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I'll save everyone the very long details of why I have come to the conclusion that Sterling Jewelers is about as crooked as they come. Anyone who has been employed by Sterling knows what kind of work place it is.

Sterling couldn't care one ounce about their employees. The proof is in how they treated my wife and other employees after they were slapped in the face by her store manager. The store she works in does not have surveillance cameras. And the fact that they will fire an employee for not selling as much as they think should be sold.

They apparently don't realize the economy sucks and firing an otherwise good employee is not helping the unemployment problem any.

If you have been fired by sterling for not having your "standards" up, or some other B.S reason, feel free to contact me at jhallisey1231@***.net and I'll be happy to provide you with CEO Mark Light's personal contact information. Even if your just a disgruntled customer and have gotten no where with the Kay's or Jared's store that you got the product from feel free to get a hold of me and we can all let Mark Light know what kind of company he is running.

Location: Carlisle, Pennsylvania

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Guest

I agree Kay Jewelry Store is not a fair store to work for, not emotionally safe, not a professional environment to work at for a Jewelry Store.

Guest

Thank you for sharing your story & listening to mine.

My harassment is too long and detailed.

I am a Christian lady so that is one reason I felt very harassed but all the dirty talk, swearing, gossip, and being bullied......I will not ever go back to that company.....and I will not tolerate harassment ever again.

I almost thought of suicide because how they mistreated me. I forgive them but that doesn't mean I should allow people to continue to bully me for my hard work, excellent customer service skills, and sales being stolen from me.

Guest

It's a corporate world without expectations they wouldn't be as profitable as they are. I've worked for the company for 5 years. I've seen a lot practice the right habits and your standards will be up and stop complaining

Guest

I work for Sterling and I am a VERY hardworking employee. My sales are up very high, I have only been there for a few months and I already have loyal clientele that love me.

I am genuinely concerned for everyone who walks in our store. Whether it be a co-worker or customer. I care about my job and I take it seriously. I love and respect the people I work with.

But does anyone give a ***? Of course not. Want to know why? Because my credit card apps are down.

Why? Because, unless someone specifically asks me to fill one out, I don't have the heart to do it. Who cares how hard working I am? I'm down in apps.

If anyone is up in all 6 quotas, they can get away with ANYTHING! My assistant manager calls off all the time, he refused to show up to any meetings Sterling "requires" people to go to. But, he's up in credit apps, so he can pretty much do whatever he wants.

I actually still like my job, for some reason, and I have been told (much to my boss's dismay) that I'd have to get written up if our store was down in apps.

Which can result in being fired. FIRED? Over *** credit card apps? Who cares that I am a very dedicated and hardworking employee that strives to be the best every day?

Who cares? I get harassed and bullied by my DM about it. And so does my boss. And it's not fair to him.

All Sterling is good for is breaking its employee's spirits to get them to bend to their every little whim. Instead of using good, positive, and healthy encouragement they use threats, and they bully the people under them like they aren't even human beings.

I have never felt so dehumanized in my life.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-875871

Thank you for making my point exactly. I'm sorry you have to deal with their BS.

No one from corporate even cares about employee morale. They only care about the bottom line and themselves.

Typical corporate ***. Good luck with your future endeavors, hopefully you can get out of there and find a good place to work.

Guest

I don't know if my thing has any to do with this but I preaches a 13kD 14k gold ring for 5,000 dollars.. Well I was paying for if it gets lost stolen or anything bad that would happen to the ring it would get replaced..Well sad to say that on a night out she somehow lost or missed passed the ring..

Ok I said make a police report cause that what we was told to do if we was to lose it or if it was to get stolen..

So we called the main offices and we was told that with a report or not that they can't help use and we was like ok what our cash they said sorry cant help and was told I still have to pay the 5,000 for the ring our wedding is in 2 months and now I have no ring for my wife and out off cash to even get other.. So if u could help me get of hold of someone that could really help us it would be nice of u..

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-688635

The Kay lifetime warranty only covers loss of the DIAMOND from the setting. This coverage comes with no additional cost.

The goal is to warranty the quality of their product and not the misfortune of their customers, and it has never been presented otherwise!

It does not cover "loss" nor theft of the ring itself. Lets be real here!!!!!

That's the kind of insurance you PAY for. Claim it on your homeowners insurance that you PAID for, and stop blaming the people who had NOTHING to do with your loss!

Guest

If I only knew where to start with this crazy company. I have worked for sterling for a little over a year and a half and today i was fired due to my "standards". My own personal little hypothetical "slap in the face" if you will.

I am here to tell you i have never worked for a more abusive or corrupt company. i was transferred twice in the entire time I worked for the company. the final transfer was to a store that was already struggling and sales were hard to attain. in the 8 months I worked at that location we had 3 different store managers and 2 assistant managers. The original manager had been in that store for 13 years or so and when she moved to a different store she took all of her clients with her. when she was managing the store her clients kept the store above water. Because the economy is so bad and the value of the merchandise itself has considerably dropped (the merchandise is Sh*t),people were not interested in buying from us. If that wasnโ€™t bad enough the corporate set goals were outrageous. For my last VIP Sale (the biggest sale of the year) my personal goal was $20,000 dollars alone. No thatโ€™s not a typo... i was expected to sell twenty thousand dollars worth of cheap *** than no one wanted to buy that was ridiculously over priced as it was.

As if that wasnโ€™t bad enough I was constantly harassed about credit applications.... in order to achieve one credit application every day for each person in the store it required all of us standing out at the front of the store begging people to give us their personal information just so we could keep our jobs. And the majority of the time it was the "pretty girls" being sent out to beg any passing young guy. I personally felt extremely cheap and degraded every time i had to look someone in the face and beg for them to fill out the piece of paper. Credit applications were one of my worst standards.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN FIRED OR WRITEN UP AT WORK IN MY LIFE. I consider myself a great worker and sales person. While part of me thinks i should feel ashamed for losing my job, the other part of me is relieved and glad that that *** is over.

To anyone thinking about working for the company.... DONT! its not worth the stress or your dignity.

Guest

I know I'm late, but FYI Sterling doesn't have insurance, its a self insured company, if u don't what that is then look it up, and very few mall stores have surveillance, all outside locations will, but most of those cameras point towards the employees. People...

Guest

MauiAL50,

There is a problem with it when by all other accounts the employee does what he or she is told, goes above and beyond when doing their job, and always bends over backwards for the company. The problem lies in the fact that certain stores and certain areas just don't sell as much as people in corporate think they should. It's call living in the real world. Do you think my wife was the only one that was down in sales? If so, I've got some news for you.

This economy alone makes it hard on any sales related business. It is not the employee, it is the over-inflated sales goals put on the employees by corporate.

Finally, putting all that aside, do you see a problem with a company that allows employees to be physically and verbally abused by higher ups and does nothing about it when it is brought to their attention? Do you have a problem with a company who has a track record for treating employees with little respect and dignity? And, do you have a problem with a company who disrespects one of our combat veterans on veteran's day? I sure as *** do and, so long as your not a Sterling corporate shill (which is a great probability), so should you.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-473110

I've seen the pressure put on employees. I'm only a husband who's been there and done that through another company.

But I see problems in my wife coming.

She has just won a cruise and I've tried to tell her she will have to pay for it one way or another in the future. She is still employed there so I have to keep my identification hid.

Guest

I am just curious what is wrong with letting an employee go if they fail to meet company standards regarding sales goals? If an employee doesn't meet their goals, how can they be considered a "good" employee since the job is all about selling? And yes, I work in a retail operation that has goals I must meet to keep my job.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-473018

The problem is not that employees do not make their sales goals ... they do and they work very hard to do it.

Managment is constantly re-ringing sales, taking them away from employees to punish them and giving them to their favorites(usually the girls who show off their goodies! or the other managers!)

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-652067

Actually I work for the company and I am not allowed to she too much "goodies" because it's unprofessional and it can easily turn into a customer care issue.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-473018

The real problem is that sales goals set for employees at Kay are simply unrealistic. The store I was in had almost no traffic (three people came into the store over a 6-hour period), and there were three employees on the floor, plus the manager.

That means that even if all three people bought something, at least one employee wasn't going to meet their daily goals - and there are six daily goals.

Sterling sets up its employees for failure in all of their stores (Kay, Jared, J.B. Robinson, Osterman, Belden, Friedlander, Goodman, LeRoys, Marks & Morgan, Piercing Pagoda, Rogers, Shaws, Weisfield, Ultra Diamonds, Sterling Jewelers, Zales - yes, they own all of them).

Goals are set without regard to store traffic, mall traffic, location, local economy, national economy, or any other factors that would mitigate the numbers provided by Corporate.

This breeds an atmosphere of high stress, high competition, back-stabbing and sales stealing.

It's a toxic workplace, and the toxicity is created by the unrealistic expectations of a corporation that is well out of touch with the basic realities of today's financial and retail market.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-876965

Bravo. well said.

Unrealistic is an understatement. The pie is only so large and does not expand 20% each year............They keep opening new stores in the same market place, so the slice of each store's pie gets nothing but smaller each year. Yet..........they still expect and set goals unrealistically high on purpose, so they do not have to actually pay good employees for what they earn. I personally know of a situation where one employee sold over 300K in one month, but because the store did not meet its BS Goal, she made less than $50 bucks in commission that month!!!

As for credit.............OMG lets face it!

It is shameless! People who have good credit do not NEED another account to manage. People who have NO credit, or perhaps have marginally bad credit, SHOULD NOT BE BUYING JEWELRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They should be paying cash for FOOD for their family or maybe electricity bills?

As lovely as they are, you cannot EAT diamonds.

There is absolutely NO BENEFIT to open a Kay Charge!! We try to BS people into opening an account promising "special sales" and "special discounts" offered only to our "preferred account holders". That's complete BS!.

They get nothing but an extra bill each month, financed at a WHOPPING TWENTY SIX PERCENT.....yes u read that right, 26% finance charges.........and another VERY QUESTIONABLE credit inquiry that degrades their credit score. The max we are allowed to offer to a prospective credit applicant is a lousy 10% discount. And that's only on product not already offered in that period's sale brochure. ANYBODY could negotiate a 10% discount!

ANYBODY!

At least if you paid for luxury items like jewelry with a reputable credit card, you would likely get some kind of usable benefit like FREQUENT FLYER MILES or something tangible and real.

Lastly.........and this applies to ALL jewelers, and since almost all are already owned by mass conglomerate Sterling...........what the *** is this BS of offering NOTHING but "lab created" gemstones???? I am embarrassed and dismayed every day that consumers are being scammed by this lab created trend. I hate even walking towards that case.

Yet consumers have come to expect NOTHING more!!! These BS fake stones have absolutely ZERO value and being sold as "exactly the same" as the real thing...only better. Less expensively OVER PRICED "perfect" stones. None of those pesty imperfections found only in REAL stones.

You know....those little things that make your stone unique, created by nature which........ by its own nature, is beautifully imperfect. Sickening.

Overall, it is an absolutely shameless sham of a company for consumers and employees alike.

They OWN the market, it would be hard for they average shopper to buy something from a non-Sterling owned company now days. They even bought major competitor Zales! I would guess the markup is 400% at least, from which they pay their employees practically nothing to generate that excessive profit. There are virtually NO full time employees..........other than management staff which are incredibly brainwashed into allowing themselves to be abused with 50+ hour salary jobs....while all other so-called "full timers" work not a single minute more than 39.75 hours per week..............so they technically never become "full time" employees that would require the company to offer full-time benefits to.

All that said, I do like the poor people I work with, most are young and have not the perspective I have as an older, self-employed, former business owner. I pity them but I know they will all go on to better things and with more insight to what is truly a business-like integrity. I enjoy the stress and competition and do not think people who DON'T thrive on it should seek a job in ANY type of sales oriented position. Get a government job.

Step out of the kitchen for your own sake. I do the best I can with the BS goals they set for me, and if they fire me, I will smile and wish them the best. Hiring, training and working with a new employee every week just adds to the stress on the rest of the team, and cost the company untold sums in terms of morale, productivity and the longevity of loyal customers who come to expect a familiar face at their favorite over-priced retailer. Long live the king.

Mark must either be a genius or a demon. You decide.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-473018

Bravo. A realistic response. Sadly, there is nothing realistic about the goals at Kay.

Guest

jhallisey1231@***.net - and anyone else suffering from Sterling related Employment issues. Please E-mail me at JusticeServedOnSterling@***.com.

IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW WORKED FOR STERLING AND HAS SUFFERED OR KNOWS ANYONE WHO SUFFERED FROM EMPLOYMENT ISSUES PLEASE E-MAIL ME YOUR CONTACT INFO!! I have VERY GOOD important news for you. It doesn't matter WHEN you worked there or even if you were directly involved.

E-mail me for more information!!!! JUSTICESERVEDONSTERLING@***.COM :p :p

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-471131

ummmm....interested in your story

Guest

Thanks John Q for the feedback. Tell Mark next time you see him if he ever grows a set and would like to call me to please do so. He has my number.

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