Complaint Review: Family Dollar Stores

I too worked as a "manager" at Family Dollar. If that's what you wanna call what i did.I was hired by the D.M. on Oct. 15th 2001. and after being "trained", ( a 12 week training, condensed into 6 weeks) I was given the keys to my store on Oct. 31st 2001. I had spent the 2 weeks of "training" in what was now my store trying to find the floor.I touched the MSI machine for the 1st time the day I ordered for my store.

I also took pictures... Boxes duct taped and bungy corded to the ceiling, the backroom with a 12inch aisle thru the middle of it, U-boats only 8 of them in the store stacked 8 ft. high.And I was told I had to place an order, there was the equivalent of 6 to 8 trucks sitting in the backroom and all over the store.Sure the DM brought in a crew of managers to help, help by putting merchandise anywhere they could find a hole.But I had been "trained" I knew what I was doing.... Right? Not!

I knew how to work, and that's what I had been hired to do.About 6 weeks into this fab job the roller came down across my arm and I ended up with a bloodclot. DM was told but no call placed to corporate because at the time it happened it was just a booboo that along with all the other scrapes and bruises would go away.

When I lost feeling in my fingers I called MY insurance to see if they would allow me to go out across the parking lot to an urgent care as my arm was cold and I had no assistant to relieve me. My DM called and wanted to know who had been on the phone and I told her .. Me and the reason, I had been told by a nurse that I had a bloodclot sitting approx. 14 inches from my heart and she had told me to get to the hospital. The DM responded.." Is my store recovered?"

I worked for 11 months with a bloodclot.I averaged 80 to 120 hours a week and when the RVP was due I worked 3 days straight( only went home for an hour and ahalf to take a shower and change cloths) overtime was approved by DM and RVP to have 2 others swap out so i was'nt totally alone all the time. They gave me $200.00 for overtime.Even after that the store was graded a minus 2 on the anytime 5 scale by the RVP.

I was the 11th manager in 12 months put in that store but no matter what I did or how many hours I put in it was never enough. Christmas Day my children sat at Family Dollar for 9 hours so Mom could front and clean the store. Easter same thing.Everytime I'd get it halfway managable, my payroll would be cut back. And my job was threatened when I went $1.53 over payroll.

I was cussed at by the DM, a "customer" tried to run me over in the parking lot, because I asked her to not destroy the merchandise, The DM sent her a $25 gift certificate and invited her back into my store.And again threatened my job if I did'nt drop the assault charges.

The DM would call me at 6:30 in the morning at my store because she knew i would be there.Refused my vacation time, and refused to let me put one of my employees into the assistant slot for 7 months, thereby forcing me to spend all day everyday at the store. I went to court for shoplifters and was told I should have taken a vacation day to go to court because I had "had to many days off that week".

My other day off had been spent from 7 pm until 4 am having the floors stripped so as not to have any overtime. I had all this "management power" and my minimum wage cashiers made more per hour than I did. I could fill this forum but it would just be some of the same I have already read.

I finally left Family Dollar on Oct. 6th the following year, 9 days shy of my one year anniversary. 6 weeks prior the truck driver had pinned me between the roller and the back door thereby jerking me around the doorframe and me ending up with 7 blown discs. I unloaded trucks for 6 weeks with blown discs, I lost a year of my life because I became a Family Dollar slave, I neglected my kids, my husband my house, everything except that store....And when i went out on sick leave, (when i could no longer lift my right foot off the floor)my payment???? She announced at a district managers meeting that I was "faking it".

She put my refrigerator and microwave which i had purchased for my employees use in the back room ( the microwave had been my grandmothers) she put them at the dumpster.They were retrieved after a phone call from one of my cashiers, the cashier was fired less than an hour later.(she was later rehired after corporate was threatened with a lawsuit)

The DM did call me tho, to ask if I would be willing to sell her the camera system I had bought after she refused to get me one. And she wanted the tapes that had been recorded that week because I was'nt "entitled" to them. The DM received 7 tapes, they were blank. I still have the pictures of my store the day I went in and I have the tapes the day I went out.

I endured 11 months and 22 days of verbal abuse,threats and physical and emotional pain. What did I get in return? I got a small settlement from the company after a 2 year battle and people following my every move. I got a titanium plate and 6 screws and a nice scar across the front of my neck.I got a handicapped sticker to hang in my car window so I get the good parking spaces. And I got the knowledge that eventually the one lumbar disc left supporting my spine will blow to and I'll get a shiny wheelchair. And I get the satisfaction from knowing that the DM mentioned was fired at her own meeting for abusing the managers under her.

The least I worked in one week in that 11 months and 22 days was 67 hours and that's because I only worked till Wednesday.

Pretty fair trade for $500 a week don't you think?

Billie
Dudley, North Carolina
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Family Dollar Store