I've received a few emails recently that all had a similar (and good!) suggestion for this blog. Several people have noted that my last post "Help! Help Wanted!" had collected quite a few comments (by the way, thanks! again to everyone who continues to leave comments); they mentioned that it was taking a long time to scroll down the list of comments left by others and suggested that I start a fresh post so a new series of comments could begin. Or words to that effect. Anyway, it sounded good to me so here it is. From reading the comments that are being left at this blog I can tell that a lot of important information for all RGIS employees is getting out to people everywhere here and that's why I think it's important to keep this blog going.
Also, every once in a while, even though I fight it, frightening RGIS memories of mine surface now and again and I recently recalled another rather amusing incident that happened in my district. Something having to do with toilet paper and a DM's house. I plan on recounting it here so stay tuned...
99 comments:
Just a few responses to a few old comments I read from the last post.
I was told by my AM or DM that we could submit our cell phone bills with all the work calls circled and we would be remembursed.
So I was one of the few "lucky" people who got to be a part of the train wreck that was the CVS mapping project. This was where we were supposed to update the floor plans of most of the cvs stores.
1.) Frist sign that maybe the project was a bit rushed was when the trainers were having trouble installing the software on the laptops we were to be using. (it didn't help matters that my dm gave them the wrong serial number for the laptop)
2. which bring us to fun fact #2. the licenses of the software we were using. we could only dl and run one mapping store at a time. the fun part? we were told to use a 11x17 map of the store to write down changes on. so this ment a run to staples every night before. but thats ok because ....
3.) after each store had been transmited (and copies printed out of the new maps), we had to FAX a page with the confrimation number on it back to HQ. not email. fax. my dm owes me about $50 for faxes and copies.
so we go down for the first week of training. we ended up having so many problems with the software, that they actually put the project on hold for a week while they tried to work out all the bugs. they actually sent my team back to the hotel while they tried to fix some of the problems one day.
so we go down about 2 weeks later for a second round of training. now, you would think that since this was the second week of training, and people has already used the software, the 2nd time would be easier right? remember this is rgis we're talking about.
well, thats over for now. (i guess there's supposed to be 3 phases, and this was just the first)
has anyone else had experence with this wonderful project?
I just found this blog. I am starting as an auditor in Jan. Oh noooooo.
I just started with them in Jan . I already have a full time job just doing this for extra money.
Should be interesting based on everything I have read.
Misfit:
Thanks for keeping this blog going. If it wasn`t for this and a few other blogs, I would be totally in the dark about what is going on at RGIS and the new RM-1`s, pay scales,CVS,etc. My district`s management are such Pollyannas that they don`t see the RGIS and their district crumbling and the flames licking at their asses.We receive propaganda newsletters almost every month spewing all their BS; this blog is one of the antidotes to all the corporate poison.
Shadow: Be brave. ;-) I guess I should be telling you "Run! Run for the hills!" but hey you never know, you may end up liking the job. Yeah right. ;-) Well anyway, you'll a little money (very little money) as a RGIS auditor and also gain some interesting tales yourself that you can use to entertain and horrify your friends.
OTL: You're so welcome! I really wish I had a RGIS blog to read and leave comments on when I worked as a RGIS auditor, it would have helped me so much. That's one of the reasons that I'm keeping this one going. People like you are another reason too. You and TL Too and all the others are really helping new and old RGIS employees alike to spread all the latest RGIS info and share your experiences, and show people that they're not alone when someone does something to them, RGIS-style. Let's all of us keep telling it here like it REALLY is.
Whenever I walk through a local mall I get shivers down my spine as I pass by certain stores.
I worked for RGIS for 3 years. Before and after the Blackstone buy-out. The company doesn't care about anything but the bottom dollar now and has lost sight of what is really important. Employees are worked in the dirt. Used up and thrown away. Most of the good DM's & Ops Mgrs have left. The only ones left are the desperate ones with no backbone. Always be wary of companies with extreme high turnover rates such as RGIS. This was the worse job I've ever had.
What does anyone know about Muscolino Inventory Services? I noticed that they're advertising in the North Bay (CA) for inventory auditors. They're paying higher wages than RGIS ($10.00/hr to RGIS' $8.50). I've never heard of them before. Has anyone worked for them or know of anyone who has? From their ad on craigslist they sound interesting. They're starting employees out at a higher rate than RGIS and they're willing to pay even more if you're experienced at doing inventories. Here's the link to the ad on RGIS: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/etc/518479017.html
If that link doesn't work then here's the job list #: job-518479017, and it's on craigslist. Go check it out!
misfit:
I don`t know anything about Muscolino Inventory, but I would like to say that you would be suprised at the number of small independent inventory companies there are, epecially in smaller urban areas. These companies peak out at 30 or 40 people at most, and mainly do financial (non-scanning) inventories. I worked for one such company many years before I came over to the dark side(RGIS).Many of these companies belong to a national association of independent inventory companies. I`ve been told that many are run by disillusioned/disgruntled ex-RGIS managers who have higher standards than our current operation.I knew our owners well; they used to tell me of these independent ownwers swapping their RGIS horror stories at their national meetings.Although there often is more comraderie and fun at these companies than with RGIS, the main shortcoming, from my experience, is that there is much less work overall ( full time hours are rare), and the travel time may be more than RGIS.For example, at my former company, the January busy time only lasted about one week on either side of New Year`s Day, and maybe the last week in January. It was slow in the middle of the month.
Hi all,
I am jus goin4 an interview today in uk..
didnt know abt rgis much b4 i read ur comments..well i am a student and looking to work part time..
hope it ll be fine..
..its fun to read comments on dis blog..keep it goin
..cheers ;)
Casual: Thanks for stopping by! I hope your RGIS experiences turn out to be much better than mine. Please keep us posted here on how you do at the job. :-)
OTL: That's interesting, that ex-RGIS people would be forming their own inventory services. It makes sense though; they get some experience on how to do inventories and then go out and do it better with their own company, yes? ;-) In the craigslist ad Muscolini did mention that it's part-time work only, but that the work is there for people who show that they really want it. I hope they give RGIS a real run for their money. WIS didn't succeed in the North Bay so here's hoping that some other inventory service does.
There`s always a niche for smaller inventory companies to succeed. There are a lot of stores in remote locations that RGIS would overcharge (either in their regular rate or travel rate)to do ), so often these jobs default to the smaller companies.Then there`s that omnipresent RGIS minimum profit margin standard--if RGIS will only make a wheelbarrow full of money vs a truckload, they will snub the job and let the little guys do it instead.
Misfit, Muscolino was recently acquired by Pics Inventory. If you go to their site, picsinv.com, you will see that they are buying out a lot of smaller companies. They are the sister company to AST who used to make our audits. the owners prior to Blackstone had a falling out with AST and thus we now have this monster called the RM1 made by someone else. Let's face it, Pics has our old technology since they made our machine and they have an axe to grind with RGIS. In our area, Pics has hired a former VP and Ops Manager to run the operation. They in turn are recruiting RGIs and former RGIS employees. I have been watching them for a while and I think they will be the company to give us a real shove. These former RGIS people were very well acquainted with our accounts, and I am sure, know people in those companies from their days with us.
PICS just keeps buying out smaller companies everywhere in order to make themselves a power every where in the country, and those companies come with their own accounts. A lot of our accounts are not happy with this RM1. Inventories are going longer and these machines have a lot of problems. Pics with our old technology just might look good to them.
TL Too: Thanks for the info about Muscolino and PICS. I hope they really give RGIS a run for their money. ;-)
I get the impression that PICS is a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 operation from reading their recruiting ads. I don`t know how serious of a competition they can give RGIS if they don`t do inventories on nights or weekends. (That would exclude me from working for them.) Maybe they`ve changed their strategy since I`ve last looked them up.
Shadow, be very careful about about scheduling. We had a guy get fired from his other job just yesterday because a multi-store run that was supposed to be completed by mid-afternoon took until after 10pm, making him late for work. If you haven't already turned in your availability sheet, fill it out carefully and keep a photocopy. When my wife started with the company, she needed Mondays off for family obligations, and it took months before they stopped scheduling her on Mondays.
And in January, RGIS *is* a full time job. And more. We got the word at the Christmas party (Yay! We got to order off the sandwich menu at Bennigan's) that we would not be allowed to turn down any jobs in January. You may need proof that you blocked out time for your other job.
Texas Auditor: Wow, you're not allowed to turn down any stores? I've never heard of that before. Even in my own extremely screwed-up distict we could turn down stores without too much backlash. But then that was mainly for the vets; the newbies were still trying to establish themselves and so probably didn't dare to turn down anything for fear they wouldn't get as many stores as the vets and pets.
Texas Auditor: Wow, you're not allowed to turn down any stores? I've never heard of that before. Even in my own extremely screwed-up distict we could turn down stores without too much backlash. But then that was mainly for the vets; the newbies were still trying to establish themselves and so probably didn't dare to turn down anything for fear they wouldn't get as many stores as the vets and pets.
That person who got fired from his "real" job because his RGIS job went too long must have been trapped in a carpool.( Warning for new hires: Don`t ride in a carpool if the projected ending time is close to the starting time of your real job or school!)Everyone in my district who have regular jobs all have informed the DM of their time limits, and when the time deadline arrives, are out the door, whether or not the RGIS inventory is finished.The DM may not like it, but most of these people are good counters, and he can`t afford to lose them.So usually, if he knows if he has some people who need to leave early,he will schedule more people.Also,the people who have to leave early usually are scheduled into the earlier Stockroom time, to get maximum use out of them.
O T L, I've been in contact with Pics. I was interested in hearing what they might have to offer. They are now doing inventories nights and weekends. They invited me to observe one of their inventories on a Sunday morning in a nearby state. The Ops manager they hired that was previously from RGIS is a name I knew very well from procedures in my packages as account rep. Never met him, but definitely knew the name. I was running a store the morning they invited me to observe or I would have gone to watch. My point to Misfit was that if this man was the account rep on many of our stores, he was in charge of those accounts and made important contacts at those accounts while working for Rgis. Someone like him, and I hear they have hired a lot of displaced Rgis upper management, can certainly revisit his contacts trying to sell Pics as an alternative. I still think they will be the company to watch.
Last I heard, we were still over 100 warm bodies short of what we need to cover all of our stores for the busy season. Our DM has a tendency to run people off, even moreso than the norm for RGIS. Higher ups have been heard lecturing her about employee retention. It doesn't help that the district covers a lot more area than it did this time last year.
I was originally with D159 (Austin South). Then, apparently, someone decided it was silly that D159 extended down into northern San Antonio, to within 5 miles of the D192 (San Antonio East) office, so the boundary was moved and I ended up in 192.
Meanwhile, D158 (San Antonio West) was having trouble covering even their smaller stores, so that boundary was adjusted, moving a large shopping center and a mall into 192's AOR.
In fact, the first time I ever got assigned to count drugs was when I was sent to help out 158 at an offsite pharmacy. Assigned, but didn't actually count anything, because they still couldn't get enough people there. So I got to hang out there for 2 hours while they tried to round up more counters, then I went home.
Finally, earlier this year for no reason anyone has ever been able to adequately explain, 192 was dissolved and folded into 158. So now I am with SA West, and I count that same pharmacy every month. Just got back from there a few hours ago.
tl too:
So did you go to observe the PICS inventory? I`m curious on how similar their equipment is to RGIS`s old audits.They must be pretty similar, with that big lawsuit in Federal Court between RGIS and our old partner, AST ,(who now is PICS` partner, for anyone who hasn`t heard).
I checked out PICS`web site. It looks like the Muscolino acqisition is their first toehold in the Western U.S.--smething like twelve offices in southern California, Nevada and Arizona. We`ll have to watch and see if they swallow up any more western independent inventory companies in the coming year.That just might really put RGIS on the defensive.
O T L, I did go observe recently.
They are using a much more modern version of our old machines. It is much more streamlined than the RM. They are starting to do a little more here in the northeast.
And, the one thing they keep stressing is that they are going to operate the old RGIS way with accuracy and customer satisfaction being their main objective. Remember those days?? That certainly isn't our prime concern anymore. Count and make money no matter how you have to do it. Sorry it took so long to respond but I have had the RGIS week from hell. I tried to step down. I am sick and tired of the DM. The man does not know how to speak. He screams all the time. Well, he threatened me with pay cuts but would not tell me the amount, dismantling my team even though I had someone who would have taken over, etc. etc. etc. Because he was threatening to give my very nice, hardworking people to another team leader who is a major ego maniac and would have gotten rid of all of them in a week because he doesn't want a team of more than 3, I stayed. But, he took my AM away from me and I loved my AM. He is the only reason I persisted at this. This DM never takes the blame for anything HE DOES. So, he blamed my AM for my wanting to step down and took him away. Hello?? I am more unhappy than ever. I am so tired of this jerky atmosphere.
I've been an RGIS auditor for more than 15 years. I (along with many other "top guns") hate the new RM1. I looked into PICS, and based on the AST website, their equipment looks very similar to the Audit. I think PICS can recruit several RGIS employees just for a more familiar machine. Unfortunately, PICS does not cover the territory where I live.
Even if the health benefits were good, they're pointless if you can't count on enough hours to make the premium.
After training, the lady training us took our badges (which now function as time cards) and said she'd be at our first stores. She wasn't. My TL scanned someone else's badge for *my* shift. Guess who hasn't been paid? Oh, and since my badge wasn't scanned, I can't prove I was there. Since I'm new, no one remembers me (or spoke to me).
Has anyone else here had an unusually slow January? I've got the master schedule through the first of February and it just seems like there aren't hardly any stores. I mean I've got 4 days off in the next two weeks because there aren't any night stores even scheduled. Also, they've been overscheduling all the stores because we have all these new hires and to everyone's amazement, almost all the new hires have showed up to every store and the majority of the stores are finishing in under 2 hours. We did American Eagle last night and the sales floor was done in an hour and a half. So now everyone is complaining that they aren't getting any hours. I'm figuring February and March will be massively busy since this month is slow and a lot of people will quit since they aren't getting hours and then the rest of us will be working insane hours. Oh the joy...
Things are a little slower than I remember from the last 2 Januaries, but not that bad. I'm in the midst of working 11 days straight, but except for the last day of the stretch, I've only got one job a day. This week we've had a Lowe's finish in less than 11 hours over 2 days, a Cavender's in less than 3.5 (usually 4-5 hours) and a Tractor Supply in less than 4 (usually 6).
Not only have the new hires been showing up more reliably than usual, we've also been getting some help from the Walmart and Home Depot teams. I'll be doing good to hit 30 hours this week, but it's looking like 40-50 next week.
Hmm, and maybe I need to change my nickname. According to the new colored badge clip ranking system, I'm not an Auditor, I'm a Specialist.
tl too:
Ah, the good old days of "accuracy and customer satisfaction"--they live on in a dwindling number of us oldtimer`s memories. Right now, in 2008, the unofficial motto is just survive, the ends justifies the means, etc. Never mind the customer, at least in the managers` opinions.I see therolling eyes,the exasperation and disgust in our customers faces all of the time. Hell, we`re just into the second week of January and two of our Area Managers have stepped down because the DM is a total jerk who is impossible to work with. Sound familiar, tl too?We`ve had too many stores with inexcusable equipment failures--printers, cables,RM units-- that cripple and delay the inventories. ( Don`t any managers check these things BEFORE January anymore?)Plus the new grayshirts seem to have a hard time grasping the concept that they have to get to the store early enough to TAG it,and to get the RM-1`s up and running.And as always, we`re shorthanded,with the usual compliment of shaky rookies.Yeah, customer service--it was great back in the 1990`s when RGIS actually gave some!
Hey,I heard we just hired our first 16 year old--an Area Managers kid! I wonder how many weeks before he or she gets classified as a "top gun" or "expert" and receives multiple pay raises! lol!
still not paid: The supervisor should have given you a temporary/generic employee number and manually entered you into the payroll roster in the computer. Or they could have had you sign an old payroll sheet as proof you were at the store.
kk:
Just make sure you have the TRUE MASTER schedule, not an individual auditor`s copy.( See a TL, or "borrow" an AM`s schedule when he`s not looking.) A lot of times they will tell you there`s no work, then you find out later that one team is favored over another, and gets the bulk of the work, even though the stores may be in the other team`s territory.It`s office politics or favortism at its ugliest.Also, if you live on the edge of a district,your DM may be secretly giving stores in your area to an adjoining RGIS district.They cut deals like this all the time; some auditors always end up on the losing end.
in response to otl 1/9 comment about the state of the world of rgis.
equip probs -sigh. i am also (sometimes-mosttimes) trapped by having to count on people you know you can't count on (ie people not doing for whatever reasons their job).
again - back to why i and others do this job - when i can make such a positive difference with rgis people (and the rest of the world etc by my actions), I keep going somehow.
thank god also to all the rgis'ers who make it easier for the rest of us daily.
a lot of district schedules seem light - i don't know why - some natact accounts have shifted schedules in a "more frequent" positive way out of the mass January stuff. also reading that retail sales in some areas are down for dec - when stores sell less, we have more to count, so that's good for us in a weird way. hang in there.
thanks for all the good you have done, otl.
Well I have a new Dm. I and a few others got our scatterbrained pill popping cocky asshole Dm demoted and moved to another district. Guess what. Our new DM is a bigger asshole. He's the ultimate dickhead. It's January. I know how my paychecks were in the past...around $1400 every 2 weeks after taxes. This january he decides no more overtime. So he works us to death saturday through wedneday night and then cancels us out of thruday and friday stores just as we hit overtime. This is not region wide. The 2 districts next to us are getting killer overtime. Besides that, this asshole is at his last stop on the rgis train. He got sent to us because he fucked up bigtime at his big district. he was in a big metro city. Now he's in a dinky tiny city that has 1 shopping mall. he's been in and out of the company (getting fired/demoted/rehired/demoted again) for 7 years. So his job is hanging by a thread. So what does he do? He wants every little fucking thing documented. If I sneeze wrong I have to type up a 2 page report and have it on his desk within 24 hours. Seriously. At one inventory some stupid 18 year old store manager of an un-named small sporting good outlet decided to hang 700 area tickets in a 900 sq ft store. She had a ticket on every peg hook, every arm of a 4-way, four tickets on a rounder, a ticket every 3 feet on a bar...it was ridiculous. She refused to take any tickets down. I was 3 people short. It started out fine but then I had to send 2 of my people to help an inventory going on in the same mall. Then the store manager really flipped out. She demanded to talk to my DM and Ops manager. It was after midnight. This bitch was crazy and stupid. She never recounted after us, never looked at the f1 details I gave her, never asked if the range cleared, etc. She was bust playing on myspace on her office computer all night. Then she took a nap. I had to write a 3 page report as to why the manager gave me a bad PIQA. In another store I ran 15 minutes past the promised 4 hour in and out/wrap up time...I had to write a letter stating why I ran over 15 minutes. Hmm...maybe because you pulled out half my people and sent them to help another disrict asshole!!
Now I see why these assholes bought RGIS. Wonder what the ChiCom Govt thinks of this?
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/01/10/blackstone-the-stock-buyback-which-isnt
Blackstone: The Stock Buyback Which Isn't
Stock buybacks are good news for shareholders for two reasons. Firstly, they increase demand for the stock, which helps boost the share price - but that effect is one-off, and temporary, and mostly benefits the shareholders who sell their stock - ie, it benefits ex-shareholders more than current shareholders. Secondly, all the ownership benefit which used to belong to those ex-shareholders now belongs to the current shareholders. That's the main benefit of a buyback, from a long-term shareholder's point of view: it's essentially the opposite of a dilution. (A reduction, perhaps?)
Today, Blackstone announced a $500 million stock buyback, as part of its $930 acquisition of fund manager GSO. But this buyback doesn't benefit shareholders nearly as much as most buybacks do. Steven Davidoff explains:
The real winner here is Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive officer of Blackstone. Blackstone Holdings, the publicly-traded Blackstone partnership, is issuing these units to GSO but the purchaser of the units in the market will not be this entity. This is unusual, as typically in share repurchases it is done by the company itself so that all shareholders can share in the effect of the buyback and the presumably undervalued price realized.
Rather, here a Blackstone company owned by Mr. Schwarzman and the other Blackstone partners, Blackstone Group Management LLC, will make the purchase. The Blackstone partners are thus buying back the equity they sold for a significantly higher price six months ago and depriving their remaining public shareholders the primary benefit of that repurchase. Chutzpah.
Got that? The shareholders (technically unit holders) own a company called Blackstone Holdings. But Blackstone Holdings isn't the entity doing the buyback - that would be Blackstone Group Management, which is owned not by the shareholders but rather by Blackstone's senior management. So all the ownership benefit from those shares will go straight to Steve Schwarzman and friends, not to the long-suffering shareholders.
Recommendation: Sell. Blackstone might be a good company, but it treats its shareholders like shit, and if you own a minority stake in the company you simply can't expect to be treated fairly.
I guess that there`s no limit to their greed at Blackstone.Wasn`t Schwarzman one of the Blackstone owners that made one BILLION dollars each in the original IPO? I guess a billion just doesn`t go as far as it used to--they have to come up with more schemes to make even more money!
rgisaam:
I would never send any other inventory any of my crew,at least not immediately.A lot of times, when they are trying to move people, it`s into a DM`s or AM`s store.They are just trying to save their PIQA`s--why should they benefit at my expense? My motto is " my store comes first". I`m not going to put myself into the position of being ripped by the store manager for things I have no control of.If my crew was scheduled for my store, I`m going to keep them there as long as possible--when the store is close to being done, then I`ll send them ,or come over myself and help.I`d rather get my ass chewed by my DM for being slow to help someone else than for a bad PIQA that I`m taking the fall for.If he doesn`t like it, he can find someone else to run stores for him.
Your story of the sporting goods store reminds me of a similar incident I had at a large clothing store.( Was there supposed to be a PIV visit or call? )The Area Manager did the customary "hi/goodbye" PIV, where he just dropped off the area tags for the store to hang ,but neglected--as required-- to spend a few minutes scoping out the store and explaining the program and how the tags were supposed to be hung.It was a shelf total program--one area tag per panel.Well the store hung the tickets on each shelf, about 6 or 7 per panel. I ended up with over 700 areas just in the stockroom.When I arrived at the store and discovered this, I sensed an impending disaster, with it being January and the usual overload of rookies and semi-competent auditors.I tried to let the store have me retag--there still was time--but they refused.There was a store DM present who was an unreasonable jerk.Well, inevitably, there were numerous areas combined, as well as many miskeyed as area 1(no area bar codes to scan),instead of shelf one.The store went long because of all the unneccesary readings, plus researching and fixing all the combined areas. I was the scapegoat on the PIQA,of course.But the whole debacle could have been prevented if the lazy AM had just did his job and spent a few minutes with the store people explaining the tagging procedure.
In France, the racism is a part of the "RGIS way of Life".
But there some funny stories : an Operation Manager was fired cause he stoled 150,000 $ to the compagny!
The AMs do not know how to use the equipment.
So, I left both the 404 and RGIS in October last year....and I just now got an e-mail this morning inviting me to take an "exit interview" which is basically an online survey.
Can't say that I was very positive. LOL. In fact, I admit that I answered "NO!" to "Would you work for RGIS again?" and "Would you recommend RGIS to a friend?" The additional comments? Well, that was taken up by the misconduct by people on the 404 that never got addressed by our DM, including smoking in the van when me and a couple other non-smokers were in there.
I'm sure the Commies are none to happy about the arrangement. They paid $29.605 per share for their $3 billion investment. BX closed in after hours at $19.22 today, just a small matter of $1.948 billion. But, what's a 65% loss among friends? :)
Rumor has it that BX will be going private again. It seems that they can't withstand the public scrutiny and government regulation that publicly-held companies must endure.
On the bright side, those jerks are pretty much stuck with RGIS for the time being. No bank in its right mind would loan a sub-subprime piece of shit like RGIS any money. The company loans that the Nicholsons and/or RGIS Partners, LLC took out to pay themselves a half BILLION dollar dividend won't be paid until 2012, assuming we don't go into recession and RGIS somehow manages to service its debt. Personally, I hope the assholes go bankrupt. I'd love to see Paul Street and the other dickheads have to get real jobs and actually work for a living.
Hmmm...I seem to have been mistaken about when the RGIS scam loans are due. Don't believe I've seen these most recent reports. Looks like they took on even more debt right before the subprime slime hit. Note the junk bond quality ratings of RGIS debt. Not that the ratings agencies have much credibility these days....
http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/070327.mbx
RGIS INVENTORY: Blackstone Offer Cues S&P's Negative CreditWatch
----------------------------------------------------------------
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed its ratings, including
the 'B+' corporate rating, on Auburn Hills, Michigan-based RGIS
Inventory Specialists on CreditWatch with negative implications.
This rating action follows the report that an affiliate of the
Blackstone Group has agreed to purchase a majority equity
stake in the company. Goldman, Sachs & Co. has committed to
provide bank debt and mezzanine financing.
"Although specific terms have not been disclosed," said
Standard & Poor's credit analyst Charles Pinson-Rose, "we believe
that the transaction will most likely result in increased debt
leverage and weakened cash flow protection ratios."
The current ratings are based on inconsistent operating
performance and a highly leveraged capital structure that limits
cash flow protection. Standard & Poor's will monitor developments
related to the transaction.
http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/070410.mbx
RGIS HOLDINGS: Moody's Rates $575 Million Senior Loans at Ba3
-------------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service assigned new ratings to RGIS Holdings,
LLC in connection with the sale of a majority share of RGIS'
equity to The Blackstone Group and GS Mezzanine Partners.
Moody's assigned these proposed ratings:
-- $75 million senior secured revolving credit facility
due 2013, rated Ba3 (LGD3, 30%)
-- $500 million senior secured term loan due 2014,
rated Ba3 (LGD3, 30%)
-- Corporate Family Rating, rated B2
-- Probability of Default Rating, Rated B2
Moody's will withdraw the following ratings upon close of the
proposed facilities:
-- $90 million senior secured first lien revolving
credit facility due 2011, rated B2 (LGD3, 33%)
-- $310 million senior secured first lien term loan
due 2013, rated B2 (LGD3, 33%)
Moody's said that it expects to withdraw RGIS's existing debt
ratings in connection with the refinancing of this debt upon
closing of the sale. The proceeds from this new indebtedness will
be utilized to retire the existing preferred equity (including the
accrued, payment-in-kind dividend accretion), repay existing
senior bank debt and pay transaction fees and expenses.
The assignment of a B2 Corporate Family rating primarily reflects
the following factors: 1) high leverage; 2) modest free cash flow;
and 3) weak interest coverage resulting from the re-leveraging of
the company's balance sheet to effect the sale of a controlling
interest in the company to The Blackstone Group and GS Mezzanine
Partners.
Factors that serve to mitigate the above concerns include the
company's leading market share as the largest outsourced inventory
verification provider in the U.S., the company's solid customer
retention rate, its highly variable cost structure and its solid
new business win rate.
The stable ratings outlook reflects Moody's expectation that RGIS
will continue to drive top-line revenue growth through the
development of new business with existing clients and through the
seasoning of its international beachheads with the latter in a
controlled and disciplined manner. Moody's also anticipates that
the company will continue to report stronger gross and EBITDA
margins as a result of across-the-board technology upgrades in its
U.S. operations as well as improving economies of scale in its
international operations.
The ratings could be downgraded if the company loses key customer
relationships or encounters difficulties in improving its EBITDA
margins through the implementation of various cost savings and
productivity initiatives, the recent roll-out of its next
generation audit technology and the maturation of its
international operations, resulting in a deterioration of free
cash flow to adjusted debt to under 3% on a sustained basis.
RGIS' ratings could also come under pressure if the company
embarks upon a major acquisition, accelerates its international
expansion beyond plan or pays a significant dividend, thereby
increasing total debt to EBITDA above 7.5 times on a sustained
basis. Conversely, the ratings could come under upward pressure
in the event that adjusted free cash flow to adjusted debt
improves to a range of 5% to 10% or if adjusted debt to EBITDA
declines below 5.5 times on a sustained basis.
For more details, please refer to the Credit Opinion dated April
5, 2007 on Moodys.com
Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, RGIS is the leading
supplier of inventory services for retailers, warehouses, and
distributors. Revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006
equaled $620 million.
Kinda looks like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs looted the company again when they bought it. How much can there possibly be left to loot?
http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/070412.mbx
RGIS HOLDING: Moody's Rates $25 Million Term Loan at Ba3
--------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba3 senior secured debt
rating (LGD3, 31%) to RGIS Holdings, LLC's $25 million delayed
draw term loan due 2014. The loan is part of the financing used
in connection with the sale of a majority share of RGIS' equity to
The Blackstone Group and GS Mezzanine Partners.
The ratings assigned on April 5, 2007 are unchanged. However, the
LGD assessments are updated to reflect the addition of the delayed
draw term loan:
- $75 million senior secured revolving credit facility due
2013, rated Ba3 (LGD3, 31% from LGD3, 30%),
- $500 million senior secured term loan due 2014, rated Ba3
(LGD3, 31% from LGD3, 30%),
- Corporate Family Rating, rated B2,
- Probability of Default Rating, rated B2.
The rating outlook is stable.
Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, RGIS is the leading
supplier of inventory services for retailers, warehouses, and
distributors. Revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006
were $620 million.
Think about this the next time you're driving 200 miles in a blizzard at 03:00.
RGIS HOLDING: S&P Rates Planned $500 Million Senior Loan at B-
--------------------------------------------------------------
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings, including
the corporate credit rating, on Auburn Hills, Michigan-based RGIS
Inventory Specialists to 'B-' from 'B+', removing them from
CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on
March 23, 2007.
In addition, Standard & Poor's has assigned a 'B-' corporate
credit rating to RGIS' parent company RGIS Holdings LLC.
The outlook on both issuers is positive.
At the same time, Standard & Poor's assigned its 'B-' bank loan
rating to the RGIS Holding LLC's planned $500 million senior
secured term loan B and the $75 million revolving credit facility.
The borrower will also have the option of drawing up to $25
million on the term loan within one year of its closing. The bank
loan and the '3' recovery ratings indicate the expectation for a
meaningful (50% to 80%) recovery of principal in the event of
default.
"The ratings on RGIS," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst
Charles
Pinson-Rose, "reflect its highly leveraged capital structure, weak
cash flow protection, and a business position that we believe is
vulnerable to increased competition."
You're busting your asses to pay for bank loans that a gang of thieves took out to loot their own company.
RGIS INVENTORY: S&P Lowers Corporate Credit Rating to B- from B+
----------------------------------------------------------------
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings, including
the corporate credit rating, on Auburn Hills, Michigan-based RGIS
Inventory Specialists to 'B-' from 'B+', removing them from
CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on
March 23, 2007.
In addition, Standard & Poor's has assigned a 'B-' corporate
credit rating to RGIS' parent company RGIS Holdings LLC.
The outlook on both issuers is positive.
At the same time, Standard & Poor's assigned its 'B-' bank loan
rating to the RGIS Holding LLC's planned $500 million senior
secured term loan B and the $75 million revolving credit facility.
The borrower will also have the option of drawing up to $25
million on the term loan within one year of its closing. The bank
loan and the '3' recovery ratings indicate the expectation for a
meaningful (50% to 80%) recovery of principal in the event of
default.
"The ratings on RGIS," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst
Charles Pinson-Rose, "reflect its highly leveraged capital
structure, weak cash flow protection, and a business position that
we believe is vulnerable to increased competition."
...and most of us wonder why we have had little or no pay raises the past several years--we`re subsidizing those bums at Blackstone/RGIS.
Well, anyone have any interesting stories about this January`s inventories? Any spectacular ( vs. the usual ) disasters?
Ex-Muscolino employee...
In response to Misfit inquiry...
I worked for Muscolino Inventory Services in LA area about ten years ago and I currently work for RGIS as of a couple of weeks ago. While I don't have any bad experiences concerning Muscolino (the people were nice), I have to say that the working conditions are pretty much the same as RGIS as far as traveling long distances (they did have a small mileage compensation after so many miles), only getting paid when job begins and have to wait around without pay, only working a few hours a few times a week, if that. But they were nice. Now that the 3 weeks after Christmas are over with RGIS (as an earlier blog mentioned as the busy time, and being in the 50ish category, I suppose my services are pretty much over. I know I didn't receive a new work schedule in the mail like I was told I should be receiving. I have a full time day job, so after googling RGIS for the first time, I will be looking for a "real" second job. Thanks for the blog. It really opened my eyes and saved me a bunch of decision-making, wait-and-see time.
Me: Thanks for the info on Muscolino. I'd never heard of them before and was a little curious. They're the second inventory service (WIS was the other) to try and compete with RGIS in No. CA and I'm wishing them all the luck.
Your blog is pretty funny. I started reading it before I went to apply and have continued reading to today which was my second day. I must say that your blog has prepared me well. You are dead on, especially with the "math test", and how they would literally hire any retard. When I was there applying and what not it reminded me of the welfare office. I applied Monday, trained Wednesday, and started Thursday. I was motivated by alot of your stories, having read them as "adventures" and looking forward to having some of my own. God damn am I tired. These 5am to 4pm shifts are killing me. So, I will post again as some shit happens and look forward to reading everyones comments and such. Pz.
Nothing terribly interesting this year, OTL. Just the usual RGIS stupidity. They generally short me at least 2 or 3 people, and half the ones they do send me are morons, but it's my fault if we don't get finished on time. Other TL's get too many people for the equipment they have, so they have to send people home. We never know how many people are going to be there until they actually show up. It's always too few or too many. As for raises, it's always been like that. We'd be lucky to get a quarter every year or two, unless, of course, you're somebody's pet. I think the only reason we ever got raises was because Division expected a certain percentage of people to get them, or a certain number to be given, or something which required cheapshit DM's to give them.
It`s the same here, sku check: too many people,or not enough.We`ve had several stores that had practically empty backrooms, yet were assigned a full crew to count. The result was people standing around and getting paid for it, while they waited for the store to close, so they could go out and count the salesfloor.( That`s fine with us--easy money.)We even had one store that had a stockroom about the size of a broom closet that had 6 auditors scheduled into it, even though it`s been well documented over the years by me and others not to send more than two people. I guess the pre inventory visit is out of vogue tis year.
One interesting development this winter is that our DM decided to hire Mexican people with absolutely NO English speaking skills.( We have a trainer that speaks Spanish.)Now,I am talking no English, not even broken English as is the usual case in January. The problem with this is out on the job, there is often no one who speaks Spanish. Communication with these auditors is nearly impossible, and it`s been a real headache for us supervisors.I guess the Home Depot Team must of picked up a few immigrants from out front of the store on their last trip and brought them back to work for RGIS!
I used to work for d 231(Glen Burnie, MD) for 2 summers and one time I remember I was doing a Superfresh. The batteries on my machine went out and they had no other machine to give me and no more batteries and they would not use thier credit cards and just buy the batteries. That delayed things 40-50 mins and so did one hour of not letting any body leave until all the fixes were done. the next week I was told they had taken an unhealthy intrest in my counting. That contributed my descison a few weeks later to give them the shirt, badge and pouch back. ughhh I just saw them last week in Shoppers Food Warehouse and shuddered.
Yeah nothing too outrageous here either. We've finally had a lot of the new people start quitting so the stores aren't really overstaffed anymore but we are encountering the usual where one store gets 20 people and the same store across town only has 10 people. The worst store I've had so far this year was a card store I ran. I got there at 6:30pm and left at 5:00am the next morning. The store was 100 percent printout and they only had two people checking the printouts. There was 52,000 pieces and our count was done at 12:30...so nothing like sitting around for 4 hours waiting on the store to finish their counts. Luckily my DM is awesome and knew it wasn't my fault. What's even more irritating is I had a store the next night that did almost the exact same thing except I managed out of there at 2am...but still was there almost 10 hours.
Yeah, don`t we all love those 100% printout stores where the store people sit on their butts all night until the inventory is almost over, THEN they decide to go back with the printouts and audit the store.
No major disasters here yet, at least not that I've been involved with. We had one Stein Mart that got pretty ugly, we were half a dozen people short, even after my crew getting added at the last minute. We had store personnel making snide comments when they thought none of us were in earshot, and the store manager was on the phone complaining to someone almost the entire night. And we still would have finished on time if the store had been decently prepped.
There were just 4 of us (all experienced) doing the bed and bath department most of the night, which *was* well prepped, and the department manager was pleased with our performance.
We had a Pier One that could have been a problem. For some reason there was a last-minute substitution for the TL running the store, so we were about an hour late getting started. Fortunately, it was too cold to stand outside and smoke, so my wife came up with the idea of sorting and pre-counting everything we could until the TL showed up with the machines. I had to leave early, but the count itself took less than 2.5 hours. I think we salvaged the PIQA on that one.
Then one evening we had an AM call us begging us to do a Hot Topic about 3 hours away. They only had a TL and a couple of auditors headed down there for the start time, and another pair of auditors that would get there 2 hours later. The earliest we could get there was 3 hours after start, but the AM still asked us to go, and offered us a hotel room for the night since we had a Rue 21 in the same mall the next day.
Turns out the Hot Topic was going out of business and was 90% empty. The TL running it called the AM to tell her he didn't need us, but word never got to us. We arrived just as they finished counting.
More RGIS stupidity. Area Managers always have more than enough good counters and plenty of equipment for their stores. Of course, all those good people working big stores are going into overtime. We can't have that, so the smaller stores which are run by Team Leaders get stuck with morons. We're still expected to finish in the time allowed however. At least everybody in our district speaks English. Now if they could only hire people who can add and subtract. They used to require math tests before hiring people, but we had one AM who used to fill out the tests himself. Judging by the caliber of the rookies, they're probably still filling them out themselves. Everything about this company is completely bogus. I really hope that Wal-Mart and the other large customers see this blog.
So last night I show up to run my Arden B (owned by Wet Seal). On the schedule they put Wet Seal and I had this suspicion that no one was going to figure out that the store is actually called Arden B. So what do you know, start time rolls around and I only had one auditor show up. Another one called the store about an hour into the inventory and she tells me she's at home because she came to the mall and didn't see a store called Wet Seal so she went home. The store people were actually nice about it because I played it off like the two of us could just count the entire store (which we did) in a decent amount of time. After about two hours, I was finally sent two more auditors but by then we were almost done. I just got lucky that the store didn't happen to have a ton of stuff in it.
HI all in the US.
I worked for RGIS (Really going insane slowly) about 2 years as an AM and then DM for about a year. It has to go down as one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. How has this company managed to last so long and grow to the size it has. It preached about its values but noone i met who worked there lived or worked by them. Some of the very top guys were ok,I met Rob Hill a few times, but even they just saw you as someone just to gett he job done at whatever cost. They lied to me through the recruitment process and never delivered any of the company benefits i was promised. \The company is a joke, and any one thinking about joining them should run a million miles.
At one point we were sent a new DM from texas, he was a short fat guy, who turned a decent office into a running joke. he left after 6 months, after pocketing a massive relocation fee. Looked like they moved him to get him out of the company. IN the month i left 3 dms resigned and the area manager left. these were guys who had been there the longest. Some of the sainsburys we counted were so bodged and cover up jobs it became laughable. ,my job became damage limitation and all i done was try and placate angry store managers who were probably losing bonus due to RGIS incompetancy. I dont know how they have so many large contracts in the uk.
Run, Run to the hills indeed.
Wretch: Thanks for reading my blog! I enjoyed reading about your experiences (even though like most of our RGIS experiences they sounded kind of yucky, huh?). I hope you'll post some more of your own RGIS horror stories here. It's really cool when we hear from a fellow RGIS'er who's outside of the U.S. :-)
Hmmm. Seen what's on ebay right now?
http://cgi.ebay.com/RGIS-INVENTORY-DEVICE-RM-1_W0QQitemZ150211917437QQihZ005QQcategoryZ71474QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Yep, there's an RM1 up for auction. And, there's a battery charger for same.
http://cgi.ebay.com/RGIS-BATTERY-CHARGER-BC-01-08-RM-01-XX_W0QQitemZ150211923174QQihZ005QQcategoryZ71474QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I live in maine and work for Rgis.. we make 10/h most of the stores we get take at least 45 mins to get their and we only get paid for travel if its over an hour. We also got one "training" session it was 3 hours long then 2 weeks later was in my first store and was clueless and had no help ( they said there would be planty of grey shirts to help NOT!) it is a fun job just its stressfull and hard to have another job cause hey call you the night before to go to a meet sight at 4:45 am
RM-1 on e-bay? Considering the fine craftmanship and trouble free operation, the bidding certainly may top 75, 80 cents, maybe even a dollar! lol! Now, on the other hand, a RM-1 compatible finger laser might just fetch some serious bucks, considering how rare they are in our district!
I'm a member of the Wal-mart team that last year took ourselves from dead LAST to #4 in the company. For our great improvement our team DID NOT receive a bonus last year. We were told that we missed the manager evaluation score by 2% so, sorry no cash for you! Better yet, the Dallas team, which was almost lost to WISI WAS given a bonuse. The whole team signed a petition for RGIS to re-evaluate, let's say show that there was something of the great company left in it, 32 members of the 35 returning team members put their signatures to it. What was the result? THE GRINCH LIVES! The vice president of the Wal-mart teams couldn't even look at the situation and say, hey this team busted their hump and give the team even a minimum bonus. Our DM left the district for a local team, then we get this kid that has no clue what he's doing. Comes back from company meeting and tells us how great a job we did. Tells us that in a meeting with the VP about profit and loss the VP congrats him on the team earning over 500K in profit from the previous year! The moron thinks this would be a good thing to tell people who did NOT get a bonus. Well he hasn't lasted long. Of course there was some hush-hush and he's now gone. We now got another DM, new to her job and over her head. It is sunday, Feb 3 and we start our season on Feb 4th. We just know that we meet at the office at 3pm. We keep getting promised a schedule and she keeps telling us that she hasn't had time. This weekend we were supposed to send 14 people to help El Paso and we only sent 3. She asked for volunteers on Thursday during a team meeting! Hah, it's superbowl weekend! She seems like a nice person but we think we would be in better hands if they would let our hardlines Flow Leader run the team. That the only saving grace is at least our flow leader understands how to get her job done! We also got told that the week we go out to El Paso we are staying in Las Cruces, check out a map and you'll see how much sense that makes. We are told it is because is cheaper! Hell, just put us over the border in Juarez! The amount of inefficiency is astounding from management. We had a big team meeting with our OPS manager, Rick Siler, a Wal-Mart superstar, and he tried to pump us up with this new bonus plan. It keeps changing, the experience people are going to take a paycut when they activate it, and like the EAPH plan it is not thoughtout. He said that he would be around much more than previous OPS to make sure we are on track. Haven't seen him since Dec. This new DM is drowning and he is nowhere in sight! Typical. Well, we will see how next week goes. The DM is all happy that she got support covered for the stores, support will make over 40% of the crew. A crew that gets no benefit from the miracle bonus system. Not to mention that 2 team leaders, 2 recounters, and 2 last season auditors have already quit. We are worried. If the hardline flow leader goes it is going to BAD. I love the hours but my body wouldn't survive it!
Hi Wretch,
I worked at the Bristol office about 2 years ago and then in newcastle. How do you find it and how have you managed to last soo long?
The thing that got me was the fact that they lied during the recruitment process and were all job with company car and benefits etc.
What i got stuck with was a wrecked old van which i never got to use anyway as it was always out taking auditors to inventories. I was told when i made it to dm i was liable for the tax on the vehicle ( this is a uk law, whereby the person liable for a company vehicle has to pay the tax on it.) So i made it to the heights of DM, as i worked hard and genuinly. after 2 months in that role, i saw the company for what it was and i left. 2 months later i recieve a car tax bill for the whole 13 months i was there. Despite the fact that i was only liable for 2 months of the tax they tried it on knowing full well that i would appeal to the tax office. I rang HO and arranged with the secretary to change the tax details, she sounded embarrassed and said it was happening all over the country. The company were trying anything not to pay their own tax bill and trying to put the cost onto their employees. she sorted it for me and the tax office sent me a new bill for 60 pounds. which i still begrudged paying considering i never used the vehicle. THe whole thing stank.
Its depressing to see that it seems just as bad on the usa side of things.
I had a good mind to contact some of the larger retailers that RGIS were ripping off and telling them a few home truths about fixed, batched inventories that were going on, but then i thought well if they are too stupid to see it let them get on with it.
Walmartxauditor: I hear you about staying in places that don't make sense at all.
When we did the Home Depot in Kennewick (WA), we'd stay in Pasco about a half an hour away...and when we did the one in Pasco, we stayed in Kennewick.
I also remember staying in a gem of a hotel somewhere in Oregon that was about an hour away from the store we were doing.
O T L, you are so right about the RM1 for sale on Ebay. Starting bid is 9.99. Lol lol The would be lucky to get 50 cents for it. I agree about the ring lasers made for them. My District didn't get too many. The area managers have made them their own personal property. When you go into a store run by one of them, you see them looking for their pets and giving them the ring lasers giving them, of course, the 'unfair advantage' that is so the norm with RGIS operations. And, when the infamous bonus program begins, these people will have the advantage.
Walmarttxauditor, we have been told that the walmart teams are being used to test the bonus program this quarter. We are well aware that our pays will go down when this begins. However, because of that knowledge, we are finding a lot of the experienced people are not so willing to bust their butts this quarter. There is something about knowing that your pay will go down in April that really takes your incentive away. I being one of those people.
If I don't feel like running certain stores, I am refusing. Plain & simple. What would my reward be? a pay cut at the end of the quarter?
In some of the stores I have been running, they are inserting the new average forms that people would need to get in order to bonus out. Let me tell you, that it will be impossible to get so this is no more than an other eaph program but with a pay cut. I recently did a PacSun. The average in an auto one inventory for a person making 14.00 an hour would have been 1800 pieces an hour. Not exactly an average that would be easy to attain in that type of store.
and, if you know, just how much are they talking about for bonuses?
goochman2:
We had a DM who let the van license lapse, too. I don`t know if he pocketed the vehicle tax money, or if RGIS was too cheap to budget the money. But the van was operating for a good part of a year with expired tabs. The DM quit, and his successor,I assume, had to foot the bill.
Walmarttxauditor:
It`s so typical of RGIS to pubicly tell the auditors that they didn`t make enough money for any bonus to trickle down to them, while privately the management is high fiving each other on how much profit they made, and on the great bonuses that they will be receiving! You should get the rate info, maybe from a sympathetic (maybe ex)manager or someone in the know.A little simple math and,presto,you`ll know how much profit RGIS is clearing from each WalMart inventory.Then, put that in your next letter.( And wait for another excuse from RGIS for them not giving anyone any bonuses.)
TL too:
An APH of 1800 per hour in a Pac Sun? We couldn`t even make 500 per hour in the last one because of all the searching we had to to to find the tags to scan.I think if you batched everything, you might get close to that APH. If RGIS is going to set impossible goals, they are either going to get massive cheating (and lost accounts as a consequence), or an auditor revolt where everyone slows down.I know a lot of auditors who just will slow down; heck, the inventory will take longer, and they know they will recoup income lost in pay cuts by the longer hours worked. The RGIS so called "bonus" plan is self-defeating any way you look at it.
Hey everyone,
I found out this blog while looking for some random stuff on the internet, and it seems that RGIS works the same way all over the globe: the crappy way.
I started doing night inventories when I was a student and then we started working on electronic shelf labels for Carrefour, Casino and so on (the french equivalents for walmart or CVS in france).
My manager was a dick. She was good looking but she was stupid as hell...she got fired cause she messed up plenty of common sense things. The one who took her place was not as good looking but was as dumb as the previous one...it seems that you have to be stupid to work as a manager for this company... anyway, keep up the good work.
PS: my word average for this comment was 750/h...
I discovered this blog about a week ago. Due to RGIS attempting to kill me, I have only now had time to attempt a coherent reply. (I've been up for twenty-seven hours, so do bear with me)
My first comment is: Sir Batchalot, whomever you are, your nickname is made of win, and I would *totally* have your little batchin' babies (even if you're female) if the thought of reproduction didn't disgust me so much! (in fact, I batched today just because I knew it'd piss the store manager off if he knew about it)
Second: OMFG, I almost can't believe that it's the way everywhere that it is here! (well, almost) But hey, knowing RGIS the way I do (due to the crappy job market here, I've worked for them for precisely three years, the last two of which I've spent utterly despising all things RGIS), I'm actually not all that surprised. I know the truth. I work for the Evil Empire. (and a very retarded Darth Vader is somewhere up there, calling the shots) (that, or dyslexic monkeys)
Third: I was recently made to sign a safety disclaimer, (essentially, 'oh noes, don't sue us for not having proper equipment!') and with it, I received an updated copy of the employee handbook. I was stuck at the ass-end of a pharmacy count for about an hour while the greyshirt running it sat on her goddamn thumbs (about all she's good for), so I played 'Circle the Bullshit.' It was an entertaining little romp; and I'd estimate that 95% of the damn thing was bullshit. (I should've just circled the entire handbook and had done with it, but it was amusing anyway)
More when I'm not looking at the computer screen with crossed eyes, maybe. ?
I just wanted to say that you guys have been coming up with some great nicknames. "RMs Must Die", I love it! :-)
Misfit: X3 I swear, the damn things were made by someone with giant hands and a mutant wrist that swivels 360 degrees! There hasn't been an inventory that I worked with them that I haven't wanted to spike my machine into a wall. (or, better yet, into the head of the person who decided this crap was a good idea) Plus, they run Windows, so of *course* they crash at least once an inventory for no good reason. And, like Windows users around the world, we just reboot and attempt to get on with our lives. (and pray that the stupid thing didn't lose that aisle of frozen damn food...)
I hear that they were designed soleley to get the J.C. Penney account back. If so, then J.C. Penney must die too. (actually, I hate that store anyway, but whatever)
It appears that the company`s opinion of the RM-1`s has, at least unofficially, changed in the few months that we have been using them regularly. When they first came out they were regarded as the best RGIS innovation ever, and they could do no wrong. Now the management realizes that they somewhat suck, with all the rebooting and occasional crashing.The attitude now is basically, "just deal with them, we`re working on the bugs".We had a pilot inventory for a large retail chain the other day, and RGIS had a guy from IT there. That in itself shows that they don`t have complete confidence in the reliability of the new machines and equipment.I bet that the IT guy was sweating bullets!Fortunately for him, the inventory seemed to go off normally with no major technical issues.
O T L, when the RM's first came out, my DM could not stop talking about how great they are. Now, into February, having used them in most of our inventories, he isn't so excited about them anymore. His office percentages are way down. Duh! We are in stores longer and using more people in stores to make up for the slower counts. Of course the percentages will go down. But, I also think our accounts are now starting to complain. Our first week of February was horrendous. I started out with a schedule of 8 stores, and 7 cancelled. This never happened before in February.
I ran a store this past week that has always used us exclusively and the manager outright told me that they are now using WIS, or trying them, in some of their stores because of how long our stores have been taking. They are a man hour charge so of course the length of the inventories impacts them. We have another account, who apparently uses both companies also, and their regional manager was making fun of our RM's in one of our stores last week. He said that RGIS told him they were coming out with this great new equipment. He said: This thing is just as big as your old machines, just a different shape with a whole hell of a lot more problems.
So, the RGIS solution to their lost accounts and slower inventories, is to of course, lower our pays. We didn't put this monster out in the field. They did. The general attitude in my District is: if they cut our pays, then we will slow down. They can't believe people will keep counting at their normal speed for less money?? But, maybe they can because they don't seem to have a clue about anything in the field.
Its a joke
These RM1s are crap.they fall to bits apart from the lock ups reboots etc.Now we have the corrupt data message to cope with
Managment havnt got a cle Marcus Wright is a joke its unbelievable,The company is run by Morons , Thankfully Dave Fiedner is coming to the UK he will certainly sort the wheat from the chaff.
You know, it's funny how old RGIS memories play in your mind when you're least expecting it. LOL.
Just today I was thinking about the time when, while coming back from doing a Home Depot, some moron decided to "save" a half an hour of driving time by cutting through the mountain passes.
Long story short, the trailer caused the van to slide around on the ice, finally hitting a guard rail. Where was I when this happened? Sitting in one of the back seats, hoping that the guardrail would hold as it was a 50 foot drop on the other side...and of course, it's RGIS, so no one's wearing a seat belt. LOL.
Northops: you do a grave disservice to morons the world over. X3 I think the company is run by dyslexic monkeys, myself.
404girl: I've seen days when I would've prayed for that rail to give way, just so I'd never have to see another Food Lion, Target, Omnicare, or other store that I hate with all my major organs again!
Update: Apparently, the new management from Florida is just as hideous as the bad old local management here, since all they're doing lately is flogging the peasants. (and, not incidentally, getting a lot of pissed-off peasants)
Also, we peons have not been following the chain of command, and have actually been *calling* the new DM (le gasp!), so all the team leaders got bitched at as regards chain of command. Apparently, he's sick of talking to peons. This is ironic, considering that, when said DM first came in, he sent everyone, peons included, a letter saying that 'we're gonna change everything, there's gonna be raises, bla bla bla bla bullshit.' Glad I automatically assume anything coming out of anyone higher than a team leader is bullshit! (p.s., what's a raise?)
Oh, and in said chewing, the DM in question said that anyone who gets pissed off and slows down is going to be fired. FIRE MY ASS! Gods, they'd be doing me a favour at this point! (and it's typical of upper management at RGIS that they don't try to figure out why someone's pissed off; instead, they reach for the flog!)
My only hope is that the new DM does the 'bungie boss' thing that DMs have been doing for my entire time with this hell of a company and leaves in six months. (before I snap and bean him with an RM, that is)
Everyone must surely know by now that the Blackstone/RGIS employee relations philosophy is: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." They just don`t have any connection with reality anymore up in their isolated haughty world....
Why would RGIS issue these machines without supplying enough external finger lasers? The built-in laser is fine for shoes, and rolling racks with plenty of space, but when you're counting stacks of clothing on a ladder, or even small accessories, you'll need a third hand to get things done fast.
My district has fallen from being extremely profitable to a craphole, where inventories are being cancelled on a weekly basis as a result of slow or inaccurate counts. Percentages are so low, we get threatening emails from higher ups who we've never met before. And who's to blame for this mess? Well of course the regular TLs and auditors who made this district profitable for years before this one! The new management can do no wrong, even though the only difference between making a hell of a lot money last year, and losing a lot of money this year was the change in management.
Oh yeah, those higher up threats consists of reduced pay, fewer stores, or being scheduled to undesirable locations.
But it's a good thing auditors and TLs are putting up a little resistance. Core TLs are refusing schedules altogether, auditors are smuggling finger lasers from management and bringing them to friendly TL stores, and only a few idiots are accepting stores that require a lot of driving/traveling.
I know things in my district will only get worst, as the higher ups never learn their lesson. I don't know how this district will survive as the new management pretty much pissed off all the stores which use welcome us with open arms to do their counts. I don't live off this job, but I feel sorry for the people who do. I’ve known them for years, and the best of times have passed us by.
I still insist that if Blackstone/RGIS are really serious about substantially cutting costs they will get rid of at least two thirds of their management. Grayshirts,epecially the experienced team leaders, can run almost every store presently run by management, with greater efficiency and competency.I`m continually astounded by the stupidity and lack of troubleshooting skills of each new Area Manager we get.Auditor placement is ludicrous--like newhires being put into multiple quantity areas, and top gun types into auto quanity crap, bizarre flow patterns where we jump all around the store ( more likelihood of missing areas), and so forth.Then,when areas end up missing or combined, these new AM`s are stupified and seem at loss to be able to quickly rectify the problems, wasting even more time. All this, and the DM wonders why the inventories are taking longer and making less money? The problem is not the auditors or grayshirts--it`s the frontline management!
O T L, well said!!! I couldn't agree with you more. If they want to save money and cut costs, they need to take a serious look at their managers. You are right that most competent team leaders could run just about any store the managers run. In my District, the managers have become nothing more than glorified team leaders with benefits and perks and making a whole hell of a lot more money. They do nothing when it comes to the management part of their jobs.
Chain of Command!!!!!!! You go to them with problems as a team leader and they listen, agree, and then do nothing to help you solve the problems. They could care less about the welfare of their teams. PIV's are rarely done in my District by these managers. So, take away the management part of the job and dealing with issues, PIV's, etc. and all they do is run stores, then they are nothing more than a grayshirt with a bigger title. We could easily get along with 1 manager to run the really large stores. So, Blackstone/RGIS, if you ARE serious about cutting costs, start with this level. Don't blame the auditors and team leaders. We are out here doing the same job as these managers except we actually try to solve problems for our team members. Your broken link is your management staff who stepped up to get the benefits, and perks but really don't want to do the management part of the job. Glorified team leaders?? Definitely not more than that in my District.
O T L and RM's must die, how about the managers latest perk of company provided cell phones. We couldn't reach them when they used their own phones. Uh? Now the company pays and we still can't reach them when we need them or have problems. Still shutting them off or ignoring their team leaders when they don't want to be bothered no matter what kind of problem we are having. There ya go, RGIS/Blackstone!!! Give them more and more perks and let the real workers take the cuts.
Hi folks, it is very interesting to see how fast informations goes around, I could not read all the comments about PICS/Muscolinos but what I read was absolutely correct. I joint PICS last year, Muscolino has been in the business since 1948 and AST was providing RGIS the technology since 1978, In my opinion this two companies Pics/Muscolinos will do fine and sooner will be leading inventory service in Norther California.
Yes our Starting Pay in Bay area for new hire without experience is $10 - $10.50, with experience you can make up to $15. 70% of our inventories are financial Dept, price and qty (like the old days), personally I do not like auto scanning inventories, all RGIS veterans will agree with me on that , those auto scan inventories make me sleep.
About the equipment we have: Same as Audit 14, with more new features than A-14, following is the link for the machine. (http://www.astmi.com/products_titanepg.aspx). The machines we are using was design as A-15 for RGIS. This machines are Blue tooth/infrared capable, to Scanners and Transmit Data to portable.
For the moment we have Offices in San Jose, Modesto and Sacramento.
It's me again, forgot to ask, can Any one tell me RM-1 are better than A-14.
I use those only for few Auto Scan stores, but never use for multiple qty stores.
I'm not trying to justify the managers but I happen to work in a district where we actually have good managers. We only have one area manager at the moment and then their is our District Manager. Basically, the biggest reason they run the big stores is because the percentages are so low in those stores. So they have to have a manager who is salary run it so they aren't charging their time to that store. It just makes the percentages higher..not a lot higher but that's the biggest reason they run those bigger stores. As for the cell phones, I've never had any issue getting a hold of my DM. I pretty much talk to her everyday and she'll always call me back if I have to leave a message. But like I said..I am in one of those rare districts where we do have good managers. As far as the PIV's and PIC's, us team leaders never did them. The managers were the only one's that did those and up until a week ago that's how it's always been done. We just had a big meeting about PIQA scores by our operations manager and he was the one who told our DM that the team leaders had to start doing their own PIV's and PIC's because it would help with our PIQA scores. Of course this is by someone who has never run a store or done a PIV so we'll see how that one pans out.
(Sorry no flashy nickname) To Anonymous a few comments back:
I've been with RGIS for way too long 8yrs. When I started even the 'GREEN A12's were considered pretty new.
Lets get some things out of the way:
Things I like about the RM-1 (yes there are some good things)
- every machine is potentially an Alpha (no more alpha-roundups or shortages)
- backspace key (handy for those 15digit hand-key SKUs)
- wireless (don't have to hunt around for the RAY .. when it works)
- constantly shows more useful info such as area totals, battery level, time (time is actually new)
- built-in laser actually good for some places .. no laser wire getting snagged or tangled.
Now for biggest gripes (there are more minor grips but this is what I like least about them)
- smaller keyboard (I find I'm mis-keying far more frequent)
- poor key layout: [Enter] is squished between [clear] and [minus] .. two keys you REALLY don't want to hit if you're trying to hit [Enter] .. also resting my hand against a machine to make sure it's oriented right often accidently presses buttons.
- heavy: for a hand-held device this feels like an early 80's cell phone
- mechanically glitchy: laser ports lose my laser a lot. Power button problems too.
- software glitchy: I could write a whole entries about these. Wifi glitches, double-scan glitches, scan-no-beep glitches, random reboots, little stupid things like hitting search should turn on the light because if you've hit search you're obviously wanting to see something.
- another design failure: If doing a store with multiple departments it is impossible to break down department totals.
Answering anon directly. A14s. Even if you fix all mechanical glitches and bugs in the RM1 the A14s are simply an easier design to key on.
Me again -- I heard about this blog after a long night in Victoria's Secret's (VS) back room. RGIS brought back something they tried once and quickly dropped at Kohl's. Something called 'Blind Verification'.
This is a shelf-based inventory. The idea is that your shelf total is HIDDEN as you count. When you finish the shelf you touch the 'Show Totals' button on the screen. You're supposed to piece-count your area and type in your count.
If you fail to match the machine's count (you get 2 tries) the machine locks up (intentionally) and you need a code (from a manager) to unlock it so you can fix it.
After a few hours of this the manager just gave us the secret code because she (who usually is a stickler for the rules) got too tired of unlocking people's machines.
They also added something to the 'pullback' feature. In VS inventories we're supposed to separate and box old merchandise signified by a different machine beep.
The way they did it this time is that first they made the different beep threee looong beeeps. The machine won't let you anything else until the threee looong beeeps are over (about 2 full seconds). If you encounter a pullback item and the threee looong beeeps you DON'T count it -- put the item on the floor and keep going. When done with the rest of the area you switch to shelf 99. Now is where you count all the stuff you put on the floor.
The only good thing (and I mean the ONLY good thing) about this method is that you now have an official displayed count of pullback items so if they recount an area, and find it 5 items short they should be able to tell that 5 were pullbacks and the piece count total should indeed be 5 items short.
This is still a backwards way of doing it. You've scanned the item -- if the machine knows it's a pullback it should automatically do the accounting for that. That's the kind of thing they invented computers for in the first place. There should be no need to scan it a second time.
The worst part is that when you do rescan on shelf 99 you get the same threee looong beeeps to slow you down again.
We had a few areas with 300 panties and about 200 pullbacks. That meant scanning 200 pieces with threee looong beeeps and having to rescan 200 again with threee looong beeeps.
I don't know what kind of APH they expected out of that store but I had an APH of under 300 in that one.
KK, you may have a good District but it obviously is not a large one. We have 1 DM and multiple AM's. I can say that I can always reach my DM. But, I can't reach the area managers. With the amount we have, the team leaders should be able to reach at least one of them. The point is: they do not do the management part of the job for the pays they get and the perks they get. They run stores. but, so do the team leaders. If their teams or team leaders have issues they need addressed, not one of them will take care of the problem. Uh? Management jobs mean managing and dealing. We have so many that there are weeks they run just 1 store. And, unless something really big is going on, they have every weekend off while the team leaders work all weekend running stores. So, in order to keep them busy, they often run mall type stores. For the amount of money they make? A team leader store to keep them busy? That is what I think both OTL and I were referring to. If they are going to make cuts, they need to take a good hard look at that level and if they get a good week's work out of them.
Well, is everyone having fun at the Victoria`Secret`s this week? This " blind count" program sure is a pain in the ass! Misfit, it`s sort of like the old "control 1 " shelf program that you have no running totals.The most annoying aspect of it is that once you have submitted a shelf total, and it doesn`t match, you can`t go back into a search to look for things like an obvious miskey--like 66 instead of 6 quantity--; instead you are forced to make your second total entry. Like Joffre said, if you guess wrong you have to get the password from the supervisor to be able to see the total in your machine, and fix it if it`s off.This program is especially ridiculous in the stockroom. For example, if you are counting a box of 679 thong panties, there is no way to keep a running count with all the counting (beeping) and talking around you. And, of course, it`s virtually impossible to do a dead on accurate piece count of that tangled mass of panties. So,after a 16 to 18 hour inventory the previous night, and realising the futility of the situation, the supervisor just gave out the password to everyone.( It`s a good thing that the actual password remained the same all night--if it was continually changing, the store would be an even worse nightmare.)Apparently,we will be seeing more and more of this type of program.Which means that the APH`s and profit margins will plummet further, and the RM/DM`s rantings will reach even more intolerable levels.
Back to the subject of managers not doing the job--managing-- that they are paid to do. One comment I`d like to make is how this new Victoria`s Secret program exposes the lack of managing expertise and skill of many RGIS managers. A smart manager would always be thinking what would be best for his/her crew, and would take a little more time to tag the store into the smallest units possible in order to make the piece counts for both RGIS and the store people as easy and painless as possible. Instead of entire drawers being one shelf, each divider within a drawer would be considered a shelf.This would make the auditors job easier in the stuffed full panty drawers and the cosmetics (especially the eyeliner pencil/lipstick drawers). Also those nasty cosmetic bowls by the checkouts easily could be broken into smaller areas. The result, would be easier piece counts and less of this inventory slowing password nonsense.Make things easier for all parties? Too radical of an idea! No, not in our district--the management is totally brainless, or lazy, or both.
Yes I agree that if you go to a manager and tell them something is wrong then they should fix it or at least try to. For the most part, when I tell the DM things do get fixed. The only thing that bothers me is that our DM will not fire anyone. She basically will give them less hours but in the end we end up being short people and those people end up getting just as many hours as before. I will agree that it is hard to get a hold of the AM here (normally we have two...but the last one was horrible and she finally left and they haven't replaced her yet). I just always call the DM instead and she's actually okay with that. I actually do work in a large metro city district and we cover almost every big box store in this state and at least one neighboring state and then we do all the other stores in the metro area. They probably do need at least one more AM here because they won't allow us Team Leaders to run any of the big box accounts which we have many. If they did have any more than two AM's then I do think they would be probably taking stores away from the Team Leaders. But in essence, I do agree with you. If they are paying out these big salaries to management, then the management needs to be earning that money which in 9 times out of 10 is not the case. I got lucky getting in a district that doesn't seem to have near the problems that I've read about other districts. (don't get me wrong, we do have our fair share of problems).
That Victoria Secret program is the biggest pain. I've been mostly stuck counting lip gloss, lotions, and makeup so I didn't really encounter the pullback problem but I couldn't even begin to tell you how many times I saw people having to get the password to unlock their machines. Over in lipgloss we would just guess two numbers, punch the password in, and then right the total down. I mean seriously we would never recount 500 plus pieces of lipgloss in any other store. And as far as I know, no one is getting much over 300 APH in that store either.
Wow you guys that "blind count" thing sounds like a major pain in the ass. And to think I used to like doing Victoria's Secret! Well, the backrooms anyway. The floors were a pain in the ass because there were a lot of sections that had about 75 bras jammed into a space that normally would hold around 30 or so. And let's not forget the panty tables with their 600 or 700 hundred pairs of underwear. Yay! Lucky for us I don't think those areas ever got checked or recounted; the VS's in my area just seemed to accept every count as accurate (suckers!). Or at least I never heard any complaints from store personnel about miscounts. The backrooms were fabulous to do because you could batch the crap out of boxes and garbage bags full of bras and no VS person would ever know... ;-)
I just found this blog and it is freakin hilarious!! I have been working for RGIS for 5 years now (I know, too long..but it's flexble, or I'm just lazy). I can't beleive it is the same all over the world. I swear, if the stores we count knew how poorly our company was run, they would count the stores themselves...but then again, they can't count.
As much as I love to complain about the company, it's all i talk about when i am with coworkers. Five other members of my family have worked there and I used to date an AM (never again!) so I have at times been immersed in RGIS.
I have had some pretty horrific experiences over the years. Most recently, I heard my AM was in a store that was running long and so he let the people from the store use our machines to count. The worst part is, I doubt he would have gotten in trouble if our DM knew.
I need a new job. I have been getting few hours, and I am a "favorite".
misfit:
I forgot to mention that they actually are letting Victoria`s Secret managers use our RM-1 machines to audit areas, or at least some shelves,in order to verify our accuracy! ( It`s part of the new program.)Of course, the supervisor has to give them a crash course in the machine operation, and some of them don`t quite catch on very quick.Absolutely absurd! What idea will the RGIS brass come up with next? ( Maybe we should just give them our machines and let them count their own store--we can stand around and watch them all day, then audit/harass them later in the inventory!)
Looks like Bath and Body Works has the blind count feature too and the entire store is now auto one instead of quantity. Let's just say it makes for one really long night..
So, a friend of mine who works for RGIS in Oregon sent me a text earlier saying that she and everybody she knows that works locally got a notice saying that RGIS is being sued because of wages not being paid and overtime....hmmm....
otl
In the UK we have an account "Claires accessories" We send a Team Leader/Superviser with 15 RM1s and the store staff count it for us.We give them a crash course on the RM1s and away they go.
We charge 180 quid for this and store take about 8 or 9 hours.This means after travel auto and superviser payroll we make about 30% its a bloody great joke!
3 of these James Bennet joke accounts and a couple of pounland dollar stores and we might as well all stay home for the week.2 Jags Parry sales director Europe is another useless waste of 100k a year.Lose him and save ourselves some money instantly Paul
north ops:
The customers must be smarter in the UK than the American ones. Over here we do a fair amount of man hour rate stores where we charge them at least $30 to 35 bucks an hour, while sending out the slowest, bumbling, incompetent crews to make sure the inventory goes at least 50% longer than it should.( Newhire city!) The result is usually a nice 60 to 70% profit margin, and, amazingly, the clients are none the wise (until now).We have those Claire`s stores here, but thank God, we don`t inventory them, at least not in my district.Every time I pass by one of them in a mall on my way to run a store I always get this cheery thought: "At least I`m not running THAT store today!" For those that don`t know, the store is about 100% jewelry, earring, barrette peg hooks and spinners that would qickly drive any auditor insane, with all the items falling off the fixtures all the time.A real piece count hell.I do pity that poor RGIS supervisor who had to run the store, though. I bet there`s a bit of supervisor turnover in that account!
What`s a James Bennett store?
I started working at RGIS about May or so. The job itself was okay, but the District and area managers were asses.
See, I'd just graduated high school in may and wouldn't turn 18 until August, so everywhere I went I was turned away because I was still only 17. Then my mom found this ad for RGIS in the news paper. Well, it sounded so boring to me, but I thought it would be better than saying, "Would you like fries with that?" which would ahve been my only other option. Needless to say it sucks to live in this country until you are legally alive at the age of 18.
I didn't hate the people I worked with. I hated that if you rubbed someone slightly the wrong way they wouldn't schedule you all but one day of the week. I'm a college student so I needed money and I needed it quick but apparently I pissed off the district or area manager. I'd called in to make changes to my availablity. They [I dont know which one of them it actually was] asked for my name and number so I assumed they were looking at my profile which would have my age of 17 on it. I mentioned that my mother didn't want me working late nights in bad sides of town and this guy just wised off "Well what does your mother have to do with it?" Uhm, I'm a minor, and unless you want her on your ass you'd better that say that again. I didn't say that but I sure wanted to.
After that they only scheduled me small stores and only once a week so I was only working long enough to pay for the gas out there. I loved the people I worked with, but it was the spineless managers I hated. They used their power over us to make us miserable.
I know work at sally Beauty Supply and love it. So anyone thinking about joining RGIS, visit the area managers first, if they give you a bad impression before you even start working... I'd recommend not even considering them at all, even if you can get above minimum wage.
Tascha: Does RGIS do the inventory for your store? In my dist. we did all the Sally Beauty inventories. If so, is it awkward when they come in to your store?
speed speed speed and now its world records. In our district we now have the speed freaks. stores are being done in an 1hr. we did a bananna repubic sales floor in 1 hr. didnt even pay for the gas to get there. stores that used to go 6 or 7 now go in 3 and if you cant count super fast you dont get work. what happened to accuracy is our primary concern. and its the speed freaks we have to clean up after. RGIS is just a sad place to work. The managers in the office just hire young guys and are condicending to women. We have 3 male managers. need I say more
I'm sure people know this by now but here's what I did in the blind count inventories... I transmitted after every area and used the search to find out what I had counted. Unless I had to delete something and rescan, this worked very well.
I dread what will happen when the new ASET stuff is put into effect. Some of our TLs were already hit with the paydrops and said screw that and are no longer running stores. The one seems much happier now not having to lug around equipment. Unfortunately for our district, that same TL was one of our best and most experienced at the huge complicated stores... so we are having to fumble around a bit now.
And they have redivided up the teams in our district into the Auto Quantity teams and the Multi Quantity teams... but we don't really have that kind of power in our auditing crew and the overlap is crazy.
What looks like it is going to suck the most is this idea where the Top Guns are leaving after the easily counted areas are gone... And somehow it is the supervisor's responsibility to make sure the TGs don't drop their APHs and fall to Expert level, getting that pay cut on their next paycheck. Running a store doesn't pay enough to quell the broken egos of the mighty when they are forced to count clearance.
from what i have heard while working for rgis pics was started be a disgruntled rgis employee i dont know how true that is but thought i'd mention it
Post a Comment