A second Hollywood Video employee has written in to counter the claims made last week by an anonymous employee—he writes, “It sounds like whoever wrote in initially has a particularly evil district manager who is instituting his own policies,” and says that person should “go over his DM and talk to someone at corporate.” But for the rest of us, what matters is that “The EW [magazine subscription offer] never went away, they just stopped requiring employees to push it. They’re actively promoting it again. There’s no ‘silence is acceptance’ however, and we need to scan your credit card (an additional time) to activate the offer.”

Hi, I just read your article about Hollywood Video’s policies and most of it is flat out not true.  It sounds like whoever wrote in initially has a particularly evil district manager who is instituting his own policies.

1. Store level employees covering at other stores: This is pretty much retail chain standard, especially in chains with a small number of employees per store.  Hollywood video will reimburse mileage, you just need to fill out a form.  As far as write ups for refusing, must just be that district, it’s not policy.  

2. As far as the quotas go, yes and no.  At hire all employees are told that offering these things are “must see behaviors”.  They can, and will, fire you for not offering.  There are quotas for Playguard percentage (somewhere in the range of 1.5% for employees, and 5% total for the store, off the top of my head), though employees can’t be fired simply for failing to meet the number.  (You can’t /make/ people buy stuff)  Store Managers /can/ be fired if their store fails to meet the target two periods in a row.  

3. There is no policy that prevents employees from telling people the money from Playguard does not go to charity.  I will admit it is pretty shady to just stop donating the money however.  

4. Employees can’t remove late fees?  Weird, I did it this morning. This may be a policy local to a district if it was getting out of hand.  My best guess anyway.  

5. After 12 days the late fee does go to a separate screen, this has been true for a long time.  It’s not to frustrate and confuse people however, and employees see both screens when an account gets pulled up, so if a customer is confused it’s solely the fault of an incompetent employee.  The reason for the two screens is that after twelve days, only the store manager (or assistant) can remove or alter the late fee (IE you better have a good reason for being so late).  

6. Receipts don’t print for cash transactions that only have rentals or concessions on them.  This is just to save paper.  An employee can print one if it’s asked for.  

7. The EW thing never went away, they just stopped requiring employees to push it.  They’re actively promoting it again. There’s no “silence is acceptance” however, and we need to scan your credit card (an additional time) to activate the offer.

The conditions described by the previous tipster must be local, because I don’t deal with anything like it.  I’d advise he go over his DM and talk to someone at corporate.

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