Am I the only one who had trouble with the recent perfume holiday merchandising assignment at one of the major discount superstores? The assignment had numerous updates, changes, and one postponement prior to the date I was to do the job. The initial instructions directed that IRC stickers be placed on the perfume (2 hours) (a list of products was provided) and to merchandise the gift sets (2 hours). The instructions did not specifically state whether stickers were supposed to be placed on the gifts. I assumed that they were.

The day before I was to do the job, I received a "Reminder" from Purple that the IRC stickers were not to be placed on the gift sets, that the gift sets were only to be merchandised. Since I had never received any sort of "initial" direction that said not to place stickers on the gift sets, I thought I may have missed a message somewhere, otherwise, how could there be a "Reminder?" So, per MF instructions, I sent a message asking for clarification. I specifically said "...the way I read this its saying basically to just skip down to item 4, merchandising the gift sets and forget about the stickers, with a 2 hour cap on the whole job. Am I understanding this correctly?" This isn't verbatim, and since they use their "message system" rather than email, I don't know exactly the way it was worded, but its close. The message I got back was, "Yes you understand the assignment correctly. If you have any further questions please call us." That is verbatim.

So I did the job, only merchandising the perfume, I didn't even take the stickers with me. I pull up the report and most of the questions pertain to the stickers. So I sent in a help request, requesting direction on how to answer the questions since I was told not to put the stickers on the product and that I was postponing the report awaiting further instruction.

This morning a get a rather snotty voice mail claiming not to understand how I could think the stickers weren't supposed to be used as that was the whole point of the project (which, of course, is what I was thinking when I called for clarification). So I called back and spoke with another snotty person and started to explain, starting with "I received a "Reminder" message..." and before I could get it out of my mouth, she said she knew the message I was referring to.

So, several phone calls later, their position is that the instructions stated the stickers were supposed to placed; it doesn't matter that I did what MF says I'm supposed to do when I don't understand an assignment - call and get clarification; it doesn't matter who told me to do it the way I did; it doesn't matter that others probably had the same problem as evidenced by snotty person #2's prior knowledge of the "Reminder" I had received. All that matters is I have to go back and place the stickers, or they will snatch the job.

I had spent 2 1/2 hours on this job. I spent the extra half hour because the display wasn't quite as good as it could have been and I wanted it perfect. I was so furious, I just hung up the phone to keep from screaming obscenities at snotty #2. And what did they do? They snatched the job. I would go to a higher power, if only I knew who that might be. Anybody have a clue? This just wasn't fair. I would have had no problem going back and fixing it, if I was compensated, but not for free when they #*&^$ed up, not me. Was I wrong?

::sigh:: I can't say that from your presentation it sounds like you were wrong. There are many many reasons that many of us will not work with the Purple Portal. The phone calls at obscenely early hours, the misrepresentation of work to be done, the terminations 'for cause' because you for example want to get paid what is owed you. These folks established a wretched reputation back when they were Certified Field Associates before they were purchased by MFI and it really does not appear to have improved.

There is a wide variety of merchandising companies out there and they are not really addressed on this forum, but I suspect a visit to Narms.com could find you other merchandising opportunities where the left hand knew what the right hand was doing.

I have a box full of recalled lighters that says you were not wrong.

I did this assignment- and sorry, I didn't have any trouble understanding the assignment. It did take me a little over an hour and a half, but I had no problems.

Whether you understood the assignment, or if 500 other people understood the assignment, the point is I DID NOT understand it fully, so I DID WHAT I WAS supposed to do: ASK MY SCHEDULER. I understood THOSE directions just fine and followed them to a tee, and yet the project got yanked. Guess it would have been better to just do the report best I could the way it was.

ROFLOL!!

i did the lighter assignment to... probably about two years ago... i still have a few of the lighters and still use them from time to time...

they wanted me to open them up and wait to let the gas out... after 30 min with one i just told them i threw em out... not sure why they were recalled ... perfectly good.. and handy too... sorry but for 8 bucks im not doing... 14 hours of work.. no thanks... they paid me the agreed sum... and plenty of nice free lighters... i think i got 35 of them ... gave most of them away... used a few myself...

I did the perfume assignment for MF last Friday. It was pretty easy, although time consuming because many of the bottles were locked in individual boxes. I had to get a magnetic key to unlock each bottle. Who knew that Kim Kardashian, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Halle Berry and even Shakira had their own fragrances?

I put the stickers on. It took about an hour. I also had to put stickers on some Sally Hanson products.

Yeah, who knew. Bigger questions for me is why?:O

Phoebe70 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did the perfume assignment for MF last Friday.
> It was pretty easy, although time consuming
> because many of the bottles were locked in
> individual boxes. I had to get a magnetic key to
> unlock each bottle. Who knew that Kim Kardashian,
> Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Halle Berry and even
> Shakira had their own fragrances?
>
> I put the stickers on. It took about an hour. I
> also had to put stickers on some Sally Hanson
> products.