Wonderful, Jenndkelso! I just happen to have a few Merchandising projects that I just cannot schedule, and a couple of them I won't schedule because I am through with the Client.
So, with that said, I must ask you to go into this with your eyes wide open. The name of the Client (and yes, it is okay to say, as this is Merchandising and not Mystery Shopping) is Dedicated Professional Recruiters (DPR).
It is owned by Deb (her last name is still unknown to me - and after 9 months I should know it) and she is nice enough (and she lives in California).
However, there is a second office - somewhere back East - and they are the most unprofessional and bumbling folks I have run across in a very long time. And it is ironic, also, because they like to call themselves "Professional" yet they consistently behave in unprofessional ways. For instance, they sometimes sign email messages with
DPR Team
Yet, the email is laden with, "I want you to do this," and "I want you to do that." When you use pronouns in an email, you sign your name, i.e.,
Pam Baker
DPR Team
Right? I mean, how else can you reply to a personalized email like that if you do not know who you are replying to? Personally, I think it is in poor taste. It is so generic. It plays as though someone is trying to hide something. As if they do not want anyone to know who is sending the email.
So, I Googled it and thank God, it is not just me being sensitive. To not sign an email, in a professional setting is UNprofessional. Oh, but I could go on for hours...because this is only the tip of the iceberg...
Next comes the CONTEXT of some of these emails! If I could count the number of misspellings (hello? In this day and age??!??! WTH??) but I can't. Because I just won't allow myself to count them. Because then I would start counting the number of Grammatical errors these PROFESSIONAL women have in their email. Top that off with it being the SAME email that they send out, over and over with each and every Show you do for them! All they do is go in and change a few words to match the current Show and then change the dates.
But they don't even do that right. You literally have to HUNT and peck your way through the email to find this most vital information!!
Then, the icing on the cake is that after you have "set-up" the Show, you MUST merchandise it on the predetermined dates throughout the Show (Which is all well and fine - it is their's to create their rules of the game(s).) Then go on the last day of the Show and perform a "Teardown."
Okay, the 'set-up' is usually no big deal. You grab a pallet jack, you grab your pallet and you wheel it out to the Sales Floor. EXCEPT, it never goes that easy. Because FIRST, you have to FIND THE PALLET! Then you have to play their game for a while (the Gods in the backroom with the forklifts) and then when you DO find the pallet, you have to endure the rolling of their eyes and then you have to wait for them to find time out of their busy schedule to pull your pallet down from the highest steel cage. So, 45 minutes later, you wheel your pallet out only to find you have nowhere to place it. So you have to wait AGAIN. This time for a manager to decide and approve of a place for your Show to go. THEN, another 40 minutes later, you get to begin to cut-off the packaging from the display(s) and rearrange the tousled products.
On days determined for you to "Merch" you go in and straighten up the displays to look 'presentable' again. This is the fun part, because, at the store with which these displays/Shows are in, ANYthing goes! So, you will sometimes walk into the product being totally stripped down to nothing. All of the insides have been taken out and not put back in, or every single zipper has been unzipped and left open, and the list goes on! Then on the last day of the Show, you go in and grab a pallet jack and move your display from the Sales Floor to the backroom. IF you can. Sometimes you must shrinkwrap your displays before you can move them...they are that messed up. Then cut the shrinkwrap off once in the backroom.
So, now you have the displays/Shows in the backroom. NOW you have to devise a shroud for the display(s) because you cannot send the product and display back without hiding the content 100%!! (and you will understand once you are aware of the product.) So, once you find the cardboard you have to shape it to fit the display and make it so the top is in an A-Frame type of shape (so no one will add a pallet to the top of your pallet during transit.) Then when you're finished with that you have to shrinkwrap the entire display. Times that (sometimes) times two displays!! Now you're at about 3 hours, which they say they will pay you for...
Okay, so do you think you still want this gig? Because I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. And that would be when you "finally" get your check for all of your hard work!!!! Are you ready for this?? Okay, so any day missed on the "Merch Dates" and your payment is slashed! And that is not all. They will slash and hash and dice your pay until you receive a check for $131.00 when the promised pay was $185.00 per Show!!!! AND they DO NOT include ANY of the deductions that they are taking away from your pay! Because that part is done by the "Professionals" from back East. The check is cut from the owner in California!! Communication disconnect. I believe the owner is just given a number with which to write the checks and not given all the reasons why it is that number and not the promised $185.00. That is just my guesstimation, not fact. Everything else is a fact.
Now, I know I spite my own face by cuttin' off my own nose, by divulging all of this information, but I just can't push this disaster off to someone without that someone going in with their eyes wide open!
So, hit me up if you're still willing to give this gig a try...
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To the World You Just Might Be One Person,
But to One Person, You JUST Might Be THE WORLD!
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