Cintas, Xpect First Aid Rips off customers, mistreats employees Mason Ohio
I worked for Cintas in the first aid division for over three years. The branch I worked at in the greater Detroit area had been a family business that was bought out by Cintas. For the first 2.5 years, everything was fine. Then Cintas (which had been going by the name Xpect First Aid) began to show it's true colors.
When Cintas launched the new product packaging, we were told the quantities of the products would be decreased. Instead of 50 band aids to a box it would be 40, instead of 250 tablets of over the counter medications, it would be 200, and so on for every product. Our 12 week customers would be moved to 8 weeks, our 8 week customers to 6 weeks, and our six week customers to 4 weeks. We would need to make sure we sold $100.00 per cabinet to each customer. If we were not willing to do this, the company would expect us to resign.
Their whole philosophy is to do whatever possible to cheat and rape the customer just so they can make money for the stockholders. Cintas has no ethics whatsoever. I realized if I stayed at Cintas I would become one of them, and that scared me. I would not be able to look in the mirror and feel comfortable at what was staring back at me.
Prior to all of the changes in product quantities that Cintas made, I callled the employee hotline regarding a matter I was having. The hotline is supposed to be the employees link to resolve conflicts, disputes, etc. Nothing ever came of my complaint. I even called every three months for two years and Christy in Human Resources never returned my calls. Eventually, the company also made avilable pamphlets for us to fill out if we didn't waqnt to call the hotline. A week later the branch manager spoke to me about my complaint. Less than a month later my route was cut and my goal raised. This was an obvious sign the company was targeting me and I began to look elsewhere.
About 2 years after leaving Cintas I got back into the first aid industry. I took a considerable amount of business away from Cintas. Our company would mail a cancellation letter to Cintas on behalf of the customer. Cintas' strategy was to pretend they never got the letter and just show up at the customer's door. Sometimes they would even sneak in, slap their sticker back on the cabinet, overstuff it and try to get an invoice signed.
I strongly urge someone who's thinking of working for Cintas to investigate them thoroughly. Unite, the union representing textile workers, and Teamters have been trying to unionize Cintas employees. If you work for Cintas and they promise you something, get it in writing. They will break a promise without even blinking. The BBB in Cincinnati gave them an unsatisfactory rating until just recently when all the unresolved complaints were suddenly resolved. Cintas believes in lies, deceit, and anything else just to make money and they don't care at who's expense. Doc Farmer must be turning over in his grave by seeing what the company he founded has become.
Butch
Plymouth, Michigan
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Dmarblue
Yuba City,California,
U.S.A.
Cintas bad... Union, not any better
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, August 30, 2007
With regards to Cintas' "confidential" tipline, it's as confidential as the National Enquirer. I filed a "confidential" report when I worked for the uniform division in California when my route volume was so large it regualrly violated the state restriction of hours worked per day and week for drivers.
I recieved a call about 2 weeks later from a VP in Cincinnati who thanked me for the report and promised a confidential resolution and apologized for the situation I was in. Two weeks after that call the General Manager and my Service Manager called me into the conference room after a morning sales meeting and gave me the business, I expected that since I was pretty discontented at their inaction, but I didn't expect the General Manager to rip me for calling the hotline to complain about the situation.
The GM had considered firing me (despite sterling numbers and CSI performance), but had decided against it because he liked me. I responded by telling him that he didn't have the gonads to fire me because the moment he did I would have him and the location over a barrel, since my situation was documented and even flagged by the home office.
If you work for Cintas and your location is in violation of the law, bypass the tipline and go to the authorities, they'll be more discreet and hit hard while protecting you from retrobution.
The overwhelming majority of Cintas' misdeeds are local issues, yes, pressure comes from the home office but the local management calls the specific shots regarding working conditions, commissions, and sales planning. From my experience, incompetent managers who have never run a route are the ones who make illegal and immoral decisions to improve performance since they have no working knowledge of how the business works. It was the case in my situation.
For those embracing the union as savior at Cintas, think again, the money at Cintas compared to other companies is better than union shops and look at the volume that most union shops run as opposed to Cintas, in my experience, the Unionized outfits struggle to add volume, while Cintas has constant growth. It's easy to bash Cintas for their misdeeds but the unions play just as dirty.
What right did the union have to enter my accounts and lie about thier representing me, and worse of all lying about misconduct that our location was not guilty of. Competitiors are just as guilty at lowballing, bait and switching, and changing terms of agreement unilaterally as Cintas is, the business is that competitive. The location and the individual SSR make the decision to lie and cheat more than the corporate culture do.
Other providers have little cause to plead their holiness as their locations, reps, and drivers are just as dirty. The union drive is based on lies and hyperbole. I left Cintas a few years ago but I decided if the union Guido's ever got hold of that place I was gone.
The teamsters are dirtier than any greedy corporation. I was raised in a Union family and saw the Teamsters sell out regularly and play illadvised games of "chicken" with the employer, the result. The employer moved out of state and the union sent us a basket of canned goods. Bye, Bye pension, benefits, and job.
Until the union realizes it's not 1930 anymore and outiside the insulated world of Government workers it's relevance and influence is waning. Too bad, modern workers need options for representation, but the outmoded, out of touch union is not the answer.