DarksydePhil
06-22-2006, 10:30 PM
It's not often I slam a multi-million dollar corporation, and it's not often I get up on a soapbox for a non-Street Fighter related issue. But in recent months something horrible happened to me and I feel that I need to share my story. Not for my sake, but for the sake of anyone who is possibly considering getting a job at, or who currently has a job at, Best Buy stores.
In August of 2005, I left my job at Wells Fargo Financial because I was recruited by Best Buy to join their new business team. Best Buy as a company is rolling out these business teams across the country. The Business Team is NOT just a bunch of computer salespeople in shirts and ties; they are highly trained networking specialists who basically can help anyone who owns their own business get set up with technology and office supplies they need, in addition to setting up professional IT installers to go out and do the labor and installations on-site. The idea behind the business team is ot be the complete technology solution for small business owners...so they don't have to buy their hardware one place, their networking supplies elsewhere, then have to go seek out an IT consultant to do all the installations.
Well, everything was fine until April. One Monday, I purchased three PS2s with my employee discount (which was a savings of 90 cents on each console) to use during ECC this year. When the loss prevention officer at the door asked me why I was buying three PS2s, I explained to him that I needed them for a gaming tournament I was running. He asked me why I would be willing to spend so much on the tournament out of my pocket, and I explained it was my hobby, but that I would possibly be getting some of the money I spent on ECC back through the entry fees that we charge to participate in the tournament.
I came in the next day and my store manager called me into his office and began interrogating me on why I purchased three PS2s with my discount. I explained to him everything in detail, and then he told me to write it down on a piece of paper.
I wrote everything in detail: I purchased the PS2s for use at ECC, a non-for-profit event, and the PS2s were MINE to use and I would keep them after ECC for my personal usage. I asked the store manager if I was in trouble and he said that I was possibly going to be under investigation by Human Resources, because whenever you buy multiple units like the PS2 under your discount, it sends out red flags. I told him that was ridiculous, I only saved $2.70 and I had no idea that what I had done might violate any policy and get myself or the store into trouble, and I was willing to return the PS2s or do whatever he suggested in order to rectify anything I'd done wrong. He told me not to worry at this point, what is done is done and the investigation will be performed by HR, and that he would get back to me as soon as he heard anything, and that it was out of his hands.
So I had Wednesday off. When I came in Thursday morning for my shift, one of the managers came up to me and told me I was SUSPENDED pending the HR investigation, without pay. I said what the hell was I supposed to do, because I needed to work to pay my bills, and he said it's out of his hands until anything comes back from HR. So I went home wondering what the hell was going on.
That Friday afternoon, I got a call from someone in the store to come in and see the store manager. So I did. He called me into his office, and I immediately knew something was going down, because the store Operations Manager was also present there. The store manager informed me that HR had completed their investigation, and concluded that I had violated my employee discount priviledges. Then he handed me my Involuntary Separation Notice (a nice name for a Pink Slip) which basically just said I used my employee discount for an invalid reason and I was being terminated for it. I asked him HOW I had violated it and he said he had no information, because HR had performed the investigation. I told him I thought it was pretty unfair that they could just terminate me, in the United States of America, after presenting NO evidence, and that if this were in court it would not stand up since they had presented no case against me. But there was nothing I could do, I took my last check and walked out calmly.
WELL YOU KNOW ME...I'm not one to sit down and take that kind of treatment lightly.
I immediately filed for unemployment, and had a hearing scheduled for about a week later. After explaining to the employment agent my case...that I had no idea how I had violated any policy and Best Buy had never told me how I had...she told me that Best Buy had replied to my unemployment claim by only sending a written letter, stating that they had the legal right to terminate anyone for violating one of their policies. They had given no reasoning behind, or evidence, proving that I had violated anything. So, by default, she granted me unemployment.
It wasn't any massive amount of money, let me tell you, it was about $320 a week, and when you consider I was making 1 1/2 - 2 times that amount depending on hours I was given, and that I have an apartment/car/car insurance/bills/cell phone/internet/utilities/HIGH GAS COST and all kinds of other shit going on, in ADDITION to having to purchase a lot of supplies to run ECC since I was an organizer/tournament director, money was fucking TIGHT for the next 90 days. I only collected 6 checks total, and then at the end of May I got a new job that actually paid way more than what Best Buy was paying me, so it was all good.
Well I get home from running ECC to find a letter from the unemployment office. Apparently, Best Buy had decided to appeal the decision of the employment officer ON THE LAST POSSIBLE DAY THEY COULD, and a hearing was going to be set up to determine whether or not I REALLY should have been eligible for unemployment. The hearing is performed like a courtroom session, where there are witnesses and parties on both sides, and both sides are allowed to prosecute and cross-examine. A third party arbitrater decides the winner of the case. If I lose the case, I am FORCED TO PAY BACK ALL THE UNEMPLOYMENT THAT BEST BUY GAVE ME over the 90 day period I collected, which at this point amounted to $1800. Being that I had JUST gotten back to work, you can imagine that I didn't have the money...in fact, I was just starting to get out of the red from running ECC.
Basically, if Best Buy could prove that I WILFULLY violated their company policy (which is what is required by law in order to make me pay back the unemployment I received) then I would lose the appeals case.
My unemployment appeals hearing was held yesterday, and I was unable to attend in person, because as I've said I had gotten another job and they weren't going to let me take days off before I even worked there for 30 days! So I had to participate by "phoning in" to the hearing and representing myself that way.
Well, Best Buy was SO serious about trying to fuck me and take the money back, they had a team of THREE people there to prosecute: the Store Ops manager, the loss prevention agent who had stopped me at the door and asked why I bought three PS2s, and somebody they hired to argue for them (think the Johnny Cochran of unemployment lawyers). All I had was myself and my word to defend myself.
For the first time, I found out what Best Buy was accusing me of: in the employee discount policy, it explicitly states that you cannot use your employee discount for a personal business. You can ONLY use items from an employee purchase for 1. personal use and 2. bona fide gifts. Best Buy accused me of using the PS2s in a tournament where I had potential to make massive profit and therefore it was considered a business, and that's what I had done wrong.
BEST BUY FUCKED UP.
For the next 5 minutes I proceeded to make them look like complete idiots. First, I argued that Best Buy had terminated me more than a month before the gaming tournament even took place, so any accusations placed against me were mere speculation. Second, I said that the PS2s were for my PERSONAL USE...I was only basically volunteering their use for the tournament, but I would keep them for myself after the tournament for my own personal gaming, and to take to other events, since I frequently travel and It's good to be able to take the small PS2s with you. Third, ECC is NOT a legally registered business, and it certainly isn't MY business...if anything, it's a non-for-profit event that I only donated my time and resources to run this year; the ECC name is NOT under my possession whatsoever. Finally, I totally blew away their argument with this:
The only way I could possibly make money off of ECC would be if I had enough money from the cover charges that it outweighed the amount of money I spent to run ECC. So, I ran down a list of the costs to run ECC:
-The cost to rent the arcade
-The cost to buy the PS2s
-The cost of the games I bought
-The cost of the donated TVs, PS2s, and joysticks
-The cost of gas to transport everything back and forth
Leaving out the fact that I donated my entire weekend, all my efforts for organizing everything, and that I was UNEMPLOYED FOR 90 DAYS.
So, after the math, I spent approximately $3000 on running ECC, out of my own pocket.
Now, put that up against the number of people who paid to attend ECC (roughly 140), add in the fact that the entry fees were split between myself, Josh Wigfall who was the co-director, and Chris Cotty as rental of the arcade....and I ended up, oh, say over 2 grand in the hole after running the event. Doesn't sound like much of a moneymaker to me!
So then, the "hired gun" of Best Buy a.k.a. their unemployment lawyer had ONE argument that she thought would prove I was guilty. She asked this question: "So, you didn't make any money off of ECC. But what if you HAD made a profit off of the entry fees...what if enough people had shown up that you DID turn a profit off of the fees, what then?"
This is where their entire case fell through. I explained that the arcade is small and there is a fire code....to have the amount of people present that she is speculating about, that the entry fees would have been split three ways and I STILL would have turned a profit....the arcade would have been overflowing with people, and the fire marshal of Dunellen, NJ and the police would have shut down the event. To be blunt: THERE WAS NO POSSIBLE WAY I was going to make a profit off of ECC due to the limited space and fire code limitations of the arcade we chose as the location.
After stating this, the prosecution had absolutely nothing to say at all. In their closing statement, the only thing they had to add was that "If Phil was not sure if his actions of buying the three PS2s with his discount was a violation of company policy, he should have asked a manager before he did so." In my closing argument, I made her look stupid by saying "If you don't know something is wrong or didn't even fathom it was wrong, why would you ask someone if it was wrong to do? In addition, if I had known that what I was doing was wrong, would I REALLY risk my job over saving $2.70 on a purchase? That is just ridiculous."
The closing statement must have been good, because today I received a letter stating that I won the appeals hearing, not only because Best Buy had failed to prove that I wilfully violated a company policy, but they couldn't even prove that I violated any policy at all. So after two months of drama, I get to keep my unemployment claims and it's finally all over.
So...what is the moral of the story?
If you work for Best Buy, or any other retail store, understand one thing:
No matter how good of a person you are, no matter how much you put into your job or how much you work....
YOU ARE JUST A NUMBER TO THEM.
For any reason, at any time, a large corporation like Best Buy will dump your ass for the slightest violation, or even SUSPICION of a violation, of their company rules.
You are not appreciated for your work, and even if the management in the store respects what you do, they have NO power to save you when an HR investigation takes place.
Best Buy also can terminate you for ANY reason. In my case, they basically INVENTED a reason because they had no proof whatsoever that I had done anything wrong, but instead terminated me BEFORE THE POSSIBLY PROFIT-MAKING EVENT EVEN HAPPENED simply because they speculated I might be using something from an employee purchase to make money. THEY CONVICT YOU OF A CRIME BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU MIGHT COMMIT IT, BEFORE YOU EVEN COMMIT IT!
Is this representative of our "innocent until proven guilty" justice system in the United States? Fuck no. Corporations are given power to do whatever the fuck they want. And if you try to get what you're owed, like I did, you have to go through over TWO MONTHS of deliberations and stress to even try to keep on living and paying your fucking bills...and then when you think it's all settled, they'll try to appeal and ROB YOU OF WHAT YOU WERE OWED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
So, in conclusion, if you work at Best Buy or any other retail store, or you have family/friends who do, PLEASE tell them about my story. WARN THEM about using their employee discounts, and for the love of everything good and just, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE before they make your life a living hell, like they've done to me for the past two months.
DON'T LET WHAT HAPPENED TO ME HAPPEN TO YOU! FIND A JOB SOMEWHERE WHERE YOU ARE VALUED AND RESPECTED AND YOU'RE NOT JUST A NUMBER!
In August of 2005, I left my job at Wells Fargo Financial because I was recruited by Best Buy to join their new business team. Best Buy as a company is rolling out these business teams across the country. The Business Team is NOT just a bunch of computer salespeople in shirts and ties; they are highly trained networking specialists who basically can help anyone who owns their own business get set up with technology and office supplies they need, in addition to setting up professional IT installers to go out and do the labor and installations on-site. The idea behind the business team is ot be the complete technology solution for small business owners...so they don't have to buy their hardware one place, their networking supplies elsewhere, then have to go seek out an IT consultant to do all the installations.
Well, everything was fine until April. One Monday, I purchased three PS2s with my employee discount (which was a savings of 90 cents on each console) to use during ECC this year. When the loss prevention officer at the door asked me why I was buying three PS2s, I explained to him that I needed them for a gaming tournament I was running. He asked me why I would be willing to spend so much on the tournament out of my pocket, and I explained it was my hobby, but that I would possibly be getting some of the money I spent on ECC back through the entry fees that we charge to participate in the tournament.
I came in the next day and my store manager called me into his office and began interrogating me on why I purchased three PS2s with my discount. I explained to him everything in detail, and then he told me to write it down on a piece of paper.
I wrote everything in detail: I purchased the PS2s for use at ECC, a non-for-profit event, and the PS2s were MINE to use and I would keep them after ECC for my personal usage. I asked the store manager if I was in trouble and he said that I was possibly going to be under investigation by Human Resources, because whenever you buy multiple units like the PS2 under your discount, it sends out red flags. I told him that was ridiculous, I only saved $2.70 and I had no idea that what I had done might violate any policy and get myself or the store into trouble, and I was willing to return the PS2s or do whatever he suggested in order to rectify anything I'd done wrong. He told me not to worry at this point, what is done is done and the investigation will be performed by HR, and that he would get back to me as soon as he heard anything, and that it was out of his hands.
So I had Wednesday off. When I came in Thursday morning for my shift, one of the managers came up to me and told me I was SUSPENDED pending the HR investigation, without pay. I said what the hell was I supposed to do, because I needed to work to pay my bills, and he said it's out of his hands until anything comes back from HR. So I went home wondering what the hell was going on.
That Friday afternoon, I got a call from someone in the store to come in and see the store manager. So I did. He called me into his office, and I immediately knew something was going down, because the store Operations Manager was also present there. The store manager informed me that HR had completed their investigation, and concluded that I had violated my employee discount priviledges. Then he handed me my Involuntary Separation Notice (a nice name for a Pink Slip) which basically just said I used my employee discount for an invalid reason and I was being terminated for it. I asked him HOW I had violated it and he said he had no information, because HR had performed the investigation. I told him I thought it was pretty unfair that they could just terminate me, in the United States of America, after presenting NO evidence, and that if this were in court it would not stand up since they had presented no case against me. But there was nothing I could do, I took my last check and walked out calmly.
WELL YOU KNOW ME...I'm not one to sit down and take that kind of treatment lightly.
I immediately filed for unemployment, and had a hearing scheduled for about a week later. After explaining to the employment agent my case...that I had no idea how I had violated any policy and Best Buy had never told me how I had...she told me that Best Buy had replied to my unemployment claim by only sending a written letter, stating that they had the legal right to terminate anyone for violating one of their policies. They had given no reasoning behind, or evidence, proving that I had violated anything. So, by default, she granted me unemployment.
It wasn't any massive amount of money, let me tell you, it was about $320 a week, and when you consider I was making 1 1/2 - 2 times that amount depending on hours I was given, and that I have an apartment/car/car insurance/bills/cell phone/internet/utilities/HIGH GAS COST and all kinds of other shit going on, in ADDITION to having to purchase a lot of supplies to run ECC since I was an organizer/tournament director, money was fucking TIGHT for the next 90 days. I only collected 6 checks total, and then at the end of May I got a new job that actually paid way more than what Best Buy was paying me, so it was all good.
Well I get home from running ECC to find a letter from the unemployment office. Apparently, Best Buy had decided to appeal the decision of the employment officer ON THE LAST POSSIBLE DAY THEY COULD, and a hearing was going to be set up to determine whether or not I REALLY should have been eligible for unemployment. The hearing is performed like a courtroom session, where there are witnesses and parties on both sides, and both sides are allowed to prosecute and cross-examine. A third party arbitrater decides the winner of the case. If I lose the case, I am FORCED TO PAY BACK ALL THE UNEMPLOYMENT THAT BEST BUY GAVE ME over the 90 day period I collected, which at this point amounted to $1800. Being that I had JUST gotten back to work, you can imagine that I didn't have the money...in fact, I was just starting to get out of the red from running ECC.
Basically, if Best Buy could prove that I WILFULLY violated their company policy (which is what is required by law in order to make me pay back the unemployment I received) then I would lose the appeals case.
My unemployment appeals hearing was held yesterday, and I was unable to attend in person, because as I've said I had gotten another job and they weren't going to let me take days off before I even worked there for 30 days! So I had to participate by "phoning in" to the hearing and representing myself that way.
Well, Best Buy was SO serious about trying to fuck me and take the money back, they had a team of THREE people there to prosecute: the Store Ops manager, the loss prevention agent who had stopped me at the door and asked why I bought three PS2s, and somebody they hired to argue for them (think the Johnny Cochran of unemployment lawyers). All I had was myself and my word to defend myself.
For the first time, I found out what Best Buy was accusing me of: in the employee discount policy, it explicitly states that you cannot use your employee discount for a personal business. You can ONLY use items from an employee purchase for 1. personal use and 2. bona fide gifts. Best Buy accused me of using the PS2s in a tournament where I had potential to make massive profit and therefore it was considered a business, and that's what I had done wrong.
BEST BUY FUCKED UP.
For the next 5 minutes I proceeded to make them look like complete idiots. First, I argued that Best Buy had terminated me more than a month before the gaming tournament even took place, so any accusations placed against me were mere speculation. Second, I said that the PS2s were for my PERSONAL USE...I was only basically volunteering their use for the tournament, but I would keep them for myself after the tournament for my own personal gaming, and to take to other events, since I frequently travel and It's good to be able to take the small PS2s with you. Third, ECC is NOT a legally registered business, and it certainly isn't MY business...if anything, it's a non-for-profit event that I only donated my time and resources to run this year; the ECC name is NOT under my possession whatsoever. Finally, I totally blew away their argument with this:
The only way I could possibly make money off of ECC would be if I had enough money from the cover charges that it outweighed the amount of money I spent to run ECC. So, I ran down a list of the costs to run ECC:
-The cost to rent the arcade
-The cost to buy the PS2s
-The cost of the games I bought
-The cost of the donated TVs, PS2s, and joysticks
-The cost of gas to transport everything back and forth
Leaving out the fact that I donated my entire weekend, all my efforts for organizing everything, and that I was UNEMPLOYED FOR 90 DAYS.
So, after the math, I spent approximately $3000 on running ECC, out of my own pocket.
Now, put that up against the number of people who paid to attend ECC (roughly 140), add in the fact that the entry fees were split between myself, Josh Wigfall who was the co-director, and Chris Cotty as rental of the arcade....and I ended up, oh, say over 2 grand in the hole after running the event. Doesn't sound like much of a moneymaker to me!
So then, the "hired gun" of Best Buy a.k.a. their unemployment lawyer had ONE argument that she thought would prove I was guilty. She asked this question: "So, you didn't make any money off of ECC. But what if you HAD made a profit off of the entry fees...what if enough people had shown up that you DID turn a profit off of the fees, what then?"
This is where their entire case fell through. I explained that the arcade is small and there is a fire code....to have the amount of people present that she is speculating about, that the entry fees would have been split three ways and I STILL would have turned a profit....the arcade would have been overflowing with people, and the fire marshal of Dunellen, NJ and the police would have shut down the event. To be blunt: THERE WAS NO POSSIBLE WAY I was going to make a profit off of ECC due to the limited space and fire code limitations of the arcade we chose as the location.
After stating this, the prosecution had absolutely nothing to say at all. In their closing statement, the only thing they had to add was that "If Phil was not sure if his actions of buying the three PS2s with his discount was a violation of company policy, he should have asked a manager before he did so." In my closing argument, I made her look stupid by saying "If you don't know something is wrong or didn't even fathom it was wrong, why would you ask someone if it was wrong to do? In addition, if I had known that what I was doing was wrong, would I REALLY risk my job over saving $2.70 on a purchase? That is just ridiculous."
The closing statement must have been good, because today I received a letter stating that I won the appeals hearing, not only because Best Buy had failed to prove that I wilfully violated a company policy, but they couldn't even prove that I violated any policy at all. So after two months of drama, I get to keep my unemployment claims and it's finally all over.
So...what is the moral of the story?
If you work for Best Buy, or any other retail store, understand one thing:
No matter how good of a person you are, no matter how much you put into your job or how much you work....
YOU ARE JUST A NUMBER TO THEM.
For any reason, at any time, a large corporation like Best Buy will dump your ass for the slightest violation, or even SUSPICION of a violation, of their company rules.
You are not appreciated for your work, and even if the management in the store respects what you do, they have NO power to save you when an HR investigation takes place.
Best Buy also can terminate you for ANY reason. In my case, they basically INVENTED a reason because they had no proof whatsoever that I had done anything wrong, but instead terminated me BEFORE THE POSSIBLY PROFIT-MAKING EVENT EVEN HAPPENED simply because they speculated I might be using something from an employee purchase to make money. THEY CONVICT YOU OF A CRIME BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU MIGHT COMMIT IT, BEFORE YOU EVEN COMMIT IT!
Is this representative of our "innocent until proven guilty" justice system in the United States? Fuck no. Corporations are given power to do whatever the fuck they want. And if you try to get what you're owed, like I did, you have to go through over TWO MONTHS of deliberations and stress to even try to keep on living and paying your fucking bills...and then when you think it's all settled, they'll try to appeal and ROB YOU OF WHAT YOU WERE OWED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
So, in conclusion, if you work at Best Buy or any other retail store, or you have family/friends who do, PLEASE tell them about my story. WARN THEM about using their employee discounts, and for the love of everything good and just, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE before they make your life a living hell, like they've done to me for the past two months.
DON'T LET WHAT HAPPENED TO ME HAPPEN TO YOU! FIND A JOB SOMEWHERE WHERE YOU ARE VALUED AND RESPECTED AND YOU'RE NOT JUST A NUMBER!