Complaint Review: Movie Gallery - Dothan Alabama

I am a store manager for Movie Gallery and have been for 23 months. I believe I have showed great improvement in my store during my time with the company and have been treated unfairly. I have also been in contact with many other Movie Gallery employees and former employees who feel the same. In my opinion, this constitutes a huge flaw in what could otherwise be a great company. It seems to me that upper management forgets that we are the ones in the stores that bring in new customers and keep existing customers coming back, and, without us, there would be no Movie Gallery. Yet, nine out of ten Movie Gallery managers and employees that I contact feel that they are treated poorly, passed over for raises, or generally treated as if they are expendable, and low morale produces poor results.

In the last six months I have been promised a raise three times by two district managers and a regional manager, all of them are no longer with the company. On March 12, 2008 my new district manager came to my store during physical inventory. At the time, I had already been working 13 hours with no break. She began complaining about all of the things that were wrong and needed to be fixed, which, incidentally, could all have been fixed in a day. She asked me to stop doing inventory and do other things before I finished. When I asked her about the raise I had been promised, she said I would never get a raise as long as she could find any flaws in my store merchandising or my E4 numbers. I do believe I could go to any store in this company and find a flaw if I looked hard enough. I took this to mean she had no intentions of ever giving me the raise I had been promised and as a personal slap in the face. As a result, I was extremely frustrated and upset and this prompted me to give her my two weeks notice, which I intend to fulfill.

I believe I was hired by Movie Gallery for my ability and experience in customer service and leadership. Here are just a few of the things that I have done for the company that have been completely overlooked:

I have brought my store up over a thousand spots in the company rankings, from 2504 in July 2006 to 1440 currently, and the store revenue is continuously higher than last year, ever week, and continues to grow.

I have devoted countless hours, and even personal time and resources, to local store marketing efforts to ensure a good standing with the customers, as well as, local businesses in the community.

I believe I have demonstrated an ability to take initiative, strive to achieve my goals, and have continuously led my store in the right direction.

I often put in many long days and have rarely called in sick or asked for any extra time off.

I had been working at this salary for 23 months; an increase in pay level was appropriate by any decent industry standards.

I have demonstrated a commitment to the company.

Furthermore, the company requires that you work nine hours a day and sometimes more with no breaks. They do not allow enough hours to have more than one person on per shift, except Friday and Saturday nights. If you go over on hours, you get written up or fired. I'm no expert but I am almost positive this is against labor laws.

Also, the company's official slogan is "whatever it takes", meaning you are allowed to do whatever is necessary to make the customer happy. Yet, my district manager recently fired one of my best employees for doing just that. And another good employee was recently fired by the district manager for not making phone calls. I live in a very small town and this particular employee was very well known and loved by all my customers, some of which we lost due to her being fired over something so ridiculous.

It is a shame when good employees are treated with such total disregard, on such a large scale, that it could possibly be a class action. After all, when all incentives are gone, there is no longer a reason to strive to do your best. I know this from personal experience.

Adam

Penn Yan, New York

U.S.A.