Hmmm.
My customer from hell turned out to be my bloody manager.

Note - This was back in the days when we had manual credit forms to fill in, big green and white sheets, requring all of the customers details on it. We then had to ring all the details through and wait for an answer. Took anything up to an hour in the good 'ole days. None of this online stuff, anyways I digress....

For my first ever 'real' job I worked in an electrical superstore, a reasonably big N.Ireland based company, selling assorted brown and white goods.

I always enjoyed my time in sales, however some of the stories on here have brought it all crashing back, all of the associated customer muppetry and spittle flecked, rabid, complaints were, and obviously still are - a part of the job.

As it turned out, I was reasonably good at sales and was always up in the top two or three sales peeps for our store, however shortly after having our new and shiny manageress installed. Things started going slightly amiss. Large sales for £1500 Tvs and stereo systems were put though on my days off, with all of the associated credit slips being filled out in (as I later found out) my name.

First couple of times it happened I was kinda chuffed, as everything seemed to have been done legitimately and it had all been signed off by the manager. However on the third big absent sale I got a bit suspicious and spoke to another sales guy on the floor, Ian, only to find out that he was havng the same phantom sales happen to him. In fact he'd sold over £2000 pounds worth of stuff when he was on a two week holiday. Alarm bells started to ring.

I spoke to the new manageress, she assured me that everything was perfectly legit and all above board and things for me anyways, quietened down. A few more weeks go by and no phantom sales. We then got a new deputy manager in, transferred from Head office to 'observe' the store.

The situation that developed was not a nice environment to work in, everything was being watched by this deputy, everything was being picked apart and questioned - particularly the credit agreements. Audits were common place as stock had turned up missing, large screen Tv's and such like. The atmsophere was pretty well poisonous.

It was at this time another electrical sales company had just openened it's doors in the town and I was poached by one of their sales guys who had come round under the pretense of buying a tv.
I was offered an interview after work that day. I accepted, and to cut a long story short I was offered the job and I took it. I duly worked my weeks notice.

On my last day, the company director lands down with two official looking sidekicks . Can he have a word, Mr Viper?

Them - Do you know anything about these sales?

Me - No...

Them -Is that your signature on the credit documentation?

Me - Ummm, yes. But I wasn't in that day.

Pause whilst holiday records are pulled.

Slightly worried Me - Should I be getting legal advice at this point?

Them - No we're only checking at this point...

Them - Why are you leaving now?

Me - Because I've been offered a job down at Curry's, on better money.

Them - Can we have your contact details if we need to talk to you again?

Me - Sure, but what for? Am I in trouble for something?

Them - Not at this point, we just checking some loose ends...

We met once more - they called me about a week into my new job to clear up a few things - A few more credit slips were produced with my name on them.

At this point I was genuinely, really worried and spoke to my father, who said not to meet them again without due legal representaion. They then asked to meet me again, at this point I suspected that there might have been some serious fraud involved and alarm bells were ringing.
I declined as they were being very coy with their answers and got downright evasive when I mentioned solicitors, refusing to tell me what I was being questioned for apart from the fact that it was part of an onging investigation.

To cut a long story short. The shiny new manageress and one of the other sales people had set about defrauding the company with a slew of false credit sales, all put through on other peoples sales records using forged signatures.(The joys of carbon copy sales agreements) They then took the 'sold' stock home with them for resale or whatever.

I was one of those victims. So were another three sales people who worked in the store. The goods totalled about about 25-30K, which was quite a lot for the store. The stock involved had been lifted by her their respective husbands after the store had closed. We, as sales droids, had gotten commission on all of the frauded sales and were all therefore suspects.
I found all of this out after, through a few friends I had made during my time there at other branches and head office.

To rub salt in the wounds - about a month after I had started with Currys, I was pulled into my office regarding possible fraud allegations from my previous employer (It seems that the rumor mill had been working quite well) I explained what had happened as best as I could, as I didn't know exactly what was going on at that point (I kept them informed of any information that I recieved as it all came to light) Thankfully at that point they believed me and I managed to keep my job.

No real happy ending I'm afraid. The manageress and her pet sales/fraudster both got the sack. To my knowledge no charges were ever pressed and I was thankfully never contacted by the company again.

However I did see my ex-manageress once since then. She was working behind the counter for X-tra Vision. (A N.Ireland Blockbuster DVD rental place) Also the town branch of that particular Electrical superstore closed shortly afterwards and is now a pet store.

length = bloody epic...
(uk_viper stopped lurking on, Mon 8 Sep 2008, 11:44, Reply)