L. works at a popular retailer of plus-sized women’s clothing, Avenue. Selling clothes is the job that she signed on for, and she doesn’t have a problem with that. It’s the credit cards and magazine add-ons her company wants employees to push on customers that make her uncomfortable. She vented in an e-mail to Consumerist about why this bothers her so much.

I am an assistant manager at a women’s plus-sized clothing store, Avenue. The biggest problem I have had with my job I’d that the company requires me to obtain four applications for our store credit card per week. My store is in a big city and most people aren’t approved for the card, which carries a 24.99% APR, and most customers aren’t approved. I hate that the company requires I solicit the card four times per transaction before I accept the customer’s “no”. If I don’t get enough applications per week, I’ll surely be written up and that can lead to termination.

In the last six months or so, my company has started soliciting magazines to every customer making a purchase with a credit card. When a customer pays with a credit card, I am required to let them know they are eligible to choose three magazines for three months free of charge. The magazines offered include Oprah’s magazine “O”, People, In Style, and others. The way the program works is, at the end of your three months you’ll receive a notice that says the card you used to pay for your clothes will be charged to pay for the Magazines subscriptions…up to three, if you chose them.

Now here’s the part that really bothers me: These magazines carry a normal subscription rate of any where from $15 to $25 a year. With this program, you’re charged only HALF of a marked up subscription the first time. If there are any consumers out there that don’t read the fine print, you’d probably think you were charged around $20 for your subscription to “O”, when in fact you’ll find out it was $40 in six more months.

And yes, I am written up if I dint get enough people to sign up for this.

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