Dillard's Consumer Reviews - Page 3

THE VILLAGE, ARIZONA -- Let's get started! For about 7 months I was an employee at a Brand New Dillard's in Arizona, I'll say it was the one at the new outdoor mall / Village. I was originally hired for fragrances. My first manager surprisingly was barely able to walk and chew gum at the same time better yet manage 30-40 people. I thought it was weird that they would have 8-10 people work in one section of a department, i.e. one register. Supposedly I was to make $145 an hour in sales. We were lucky if we had 900 dollars in sales all day, split between everyone working from open till close.

People (mainly one lady who was a “pacesetter”) would bicker, fight and steal sales to be number 1 leading to a very tense work environment. They kept me in this area for 4 months even though I was consistently under my sales goal and had no chance of making it for a raise. But every morning at our “meeting” (i.e. propaganda BS) we were told to expect a BIG DAY and OPEN CREDIT APPS!!! That seemed to be even bigger than selling merchandise.

Every day they talked, like they were brainwashed, about how the customer needs the Dillard's card and to sign up at least one a week. Always ask if they'd like to redeem their reward points! You only have to spend $1000 dollars at Dillard's and you get a $10 off coupon on your next purchase if you use your Dillard's Card. Credit app this, credit app that, hell we even had to go to Credit College if you didn't open 1 a month to learn how to push these cards on people.

At 1 “Credit College” our manager said that we need to get them to sign up for the card any way possible. When asked by an employee “if you were a customer would you sign up for one”, his answer was “no way, the rates are way too high”. Hmmm… wasn't this the magical card that gets people to spend more at our store even when they don't have the money to pay for the merchandise. If it's so great why wouldn't you sign up (maybe a 19-27% rate depending on the card might have something to do with that).

Anyway, after Inventory (scanning and counting everything in the store) there was plenty of firings and layoffs for just about any small reason you can think of. A week or two later they started hiring more people back, and they were getting paid less than the people that opened the store. Easy to see what's happening here!

After inventory, I was told that I was being moved into another department because I wasn't hitting my sales goal even though I still had 2 months to my review. I started my first day in the new department and my training consisted of “F1, F1, and F1, We need you on markdowns.” I wasn't shown the layout, wasn't told about the merchandise I was selling, wasn't told about the history of the brand names, nothing. I've never done retail before and I'm supposed to sell some guy clothes and answer questions on it shrinking, what material it's made with, i.e. Also, now my sales goal jumped to $177 an hour. Great, that'll be easy. If I could actually sell first.

I worked mornings so the first 15 minutes we have our “Credit App speech and Show and Tell”, good thing we're all adults. Then a good hour of maybe 1 or 2 shoppers in the whole department while I have to open the register, recover the mess from the night before, back-stock and move/organize any new merchandise that was unloaded this morning and more.

Now at about Noon-1 o'clock, the second shift gets in, time to beat them to a sale! Then, the manager of Men's, who resembles a dorky meerkat with bad intentions, would give me a project. “Organize the stockroom, fold and hang all this merchandise, go upstairs and grab hangars or whatever”. Why? It's a little difficult to sell your overpriced no-named clothes when I'm in the backroom sweating and hanging up these ugly shirts. Why would a store order such a ridiculous amount of big, thick oversize jackets and ugly grandpa long sleeve shirts in Arizona anyway? Beats Me.

Either way, it was an easy job if you could find something to fold or something else to waste time, like figuring out what you got paid per hour/second/millisecond (it was worse than watching grass grow) until your lunch or closing time.

I was let go for a stupid reason that many other employees were getting away with scot-free, it's something that was done by most of the women working in ladies shoes, most of the women working in the women's department, and a few of the managers that I knew about. They would take and use merchandise for the day or even just keep the merchandise, basically skimming from the company. 2 women I knew would walk into work wearing their shoes and then put on a fresh pair of shoes from the stockroom of women's shoes (L & D).

I've also seen them buying 75% off shoes and switching them with a full-price pair of new shoes while keeping the old box (L&D again). The cosmetics manager would snatch up testers, samples and damaged (yeah, damaged) goods (R). There were affairs and hook-ups going on between managers/associates and even managers/managers (too many to name). Managers would talk behind your back, or give out non-sense schedules to make you want to quit so they don't risk paying unemployment.

Also, hiring new people at cheaper hourly rates rather than keeping the old employees. You know, the ones that unloaded the trucks, opened the store and ran their inventory for them. They worked/scheduled too many people in one area so that it's a fight to get a sale, making the whole day tense.

The few positions that do have commission have no chance of getting close to making any; they're always in the negative for commissions. When people do get close to hitting commission more than once, they hire more people to make getting sales harder and harder so they don't have to pay a commission bonus of $100-$300 a month. But don't think that's it. If you don't hit your SPH then you're treated as lazy and not a team-player. Basically treating you like an expendable idiot unless you bow and cater to their egos, and even then you're just buying time.

When I started there were about 35 people in cosmetics and 30-35 in Men's. Now there are about 15-17 in Cosmo and 10 in men's. If that's not a horrible turnover rate, I don't know what is. And it's roughly the same with the other departments.

I can say that I will never work in retail again, just because of this terrible experience of working in this horrible company. The only person there that had and still has my respect is the top General Manager of the store. He's a great guy that I think got caught up in a bad company and just has to wake up and smell the coffee. Anyway, this company is sinking faster than a brick in water and I can't wait to see it be bought out and finished. Hope this rant helps you to pick any other place to work besides Dillard's. I will never go there for anything again and I tell everyone I know not shop at a store that doesn't care for its employees or even their customers.

CHANDLER, ARIZONA -- I was an employee at a Dillard's store in the Phoenix area for seven months. During those seven months, I endured a lot of crap and was always hassled and treated with disrespect by management and other employees. I started off working on the dock, which wasn't so bad at first. Then, after a couple of weeks I realized how that place really operates and I started to question "Is this job really worth it?"

After a couple of incidents that I had nothing to do with one night, I threatened to quit. I was talked out of it by a couple of co-workers, though. I then put in my two weeks not long after because I wasn't making enough money and they were working me to the ground. They only had me scheduled for four days off the ENTIRE month of January, whereas everyone else I worked with had at least two days off per week! I refused to work that schedule and that was one of the reasons I wanted to quit.

On my last day with fifteen minutes to go, I negotiated with the Asst. Store Manager, whom I will not name. She offered to move me to the sales floor, and I accepted. I wanted $10/hr, but she gave me $9.50 and told me to deal with it. I then ran the young men's denim area for the rest of my employment there.

To make a long story short, I put in my two weeks again, which expired on Saturday, May 5th. I was accused of stealing by the manager of the kid's department. She said they have me on tape stealing bedding. I told her off because I do not like being accused of something I didn't do. I was merely helping a customer out with their packages because there was nobody on the dock to help her.

Am I just going to say no, I can't help you? I had her receipt in my hand and it matched the two packages that were waiting there. I think they fired me because they were mad that I was leaving. The damn place has become like a High School. They monitor the parking lot in the mornings and make sure that employees aren't parking in the blue area. They're even confiscating associate's cell phones!

This company is ridiculous! All they care about are their pacesetters and opening up credit apps! I never asked a single person for a credit app during my employment there nor did I ever once wear a nametag! I hate Dillard's with a passion and I will NEVER shop there again because they treat people like crap and they are a very racist company!

Notice their ads in the paper? The models are all white! Even if you're desperate for a job, don't ever work at Dillard's because you will hate every minute of it! Let's just get everyone together and boycott Dillard's and not shop there! Anymore disgruntled Dillard's shoppers or current/former employees out there? I want to hear from you!

BEACHWOOD, OHIO -- I was visiting a family member in Cleveland, Ohio. We went to Dillard's dept. store to purchase a dress for the event that we were attending that evening. There was this customer service employee by the name of Kay that was being of service to us. My cousin wanted to try on a beautiful dress and the lady had no problem at first until she noticed that there were four others that was with us. Two of which were her daughter, my daughter and my niece. She alerted security for no apparent reason (I did not notice security until my cousin had mentioned that he was following us).

At any rate, she was very rude and arrogant wanting to know what happened to the dress that my cousin had tried on. Now I did not know that prior to her asking about the dress, my cousin did not like the way she was acting so she politely took the dress to the shoe dept. so she can find the perfect shoes to match and to no longer have to deal with the rude employee. I had asked the rude employee to hold a dress for me and she kindly did.

When I arrived back to her station to purchase the dress she asked me where was the other dress and I didn't know what she was talking about until she mentioned my cousin. I politely told her that I was here to purchase the dress that I asked her to hold for me and she had this real nasty attitude (with a smile on her face) and to this day I still don't understand why she was so rude to me. I had noticed that the dress was a little wrinkled and I asked her if she could steam the wrinkles out. Sure enough with a lot of attitude she told me that it would be wasting her time because the dress was polyester and the wrinkles would still be in the dress.

I also noticed that the belt that came with the dress was cracked and I asked if I could get a discount and she (once again with attitude) told me that they would not give me the discount and if I wanted the dress or not! I eventually got 10% off of the already marked down dress. I really could not believe this lady was being terribly rude to me in front of my daughter and my niece. I asked if there was anyone else that would help me with the dress so she stormed off and said "I am not going to stand here and deal with this". I am stunned at how this woman was acting.

I asked the other employee that came to help with the sale what her problem was and the much kinder sales clerk said that the woman was always like that and that a lot of the other employees did not like her. The store manager came over to me and my family and asked us "Which one of you ladies used profanity" at his employee and we all were shocked that the woman went back and made up these ridiculous lies that she say we said to her. The manager was very rude and told us that they did not need our kind in his store and for us to please leave. Our kind... That was a racist remark he made and security escorted us out of the store.

My first time in this store and this is the treatment I get. I am not going to stand for anyone being rude like that in front of me or my children. I will never go to any other Dillard's dept. store again. The security guard told us that it was a crime to use profanity and told him that it was a crime to act racist. Dillard's will never have to worry about me coming in their store again.

LUBBOCK, TEXAS -- It's disconcerting to read about the complaints against Dillard's in these other cities/states. The one in Lubbock is consistently excellent in every department, every visit. The sales staff are knowledgeable, helpful, courteous, store always very clean and bright and well stocked. I don't see turnover. Rather, I see the same salespeople year in and year out. They must be doing something right - here in Lubbock, Texas.

OHIO -- Purchased online, thought it was free shipping. Charged $8 after check out. Returned, used included shipping label. Another $6. Took 3 weeks. Awful, will NEVER shop there again! Total purchased was $139. Only received $120 back. Invoice shows $119 charged. Could dispute charges with bank but I don't feel like dealing with this company anymore.

SOUTH CAROLINA -- I placed 2 Black Friday sales orders. The first order was cancelled after 5 days. Now I will not receive the order and Black Friday sales are over at the other department stores. The second order had to be shipped from 2 different stores and they charged my credit card extra fees without my permission.

NORMAN, OKLAHOMA -- I worked as an Sales Associate in the Accessories Dept. (Mostly in Jewelry). Sometimes in an 8 hr. shift I would have one customer and sale one pair of earrings for $29.00. They would want you to sale $800.00 for that shift. How are you going to do that if you have no customers. Sales goals are unreachable. There is a new batch of trainees always waiting in the shadows. You're expendable.

CALIFORNIA -- Never order anything from this store. If they have a discount, the item will be non-refundable. They charge you for shipping and if you return you have to pay the shipping. Do not judge the clothes by description. The material on all three items I ordered was very poor. I will never never order from this store again.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- Considering to work for Dillard's? I urge you to do your due diligence and find out the truth about working for Dillard's, make your own informed decision. It is a very hostile environment with a revolving door. This company operates solely on sales and opening credit apps, that is it. There is no customer service. It's all about SELL SELL SELL. Managers are phony and have their special associates. You will hear all the time how they are a team, like family and how they help each other out. Yeah right, team my ass.

I am an Ex-Employee of Dillard's as of 2014. The starting pay was $10/per hour which is what entices most people to apply. Training sucks. They basically teach you how to ring someone up and then throw you out on the floor. Once you graduate you are then assigned an area whether it be home, juniors, etc. and your hourly rate went up to $11/per hour.

Every week your are responsible for markdowns and moving that merchandise to a sale rack. Then new merchandise comes in and you are responsible for putting it out or I should say cramming it on a 4 way or hook etc. because it has to be put out. You are required to make your Daily SPH quota. This can be very tough especially during the weekdays when the store is dead. They want you to sell full price items and you are required to open 1 credit app. per every 40 hours you work. Making over your daily SPH does not carry over to the next day, but not making your SPH sure does.

They set you up for failure. The more sales you make the higher your SPH goes. Returns count against you, period. Based on the area that I worked in there were 9 of us total. There would be 3 or more of us on the sales floor on any given day.

The sales associates will steal other associates sales in order to make their quotas right up to literally pushing you out of the way. I saw it happen with my own eyes, no joke. If you do not meet your SPH goals they will terminate you and replace you. In my case after they terminated me they had the nerve to ask if I wanted to complete my shift, SMH really?! If you make it through it and they terminate you, you can collect unemployment. My advice: find somewhere else to work. You will be glad you did and much happier in the end.

I worked for Dillard's as a pacesetter for 10 years and then left to accept a position elsewhere. After 5 years I went back to work at Dillard's and was shocked at Dillard's management style and how they treat their employees. There was little or no training - I was simply thrown on the sales floor. They over hire sales associates in all departments to prevent associates from selling their "required quotas" enabling them to cut the employees hourly wage as they are rarely able to maintain their quota.

Regardless of how aggressive I was on the sales floor I received 2 pay cuts (making barely above minimum wage) and was finally let go for not meeting my required quota. My "reviews" were random and I wasn't given the full designated length of time to improve my performance on the sales floor between review periods. During my review I was told that the associates would be rotated within the department to even out the sales as some areas were busier than others but that never happened. There was always a lot of tension on the floor as sales associates struggle/stress over making their quotas so as to not get a pay cut.

Associates in "special" departments such as the women's coach handbag department were given free rein over the area and were allowed to bully other associates and intercept sales in the department. Numerous complaints to the store management were met with deaf ears. I was told by the marketing manager at Northpark not to bother her or the store manager with issues within the department - they simply didn't have time or care - they had better things to do.

Dillard's forces their employees to quit or "terminates them for not making their quotas" so they won't have to pay unemployment which is very underhanded. If you must find retail work during this terrible economy go anywhere but Dillard's. I still plan to file unemployment as they set me up to fail.