The departments within the store level have a lack of communication.
Corporate creates policies and procedures without input from associates at the store level.
It is incredibly difficult to enforce a policy with a customer when a manager undermines you and breaks the policy for the customer. I've been told "only the manager can tell a customer no" but when I call a manager to let the customer know that their request can not be met, I get a lecture from management for calling them down -- in front of the customer no less. It is very difficult to work for a company when the rules of engagement change by the second.
Another example -- When an item is on sale with a limit, say a limit of 3, and a customer has exceeded the quantity of the item, say they pick up 6, I would call a manager (or even a customer service clerk) to let them know that the additional 3 items will not be at the sale price. The manager than proceeds to look at me like I've lost my mind and informs me to separate the order into 2 orders so that the customer my get the sell price for each item. Not only is this against policy but it undermines the reason of setting the limit to begin with.
I believe that it is incredible that there is so much cheating in the training programs. Every time I take a test it is over looked to make sure each answer is correct, especially during the initial training sessions. It is done is every store in every district. Harris Teeter should strive for more than "the grade" they should strive for progress. It is even more incredible when the manager doesn't know the correct answer, and they make me change my answer (which was the correct answer) to the one they believed to be correct (it wasn't).
Policies are made to govern returns, must have mgt approval for: all refunds equal to or greater than $10, anything from HBC, batteries, etc. but you would think this would be news to them.. You call them for approval and they just want you to "deal with it" and not bother them.. Really?
Finally, I have witnessed some "unethical" behavior on behalf of Harris Teeter to say the least, but I am not going to go into detail on this matter because after all .. they pay me.
