Complaint Review: Intertan - The Source By Circuit City (Former Radioshack) - Toronto Ontario

So after reading a few threads regarding this company i decided to toss in my side of things. First of all, I've been with the company for almost a year. I've worked at two different locations (Whitehorse, and Victoria) and found somewhat different experiences, however, none as negative as stated by the original poster. PAY STRUCTURE Touching on the matter of the wages, I agree with one of the first replies to the thread that you really need to talk about the fact that you can multiply the supposedly low commission after hitting sales milestones. Yes, I agree the fact that you can possibly lose your commission (thus only making minimum wage) if you don't sell over 85$/hour in a pay period is harsh; sometimes it is necessary; however, with that being said it's not happened very often where one of my coworkers has ever lost out on commission, and my store is not a very high traffic store at all (generally average 15 to 20 tickets most day) With that being said though, selling $680 in a full 8 hour shift is not really as difficult as it may sound. One laptop sale would account for almost 16 hours to make base commission (although keep in mind new hires won't ever lose commission in their first 3 months regardless of sales). Ultimately in fairly low traffic store you most likely will only stay within that base commission bracket and usualy only take home $1 or $2 better than minimum wage. Now that is only for lower traffic stores. Although the other employee that previouly posted that the $17 an hour figure was a little inflated, i would partially agree with that; however, during my time in Whitehorse, I was consistently (each paycheck for a 3 month period in summer) making about $16/hour for a full 80 work week, that being said, minimum wage up there is $8.58, so i basically doubled my own wage. It all comes down to how well you can sell things. If you can sell someone a laptop with a warrenty, not only would you make a large chunk of base sales to ensure, and increase your commission up to the full 8%, you would also receive a nice little bit of money from the sale of the warrenty (generally $20 that cannot be lost). If you are to add a cellphone contract here and there (can net upwards of $1400 in sales and $30 of spiffs) then you could easily hit $17 an hour ( I say this because we couldnt sell cell phones in the Yukon due to no rogers service). With all that being said, I'm sure that in some of the busier store, the more veteran of sales people are making about $20/hour. TREATMENT OF STAFF As for the comments about how staff are treated, it is was too dependent on the store you are in. I've been lucky enough to have 2 great managers that i've never had problems with. No matter what there will always be crappy managers in every company and unfortunetly that's never going to change. One thing that the Source does have, though, which some companies can't always say, is an open-door policy. As written in our hire packages, it states that anyone at any level in the company can personally contact and talk with upper-management, meaning, if you have a problem with your manager you can easily contact the DSM and make them aware of the problem, in fact, i feel that if a manager was mistreating and over working people, it would be your responsibility to contact their superior. CONCLUSION By no means take this rebuttle as me protecting this company just because I work for them. They are indeed a great part-time, and limited time jobs, however, unless you are thinking management, there really is no career options (and unfortunetly, no raise prospects unless you do get into management) . I just wanted to write out my two cents so that people reading the first post can hear both sides. The job is entirely like you make it. If you want lots of money, learn how to up-sell, attach and sell warranties like no other (regrettably there are some people that will never bite onto even the best pitch) If you are looking for a job that you can just sit back and do the minimum, then unfortunately, and fittingly, you'll probably only make minimum wage.

I have been with the company for almost two years, and have never had those problems. Firstly, my manager won't let anyone work over 44 hours/week...for the exact reason that he doesn't want to pay anyone over time. Secondly, if you were told you could make $17.00/hr; that was clearly a lie. Even the best employees have a hard time breaking $11.00/hr. Though making at least a dollar or two over minimum wage is doable in any decent traffic store. I think the biggest issue with the company in general is that it is very manager-specific. Your manager really controls how much you enjoy your job and any random crap. Thought to be honest, I have heard that there are some issues at some Ontario stores... but that is just hearsay. I enjoy my job for the time being; but I don't see being a sales associate (or store management for that manner) as being a career. Though management does make between 30-40 thousand a year...but the job requires more hours than your salary really covers.

I used to work at the Source and it was good to start with, until you pass the honeymoon stage and then they start treating you like crap. The bad managment starts with the district managers, then trails down to the store managers. I was an employee for over a year and b/c of all the turn over I was considered "senior staff". The only one to be there longer than me is the manager. It started with the manager highering one of his "friends" who was addicted to coke, was always late for work, and couldnt even sell anything to save his life! Then one day I thought I had caught the guy stealing, and I went straight to my manager, who laughed in my face. And the manager said to me and I quote "Just b/c you dont like the guy doesnt mean he's stealing". I saw the guy. He was doing false returns, and I swear I saw him steal a cell phone. So next I mentioned something to my district manager who just said "WHAT??!! NO WAYYY???!!! That guy would never do that" And of course no check or follow up was done on the guy. About 3 days after I told the district manager about what happened I was seriously being sabatoged from every angle at work. This guy complained to his friend..aka the manager that I was "Yelling at the staff" and made other false accusations that I was taking extra breaks, stealing sales, and other stuff that was BS. Then the harrasment esculated to my hours being up-ed from 40 to 60 hours a week. Which was alot for me. I told them I wasnt working that and they basically told me "too bad". So no suprise I got sick from being over-worked and came to work one day and I was puking in the back for about 2 hours. We were 1 person over-staffed and the manager wouldnt let me go home. (Even though I had never called in sick my whole time working there) It got to the point where I felt as if I would pass out, and I told the manager I was going home. I couldnt even drive I was so sick. The next day There were poster sized sighn's in the staff room saying "Anyone that calls in sick is fired". Talk about harrasment. Needless to say I quit. I just found out the guy that was trying to get rid of me was just caught stealing on video camera, and charges have been laid.

What you are saying, Brad, is true. And most of the problems I've had is because of the manager himself. And the reason that none of the people in our store are making enough comission is because every hour we work is counted as working hour, when in truth we only get 4-5 hours/day for selling. In any case, the salary quoted in the open house is incorrect, as I've seen many people from many stores in Toronto sitting at less than $9/hour average. As far as complaining about the manager, it's been done a few times - not from me, but from my co-workers, but nothing has been done. And there are many other cheap rip-offs every day not only from the manager, but the company as well and that's why I am gone from The Source.

First of all the pay structure you posted is not complete. The pay is 2% of GP if you sell $85/hour 4% if you sell $135/hour and 8% if you sell $185 per hour. Plus you get paid SPIFFS on some products and all warranty plans, some spiffs are up to $50. I am a manager of a store and some of my staff are making around $14/hour and I have a lower volume store. As for overtime if you took the time to read your employment agreement you would have known all you had to do to be paid your overtime is fax a piece of paper to your District sales Manager for overtime authorization. If your manager was being abusive why wouldn't you call human resources or your DSM? How is the company supposed to know they have abusive managers if you dont do anything to tell them? As for career advancement within 3 months of me being hired I was promoted to assistant manager (with a raise) and within 8 months I was a store manager. I am now running my second store. They dont promote non performers not many companies do, so your co-workers must have been below average employees. And alot of commission based jobs are minimum wage plus. Your hourly wage is ultimatly up to you based on how hard you work and how good you are at selling.