Denali Gift Company Kevin Helwig Denali Gift Co. Canyon Gift Company McKinley Gifts Denali Gift Companies, Inc. Stuart Hayes Customer/Employee negligence, Intoxicated employees Healy Alaska
This company is a total RIPOFF. I had to pleasure to deal with this scam for an entire summer, so I know the ins and outs. There are many many violations happening with this company. I stronly advise to NEVER deal with this SCAM.
Refund Policy - Although they have signs on the counters clearly stating "NO REFUNDS", I've witnessed on multiple occasions employees refunding items to some customers (usually better looking) while not returning any items from other customers, (specifically the foreigners).
50% Sale - THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM. Each year the company has a 50% all merchandise sale. What they dont tell people is that retag every item for a much higher price than originally a couple days before the sale. So that by the time the sale takes place, shoppers think there getting a good deal, when in actuality they are only saving about 10% instead of the 50% they were promised.
Company buildings - There are 3 shops in this company, the Denali Gift Co, Canyon Gift Co, and McKinley Gifts. Each one of these building has serious structural damage done to it from 15 years ago or more. This makes the floors of 2 of the 3 building seriously slanted. Also the company owns an employee housing complex just a few miles away. This place is made up of 10 small nasty cabins that havent been cleaned since the summer before, so more often than not employees would complain about rats in their cabins. Also there is NO INTERNET and only 1 indoor bathroom for 25 employees. The company doesnt pay its employees on time and hires and fires employees based on their looks (which it totally illegal). The employees only work about 25-30 hours a week although they are promised over 40. Which means that You will only be making about $700 a month, which is hardly enough to survive, which is why almost every employee gets a second job. At the end of the season each year the employees get there hours cut down to 20-25, in order to maximize company profits.
Employees - NOT 1 single employee was from Alaska or knew anything about the location in which they were supposed to have vast knowledge. In fact, many of the employees would come in smelling like drugs or booze. They were not friendly and most of them couldnt speak a single word of English. The company is NOTORIOUS for late/nonpayment of their employees. The first couple weeks of this job is just tagging clothing for 6 hours a days.
PLEASE NEVER DO ANY BUSINESS WITH KEVIN HELWIG/STUART HAYES OR THE DENALI GIFT COMPANY.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
FUKH
Billings,Montana,
USA
Don't believe the owner!!
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, January 31, 2016
Do a google search for rip off report Denali gift company and a few other reports pop up! It's an awful place to work and spend your summer. Get a job elsewhere, you'll be happy you did!
KH -owner
Denali park,Alaska,
Really?
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, February 03, 2014
This post is obviously from a disgruntled ex-employee or a competitor.
We have a no-refund policy as we prefer exchanges however the Manager may over-ride it.
Season end we have a 50% off sale. We have literally over 100 signs posted in the three stores that say "50% off the original or highest price". Most garments have two prices, the original price and our price. None of the hard goods have two prices so all of the books. magnets, ceramics, keychains, plush, etc are half off the original price. We offer the biggest and best gift sale in Denali each Fall and even have retailers from over 100 miles away come shop during our sale.
Our buildings are in good repair - hard to comment on this any other way.
We have 15 employee cabins. Each has electric heat and lights and a refrigerator. They are cleaned each season before we hire and I would assume that the employees clean them while living in them in summer. We charge $21 per week to live in these cabins. There have been cockroaches all over the world since dinosaurs roamed the earth but Alaska is fortunate to have very few because of the extremely cold winters.
The housing complex includes three showers and four toilets for the 20 - 25 folks that normally live there each summer. We have Wi-Fi in the main house, the rec room and many of the cabins receive the signal as well. The telephone company came in and ran extra wire to the main house in order to double the highest speed they offer. This allows everyone unlimited downloads of music and many can stream different movies at the same time from our employee Netflix account.
We try and work everyone as close to 40 hours as we can and some get overtime. We have never been late or missed a payroll in 30 years. We do not discriminate in our hiring practices. We interview over the phone and have no idea what our employees look like until they show up for work each Spring. We obviously would not hire someone that we could not talk to because they couldn't speak English.
We could not stay in business if any or much of this post was true. PLEASE visit our website and read the testimonials from previous employees. alaskasummerjob.com/denalinationalpark/testimonials.html
Thank you.
Kevin Helwig, owner