Not an Ideal Full-Time (ONLY) Job - Sales Associate Nordstrom Employee Review

Returns-you are expected to make commission, while customers bring in a BOXES/BAGS full of items to return. The motto is "embrace the brown box". In reality, all sales associates will disappear from the register to avoid wasting their selling time. You'll get stuck at the register . Mangers are MIA to help and will put you to do it. Customers have come in trying to return things that are obviously used or from 5 years ago AND WILL SUCCEED, even after speaking to a manager. It's quite disrespectful. If that's not enough, if it was your customer, you will get docked that return amount from your pay period, and you won't know which customer did it or why. Sales associates will come into work with $-1200 and essentially work for free that whole day just to make it up. The same could happen again the next day. Yes we know it's sales, but it's very frustrating. There is no 30-day return policy, as the company takes returns on a "case-by-case" basis, which means they essentially take everything back. Sales associates will look at the metrics dashboard to see how much they are making for the day, and it destroys their mood for the rest of the day. Especially, when they had a big sale the previous day. It's an extremely frustrating game. DO NOT EXPECT TO LIVE OFF THIS JOB. PAY-In central Texas, the pay is a joke, $13.75/hr if you don't make commission. Average rent in the area (with utilities included) is about $1550 on the low spectrum (without a roommate or help from parents, as most young ones are surviving here). You'll break even each paycheck and not save a dime. MANAGEMENT-Some managers care and some don't, using PTO every chance they get, only to come back the day before a regional manager is said to visit the store. Popularity reigns. You will think the company is a meritocracy, IT'S NOT. Don't be fooled. Management will pick on the ones they don't like and let the ones they like slide-by. It could work in your favor, depending how you see it. Just do your work and you'll be fine. A good attitude goes a long way (as with anything in life). NORDSTROM APP/PERSONAL BOOK-For Nordstrom, you would think they have the best app engineers. Nope. The app where you "connect" with customers is a HUGE headache. When you create a style board, which suggests outfits for them to buy directly from you through a link, is VERY complicated. Customers have to contact you and tell you they want to buy something. They can create a whishlist, but you, as a salesperson have to create they same list from your side, and then resend them what they already created on their wishlist, just so they can buy from you, thus getting your commission. The app will log you out ALL.THE.TIME. Customers are logged out from the app ALL.THE.TIME. They can't even remember their passwords. By the time they try to fix this, they have bought the item themselves (I don't blame them). DRESSES-There are absolutely NO gowns fancy enough at the stores; they're online. Customers will want to try on 10-20 at a time for a big event and will ask you to order it for them if they want to work with you. On average, each dress is a minimum of $250. After they find nothing worked, guess who's commission gets dinged? YOURS. That HUGE sale, leaves you in a deficit for the next couple days. Sales associates are always saying how they have to "climb out the hole". So you could be working for free the next couple days to make up for it. YOU'RE TIRED-If you are going to college, don't take this job. It's a waste of your time. Once you've graduated you can take the Leadership In-Training program and they'll place you as an Assistant Manager in a department IF you pass their program. That means you'll need to be cheery, popular, learn quick (or pretend to), and show a blind-eye to much of the chaos you're about to take on. Your boss will be absent most of the time, and you'll essentially be doing their work and yours. It's like a bad initiation program. You'll want to scream, but remember to scream with a smile and a great attitude. On average you'll make about $40k and be expected to make commission. You won't. You'll earn the title on your Resume, but it's not worth it. Find a better paying job and keep your sanity. TRAINING-Managers don't train new staff. New staff "shadows" old staff, and the old staff don't want to train because we're needing to make commission and training slows our sales per hour. New staff will drag on your leg for help. If you can learn fast and figure things out as you go, you'll be fine. But don't expect sales associates to be nice to you; they'll avoid you like the plague. They/we need to make money, and management will not care about your learning. HIGH TURNOVER-You'll discover why there's a high turnover rate if you work there for a couple years. Sales associates are miserable with the returns, miserable with the pay, and have to relive the same thing everyday. During the holidays or season just before school/university starts, the company will start to higher a bunch of people without reason. You'll be fighting to make commission. NO WORK/LIFE BALANCE