually no one cares, but if it points to a pattern of activity on the part of the liquidator, can you bring trouble down on him? It won’t get you the $24, but if he’s defrauding you, it could be he’s defrauding someone else as well, and it could be in bigger amounts. Is there anyone who can look into that? I’m sure Borders needs to get maximum value from the sale, so what’s he taking out of their cut?
I don’t know if it counts as fraud since I think he could argue that it was my fault for not asking (except I did, and three managers told me that they thought there was supposed to be an employee discount too and they were told that there wasn’t.) I don’t know what I really can do right now, except confront the guy. Of course he’s just going to cite the “all sales are final” but it’s a shitty way to treat someone who is on the front lines preventing your stock from walking out and being yelled at by customers so you don’t have to.
That sucks. I can’t believe they would be so blatant about cheating you and refusing to give you the discount. Well, maybe yes I can.
Donuts? Ooooh, that makes up for everything. Sorry, I’m a little testy myself.
How are things holding up on your end? Did you at least get donuts with your pink slip?
Nope, no donuts but we still have our microwave.