Who does/has work(ed) for Maplin Electronics at some point?

my stint was quite painful...

it all started out when i kept going up to the manager every time i bought something and saying sooo how bout a job then... one day he had enough of it and took me round the back for a 45minute interview and told me im hired once the regional manager oks it.

so the regional manager came and chatted to me another day and he was like yeh yeh we'll start you out on 12k but it will move up to 15k so fast after your 3 months (AGAINST THE LAW) probation period ('where we can fire you for no reason whatsoever with no notice') is over...

so one day i actually figured it out and i was getting like really really much less... (around 9k a year)

i was quite pissed off... they didnt give me the first pay rise everyone else got, because i was only working for a few months at the time... and the second time it was by a few pence.

then the manager hired his muslim extremist friend as the deputy manager... who told me on his first day that he believes my religion is scum and people in his country would not shake my hand and that he knew a bunch of mullas that would love to slice my throat... great init.

not to mention the software piracy racquet going on...

so i started out just in charge of labels and ****, moved up to reports, then in charge of the computer area, then the specials, then the left half the store (the shop floor and the stock behind in the back) and all the windows and all the cabinets and all the specials were 'mine'.

i also ended up doing a lot of manager stuff like placing orders and **** on the stuff in my 'departments' like computers, tools, audio etc... also, closing the shop and doing the cash... but i had to because our manager wasnt there, and our muslim extremist manager was smoking in the toilets and throwing up cos he was too ****ed up from the other night lol

a lot of **** went missing... and even though we all had random bag checks ALL the time nobody ever got caught, which really pissed me off the most because they starting accusing me because people were stealing stuff from INSIDE cabinets (which i was in charge of)

i was the only person that knew about electrical components, so i spent ages behind the back counter too... selling resistors for pennies while the dork at the front just camped the til and would ring up all the huge dog robots etc... then id get told to work hard because he would get a higher average sale price than me... which is somehow maplins way of judging their employees.

oh yeh, also found out other employees would use MY number on the tills when selling a cheap component so that their average sale wouldnt go down lol.

then my wife gave birth and they denied me leave lol the manager wouldnt let me have paternity leave because he didnt want to call part timers in during the week.

the manager also wrote resignation letters for everyone as a scare thing... but i just signed my one and handed it in. but he wouldnt accept my resignation either.

when i left they underpayed my last paycheck by over 200 pounds so i went back in and eventually i got it after some phone calls...

all in all, working for maplin completely ruined my image of the store. and working behind the scenes really made me find out maplin would do anything to screw you over. and not just at the store level, it was all throughout the company's head office crew as well... but i wont go into that...

i wouldnt try to work at maplin if i were you tbh

 

Sounds like just your store tho to be fair mate... both that I've worked at have been by the books... you gotta think it isn't the company shitting on you... it's the PEOPLE... just cause they're bent don't mean the company is..

[/the one and only time i'll stand up for the company]

(which store btw?)

 

mate, how does REGIONAL manager lying to you and head office taking money sound like one store?

the store i worked at looked like it was legit too, but ive been at other stores and they all look like that. youre either on the inside or the outside, so im guessing you probably dont know about all the dirt that goes on. i could tell you stuff about a handful of stores, every one ive known about has been the same.

when its the main people that make up the company shitting on you, it is effectively the company...

 

true... H/O cock up all the time though so... that's just cockup.. not shitting on you...

RM's do bs... but.. i'm thinking maybe a comms error somewhere...

Grab me on msn or something (all in my profile)

 

Our cabs were always full, but only 'cause Gav was 'special' 'cause he'd been with the company so long and was in there with the powers that be. Manchester 5 is on a main road as well and I know what you mean by the black layer on everything - shocking. Just think what it's doing to your lungs if you can get that buildup on a shelf in a week.
We had about 8 Symbols as well but, like yours, Gav bought a lot of 'em.

Sounds like our store was heaven compared to yours though MaplinMan. We all did cashing up at the end of the day, shared responsibility. I was designated 'security manager' while I was there to carry out random checks, but it wasn't that neccessary as nothing ever went missing. Luck of the draw I guess.

Who was your regional manager, btw? Ours was Chris Jeffries.

 

Or you could just name drop like you did

My time at mappers was mixed I was only there for 6 months. Most of the people were great I had two really cool managers. The store was always super busy though, I mean there was never a quiet day. The worse thing was most of the normal staff have / had no clue about technology. And the staff turn over at our store was silly people hired wouldn't even last the week.

After about 4 months or so there was only 2 of us part timers out of the whole staff who knew anything about computers / wifi / electronics. Whilst all our promo's seemed to be on crappy remote control toys. Just before I left I found out I was the 2nd longest serving member of staff at the store .

The company has deffo changed, it's now becoming a glorified Toys-R-Us. Mostly I enjoyed my time there, I used to spend most of it in the computer area or on the till.

 

I have a certain dislike for maplins after I went in there to the components desk to get some simple stuff for my guitar amp, im sorry, but employing someone who doesn't have a clue what a variable resistor is, is pathetic, I had to spend 10 mins describing it as he asked other people working there if they knew what one was until finally one of the monkeys realised and went to find them in those massive tool box shelf things...takes the piss really.

- M@

 

youre pretty keen on defending maplin arent you...

even tho head office did always cock up, i knew they did this **** on purpose because i was told by people there they did it to people that left work, and it happened to 2 other people before me. anyway.

and lol @ 'comms error'. you are joking right?

btw where do you work? im guessing head office, cos a regular employee wouldnt defend sacrifice themselves for the maplin name, and a store manager wouldnt chat **** about regional managers...

 

He works at Notts Superstore.

 

Pass on the knowledge.