Monday 15th March 2021
Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th 6th & 10th March 2021 no changes to shift.
Boring day no Myer One sign ups as they are already on the system and those that were not did not want to join.
Another 2 good customer feedback scores which means I am now sitting on a 90% customer satisfaction score. I hope it stays that way.
I think I am going to get a bad score today because I had a problem putting a faulty item exchange through as they had a discount on the original from the item being on sale and it is now no longer on sale.
I had a few weird customers today and I gave team member "ticket girl" 2 of my sales totalling $600. Team member "ticket girl" also won a second recycling challenge and now she has 2 bottles of wine - she doesn't even drink and she also got a black jacket from the customer service manager that apparently did not fit her - all in a calico bag to take home but no fry pan.
My last customer was also my very first customer today and I signed him up for a Myer One membership. He was a very strange customer who just did not have a clue about kitchenware or had OCD. I must have spent an hour with him looking at various MW dinner sets and cutlery sets . He didn't purchase anything and tried to phone his sister who I thought was his wife for advice. She did not return his call so I left the MW Diamond boxed dinner set & MW Cosmopolitan 16 piece cutlery on the back counter for a few hours before putting them back on the shelves when he did not return before lunch. He actually returned about 15 minutes before closing and apologised and wanted the dinner set & box of cutlery. However he would not take the sa me boxes I had picked out asnd put back for him. He wanted a whole new box of the same cutlery and the same with the Diamond dinner set - which he picked up but was the incorrect one as it had mugs and he did not want mugs but cup and saucers and I suggested he buy these later as they were individually purchased and unavailable in box sets. I was trying to get him to "hurry up" as the store was about to close in 5 minutes and he still had not finalised his purchase. He paid for his purchases right on closing at 5.30 pm and wanted to ensure that everything was in the boxes as he was not opening them for 3 months. I had checked the boxed dinner set and the boxes were all taped up inside apart for the one I opened to show him and check which did contain 4 side plates in p effect condition. As for the fresh box of cutlery - I took the top off and gave it a shake to ensure the remained of the cutlery was in the box but did not open it. He had so much trouble getting the 4 pieces of cutlery displayed in the tight fitting foam in the top of the box I convinced him that what was at the top was in the box below it. He was just really weird - not at all rude but extremely cautious and thorough.
My blog crashed yet again therefore I will start again
Lunch at 2 pm today which is better then 3.30 pm.
In the afternoon an Mcomms comes through advising team members that Myer is trialing a new POS system to replace the current hardware and software system which is 11 years old! The pilot program is being tested at 4 stores initially Myer Sydney Myer Melbourne Myer Belconnen and Myer Chadstone I believe and team members there get to give feedback on the new system. Why didn't Myer Warringah get chosen to be in the pilot program? Wouldn't it make sense to use a smaller "concept" store as the time a pig or test store for a new POS system. I am disappointed as I was the one who bought up the aging IT issue at the last Myer AGM!!!! Will this new POS fix the existing ordering issues on the ancient Ipads currently being used? Will it make it easier to seach Myer One memberships? Will it make Myer operate more efficiently? or will this be another total waste of resources just like the failed partnership with Australia Post for more efficient online deliveries which did not make any difference in delivery times and resulted in quite a few breakages and non receipt of deliveries resulting in an increase of customer returns and complaints, the failed use of Myer as an Amazon pick up Hub which was suppose to bring in more customer foot traffic but resulted in almost zero usage due to non existant marketing of the service or HUMM the alternative buy now pay later payment method to the existing alternative methods of thr more popular Afterpay and less popular Zippy pay. Layby still exists although not really used by customers as debit/credit card is the most popular form of deferred payment methods still especially the CBA rewards program. If you have a CBA rewards card and a Myer One membership card - you are set. Myer One membership alone is not really value for money but the CBA rewards program looks like it is really value for money although it is a credit card not just a free loyalty card that accumulates reward points.
Again we had to put sale signs up for the "Daily Deal" sales for tomorrow only. It seems that team members are constantly printing out sale signs putting tgem up taking them down and putting new ones up again. It's so confusing and constant. It makes Myer seem like a dollar store or op shop and not a department store!
I caught the 280 bus to Chatswood and stopped off in search of dinner as I could not be bothered to cook tonight. I decided on GuzmanyGomez again. My usual a spicy chicken burruto with a side of chimi mayo. I didn't look to ensure I got the right sauce and when I did it was too late I was on the 144 bus heading home. They got the sauce wrong yet again. What is it with the chimi sauce? It was not even green, when I saw it, it was a pink orange sauce and the taste it tasted like some seafood cocktail sauce diluted with mayo. I just had to lodge a complaint online to GuzmanyGomez this time. The Chatswood store must hate corriander if they didn't they would know what a chimi sauce is. I ate it anyway but was not impressed lucky the combination tasted ok together. Photo below
Tuesday 16th March 2021
Day off
Slept in watched tv and YouTube
It was not that nice a day today so I did not venture out.
Finally did my laundry & cleaned the apartment as well as prepared for a shorter day at work tomorrow.
Wednesday 17th March 2021
Myer 11 am - 5 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th 6th & 10th March 2021 no change to shift.
It is so wet today I am so glad that I have a day off tomorrow.
It was another very busy day today with not a minute to spare from when I started to when I finished - not even time to take my 15 minute tea break - yes that's right I didn't have a break today again! Not even a toilet break until after 4 pm. - just as well I went just before I started!
I signed a customer up to a Myer One membership today but again forgot to scan the barcode therefore did it afterwards. So annoying having to remember to do this. This was probably my first customer of the day and probably the customer with the largest purchase.
Things look as if they have gone from bad to worse at Myer. Firstly a customer rings up and is looking for a pair of Seed knitted boots and I take her name and number down and said I will get someone to call her back. I ended up calling her back within 10 minutes as Seed had just exited Myer Warringah as a brand partner and were in the middle of packing up their stock when the customer rang. I have a feeling other brand partners or concessions are exiting Myer Warringah as well. It is not communicated when brand partners or concessions exit Myer we find out when they have actually exited. Who will be next? I suspect Polo Ralph Lauren .
Checked Kronos again today and still no more shifts added after next week which is a bad sign especially after the customer service manager asked me to take some excess scales and bath mats back down to the soft reserve for her and bring more mattress protectors up to fill up the shelves she had just cleaned up so she can do the rosters. Looks like I'm not on the rosters she has done - JobKeeper ends next week and quite a few casuals that have left have not been replaced.
Current Myer share price is 31 cents per share ( which is slightly up) which approximately 10 times less then what I originally paid for them with no dividends for at least the past 4 years.
Not looking good at all.
So today I signed up a Myer One but again forgot to scan the barcode so did it later.
I also gave another sale of mine of a fry pan to the Electrical team leader as I was busy with something else ( scratching the incorrect prices of Krosno Harmony & Avant-garde glassware again with a black marker to avoid further incorrect price overrides on the POS system)
I had a really weird customer who tried to convince me that a certain MW cashmere side plate which was 19 cm was on sale online on the Myer website when both another team member and I could not find it at all just the 16 cm one. The customer was not happy and she abandoned her entire purchase of 8 coupe cashmere side plates 8 MW white woven placemats 8 Bus pink coasters and 2 Hertiage towel sets.
I hung around the Mall after I finished at 5 pm today until a little later doing a small grocery shop at Coles before waiting for the 280 bus back to Chatswood. Because I don't have to work tomorrow, I also stopped off at Woolworths Metro for just a few basics ( which I checked the expiry dates for and which are my regular purchases and not on special) as well as a peri peri chicken pizza ( not frozen just refridgerated) before going home to pop it in the oven for dinner with leftovers for tomorrow.
Bed not too late as it is dark wet and slightly cold - a good night to curl up in bed with my stuffed possum and a quilt.
Thursday 18th March 2021
Day off
No sleeping in today although it is still really wet outside.
Lots of catching up to still do again today.
Another great day to stay at home and back in bed.
Friday 19th March 2021
Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th, 6th & 10th March 2021 no changes to shift.
Gee it's been a long week and it's not over yet.
So I just checked Kronos again the following 2 weeks I am on stock again - that's 24 hours per week for 2 weeks without a single shift on service. I am quite annoyed - I spent 6.5 years studying at college and uni before working in the corporate world for a few decades and now am working as a stock girl! Not only have my hours been reduced to 24 hours a week , I was employed to work on the floor serving customers in the Homewares Department not in a brain dead stock job as what a team member described as " stock girl" - retail is not moving stock around on the floor all day every day.
Today all the crazy customers are out and about because it is yet another super weekend sale. So far Myer has had a Mid Season Clearance Sale on until 6th April, a Mega Bakeware Bonanza Sale currently on, a Daily Deal Sale which was a one day only sale on Tuesday and now a Super Weekend Sale all in the space of one week! That's 4 different sales in 1 Week and the week is not even over. Confused? Not only are team members confused hence all the confusion of which tickets have to be printed and put up, covered up or taken down but I am and more so almost every single customer I have served this entire week are confused! To make things worse all the ipads were not working today therefore sale signs and tickets could not be printed out and team members could not do any product availability searches or enquiries, online rerurns or do any click and collect orders. The Wi-Fi was actually down not the system aparently.
I had lunch today at 1.30 pm and made sure I had it outside of Myer. I just had to escape from all the craziness of customers complaining of incorrect discounts and sale prices advertised, misreading the exclusions on sale signs in very small print, unclear what items are or aren't on sale as they have not been included in any category on sale signs, return of faulty, soiled or damaged products, change of mind of un returnable, non refundable or non exchangeable products due to NSW Health Regulations or clearance items and even dealing with cancelled orders , rude and frustrated customers in general due to Myer not delivering in general ( and I don't just mean their orders).
All the customers I served today wanted my attention for very long periods of time because they just could not decide on their purchases.
I signed up 2 Myer One memberships today - both times forgetting to scan the sign up barcode during the transaction and having to scan it afterwards before recording them on a tally sheet ( waste of time - should just print out a receipt and staple it to the tally form).
I want to return this and exchange it for something else ( 2 customers did this one was a faulty online order of fry pans and the other was a pair of pillows which we don't even take back due to NSW Health Regulations). Both customers took so much time deciding what to purchase. But both really appreciative of my patience and assistance. Another couple decided against the photo frames they had chosen after I told them the items were actually not on sale.
At one stage I had 3 customers all wanting my attention at the same time - mainly with questions.
The day just became more weird. The customer service manager was not exactly the nicest today towards team members or customers. A lot of the time I think she is on drugs. At the end of the day she asked me to put a floor lamp together and as I was taking it out of the packaging and boxes with team member "ticket girl" she deliberately asks me to abandon it to get a heavy wool underlay from the soft reserve so she could put it together with team member "ticket girl" . When I returned it was out of the box but it still had not been put together and I said let me do it. I said all you have to do is match up one of the 3 slots on the ring with one of the 3 screws on the tripod stand and use the allen key to tighten it then line up the other 2 and repeat. It was a simple task that a monkey could you yet she complained that every time she tried they would come out. That's bull shit - the Allen key was not even out of the plastic packaging. I put it together in a few minutes for her. After I did it all she had to do was screw the top lamp cover in. I then put it on the floor next to the queen Australian House & Garden bed. This was a customer hold from yesterday who never returned today.
Why did I even collect the keys and the iPad this morning - the network was down ( no WiFi apparently) and the lock on the cupboard is still broken.
There was flooding everywhere this morning so I missed the team huddle and called the cleaner for buckets. There were buckets everywhere! Myer is below the car park so the store gets flooded severely when there is a heavy downpour.
Super weekend sale - team leader text via Group Chat to wear a touch of pink so team member " I want to be team leader" arrives to work with a pale pink top but is told by the customer service manager to remove it as it is not the super weekend sale until tomorrow - petty! I Don't get it the super weekend sale started online today but not in store until tomorrow and the sale signs and tickets that were printed out yesterday started being put up at 10 am this morning as requested by the customer service manager. This really caused an unfair confusion to customers which caused almost every customer to question if and what items were on sale and the price. If it wasn't on sale they would not purchase it and if the online price did not match the current price ( sale or no sale) team members would have to honor the sake price and do the extra price override and item discount POS process. I gave up and just checked the current sale price for customers however if they questioned or chaljenged, I it did check the sale sign or online and if correct honoured it for the customer.
I was still giving away free MW greeting cards however if you put more then 1 per customer in the system the customer is charged 1 cent for each additional card.
Saturday 20th March 2021
Myer 10 am - 5 pm new shift added to Kronos 4th March 2021. Checked Kronos 5th, 6th & 10th March 2021 no change to shift.
My blog crashed yet again.
I just checked Kronos again and I only have 2 shifts now both on stock on Tuesday 30th March and Thursday 1st April instead of the original 3 shifts ie one shift has been cancelled yet again. JobKeeper ends on 28th March 2021 and it will only get worse therefore I really need to look for a new part time job. I am not getting JobSeeker and it is minimal anyway. I have some savings but Don't really want to dig into them. I have managed not to touch them for 6 months but may have to. First thing I would like to do is pay off my credit card in full first then I will mot owe anything. It looks like I may have a lean Easter but I don't really celebrate it anyway except go to the Easter Show.
It has been raining all week but today it was pouring with rain. There were buckets everywhere not just around the shopping centre which is half open and half enclosed but I think every single bucket Myer owns has been used to catch any leaks within the 3 floors of Myer Warringah. Appoarently there is a huge known leak on the ceiling above the decorator area which extends all the way back to the menswear department which leaves the floor flooded ( yep on Friday morning there was indeed water damage around the decorator area) as Myer is situated below a carpark which has a porous structure.I'm not surprised is there any shopping centre that does not leak?
So loads of things happened today. Firstly I spent most of my time around the floor serving customers mainly spending time with them assisting them by pointing them in the right direction, assisting them with product information, recommending my favourite products and serving poeople waiting in queues - more at the electricals counter rather then at the Homewares counter.
I put through a really huge sale a customer had made which the team leader had gathered in a trolley. It was ready to go - she had the purchase was put on suspend but the customer was still in the store shopping and when they returned with a few other products what was I suppose to do? All team members were serving customers and the team leader was nowhere to be found. I didn't want to keep the customer waiting so unspspended the purchase transaction and finished it off. I spot the team leader and asked her about the transaction which she was a little annoyed about because I had put it through under my team member ID ( note it is a real hassle to put in another team member's purchase using their team ID every single item has to be manually scanned followed by tgat team member's ID it is a very laborious process therefore imagine typing in the team member's ID number for every single item that customer purchased!) . It was wrong for me to do it but I did not want to keep the customer waiting and it was only over $1K of purchases. She does not know that I had already given about the equivalent worth of sales in bedding - the family who purchased quite a few pillows and protectors to another team member as I was not present to process them. Remember the 2 sales previously I gave team member "ticket girl" after spending so much time with them in assisting them to make their purchases worth at least $600 and all the sales I made and gave to 3 different team members whilst I was on stock. I don't complain because I know I am a good sales person really honest and not pushy with loads of patience with them, goid product knowledge and recommendations from personal experience.. This is where the Myer's Metrics systems goes wrong. I have always believed metrics should not be based on individual team members but a true team or departmental effort. That way there is no " you stole my sale and my customer" or what I have witnessed other team members trying to interfere with customers I am serving so they can get the sale. It is not a good look and customers think it rude.
Biggest sale of the day did go to a team member from the Electricals department - it was around a $10k single purchase and the entire area around the POS system counters were full of items. I think it filled up 3 shopping trolleys to transport it all to the customers'car.
The ipads were out of order still today apparently it is the Wi-Fi not the system - yes whenever it rains the towers get flooded I always say - and I thought it was only Vodafone towers that had outages in the past. So no tickets or orders could be done however team members in Electricals advised me that there was 1 single ipad tgat was working. Really? So It's not the Wi-Fi that is down but the system. Which also caused the POS to slow down and almost crash because it could not handle the amount of transactions being put through. I had one customer return and it would not process on 2 of the POS systems in the electricals department therefore went back over to the homewares department where it was still having trouble processing the single item return but eventually did it. Manual returns are no fun to do on POS as there are so many steps to process just a single item returned.
I may have had 2 Myer One sign ups yesterday but none today - team member " I want to be team leader " finally got her 5 Myer One sign ups but no free coffee for her from the customer service manager - competition is over I believe and she missed out on participating in the recycling challenge we had.
For the first time I actually wore a pink cardigan to work - wear a touch of pink for super weekends. All Homewares team members did except the last one to start her shift spoilt it by not turning up in a touch of pink today.
My shifts have been cut and I'm on stock for the next 2 weeks with the minimal shifts I do have. I am falling behind as I am not getting to do the things other team members are doing and learning especially on the POS system because I am not serving on the floor as much and just doing brain dead stock work most of the time. I suspect the other team member from electricals feels the same as he is mostly on the dock or restocking on the floor.
I did not complete 6.5 years of study to be demoted to a stock girl at Myer. Myer is not replacing any staff that have resigned. The 2 staff that were doing stock in VM thst have resigned have not been replaced externally and the 3rd VM team member doing stock is currently on leave.
Time to do a little experiment. What would happen if I started ignoring customers on the floor and just did stock for the next 2 weeks and recorded my observations? What would happen if I pretended and started telling customers that I didn't work for Myer? It would not matter if I don't wear my name badge and don't make any sales against my team ID then when customer feedback scores are returned to Myer I can't get any bad feedback. I just have to disceetly tell one team member that is not hired to serve customers of my experiment.
Sunday 21st March 2021
Day off
I have booked online to see the 3 pm session of Aline at the Palace Central seat F10 - a movie based on the story of Celine Dion . It is one of a series of films screening during the French Film Festival on from 2nd - 31st March 2021 in Sydney at various cinemas.
I am also planning to visit the Lumen exhibition on at the White Rabbit Gallery nearby. A new art exhibition that just opened recently and showing between March and August 2021.
It is still raining therefore I will leave the White Rabbit Gallery for another day since there is also trackwork AGAIN on the Metro and Northshore/Northern train lines this weekend.
I can't work out if it is quicker to take the normal scheduled bus from Chatswood into the city or take the rail repla cement express bus to Wynyard direct. I'm waiting for the rail replacement Wynyard express bus. It does not seem to be very regular. All buses only stop at Wynyard then terminate anyway except for 320 which starts at Gore Hill then turns onto the Pacific Highway a few blocks down and continues onto Town Hall therefore I would have to walk about 10 minutes possibly in the rain.
Bus to Chatswood connect with a bus to Wynyard connect with train to Central then walk to the cinema. There around 2.15 pm probably hence no time to go to the gallery to see Lumen today.
If you don't live in Sydney and are wondering just how wet it is in Sydney well here are some photos
5 pm and the movie has ended. It's still raining outside. I walk back to Central Station and catch the City Circle train back to Wynyard or Townhall. Then as bus to Chatswood and another bus home.
So what did I think of the movie Aline? Although the movie is fictitious it is still based on the story of Celine Dion. The music is brilliant however the actress who played Aline in her teenage years was unconvincing because she was and looked too old for the role unfortunately but as the movie progresses and as Aline grew older she became more convincing. Not a bad job from the actor who played Aline's manager come husband although I thought his relationship with Aline was a bit intense at times which makes you question whether they were actually in love or whether it was just all about business and even a hint of exploitation of Aline's talent. And the rest of Aline's family were pretty convincing however the actor that played Aline's personal makeup artist I thought stole the show eventhough he was not a main character and did not appear until midway through the movie right to the end. Fictious or not his character did "soften" the tragic end after the death of Aline's manager come husband just a little - you get to realise how lonely it can get being at the top as a super star. French with English subtitles eventhough they were not needed as it was in Canadian "Frangaise" . Look out for scene where the hideous brownish taffeta looking puffy dress and big hair outfit is swap to a sleek black tight fitting high neck floor length dress just before one of Aline's live performances - what were they thinking? Yes so glad the dress was changed! Rating 8/10 . Aline not Celine as per movie. Enjoyable but then again I haven't seen a movie in over a year and this is the first movie in the series of movies included in the Sydney French Festival 2021 that I plan to see ( I hope).
Home catch up on my blogs sleep. Work again tomorrow.
End of another very long week.
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