Skeleton Crew [part 2]

CPICorp has a 1-800 number that you can call to schedule an appointment. There is not way to call your studio directly from the website.

This is actually a good thing for those at the studio. It means that hopefully your photographer has minimal phone interruptions while she shoots your appointment.

The problem, however, this the appointment call center is overseas and will make appointments whenever it (or the customer) feels like it.

So let's say you're alone (as always) and you have two appointments on the books for the rest of the night: one at three and one at four. You have plenty of open space for appointments between your four and close at 8:00. Then, despite all these open slots, the appointment scheduler gives you an 8:00 appointment.

You could try and call the customer, but the appointment scheduler typed in their phone number incorrectly and you have no way of contacting them.

When you later talk to the customer, you realize that they were flexible with their time and could have done earlier.

Blantantly deceive your customers

We have received our first submission from another SPS employee, this time an ex Studio Manager. We'll call this person SM1. Let's read, shall we?

"I learned immediately that I was expected to use shady sales practices at SPS. I really don’t believe that this is coming completely from the corporate level, but more from the Regional Manager. Between the months of July and November 2006, so much emphasis was put on on-site printing that we were instructed to tell our customers that this was their only option.

[Editor's note: On site printing costs an additional 3 dollars per sheet, has worse color quality than lab printing and is on glossy rather than matte paper]

Managers in my district refused to honor coupons, saying that their studio only did on-site printing. If the customer got angry enough, the studio would order them from the lab, but still keep the extra $3 on the sheet price.

We were told not to put out any of the fliers with the current promotional collection (We had to keep the one hanging on the wall up because it was required, but if a customer asked about it, we were to talk down the lab telling them how the pictures took almost a month to come in). Basically, I felt like every day we were asked to lie to the customers about prices and products.

Other questionable initiatives:
-Denying customer use of the $9.99 package
-Only selling certain products in a 20x20 size when the company clearly has the 10x10 size on the website and price list
-Denying the existence of the 5x7 wallet/combo size
-Not letting the customer know about any collection less than $100 (this is back when there WAS a collection under $99.99).

Things improved when the new CEO came on board and we were focusing more on “making the day” [beating last year's sales numbers] and we were instructed to start using the company-created collections rather than the many various manager-created collections that were floating around and serving only to confuse our associates.

Several customer service complaints in our district led to a call from corporate to our entire district about dissatisfaction with on-site printing, and all of a sudden our Regional Manager was saying on-site printing was only meant to be offered as an option to customers, telling us to now do the very thing we had earlier been expressly told not to do."

Your time is not your own [part 3]

Our portrait studio was open until 8pm. What this means, however, is that if someone comes in at 8:00 or even 8:10, you take them back for their appointment. Refuse an appointment? You're fired.

You never quite know when you'll get out. The appointment scheduler loves to make late appointments [see entry being posted Saturday] at 8:00 when other times are available.

Closing takes about half an hour. So some days I would be able to leave at 8:30. On days when I could start closing procedures early, I would be done at 8:10. Other days 9:30.

This entry probably sounds more nitpicky than previous entries, but you have to combine this with other entries and realize that it's yet another way you always feel on call. Working the evening shift means you can't make any definite plans until 10. So in a sense even though your shift says you're done at 8, Sears really has you until 10.

Customers don't know math

I once had a woman call me up with questions. She was buying a large package for a group shot and wanted to know how many sheets of photos each family would get. She was asking about our different packages.

"Now our silver package will give you twelve sheets"

"Ok," she said, "so if I have five families, how many sheets would each family get"
It was like I was talking to a fourth grade division problem. "Well" I said "On average each family is going to get about two and a half sheets"

"How can you have half a picture?"

"Well, you can't. It's an average. Everyone will get two and you'll have some extras."

"Extras?"

"Yes, because in total you have twelve sheets and if everyone has two sheets, then you'll have two extras."

"So how many do each get?"

I had to go on to repeat myself a number of times. I tried to keep it as flexible as possible for her, to show her how she could do different numbers for each family (which is what she wanted) but in the end had to just tell her "Each family gets two sheets and your grandmother gets four"

Now, I can [almost] understand how it could be somewhat confusing for someone around thirty years old when you have remainders and want a whole number. But later...

"Ok so now instead of that collection," I said "you could go with the gold which I could mix around to give you 20 sheets"
"So if I have five families for that shot, how many sheets would they each get?"
"Well, if I divide 20 by 5, I get 4 each."
"What if I had twenty five sheets with the other collection?"
"You would have 5 each."
"Ohhhh okay"

CPI Corp breaks the rules of statistics

On the customer's recepit, these is a link to a survey they can take where they are asked three questions. It's something like: would you reccomend us to a friend, did your photographer listen to your needs, what was your overall satisfaction. These are rated on a scale from 1-10 with ten being the best.

Nines and tens are considered good. Anything else is not.

Furthermore, one bad review is more heavily weighted than a good review. Let's say the woman from the previous entry had a bone to pick and decided she didn't get enough time and was going to stick it to me by giving me all 1's. It would take ten good reviews to make up for one bad review.

Get bad reviews? You're going to get written up.

Hope you don't like relaxation

You're 3 hours in your five and a half hour shift and it's time for your thirty minute unpaid lunch. Since you're the only person around, you are expected to stay around the studio in case the phone should ring or if someone shows up so you can work off the clock.

Why not clock in? Well, clock in and out too many times and you'll get a Summary of Conversation written against you.

Once you handle that customer's question, someone comes in to pick up their pictures. Handle that and you get another phone call.

And suddenly your break is done and it's time to get back on the clock.

Oh, also, food isn't allowed in the back room. Hope you don't like eating.

Skeleton Crew [part 1]

Sears Portrait Studio has as few people as possible working on a given day. This meant that I worked alone most of the time.

Pretend you've got a six month old baby that you've brought in for photos. You've taken the time to make sure that he's had a nap, that he didn't get his clothes dirty, and that he was fed before he came. You were really worried that he might not take good photos because he doesn't have much patience, but the first few photos are adorable.

Then the phone rings. The photographer is required to excuse herself and get the phone. The person on the phone may request to see if their pictures are in which requires the photographer to dig around in the drawer. Or the caller may have a bunch of questions that she demands me answered right then and there.

When the photographer comes back, she may get in another five minute of cute photos only to be interrupted with someone that has come to pick up their photos. The photographer obliges.

Your child starts crying and it is clear the photo session is over before you even got a chance to get some of the photos you wanted.

Parents lie

I once had a woman show up with her three year old daughter wanting a walk-in appointment. I was, of course, working alone. I had two other appointments that were soon approaching so I told her that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to take her as I had an appointment that was less than 45 minutes away (appointments usually take a hour to see through to completion and I didn't want to make all my future appointments late) but I would be happy to schedule her a time another day or I could give her an appointment in a few hours after my other appointment.

She told me that this was the only time she could do the appointment. That there was no other time. She told me that her daughter was great with pictures. That she would be easy.

I took her word for it. When I photographed a good four year old, I could get them in and out in about 45 minutes. This still sounds like a stupid move, I realize, but CPI has a zero tolerance policy: if you refuse an appointment, you are fired. And I didn't want to get stuck in some grey area.

To make sure she knew what to expect, I explained the situation again. I told her that if I couldn't do anything that would make my following appointments late. I told her if we went over on time that I would set her up on the computer herself and she would be able to pick out her order while I photographed the other session.

The daughter was not good with cameras as promised. She was shy. Shy is fine. I'm good with shy. But I'm not good with shy when I don't have the time to connect with the child because the mom is a rushed, walk-in, last minute appointment. The mom also wanted to add on a mother-daughter shot, which I happily did. She wanted to do some shots with the big #4, which I was more than happy to do. I got a lot of good photos and made pretty good time and then asked "so is there anything else I can do for you?"

And from her backpack she pulled two other dresses. I should have asked if she had outfits, yes, but you don't expect someone to pull two dresses from a small backpack.

Oh, and she wanted to do some individual shots of herself. On a different background than the one that was out.

It was a rush to get everything she wanted and I, as we previously discussed, had to set her up at a computer.

Midway through my next session, she interrupted the session to ask how much longer it was going to be until I could help her because she "felt like I wasn't paying enough attention" to her.

To make matters worse, she came in the next day (a day she said she absolutely could not make) to add onto her session so she could get more individual photos of herself (you can't make these things up) and complained to my boss about how rushed I seemed when in the camera room.

Opportunity for advancement

Of all the things they tell you at your interview, one thing that will be true is that there is a huge opportunity for advancement. One of my superiors started as part time and within two years had a high ranking management position. This is a story you will year across the company.

Saying that there is opportunity for advancement, however, is like telling Will Smith's character in I am Legend that he has opportunity to become President. If all the people above you leave, of course you're going to get a higher position if you're the only one left standing.

When I left, there were 6 assistant manager and one studio manger positions open in a district of approximately 12 studios.

Your time is not your own [part 2]

Let's now say you are a part timer. Most of you time will be made up of flex shifts (as opposed to coverage shifts). A flex shift is basically an "if you are needed" shift. I had one associate that was scheduled for 0 coverage hours a week (something that happens if your PRS isn't $120). She only worked if she was needed. The following is something that happened to one of my associates.

It is Sunday and as usual, you are on flex from 3-6pm (common flex shifts are 3-4 hours long which makes it quite hard to rack up hours even when called in). Your family is having a big yearly family BBQ at a park that you would really love to attend but as usual you don't think you will be able to.

Feeling hopeful, you call work earlier than necessary. Appointments for the evening look okay. There is a 4pm and 5pm appointment, so you won't be needed if it stays the same.

As required, you call in two hours before your shift at 1pm. The appointments haven't changed. You are excited and tell all your family members that they will get to see you at the BBQ.

At 2:50 you get a call saying that a second 5pm appointment was made through the 1-800 number and you are needed. If you don't go in, not only will your job be in jeopardy, but you will leave you co-worker with the task of photographing two sittings simultaneously all by herself, something that is not possible. Looks like your family will have to see you next year.

Your time is not your own [part 1]

If you are “full time” you will be getting 30 hours per week spread across five days. Your days off will be weekdays and subject to change at random. Your days off will not be consecutive. Occasionally, there will be mandatory meetings made only 1-2 days in advance. These are usually either early before open or late in the evening. If you work 9-4 that day, get ready to come back a few hours later for a meeting. Conference calls can also come up without warning. Everything is mandatory. Everything is a condition of employment.

If you work evenings, be prepared to get woken up by your phone often in the morning. Your phone cannot ever be off if you are a full timer, or a summary of conversation will be filed against you.

Your schedule will change without notice. You will lose days off when other people get sick and they need someone. People leave the company often and leave without giving two weeks notice, so also be prepared to get called in when someone doesn’t show up for work and then have to help cover their shifts for the rest of the week.

PRS is not your friend

The primary way an employee is rated is not by how good her/his photos are, but rather by how much money she/he makes selling them.

Your PRS is the average money you make per sale. The goal is $120/sale. This alone is a huge challenge, but then you have to realize that the company blankets the nation with a package for 10 bucks. This means that if you get one person that comes in and does the package (something some people do every month), your next sale will have to be $230 dollars to make up for that.

What happens when your PRS isn't at 120? Well, that's a talking to.

You will have a conversation with the studio manager in which she/he threatens your job security. I once had a conversation with a manager in which I was told "If you can't get this number up [by ten dollars in the next week], it's going to be either your job or mine. And it's not going to be mine."

Ask yourself this: if you were to go into a Sears Portrait Studio (please don't), would you be walking in expecting to pay $120 for your photos? If not, get ready to have your photographer (and by photographer I mean sales person) try and try and try to get you up to the 120 mark. Her job depends on it.

Why make this site?

Sears Portrait Studio was the worst job experience I have ever had. Putting in my two weeks notice was a joyous day and I was ready to move on to new things and put SPS behind me.

Then two things happened.
1) I got a great job where I'm respected and valued. The stark contrast made me further realize what an awful job working at SPS was.
2) I saw http://www.youtube.com/user/WhistleBlowerZero and realized just how much it was like working for CPI

I'm going to work at writing a post a day for a while. Please leave comments so I know you're out there.

Coming Soon

This site exists to explain why Sears Portrait Studio (A.k.a Sears Photo) sucks as a place of employment. Sears Portrait Studio is owned by CPICorp (CPY) and is not somewhere you want to work.

Thanks to Zero Originality for inspiring me to do this.

If you came here from googling "I hate my job" "I hate Sears Portrait Studio" or "Sears Portrait Studio sucks" then welcome.

Are you an employee of Sears Portrait Studio or a PictureMe portrait studio (or even Olan Mills or JCPenny)? Email searsphotosucks@gmail.com
with your stories and I'll put them online anonymously.