While Starbucks announced planned raises for employees and a loosened dress code, those changes came in the middle of rampant chain-wide unhappiness among baristas. More pay per hour doesn’t help if you can’t actually get scheduled to work, and employees complain that hours have been cut at the stores where they work. [More]
scheduling
Bath & Body Works Will Cleanse Worker Schedules Of On-Call Shifts
By 9.9.15
This summer, a number of popular mall store chains have decided to end the practice of on-call scheduling, a money-saving trick where employees are scheduled to work but told not to report, or are sent home early. Now the dense scent cloud known as Bath and Body Works will join its corporate cousin Victoria’s Secret in stopping the practice next month. [More]
Gap Will End On-Call Scheduling In All Of Its Stores
By 8.27.15
On-call scheduling is a retail practice that looks great on a store’s budget on paper, but wrecks employees’ lives in real life. Gap Inc. is the third major retailer in recent months that has announced that they’re ending the practice across all of their brands, after months working on what they call “sustainable scheduling practices.” [More]
Victoria’s Secret Plans To End On-Call Scheduling
By 6.29.15
Employees at Victoria’s Secret will no longer have to call in to find out if they’ll be hawking lotions, perfumes, bras, underwear and other products on any given day, as the company plans to end its use of on-call scheduling. [More]
TripAdvisor Decides That June 30 Doesn’t Exist
By 7.1.13
Christopher is supposed to be traveling right now. If he did manage to schedule his trip, he didn’t do it through TripAdvisor. That’s because as far as TripAdvisor is concerned, yesterday never happened. If he were trying to schedule on February 29, 2013, they would have a point, but there is a June 30 pretty much every year. [More]
To Resolve Some Customer Service Problems, Just Call Back
By 6.13.13
When people submit their complaints to our site after a single interaction with customer service, we often ask, “Did you try calling or e-mailing back to get someone else?” It sounds deceptively simple, so simple that you might not even bother trying it. You should. It happens to work. Sometimes. [More]
DirecTV’s Technicians Are Great, Their Scheduling System Is Not So Great
By 11.19.12
Karen thinks that the technicians who come to service her DirecTV system are competent, professional, and just great. She has no complaints. Her problem is with the system that schedules them and gets them to her house. Well, the system is supposed to get them to her house. In practice, it just tells her that they’re supposed to come to her house, and she sort of crosses her fingers and hopes that they show up. [More]
Wedding Photographer Ignores Clients For 2 Weeks, Won't Give Deposit Back
By 7.27.11
Emily isn’t sure what to do. Last summer, she and her fiancé hired a photographer for their wedding in August. Earlier this month, about six weeks before the wedding, she tried to contact the photographer so she would be aware of some last-minute changes to the start time of the wedding. The photographer didn’t respond, no matter how they tried to contact her. More than two weeks went by, and they prepared to hire another photographer with a month to go before the wedding. Finally, they heard back from the photographer, who promised their “non-refundable” deposit of $700 back. Then changed her mind. [More]
Persistence Convinces Continental To Abandon Impossible Itinerary
By 6.21.09
Continental thought 82 minutes was plenty of time for Chris to catch a flight connecting in Newark from Washington to Delhi. It might be, but Continental’s own data show that the Washington flight arrives late 96% of the time by 103 minutes on average. Chris wanted to switch to an earlier flight so he could make the once-daily plane to Delhi, but Continental wouldn’t let him switch unless he paid a $250 change fee. Unsatisfied with the answer, Chris hung up and kept calling back until he got the answer he wanted.
As Airlines Become More Efficient, Cheap Seats Become Harder To Find
By 10.21.08
Scott McCartney, who writes the WSJ’s Middle Seat column, says that airlines are starting to use these newfangled things called “computers” to work out all their scheduling demons — and while it’s good for business, travelers should expect fewer “off peak” cheap seats.
Comcast SportsNet Elects To Show Extra Baseball Innings Instead Of Playoff Hockey
By 4.10.08
Comcast SportsNet has more sports than they do channels. When fans of the San Jose Sharks tuned in to see playoff hockey last night they were surprised to see a baseball game in progress. When that game went into extra innings, ComcastSportsNet decided to stick with the game and drop playoff hockey.
