I worked for Cintas in the first aid division for over three years. The branch I worked at in the greater Detroit area had been a family business that was bought out by Cintas. For the first 2.5 years, everything was fine. Then Cintas (which had been going by the name Xpect First Aid) began to show it's true colors.
When Cintas launched the new product packaging, we were told the quantities of the products would be decreased.instead of 50 band aids to a box it would be 40, instead of 250 tablets of over the counter medications, it would be 200, and so on for every product. Our 12 week customers would be moved to 8 weeks, our 8 week customers to 6 weeks, and our six week customers to 4 weeks. We would need to make sure we sold $100.00 per cabinet to each customer. If we were not willing to do this, the company would expect us to resign.
Their whole philosophy is to do whatever possible to cheat and rape the customer just so they can make money for the stockholders. Cintas has no ethics whatsoever. I realized if I stayed at Cintas I would become one of them, and that scared me. I would not be able to look in the mirror and feel comfortable at what was staring back at me.
Prior to all of the changes in product quantities that Cintas made, I callled the employee hotline regarding a matter I was having. The hotline is supposed to be the employees link to resolve conflicts, disputes, etc. Nothing ever came of my complaint. I even called every three months for two years and Christy in Human Resources never returned my calls. Eventually, the company also made avilable pamphlets for us to fill out if we didn't waqnt to call the hotline. A week later the branch manager spoke to me about my complaint. Less than a month later my route was cut and my goal raised. This was an obvious sign the company was targeting me and I began to look elsewhere.
About 2 years after leaving Cintas I got back into the first aid industry. I took a considerable amount of business away from Cintas. Our company would mail a cancellation letter to Cintas on behalf of the customer. Cintas' strategy was to pretend they never got the letter and just show up at the customer's door. Sometimes they would even sneak in, slap their sticker back on the cabinet, overstuff it and try to get an invoice signed.
I strongly urge someone who's thinking of working for Cintas to investigate them thoroughly. Unite, the union representing textile workers, and Teamters have been trying to unionize Cintas employees. If you work for Cintas and they promise you something, get it in writing. They will break a promise without even blinking. The BBB in Cincinnati gave them an unsatisfactory rating until just recently when all the unresolved complaints were suddenly resolved. Cintas believes in lies, deceit, and anything else just to make money and they don't care at who's expense. Doc Farmer must be turning over in his grave by seeing what the company he founded has become.
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