Sanidy
03-08-2009, 08:25 PM
I worked at a Game crazy for close to two years. My store was amazing, the company (as some of you know already) was not.
I just sent this letter to them.
Just posting it in case you want to read why I am bitter.
To Whom it May Concern,
As a former employee of Game Crazy and Hollywood Video, I felt it only right that I take the exit survey to let you know of all the atrocities going on in your corporation. However, it does not surprise me that as I click the link for the exit survey on your site, it leads to an error page. Why would you want to hear what we, the lower level employees, would have to say about your corrupt system? You never cared about us in the first place. That was evident when I told my District Manager, Mike Kampka, that I didn’t feel safe opening our Game Crazy by myself, with no one on the Hollywood side. His reply was “Why?” The real question would be, why he even bother to ask.
You see, when you decided to pay the said amount that you owed on your bankruptcy loan, you put all of us at 6425 South I H 35, Austin, TX 78745, in danger. You made us close and open by ourselves at a store that, not only is in a bad part of town, a few months later would be robbed. When my Store Manager and Assistant Manager called me to tell me what happened the night it was robbed, it came as no surprise. In that neighborhood it was inevitable. What did surprise me was that my District Manager was nowhere to be found? Why wasn’t he opening the store or there helping my managers clean up the glass? The sad truth of the matter is, we rather not have his help.
Besides making us work in dangerous conditions, Mike Kampka makes us all uncomfortable. He never uses positive reinforcement. In the six months I worked with him, being number one in our district the majority of the time, we were thanked by him once. We, and other stores in our district, were constantly belittled on conference calls. “Who’s the biggest loser this week?” he would ask as he reviewed our numbers.
He came late in the day after we had been robbed. He greeted one employee even though three of us were there, then left without saying another word. He didn’t say “goodbye,” he didn’t ask how the day was going working around smashed, glass cases. He didn’t say anything about the “emergency mandatory inventory” the company would be making us go through in the next few days. The next time I see Mike Kampka, he says to us that it looks like none of us are suspect. Wow, thank you for everything you do for us. Thanks for making me feel comfortable after what had happened. Not, “We hired security to be with you when you open or close.” Not, “We gave you more hours so that you can do your inventory and not go over.” Not even, “We gave you more hours so that you can have people opening or closing with you.” He gave us nothing just like your corporation told him too. You continue to give our store nothing even though employees threaten to leave their positions in fear for their safety. What do you care? You’ll just get someone who will work for less to fill their spot.
That’s really what it boils down to, the reason why you and Blockbuster and so many companies will not pull through this recession. You could care less about your employees and customers. You fill your pockets by squeezing the little guy. You tell the managers in our store that if they have another loss prevention issue (robbery) occurs they will lose their bonuses if not their jobs. I ask you how an employee can prevent a robbery? You won’t increase security but somehow they can stop criminal acts? In the middle of a recession, you blame them for low numbers, cutting bonuses. You push the sales of Game Guards, Play Guards, Warrantees, MVPs but cut almost all commission. How much more blood do you want from a turnip? Oh, wait, it doesn’t matter anyways because there comes a crew of desperate people looking for jobs with low pay. Low pay is better than nothing. Out with the old, in with the new.
As you can see, I was fired, also by a complete injustice. I was fired when I called my boyfriend in to help me close the shop on Black Friday. I was left alone because my assistant manager was ridiculously ill and had to leave. I didn’t call anyone else in because they all had worked at least twelve hours that day already. In consideration to my coworkers and the company (as I didn’t want to hold up the people on the Hollywood side from closing), refusing to break policy, I called my boyfriend. I knew it was against policy to have people in the store afterhours, however, being by myself under unusual conditions, I thought that maybe someone would have a heart and see that I only intended on doing the right thing. Also, I thought it would be pretty apparent that my boyfriend wouldn’t be trying to steal anything considering he help lock up the shop.
After almost two years of dedicated work, countless little things I did for midnight releases, money spent out of my own pocket for those events and other things our company wouldn’t give our shop money for (i.e. things for organization, decoration, advertisement, delivering and receiving product in my own vehicle), relationships that I had developed with customers (buying their children games for their birthdays, raising money for their children’s recovery after life occurrences, remembering customer names, interests, lives) you fired me. Just like that. Everyone who worked with me at this location felt the loss. My Store Manager did everything he could to keep me, but in your eyes and in the eyes of Mike Kampka, I could be replaced.
So, at the conclusion of my story, I would like you to know that you will be replace. You will go bankrupt soon and nothing will be left of your company but these horrible reviews by your former employees that tell the legacy of all your “hard work and consideration.”
I know no reprimand will come to Mike Kampka for his bad decision making and total lack of professionalism but then again, I can take satisfaction knowing that even his wife can’t stand to be around him any longer.
Movie Gallery Corporate, I hope you can sleep at night knowing everything you have done and will continue to do to screw these good people. I will do my job of spreading the word of your “good deeds.”
Sincerely,
Sandy G (i took my last name out on this forum post for privacy goodness)
P.S. Thank you for everyone that worked with me and all the costumers that loved me. I love you all and I hope that you see this place for what it is.
I just sent this letter to them.
Just posting it in case you want to read why I am bitter.
To Whom it May Concern,
As a former employee of Game Crazy and Hollywood Video, I felt it only right that I take the exit survey to let you know of all the atrocities going on in your corporation. However, it does not surprise me that as I click the link for the exit survey on your site, it leads to an error page. Why would you want to hear what we, the lower level employees, would have to say about your corrupt system? You never cared about us in the first place. That was evident when I told my District Manager, Mike Kampka, that I didn’t feel safe opening our Game Crazy by myself, with no one on the Hollywood side. His reply was “Why?” The real question would be, why he even bother to ask.
You see, when you decided to pay the said amount that you owed on your bankruptcy loan, you put all of us at 6425 South I H 35, Austin, TX 78745, in danger. You made us close and open by ourselves at a store that, not only is in a bad part of town, a few months later would be robbed. When my Store Manager and Assistant Manager called me to tell me what happened the night it was robbed, it came as no surprise. In that neighborhood it was inevitable. What did surprise me was that my District Manager was nowhere to be found? Why wasn’t he opening the store or there helping my managers clean up the glass? The sad truth of the matter is, we rather not have his help.
Besides making us work in dangerous conditions, Mike Kampka makes us all uncomfortable. He never uses positive reinforcement. In the six months I worked with him, being number one in our district the majority of the time, we were thanked by him once. We, and other stores in our district, were constantly belittled on conference calls. “Who’s the biggest loser this week?” he would ask as he reviewed our numbers.
He came late in the day after we had been robbed. He greeted one employee even though three of us were there, then left without saying another word. He didn’t say “goodbye,” he didn’t ask how the day was going working around smashed, glass cases. He didn’t say anything about the “emergency mandatory inventory” the company would be making us go through in the next few days. The next time I see Mike Kampka, he says to us that it looks like none of us are suspect. Wow, thank you for everything you do for us. Thanks for making me feel comfortable after what had happened. Not, “We hired security to be with you when you open or close.” Not, “We gave you more hours so that you can do your inventory and not go over.” Not even, “We gave you more hours so that you can have people opening or closing with you.” He gave us nothing just like your corporation told him too. You continue to give our store nothing even though employees threaten to leave their positions in fear for their safety. What do you care? You’ll just get someone who will work for less to fill their spot.
That’s really what it boils down to, the reason why you and Blockbuster and so many companies will not pull through this recession. You could care less about your employees and customers. You fill your pockets by squeezing the little guy. You tell the managers in our store that if they have another loss prevention issue (robbery) occurs they will lose their bonuses if not their jobs. I ask you how an employee can prevent a robbery? You won’t increase security but somehow they can stop criminal acts? In the middle of a recession, you blame them for low numbers, cutting bonuses. You push the sales of Game Guards, Play Guards, Warrantees, MVPs but cut almost all commission. How much more blood do you want from a turnip? Oh, wait, it doesn’t matter anyways because there comes a crew of desperate people looking for jobs with low pay. Low pay is better than nothing. Out with the old, in with the new.
As you can see, I was fired, also by a complete injustice. I was fired when I called my boyfriend in to help me close the shop on Black Friday. I was left alone because my assistant manager was ridiculously ill and had to leave. I didn’t call anyone else in because they all had worked at least twelve hours that day already. In consideration to my coworkers and the company (as I didn’t want to hold up the people on the Hollywood side from closing), refusing to break policy, I called my boyfriend. I knew it was against policy to have people in the store afterhours, however, being by myself under unusual conditions, I thought that maybe someone would have a heart and see that I only intended on doing the right thing. Also, I thought it would be pretty apparent that my boyfriend wouldn’t be trying to steal anything considering he help lock up the shop.
After almost two years of dedicated work, countless little things I did for midnight releases, money spent out of my own pocket for those events and other things our company wouldn’t give our shop money for (i.e. things for organization, decoration, advertisement, delivering and receiving product in my own vehicle), relationships that I had developed with customers (buying their children games for their birthdays, raising money for their children’s recovery after life occurrences, remembering customer names, interests, lives) you fired me. Just like that. Everyone who worked with me at this location felt the loss. My Store Manager did everything he could to keep me, but in your eyes and in the eyes of Mike Kampka, I could be replaced.
So, at the conclusion of my story, I would like you to know that you will be replace. You will go bankrupt soon and nothing will be left of your company but these horrible reviews by your former employees that tell the legacy of all your “hard work and consideration.”
I know no reprimand will come to Mike Kampka for his bad decision making and total lack of professionalism but then again, I can take satisfaction knowing that even his wife can’t stand to be around him any longer.
Movie Gallery Corporate, I hope you can sleep at night knowing everything you have done and will continue to do to screw these good people. I will do my job of spreading the word of your “good deeds.”
Sincerely,
Sandy G (i took my last name out on this forum post for privacy goodness)
P.S. Thank you for everyone that worked with me and all the costumers that loved me. I love you all and I hope that you see this place for what it is.