Monday, March 15, 2010

Get off the breathing machine and IV and get back to work

(From the comments by fedupwithsps:)

The other day I had a customer come in 2 hours early for an appointment, wanting to be taken early. I had an appointment every hour until her appointment, so I politely explained that I did have other appointments scheduled to come in before her, but that if they canceled or didn't show I would be able to get her in early, then suggested they walk around the mall so that the children did not get restless sitting there there for possibly 2 hours.

She declined and said she would just wait. During the next two hours both appointments showed, and while i was with them, her children were literally tearing the studio up. They knocked down and broke 5 of our hanging pictures and put a hole in the wall. so I again suggested maybe they go play in the play place to keep them entertained. Again she declined.

So I finally made it to them, and began trying to take the portraits, and they children were crying with snotty noses, and they would not cooperate. i tried for a full 30 mins and only got 2 photos. so I suggested that if they came back, we could try again. she threw a fit and said that i was giving poor customer service, because I didn't take their pictures right away... I mean forget about the other people that had appointments.. she yelled and cussed but agreed to come back. ??

She then called in on me the next day, saying that I made her wait for two hours when she had an appointment, and that I kept taking people before her...and then I got mad that her kids would not take pictures and demanded they come back later. So like everything else at sps, instead of listening to what really happened, because the customer is always right, I got a corrective action, because of poor customer service. Now you tell me is that fair? I did everything possible, yet still got in trouble. This company is messed up, and if they don't start treating their employees right, they have none.

And for this entire past week I have had the flu and pneumonia. I have been on bed rest and breathing machines and an at home IV. The meds they put me on, I found did not react well to stomach ulcers...which is how I found out I have one. I called the manager and explained that I would be out for at least a week, told her all the details, and all she said was if you don't have a doctors note, you don't have a job... I received a text today asking when I was coming back.. there were no, " how are you feeling" or " I hope you are doing better" messages at all. It's completely ridiculous that I can be as sick as I am, and the biggest problem in their life is the fact I am sick, and they might have to work a double to cover it.

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya know..that is total bs! When that lady showed up for her appointment 2 hours later..did you check her in on the appointment scheduler? That way you can back up your story. Also from now on..whenever a customer shows early, check them in, and as soon as you give them their paperwork, check them out. That doesn't lie and you can't uncheck it! I was let go as well for being sick, only I was a manager (actually, I stepped down and got sick on my last day as a manager)..if they fire you for essentially being sick, you can get unemployment benefits..file on the DAY you get fired. I wish I did..I ended up waiting a few months...I got it though.

I would get notes from your doctors and copies of prescriptions if you have to. You should also call HR to let them know you are sick that way you get your FMLA credits...they can't fire you if you are on FMLA!

Warrior Goddess!

Anonymous said...

sorry..that was supposed to be *2 hours earlier*..lol!
warrior Goddess

Anonymous said...

I had a DM sex me up before. It was weird and my first time. He/she was ok at it. my butt hymen split.

Anonymous said...

Your DM is not legally allowed to contact you to ask when you will be returning if you have already told her/him. You have a responsibility to inform them of Dr.'s orders as far as how long you are expected to be out but you don't have to say why. DO call HR to let them know what is predicted and let them know your DM has tried to contact you but that you are not comfortable discussing your care. DM's do attend legal meetings and do know the rules but it amazes me how many try to get away with things that are clearly illegal.

Bunny lady

Anonymous said...

This is off topic.... but i need to know about PTO.

I was knocked down to part time (without being notified) and had my PTO taken away from me. I read the guidelines and they said PTO was based on the PRIOR year. Last year i worked no less than 30hrs a week because my boss refused to stay at work and i always covered for her. So shouldnt i get my PTO since i was full time in the prior year? This is my last straw. I want my time back if it is owed to me and if i dont get it then im done.

Anonymous said...

If you did not take your PTO by Feb.1 from last year you lose it. You just start earning PTO from Feb.1. You can borrow the the hours but if you quit or get fire you have to pay them back. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

No No, i used all my PTO last year.

This year is what im talking about. I was full time all year last year and they knocked me to part time this year (w/ out telling me)and took away my PTO.

BUT, when i read the guidelines they say that PTO is based on the prior year. So, i took that as meaning they will base my PTO on what i worked last year. I more than earned my PTO last year.

I dont even think it matters really. This is the icing on the cake for me. The company can keep my pothead of a manager and i can leave.

Anonymous said...

What they mean is that you accrue the PTO as the year goes by. Your PTO will be reduced as soon you were demoted as far as what you can accrue. It was 3 hours every week you work it will only be 1.75 hours or something now since you were demoted. I don't like how they do the holiday pay either. I think unless you avg 38 hours a week you won't get full holiday pay either.

Anonymous said...

Picture Me has hundreds of jobs open with lots of Store Manager jobs open on Hot Jobs. Keep an eye out on that website if your job was posted like mine was you will get the hint real quick about your future.

Anonymous said...

your pay advice should tell you what if any PTO you have/had. It probably won't be too much since the fiscal year just started.

Anonymous said...

I know you earn it as you go..... i am more concerned about it being taken away when i still get full time hours for the most part and still have to do all the same duties. Frankly, it pisses me off.

Especially sinec a person should be told before something like thi is happening instead of getting the shock of it. Im sure that was the plan tho.... i dont find out until it is to late to do anything. But, i tod my boss i am finishing thi week and next and then im done..... after 3years ive finally had enough and put in my notice. my $150 PRS is walking right out the door!

Anonymous said...

I just heard that my ex dm (I got fired for being sick last year)now closes down a studio if someone gets sick and there is no one to cover it because he is too lazy to drive to the studio to work it. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

My Ex DM did that also. I just quit a cpl weeks ago. a week or so before that he was wracking his brain to get someone to go to another studio to cover, i asked him why HE didnt go. He acted as tho i was retarded for even thinking it.

Anonymous said...

At PMPS there are studio all the time that are dark during business hours. It is almost common practice at lunch time. The company doesn't care if anyone can take a picture worth a darn as long as you can sell them and run the 80.00 PRS to welfare recipients. We can't get people to show up for work. The managers don't do the hiring so we can't get people that we can work with. I don't think we do background checks on anyone. We hire drug and alcohol abusers.

We hire people that have trouble personal lives so they can't be at work. Then the manager is force to work 6 and 7 days a week and get bitched at for having overtime. I am continually calling customers for outreach that came and got pictures two or three weeks ago.

They also want us to memorize the inentive bonus plan that we are setup not to get and make sure our associates know it as well, like they are going to get it.

Our sales goals are totally unattainable when our sales goals are up a thousand dollars over last years sales. "

I wish the people that set the rules up could come down and show me how it's done" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

So they did do it!!! CPI bought out Kiddie Kandids. And what does this mean for us? I hear we are going to train Kiddie's old employees...huh. I used to work at a KK in a babies r us its funny to think if the opportunity arose I might be working there again but for CPI...interesting.

Anonymous said...

Updated: 03/19/2010 07:11:24 PM MDT

All of the assets for the now-closed Kiddie Kandids children's photography studio could go to St. Louis-based CPI Corp. for $2.6 million. An asset auction was held Friday morning in Salt Lake City. (Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune file photo)One of North America's leading portrait studio operators is offering to buy all of the assets of the bankrupt Kiddie Kandids. CPI Corp. officials Friday said they plan to reopen the company's stores once the purchase is approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Utah.

St. Louis, Mo.-based CPI bid $2.6 million for all of the Utah company's assets, including its headquarters building in Sandy.

"They are a good company," Gillman said of CPI following the closing of the bidding. "They know the business and they are good at it."

Kiddie Kandids to open first of five photo studios in D-FW
Dallas Business Journal:

Kiddie Kandids is a photography studio that specializes in portraits of children ages 5 and under. The first 1,500-square-foot store was slated to open at the Grapevine Mills mall this month, said Robert Burden, Kiddie Kandids spokesman.

....More importantly, though, Gillman said CPI will see that Kiddie Kandid's former customers will get all the photographs of their children that are due to them.

Just an update

Anonymous said...

Gonna be a BIG adjustment for any of the old Babies R Us/ Kiddie Kandids managers if they are hired... not used to single coverage ALL the time nor taking more than 6 poses... we do 9-12 and wait til they go to learn SAS! I feel for them.. yes it's good to have a job but we all know how it is working for CPI....

Anonymous said...

Here we go again with another bail out.

Anonymous said...

They can't fire you if you have a Dr.s note and explained the situation as you did. Call HR and your district manager as rude as your manager was she should be written up for it.

Anonymous said...

To who ever said we hire drug adicts and stuff we do background checks and drug test I recently hired 2 ppl and 1 failed the background check the other failed the drug

Anonymous said...

As far as PTO time is concerned the amount of time off you will recieve in 2010 is based on your hours worked in 2009. If you are demoted to part time you are not able to recieve ANY PTO time. If you did not take hours you have earned already they do not pay you these hours, if you have taken hours that you have not earned yet but were able to recieve before getting demoted you will have to pay those back. Ya its a very messed up process!!!

Anonymous said...

That sucks I love taking portraits but its the damn parents you want to strangle not the kids. Always check them in when they arrive i had a customer who showed up 2.5 hours late and told the dm line she was on time and i refused to see her

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!! I can't believe it after 2 years I finally got a .50 cent raise at Picture Me. I am now making 12.50/hr. WOOOHHOOOO!!!! My sales were a little better than last years so they felt I should get a raise. Nobody else in the district got one from what I have been told. They said the economy is not the blame. Right!!!!

Anonymous said...

I was just looking online and it looks like the Picture Me's in Tennessee have about 4 district manager jobs open. There must have been some shakeups there. Lots of manager jobs open as well. Must be getting some bad reviews from the Regionals. I got a .50 cent raise since my last review. Happy about that.

Anonymous said...

Does this scream CPI to anyone else?

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109519/5-ways-to-ensure-mediocrity-in-your-organization?mod=career-leadership

Anonymous said...

to the PM employee who got a raise after 2 years,,,,,are you a manager or an associate?? Congrats on your raise, way bigger than mine or my associates raises. Last year there was a freeze so this was my first. Hopefully since they are doing so well it will continue.

Anonymous said...

wow 12.50? after 7 years i was making 10.40 in my last month i got a raise to 11. i finally left that hell hole to work in a much more relaxing atmosphere an emergency room as a seceratary making double what i made at sears. thank god i am no longer there.

Anonymous said...

"Kiddie Kandids Kastoffs to Run Kompany!"

Sorry I couldn't resist the alliteration! Yeah, we got a former KK employee & from what I heard the new VP over SPS division is one too!

Nice going CPI. Keep digging yourselves deeper!

Anonymous said...

So the manager that came in disguised as an associate from another studio that replaced me got fired for the same thing I did. No one that worked there when I did is there anymore and I have been making approx 150 a week for doing only 2-3 hours of work. I would say I'm doing pretty damn good on my own.

Anonymous said...

So we had a call today telling us we are getting rid of the collects flip charts again and going to MGR special books. Also, the PRICES ARE CHANGING AGAIN! I can't wait to see what the "much better pricing" is and how they will "boost sales"
Good Luck Everyone!

Stacey said...

I have worked for PMPS for 3 years. In those 3 years I have been able to only miss 1 day of work from being sick. And that ONE DAY I STILL had to come in and work a half a day. Also, I was being called in multiple times a week. My manager wanted to schedule herself ALL the hours and THEN call me when she wants to go home. Sometimes I used to drive 1hr-2hrs away to work in a studio with no coverage and THEN when my studio needed help NOONE WOULD COME. So here recently I stopped giving a fuck and I dont go in for no one anymore. I got my yearly evaluation and scored above average and got a 25 cent raise. Then I got written up for not meeting sales and sits goals. Why the hell would you give someone a raise and then write them up? WHAHAHA thats silly. And by the way in regards to previous posts...I WAS NEVER drug tested for my position. AND my DM told me they do not do backround checks to save money. So I think this varies by district. I have alot of emotion distress from this place and I put in 9 apps so far. Here pretty soon I may just go to McDonalds. I dont care...Life is too short to go to work and be miserable about it. One more thing... I HAD a customer that came without an appointment, I took them. The baby was 2 months old and they changed him slowly and fed him a bottle (I have an appointment soon so Im getting nervous cuz customers HATE waiting). Well I dont know if yall agree or not but not ALL 2 month olds SMILE when u do child-play. Well they were insisting that he could smile but I tried and so did mom and grandma. NO SMILE. Then they got all pissed like it was MY fault. I said they could come back another day so we could see if he was in a better mood and the g-ma said WE LIVE 5 HRS AWAY! So...I was being nice and cared (even tho they were rude) I didnt finish my session requirements but wanted them to have pictures from the babys first session. I knew they wouldnt buy much cuz they were sour the whole time. Well I let her order out of the kindness of my heart. Then she rudely went away and gave me A BAD customer service survey. I am going to school to be a therapist to help people and what not. Working here has made me see BAD in people I NEVER wanted to see.

Anonymous said...

I used to work for Sears and that was like an every day thing at the studio, especially since we were understaffed and the automatic scheduler was booking them 15 minutes apart with only one person in the studio. It was awful, I feel your pain!!!

Anonymous said...

I wonder how long CPI will last with all the competition folding. And everyone is an amateur photog now so who needs a studio? I still hear horror stories from my friends that are still trapped in CPI hell, but what is it like in the rest of the country?
Bunny lady

Anonymous said...

Type in your browser search page: lawsuit cpi sears portrait studio I'd get in on it. Its going to be huge.

Anonymous said...

Unemployed has never felt so good. I am free!

Anonymous said...

After I was hired at SPS I found this website and was immediately taken aback. I became worried that I made a mistake with this job, but decided to stick it out for a bit and see how things would go. I figured this blog was just a bunch of bad experiences that overlooked the good and boy was I wrong.

To start, my manager never once told me that I was hired as seasonal. She put me in the computer as part-time, come to find out that of the 6+ people she hired, only two are going to remain once the holiday ends. Some were hired before us, so I'm assuming it's some of them, despite the fact that I'm a better photographer. I'm well over qualified for the job, but am getting paid less than some other girls. I still have yet to hear from the manager's mouth that we're seasonal as I heard she told someone else this. Also, I was told I would be working at several different locations and didn't have to work at the one that's quite a hike away. Well, that was a lie since I'm only working at my location of hire and the location I specifically said I wasn't interested in.

I don't understand the point of extensive training when I'm going to be let go when the holiday is over, especially when it's six+ weeks of this. Honestly, if you work here, you will get more hours in training than anything else. You'll be lucky if you get over 8 hours a week when it isn't the holiday season. I'm sure in the end, the two people the DM will want to keep after the holiday season will be whoever has the most sales, NOT who is the best photographer. This saddens me because clearly SPS isn't about photography -- It's about money.

Also, so far, I've seen two completely rude customers. One who thought it was okay to use the F word to the workers, another who claimed we're all brainwashed because of the 12 pose requirement.

Anonymous said...

What happened to this blog?

Anonymous said...

http://www.zimmreed.com/Sears-Portrait-Studio-Employees/19236/

get in on lawsuit adainst sears portrait

Anonymous said...

So lets send out 50 trillion coupons, NOW FEATURING NO SESSION FEE AND NO PURCHASE REQUIRED!
Well you better darn well make your EXTENDED goal for the day anyway, with single coverage, while your training, etc..!
how did I get in this mess, someone help me get a life

Anonymous said...

My current position with the Internal Revenue Service is less stressful than this job ever was!

Anonymous said...

To the person who posted on September 18th I completely understand what your saying I just started recently and it really is about the money and not about the photography. I have two weeks to get my PRS up or there writing me up when I’ve only been there for a month. Some things just are not right.

Anonymous said...

Well...I worked at sps for 8 months, I just put in my 2 weeks and it's all over and done with. I was the best employee my manager had on her staff, not to toot my own horn, I worked my ass off and for what? Crap pay and to be jerked around 24/7 I was flex(on call) 3pm-6pm 2 Saturdays ago, my co-worker was supposed to close, I had to work the afternoon because I needed to work on sales, when I got back form lunch not only did I not hear about sales, but my co-worker who was going to close got to go home early and my manager leave too, but I also was treated like shit when i asked for some help. Wow, what an awesome place to work. honestly picking up elephant shit at the zoo would be more rewarding.

Anonymous said...

I am a customer and I have a question I am hoping some SEARS PORTRAIT employees can answer: What is the value of the portrait club membership if you can only use 1 FREE offer per visit? I used to be able to get my FREE 8 X 10, then BOGO 1 or 2 pictures, then get my FREE Collage or whatever FREE COUPON they had out....now I can no longer do that....also, the price going up to 9.99 a sheet is crazy. JC PENNY HAS 3.99 a sheet but I do like SEARS for their free cute collages....Let me know if anyone out there knows...

Anonymous said...

So it seems like we are all aware of the conflicts of interest CPI has between attracting customers and raising PRS...

..I had a thought... perhaps I should stop recommending the customer visit the website over the phone (as mentioned in the CIC and reinforced by the DM) in order to reduce the amount of 7.99 packages coming in through the door. Personally.. I'm just barely managing to convert 5% of them into bronze... WITHOUT the CD. I mean, if I have them on the line, they were probably going to come in anyway! Best keep the website hush hush from now on.. I'm not going to tell the DM if you don't!!!

~West Cost Associate

Anonymous said...

For all you employees that are complaining about your lunch time in Ohio.

Rewww.ehow.com/list_7249990_ohio-laws-regarding-lunch-breaks.htmlad it and weep.

Anonymous said...

I was on time for my sitting and waited 30 mins with a 11 month old and a 3 years old. The place was utter caos. Obviously OVERBOOKED!!!!

Anonymous said...

OK 866 appt line..LISTEN UP: quit F%*#&!G booking double appts when you can book the hour before OR the hour after the requested time.. we are on SINGLE coverage til Feb. and can't call someone in for 1 double booking ~ CANNOT go over alloted hours under any circumstances! The guidelines for appt line I thought was to book every hour first, THEN go to 1/2.. double book when necessary. Having two camera rooms does NOT mean 2 people are working!

Anonymous said...

Just discovered this blog... good to know I'm not alone. I was a military photographer and because of my love for kids I thought this would be a good transition while I was in school... but CPI is nuts. For instance, my DM just announced that my manager (who, I'm lucky to say, is awesome) is only allowed to give hours to the employees with the highest PRS. Wait... what?? First of all, the company sends out ridiculous coupons but does no advertising. Second... how are the new girls supposed to get experience without hours? Third... how can I take walk-ins who I KNOW are 9.99ers when that means I won't get hours the next week because my PRS is shot? And lastly... how do they expect to keep their employees who rely on hours just to live? training a new kid is going to make labor and sales suck. Sheeeeeeesh.

Anonymous said...

Ah I remember working at Sears. During my first Christmas season ALL of the new hires (with the exception of two) quit before Thanksgiving because they expected WAY too much from them. We were all told we had to stay until closing (which a few times I didn't get out of there until 11 pm after the whole store closed!!!) and had to make sure we cleaned the entire studio, yet my manager refused to ever close (she didn't know how!!!) A few times I would be there from 830 am to 11 pm because two other people besides myself knew how to close (out of 15). Near the end of the season I was checking out my customer on one of our computers (we had two) and it turns out my asst manager froze it so it wouldn't work, and two other employees were trying to divide totals among a group, so I went to the computer where you actually pay and rang up my customer (I knew the subtotal already) and got him checked out. This other customer comes up to me screaming because I "cut" in line of her. In reality I didn't because she wasn't even the customer of either of the girls at the counter, instead she still hadn't even fulfilled her order! while she screamed and cussed me out, I got her rung up and finished her order and even gave her a percentage off to make her stop screaming. Then I had to go to the other computer and divide the numbers for them, because they still somehow didn't understand how to divide certain things amoung each customer in the group. Where were the managers during this time? They had left early while we still had a bunch of customers to go to a Christmas party. The lady called the next day screaming about how rude I was and my manager just put the phone down and my DM refused to speak to the customer because she didn't want to get yelled at. How professional!!!

Anonymous said...

A few months later I was working with two other people, one being my asst manager. We each had a customer (mine being a graduate). My asst managers customer decided to come back and view pics after another photo session at another company, so my asst manager clocked out and left. I was allowing my graduate to change clothes so I was waiting at the counter, the other photographer was taking pics of her group when the one lady came back. She immediately wanted me to stop what I was doing and tend to her needs. I explained it would be at least 30-45 minutes before I could get to her because I was with a customer and so was our other photographer. She began screaming that that was unacceptable and to just cancel the whole thing and I politely and calmly said ok. She then started screaming at me to stop looking at her "like that" and that she was about to punch me in the face. I was shocked! She stormed off and about 5 minutes later her friend called and said that she would be back to view her pics. No apology. So my manager called to check up on things and when she found out she called our asst manager and told her to come back, which apparently was a huge deal. (She had gotten off early!) While she was selling to this customer the lady told my asst manager that I was smirking and laughing at her. When I told my AM that no I didn't she brushed me off, held her hand up, and told me she knew I had been smiling and that I needed to not be rude to the customers because it was ridiculous that she had to come back! WTH?! Really?!
I had also been told that once that AM left that I would become the new AM. They decided to not tell me and hire a new girl who had no experience and made more than any of the other girls there (minus the manager) and worked better hours (10-5, never having to close). She ended up not working out so they brought another manager from another studio in the become AM because they didn't want to give me my well deserved raise. When I quit the trainies were makign the same as me who had been working there 2 years! They just told me that's how it goes and that they couldn't afford to give me a raise. I was the only one making money for that studio. The one day I sold over 1800 by myself between 10-3. Yet they couldn't give me a raise.

Anonymous said...

One of the final straws where I realzied I couldn't wait to quit was when I was about 7 months pregnant and I wasn't scheduled until 3. I was called at about 1130 and told I needed to come in right then at that minute. I have an older daughter, who at the time was 3. My fiance was out getting food and I told her no I was going to eat and spend time with my family first. She was angry, said whatever, and hung up. When I did finally get there at 1 or so, the manager and asst manager were standing around laughing and joking with someone who had come to pick up pictures. The other two employees were working. I took the appt who was there 30 minutes early and did their pics. Everyone else got to leave for lunch, I had to stay there until 230 or 245 selling (we were suppose to be closed 2-3). I had enough and actually avoided my manager, then yelled at her in the store that it was ridiculous that I had to come in early so she and the asst could sit around joking and laughing. She told me she wasn't even suppose to be in the studio, she was suppose to be working the popcorn machine downstairs (seriously?). I was always called in early and always had to stay late. There were times I was told to just come in wearing jeans and flip flops and bring my daughter too because the managers wanted to leave! I worked all the way up until I gave birth because I needed all the extra money I could get. That didn't stop my manager from constantly calling me to see when I'd be coming back and that I could sit at a sales table sellnig while I breast fed my newborn. This was because I was the ONLY one who knew how to do anything correctly; they didn't know how to do basic retouching, reorders, canvas, etc. They reordered a 10x30 3 times because they didn't know how to remove the glare from the kids' glasses correctly until I stepped in and did basic retouching (they just kept putting in the comments that it was a reorder).

Anonymous said...

If an order was messed up, I was the one to fix it. One time the AM was on the phone with a customer who was yelling about not getting her 20x20 at Christmas time, so she covered the phone said "Here, you did her order, you deal with it" and gave me the phone. I didn't even know what had happened, and I had to explain that there was a mix up and that her 20x20 had to be reordered but no one had done so. In reality there was a little bit of green boarder that was showing, so the big pic wasn't printed. My manager got an email about this, but failed to mention it to anyone or fix it herself, so this customer (who spent 400$) was very angered. I didn't blame her! There was another time when we were doing bad on PRSs and sales in general that my manager tacked on extra charges to a customer because she "didn't want to lose the sale". At the time I didn't know and I tried correcting her in front of the computer only for her to tell me no I was wrong. Yet when another employee was selling the CD for 100$ with a framed art for 135 so she could boost her sales she got in trouble. Wasn't it pretty much the same thing?

darbydoll said...

I agree that it was unfair and hate they wrote you up, ive had similar situations but never been wrote up for it,if your unhappy with your job why not quit!

Anonymous said...

I realy gotta say Ive got no clue what any of you are talking about

I was recently hired on at cpi and I gotta say its been a great experince , I enjoy working with the people I do and while it can get stressfull when its realy busy the job is mostly FUN . My boss was straight forward with me at hiring and made it clear that she ould only keep the best 2 of us. We work hard but she treats us all well , often brings in food for us etc all jobs have good and bad points and this is no differnt but I find that at least at my studio (and the one other I assisted at) that the good FAR outwieghts the few bad points . Now perhaps some of you were unfortunate enough to work for some unpleasant studios but I wouldnt claim that all of them are the same as so far Ive seen nothing like the experince you guys seem to be descibing

Anonymous said...

Ok I worked at CPI for 4 years...I started as an associate worked up to assistant mgr(back when they had them) and then progressed to studio mgr in which i was in the top 5 of the company in all the main areas of focus. I tought I would receive an award or get to meet the vp or something nooooo i got a letter not spealized ty me for hard work that is it. I will say my DM wen out of her way to give me plaques from her own money because she felt bad. I had my review got the top score and my raise was0.10 REALLYY thats it. I at this point decided I was done with CPI all together enrolled in school and planned on quitting and to my surprise got pregnant with my husband and decided to stay but was all of the sudden not eligiable for dmit program and someone else who performed way less than me was let in. I again considered quitting unfortunetly i ended up miscarrying and was in the hospital from 10pm to 7AM SO I CALLED THE STUDIO I WAS GOING TO COVER TO LET THEM KNOW I CAN NOT COME IN....she said to bad i need you to come in i dont have babysitter...so i ended up working the whole time balling my eyes out because i was miscarrying as i sat in the studio...But know all of the sudden they want me in the dmit program me being stupid accepted. I eventually got interviewed for dm position after about 3mo. in dmit program. I did get the job...I was so excited and scared at the same time. I started out loving it and about 3 mo. in all hell broke loose I had barely any training my studio mgrs never did anything bc there previous dm always went drinking with them, my rd made me do and tell my mgrs things that would get HR called on me then he would deny he told me to do it. I was never alowed a day of I had studios over 9 hours away and spent more time in hotels than home, i got no sleep ,no help no direction, no respect and not once met the vp or any of the top corp ppl constantly barking out orders. I had to constantly tell my district things i did not believe in. I noticed certain dm's got away with doing nothing but hard workers were punished. CPi layd off half the company gave me double the district with no more pay and expected results over night. Trust me you may think DM's are these horrible people but they are doing what they are made to do by there spineless RD's and VP's. I finally told my husband i cant physically and mentally take this anymore so he got a new job in another state I quit CPI and now work for an amazing company that respects and appreciates my talent and cares about its people.

ALL I CAN SAY IS GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN....your life will be so much better.

Anonymous said...

Dear random customer you posted this:I am a customer and I have a question I am hoping some SEARS PORTRAIT employees can answer: What is the value of the portrait club membership if you can only use 1 FREE offer per visit? I used to be able to get my FREE 8 X 10, then BOGO 1 or 2 pictures, then get my FREE Collage or whatever FREE COUPON they had out:

Let me translate this into the retail world: I want a free item and then buy one get on free, and another free item...so even though you are grossly under paid and the 7.99 I am spending taking up 2 hours of store time...well you should be on your knees thanking me for coming.

An ex retail answer, you'd get more free if you SPENT MORE!

Anonymous said...

One individuals reply is not the reply of all at that company. And even though there is a policy of customers being right, you hgave the right to plee your side. If you don't make an effort you will get walked on and that is how they are ably to get away with what they do.