I want to start by saying this isn’t my experience, but a friend of mines. And of course everything is alleged because I wouldn’t doubt this woman would sue at the drop of a hat. But I got to live through it with her. She worked at a big chain pet store here in Canada (don’t know if it’s located in the US or not). This store she specifically worked for? An absolute mess.
Almost every month they had a new manager. In the span she was there (a year and a half) she went through close to 8 managers. Some were okay, some were great. But the one that made her quit: an absolute demon. This woman was the bane of everyone’s existence in this store. She started off relatively nice but the concerning behaviour started a month in. If I went into detail about everything, this would be the longest post in existence. So here are some of the amazing things she did before my friend quit:
-Called her own daughter fat and said that she hated going clothes shopping for school with her because she always looked “ugly in whatever she wore”
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She purposefully would lie to customers about specific food, treats or toys to get for said animals. For example I needed hypoallergenic food, she tried to persuade me to NOT get hypo and get the most expensive food they had in stock (which was not hypo) Didn’t even care about the needs of the animals she was catering too
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My friend was denying an animal adoption because the people seemed uninformed and ill prepared. She didn’t feel comfortable going through with it. Her manager told her that she had to do it, and that the animals were nothing more than merchandise. When my friend told her district manager about it they shrugged and told her her job was to make sales, not make calls denying adoptions.
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She would constantly steal other employees sales. How it worked was if someone helped a customer they would walk them to cash and the sale would go under their name to get raises, more hours, perks etc. she would wait until an associate walked or looked away after helping a customer and pretend SHE helped them and steal their sale.
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The company would lie about animals medical conditions while they were put up for adoption. My friend adopted her cat from them, they said she was a 3year old cat with no medical conditions. After taking her for a regular checkup we discovered she was actually 8 years old, with a long term resp infection and cysts all over her body. When we called the rescue the company “partnered” with they refused to send additional medical records, refused to tell us which vet they took her to upon intake and that they wouldn’t pay for her treatments. We also found out that this rescue is OWNED by the pet company.
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They had an animal that had a prolapsed anus sitting by itself in pain for 8 hours and manager refused to take them to the vet because the store was “busy”. The animal died before they finally took them in.
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I work in the vet industry and this manager told me I didn’t know what I was talking about when I told her a fun vet fact (don’t remember what it was but it was just a fun, light hearted animal fact)
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Every-time I went in the store she was always screaming at an employee ON THE SALES FLOOR IN FRONT OF CUSTOMERS.
We used to joke she would be gone in a month. But then 3 months later she was the longest manager there. It all came to a head when my friend showed up at my door in tears screaming about how she hated her job and her manager. Apparently, she was supposed to be up at til when a customer asked for assistance. She knocked on the managers door to watch the til so she could help them. She rolled her eyes and said “why do you have to help them?” She asked if she would like to help them when she huffly got up and said “no fine, I’LL watch the til while you help them. But when you get back we’re gonna have a talk.” After she helped them her manager got her in the office and SCREAMED at her about how she was useless, replaceable, that she was in charge and that she needed to do her job properly. My friend sat there in tears not saying anything. Her manager said “why are you crying? You’re an adult. Go home until you calm down.”
I was floored, I drew her a bath but I was so angry as a customer and as a human in general. So I called the store, asked for the manager and just reemed her out for everything she did over the months. After my rant I asked for her managers number. She hesitated but said if she got my name and phone number she’ll ask her to call. I promised her if she didn’t I would call everyday until the DM called me. After that my friend got dressed and I told her she needed to leave that job as it wasn’t worth it anymore. She agreed, sent an email terminating her employment that same day. She then called her manager, told her she sent her an email and to never call her again. She blocked her number and the stores.
Well apparently another customer heard her screaming at my friend while checking out and called the store and left a scathing review too about the manager and her experience. It seemed like they were desperately trying to save face as they called my friend a few days later. The DM essentially begged her to come back and asked for her side of the story. My friend told it and said she wouldn’t work there unless the manager was fired. The DM then went on a rant saying “that’s not an acceptable request. Yes she didn’t handle it properly but this seems like a miscommunication that you handled poorly.” My friend immediately hung up after that. The DM went crazy trying to call her back so she blocked her too.
As for me, she did call me. While I was in class so it went to voicemail. DM didn’t leave a phone number to call back or anything. And she never even tried to contact me again. I noticed they didn’t even try to contact the lady who left the review either.
Apparently after my friend quit, so did majority of the staff and other managers. Managers still there to this day, with a very high staff rotation. The only reason she hasn’t been fired? She makes the store money by lying to customers and overworking employees by not paying overtime. Also found out she’s besties with the district manager.
Overall, fuck this company. Fuck what they do to animals and fuck how they treat their employees.