You need 5 apps to get your pay?

I was just offered a job at a retail department store but there was one thing that bothered me and still does.

You are required to get 5 credit apps a pay period to even get PAID. Ok this is just odd to me. It doesn't matter your performance or that you show up and do your job, it matters how many people you get to sign up for the credit card. She pushed this credit card on me more than the job responsibilities. A credit card most probably don't need but they package it as a VISA card with all these benefits to make you think it's a deal..

Personally I have zero credit cards. I was raised where if you want something you work for it and pay for it with cash. Isn't this why American's are in so much debt? Credit cards!

I will do this because it has taken years to find a job but I don't agree with it. I find it a little sneaky to push their card then hold your pay over you. I worked for another department store that was the same way but this was years ago before the economy took a dive.

What do you think of this? The things you learn when working retail I swear.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Well, you can put sticky notes on each app you give out stating "If I don't give out 5 of these per pay period, they will withhold my check".. See how many people fill them out then -- with bogus information.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

Well, you can put sticky notes on each app you give out stating "If I don't give out 5 of these per pay period, they will withhold my check"..

See how many people fill them out then -- with bogus information.

Hahaha! Yeah good idea.

When I go into the stores I already know the deal and I always feel bad for saying no but i don't do credit cards. When I worked at Macy's they bugged me to get one of their cards so I could get their discount. The only way you could get the employee discount was if you had a Macy's credit card. I never got one and never will not even for a discount. I'm not one of those who sees it as a deal long term. It may be at the time but later on I will have paid more than the original tag price for the item between fees and interest. No thanks.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
I was just offered a job at a retail department store but there was one thing that bothered me and still does.

You are required to get 5 credit apps a pay period to even get PAID. Ok this is just odd to me. It doesn't matter your performance or that you show up and do your job, it matters how many people you get to sign up for the credit card. She pushed this credit card on me more than the job responsibilities. A credit card most probably don't need but they package it as a VISA card with all these benefits to make you think it's a deal..

Personally I have zero credit cards. I was raised where if you want something you work for it and pay for it with cash. Isn't this why American's are in so much debt? Credit cards!

I will do this because it has taken years to find a job but I don't agree with it. I find it a little sneaky to push their card then hold your pay over you. I worked for another department store that was the same way but this was years ago before the economy took a dive.

What do you think of this? The things you learn when working retail I swear.

I think visa has sent out alot of contracts to companies. My friend works here in canada at a money mart. Shes been there for a few years and just recently they have been pushing hard for prepaid visa apps. She gets a call from her HQ everytime she works to check on her app. status. She is required to up sell 2 prepaid visa a shift, or gets in trouble for it. She works in an area where most people who come in are on government assistance of some sort or there to get a payday loan. Ive worked for a credit card company myself for 5 years and know how much they demand on up selling their product.
Now even though my friend must push these cards on people, its not a requirement to get paid, however she is now worrying about her job and whether its in jeopardy because she is unable to get 2 apps a day.
What sort of retail is this that you are working in?

PS- Credit Card companies are nothing but predators. Ive seen the belly of the beast and its not pretty.

reply to post by topherman420


Yeah the more I work in retail the more their main focus is the credit card not customer service!

It amazes me honestly. I would rather spend my time helping people with their shopping needs than shoving a credit card they probably can't afford down their throat.

It's Sears..the card is a nice offer I will agree but it is still a credit card and in both interviews they talked more about selling the card than their products.

It's like these companies and this country WANT people in perpetual debt. They threaten your job if you don't comply basically. You are on probation for 60days and after that you have to keep it up or you can be let go for "poor job performance" even though that has nothing to really do with the job, it's a credit card application. I know how two other dept stores work with this. If you don't make your quota you get docked pay or put to a lower pay scale and within three months if it is still not where they want it you are let go. I know many people this has happened to and they were great workers. It kind of shows what companies care about more nowadays and apparently credit apps are more important than making sure the customer is happy.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Working for Capital One I found out the nastiness of the credit card industry. It is ALL money, everything is about numbers, efficiency and end of month totals. You were based on money received, not customer service skills or helping a customer. I worked both sides of the company, CR and collections (both third and first party collections) and even customers with awful payment history, 6 of our credit cards and 90+ days past due, were still getting offers from us. Of course they had to be at least up to date to activate a new card....but it got them to phone in and deal with their bill, but getting them even deeper with us in the long run...the never ending cycle.
We were often in meetings and training sessions to keep on top of the credit situation (especially during the house market collapse) and no matter what the hardship america was dealing with, the up selling was always top of the list.
I would question this policy of theirs, cause it sounds questionable to me. Even if i didnt up-sell enough cards or no one paid their bill I still got my pay regardless, bitchy boss or not lol

reply to post by mblahnikluver
It's a lot of BS isn't it?!

A few years ago, I had a temporary job in a Liverpool call-centre where they insisted the staff screwed over the customers with 'Payment Protection Plus' insurance on top of mail-orders. There was a 'bonus league' for the reptile who could sell the most and they went at it with a passion.

I lasted two months and never sold a single PPP before quitting. They had 200 sales staff per shift and about two lines for complaints so I advised people how to register complaints and cancel their PPPs. Yeah, line-managers and team leaders hated me...

Anecdotes aside, I guess I'm trying to say don't sell out your conscience if you can avoid it. The last few years have now been spent in a job that I'm happy with and does some good. It's easier to get a job when you're already employed so keep your eyes open for something better and GTFO ASAP.

Apparantly this is something the company your choosing to work for wants you to do. If you don't like it you certainly don't have to work for.

What I don't understand is how this would prevent you from giving good customer service also. I see no reason you can't try to sell an item while helping the customer at the same time. If it's difficult for you perhaps your not qualified for this type of job.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Yeah my conscience won't let me push cards on people. In the past I offered it with the benefits they tell us to offer if they said no I took their first answer. I never pushed people into getting the card.

I know how I am with credit cards and I know many are this way as well and I also know people are much more cautious now with their spending with the economy going to crap esp in the area I live with the shuttle program ending soon. It has gotten really bad out here, which is why it took so long to find a job!

I have applied at other places, one I knew would take a few months so if I do hear back from them I will give my notice and take the one better suited to my future career goals but for now I will just do my best and follow their guidelines. It is a job and well 3yrs without a real job has sucked so I was happy to at least get this even if I don't agree with the terms...well just this term anyway. The rest is just like any other retail job.

Originally posted by kro32
Apparantly this is something the company your choosing to work for wants you to do. If you don't like it you certainly don't have to work for.

You obviously didn't read where i said I dont agree with it. I didn't say I wasn't going to work there. I could have declined when they offered me the job but I didnt. Three years without a job will make you take anything at this point. I just found it to be an odd requirement in today's economy.

What I don't understand is how this would prevent you from giving good customer service also. I see no reason you can't try to sell an item while helping the customer at the same time. If it's difficult for you perhaps your not qualified for this type of job.

Again you are missing the point! My god...seriously. I have worked retail for more than ten years and I am MORE than qualified to do this job..Please.

It can be a problem with customer service when you push a card on someone and they don't want it. They can get a bad taste in their mouth for the company, this is why I don't shop at Dillards. They are VERY pushy because they have insanely high sales quota and I don't feel comfortable shopping there because they are literally up your tail the whole time while you shop. People should be able to shop and do their thing they shouldn't feel pressured into things they don't want just because you are required to meet a goal. 5 apps arent that big of a deal but it's the principle behind it. One shouldnt fear their job over credit applications submitted esp when they have outstanding work abilities. I know this because I have seen people lose their jobs over this sales tactic and they were employees who were great and did their jobs and didn't complain, came to work on time and never called out but because they didn't meet that card quota they were quickly terminated for poor work performance. Florida has crazy work laws believe me.


Its the fact that in both interviews they talked MORE about their credit card than customer service and their products and job duties. They literally talked more about pushing this card and how it affects your pay than anything and imo having worked retail as long as I have it should be about performance, customer service and keeping the store and your area up to date and tidy not whether or not you can up sell a credit app to someone. I started out in retail in my teens, now in my 30s, and this is something that is becoming more and more at stores over the last few years. I don't see how it helps anyone but the company in the long run.

I think you might have misunderstood mblah
Well according to this forum

I make $6.50 per hour we get paid every two weeks and i work 20 -30 hours. Your hours are few and far so mostly 20 or less than 20 hours is the norm. I make $600.00 a month and thats if I sell enough credit. You get paid once a month for credit apps and you must get 5 before they pay you the $2 per application. The applications have to be new or decisionable and duplicates don't count. Id work in commission department not as a cashier or MCA if you want to make enough income to support yourself or family. I think all of my associates have two jobs cant live off of $600.00 bucks.

So its just the credit apps that you dont get paid for until you get 5. you still get paid for the actual work

reply to post by topherman420


I worked for a call center years ago selling Fleet Bank credit cards and I am well aware of their sneaky tactics! I winded up moving to the verification dept so I could at least stop the shady sales that went through. Sales reps hated me

I havent had a credit card since I was 19, now 32. I had them when I turned 18, that magic card that just lets you shop and they give them out like candy at that age. I was young and naieve but I realized that I needed to get rid of them and I paid them off and cut them up. I haven't had one since. The only credit card I have now is my WalMart prepaid VISA. I use it for everything. I traveled to Europe with it for the holidays and had no problems. I pay bills online and shop online. The only time I couldn't use it was when I needed to rent a car to go out of town, they don't accept them. I just used my car instead, again problem solved.

People think you have to have credit cards and I am proof you don't need them. I don't even use a bank account, don't trust them either. I worked for a bank and well after that I was like ok I am never having a bank account again! I saw so many errors that were the fault of the bank yet the customer suffered. I was mortified at some of the stuff I saw.

reply to post by davespanners



No she said your pay check. You only get paid on apps after you have reached 5, after that it's 2 dollars an app. I had to ask her this in detail because I was confused. It goes along with your sales goals they set for you based on hours and your location in the store. Many stores I have worked for work like this.


Dillards works in a similar way with their apps and sales quota. They have a pay tier and every month after your 90 days of probation if you don't make your sales goal and app goal they DOCK your pay and knock you down the pay scale...and 90 days from that if you still don't make your goals you are let go. I know many people who have worked there and their sales goals are pretty high and I know when I worked for a jewelry chain the sales goals were a bit nuts esp when you had 5 people working a day


I have personally never had a problem making my goals I just find it an odd practice for companies. A sneaky one if you ask me and before I didn't have a site like ATS to share it on and get others opinions on it. Before all I had were people around me. I wonder if other companies in other countries work like this. Also when did this become a practice? I have always worked where companies had credit cards but over the years they have switched to that being their main focus, not sales of their product but the credit card. I wonder what kind of kick backs these companies get from these credit card companies.

Yeah, that doesn't sound legal if they meant they would withhold your ENTIRE paycheck if you don't accomplish one corporate goal, but complete all other job duties.

Anyways, sounds like they are setting their employees up for failure. 5 applications a month PER employee? That's a lot - considering you will NEVER get frequenting customers to apply more than once (since they already have one or have decided NOT to do it and will get more annoyed each time they are asked, potentially pushing the customer away), and 1 time customers will almost NEVER apply for credit to a store they don't frequent (why would you?).

So the only customer you might get is the "new customer who plans to frequent", and even only a small fraction of those will ever apply.

Depending on which retail store you work for, this could be battle you are doomed to fail at every month, so you might as well *not* even try.

If they gave you a *guaranteed* bonus of say $10 per app, then they would be setting you up for success. You have much more motivation to make the sale, and that means more sales than the original stupid plan.

Companies gotta be weary of these credit card deals. Not saying that they are going to hurt the company they are dealing with but its basically using them. Using another company for your marketing saves you alot of money. And even in economic difficulties they still make alot of money, where as other companies fall flat on their face. I remember when we were dealing with economic crisis and our president of the company came for a meeting and said that even though banks were getting bailouts and going bankrupt, they were doing just fine and planned to ramp up the commercial marketing. They have no concern about anyones interest except the lining of their pockets, and companies who deal with them need to make sure they don't forget what their company is about, which is not an external marketing campaign for the credit card companies.
What im wondering is, how much benefit are said companies actually getting by pushing these on their employees so hard. If they are pushing that much it can't be for a small profit margin.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/77871f72e6ff.jpg[/atsimg]

Sometimes they make it very hard to say no....

Seriously though I'd personally tell them where to shove that job, but that's just me... You wouldn't be any worse than all the other people working in those stores doing the same, and unless the customer is vulnerable in some way it's entirely up to them if they do or don't take credit, think of your self, you could make quite a bit of extra cash, selling credit to Americans is like giving away free ice pops to kids living in Africa lol

Oh wow. Now I know why I get ambushed with credit card offers every time I try to buy something at a mall store. lol

Anyways, please don't take the job, M. That worries me for you that you might not get paid for your work unless you sign up people for the store credit card. I can't even see that being legal to withhold someone's pay. What on earth is that all about?

I know you said you really need this job but is there ANYTHING else out there you could do? If you really need a job, I assume you also need the pay. And it doesn't sound worth the risk to not receive a paycheck even though you have the job. In other words, what good is a job if it's possible they can use a loophole to cheat you out of pay? Then you might as well be doing volunteer work.

Originally posted by Now_Then
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/77871f72e6ff.jpg[/atsimg]

Sometimes they make it very hard to say no....

Seriously though I'd personally tell them where to shove that job, but that's just me... You wouldn't be any worse than all the other people working in those stores doing the same, and unless the customer is vulnerable in some way it's entirely up to them if they do or don't take credit, think of your self, you could make quite a bit of extra cash, selling credit to Americans is like giving away free ice pops to kids living in Africa lol

OMG! Wow and I am sure people fall for this! It is insane and should be illegal. It's a total scam on peoples personal debt! I see all kinds of tactics to get people to sign up for credit cards.

My friends mom fell for it at Target and now you dont need to fill out an app its all done on their CREDIT machine! It swipes your ID and you answer a few questions, they run a check and bam in mins you have more debt!

LOL NT you always have a way of making me laugh

I would normally not take a job with quotas like that which pays only 7.25/hr but I am really over my current "job" as you know and I can't take the stress of not knowing if I will make any money. At least this way I can budget with a paycheck in advance and work my other "job" when needed to supplement my income. It has taken years to even get a job in the normal working world so I was happy just caught a little off guard at their requirements for sales and apps.

reply to post by topherman420


I wonder too what they get for this.

It's through CitiBank which is a pretty big bank so they have to be getting some kind of nice kick back.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Its alot of pressure on the higher ups and they in turn make some more extreme ways of securing whatever contract quota they have (or wherever all this pressure comes from). What sort of leverage is making these managers sweat lol.

And I thought the free t-shirt thing at college credit card application stands was bad. Does anyone want a free pop that badly? lol Oh well, I guess an inventive solution for its employees instead of more hard tactics pushed on them by the managers.