To Whom It May Concern:
From: Alma Thompson
I resign my position at Foleys as a Sales Associate for the following reasons:
1. I was injured at Foleys on 10/30/02 and returned to work on 11/20/02 with specific instructions from my doctor to have modified responsibilities. I gave the document to Karen the personnel manager, at which time nothing was said to me about the doctors instructions. She just turned and told the person who works at the front desk to fax it to corporate or wherever it was that the form needed to go and said Glad to have you back.
I wasnt sure where I was to go to work at so I went to the department where I was assigned. I said to Clifton the manager of the department that I was to be on modified duties, he totally ignored me. I mentioned this to Ron Neal; his response was that I needed to tell Clifton the manager for the department. I can understand his position because he was not the manager.
2. There are just too many risks involved in working at Foleys. There is so much merchandise crammed on the sales floor that you try and squeeze by it and your clothes are snagged or you stumble over it. An item fell off a shelf and struck me in the face leaving a mark under my left eye. I brought this to the attention of Ron Neal and sales associate Cynthia. I retrieved one of those retro record players from a shelf for a customer, there was a small piece of broken glass behind the box and I cut my finger on my left hand. Ron witnessed this when he saw my blood on some paperwork.
3. The house wares department is very unorganized and the stock rooms are impossible. You cannot get to the merchandise, you trip over stuff on the floors and you have to tell the customers you dont have it because you cannot get to it. Ron and I both tried to organize them but with no cooperation from the other employees the problems continue to exist.
I witnessed the manager Clifton and other associates tell customers that the store was out of merchandise because they are either too lazy to look for the merchandise for them, or they dont want to deal with the mess that the stock rooms are in. (Example: Foleys ran an ad for the Oneida flatware. At 7 A.M. The day of the sale Clifton began telling customers the store did not have it, whereas inventory showed that the store had several sets. I searched the stock room and in several different places I found approximately 23 boxes. They told customers all day that we did not have the items and took a rain-check list for about 300 sets of them.
No one called these people to tell them anything. Later that day the individuals who help stock the shelves found 18 boxes, Clifton told them to put them on the floor. I felt that this was unfair to the people who had been there at 7 A.M. So I told the stock people not to put them on the floor that I would call as many of those people that I could and let them know. I stayed beyond my scheduled time to get off work to call the first ten or fifteen people on the list. I reserved this flatware with hold tickets for those customers. When I got to work the next day the customers were standing there wanting to pick up the flatware. Someone, desperate to make a sale, had pulled the hold tickets off and sold them after I left work that evening.
In order to please these customers and not let them be inconvenienced further, Marshall substituted other sets of flatware. The list disappeared, no one could say where it was so when people came in to inquire about the silverware we could not verify if their name was on the list or not or how many sets they had requested. This is very poor customer relation if you ask me.
Foleys again ran an ad for the Toastmaster Toaster Ovens, sales associate Katherine told customers repeatedly that the store was out whereas there were more than 50 of them in the stock room. The same thing happened with the stockpots. This type of behavior is consistent in this department. I truly resented having to lie to the customers telling them that the store would call them when the merchandise came in and people would come and say that you all promised.
The Sunbeam Microwave Ovens ad was ran and customers were told that we did not have them and rain-checks were given, I came to work and was told by sales associate Ada that we were giving rain-checks. No one had offered to call other stores to find out their supply. I called West Oaks and Sharpstown and they had an abundance of them. I informed the other associates and then called the individuals who the rain checks had been issued to let them know.
4. Also, I refuse to be subjected to the verbal abuse of people when the situation is something that I have no control over. Several of the customers are very rude and disrespectful to us as associates. Whereas I can understand their frustration when it is advertised that you have a sale on an item and they get out of the comforts of their environment and they come expecting to find the merchandise and they are lied to about the ad. On last Saturday several of those racist white females made derogatory comments to us.Us being myself an Afro American, Katherine and Marvin who are both Hispanic. One lady said out loud in the line of customers that she was in; they should have trained you all to do more than one thing at a time. She wanted one of those stockpots that were advertised for 6.99.
They were buried in the stock room and no one had taken the initiative to get them. Again customers were being told that the store was out of them. I asked this womans patience but she felt a need to insult us. I responded that whereas I am a multi-tasked oriented individual someone needed to fight the mess in the stock room to try and get them. Sometime I find myself operating two registers, answering the telephone all at the same time. Another white female came to the register wanting to purchase something but did not have her coupons; I told her that I could not give her the discount without the coupon.
She replied in a very rude manner that it was in her car, she turned and walked away leaving the merchandise on the counter. I returned it to the shelf and proceed to wait on other customers. This same woman returned with the items and wanted to charge them, she gave me a card from a Rolodex with a male individuals name on it, I asked her for her identification. She said there was no need for that she was a signer on the account. I responded in a polite manner that I still needed to see her identification. As I recall I dont remember seeing her name on the card that she had given me. Whether it was not or not I still needed to identify her as being whoever she was suppose to be. She shoved her drivers license at me and I proceeded to look up the account information and was prompted to call credit.
When I told her I needed to call credit she snatched the documents from me, made some very nasty comments and walked away. I called Clifton whom I had not seen all day to inform him of what had happened. Later another rude white female made some negative comments to Katherine who was operating a register, Marvin who are both Hispanic and a couple of other associates about them counting money in front of customers. She stated that in Mexico they dont do that and these individuals should know better than to be so ignorant. This was totally uncalled for. We just looked at each other and went on about our day.
5. A sales associate by the name of Rebecca was transferred to the house wares department and she is as air headed as any one person can be. She takes extended breaks, seldom her whereabouts are known. She is lazy and refuses to do the strenuous work that it takes to make the department funtionable. This puts additional work on the other associates. I dont know how she earned the stone that is on her badge.
In closing, this is honestly too much work and stress for the pay. Whereas no form of money can compensate for the rude behavior of your customers, I feel that a lot of it can be eliminated if the merchandise was there when it is advertised that it would be.
When I was offered the job at Foleys Paul promised me an additional salary to the 7.00 an hour starting salary. After the second pay period I had worked I asked him about it and he said he left it in Karens hands, after the third pay period I brought it to his attention again and at this time he replied there was no guarantee. I feel that I work truly hard, consistent and give the customer service beyond that of any employee that Foleys has probably ever had in its history. Because of these reasons there is no guarantee or enough incentive in it for me to stay and take this kind of physical and verbal abuse.
Alma thompson
houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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