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Rabbuk

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Mar 1, 2011
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What are your Ames employer horror stories?

When Campus Book Store was open I was training to be a cashier and they didn't have a POS system so every price had to be manually entered.

I sold a textbook and accidentally typed in $89.99 instead of the price of $99.99. at the time I didn't notice it but later that afternoon the buyer's parent comes in and hands the owner $10 and said he noticed his daughter was undercharged.

The owner screamed at me in front of the entire store about what kind of cheating scam I'm running. It was packed full of students buying books and I was really embarrassed. I walked out right then and there and only went back to pick up my last paycheck, which they refused to handover until my roommate's father (attorney) called and threatened a lawsuit. I think the check was $200 lol.

Anyway, I never went back in there after that. I forget her name, but the owner was not a pleasant woman.
That whole place seemed a little shady every time i went in there.
 

CycloneErik

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Jan 31, 2008
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Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
What are your Ames employer horror stories?

When Campus Book Store was open I was training to be a cashier and they didn't have a POS system so every price had to be manually entered.

I sold a textbook and accidentally typed in $89.99 instead of the price of $99.99. at the time I didn't notice it but later that afternoon the buyer's parent comes in and hands the owner $10 and said he noticed his daughter was undercharged.

The owner screamed at me in front of the entire store about what kind of cheating scam I'm running. It was packed full of students buying books and I was really embarrassed. I walked out right then and there and only went back to pick up my last paycheck, which they refused to handover until my roommate's father (attorney) called and threatened a lawsuit. I think the check was $200 lol.

Anyway, I never went back in there after that. I forget her name, but the owner was not a pleasant woman.

Floyd and Sandy, I think, unless Sandy was the accounting/bookkeeping department.
I worked there a long time ago. Nasty.
 
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JP4CY

I'm Mike Jones
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Dec 19, 2008
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Testifying
Do Ev Cochran and Ev Jr count? If so, end of thread.
Ev Jr was in a wheel chair right?
I only ever dealt with Sr and a secretary but know there were other office people before they upgraded offices.
 

clonechemist

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Apr 3, 2007
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Philadelphia
I worked at an auto repair shop in the old grain elevator out on Ontario. The owner was making dynamite and growing dope. He paid us in cash.

Wait. That place rocked.

Grew up a few blocks away and never had any idea if that place was actually still in business? Or open? That little area was so strange, like the closest thing Ames had to a ‘rough part of town’
 
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cycloner29

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Dec 17, 2008
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Ames
I think former Hickory Park employees could probably fill this thread up. I never worked there but the stories my friends who did work there told me we’re some crazy ****.

Didn’t one of the Wheelock heirs get outted due to repeated sexual harassment of the gals that worked there?
 

Die4Cy

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Jan 2, 2010
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I had a boss in Ames that treated lots of the students working for him like crap also. I don't think that was uncommon, students working on or around campus knew there were tons more people looking for those kinds of jobs than there were available. So they would put up with a lot. Doesn't make it OK.
 

clone4life82

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I think former Hickory Park employees could probably fill this thread up. I never worked there but the stories my friends who did work there told me we’re some crazy ****.

I worked there. It wasn’t all bad but it wasn’t great. Not going to dive deep into stories but from my experiences, I’m sure there are much better stories that will show up here.
 

IASTATE07

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Had a boss that fired kids that were about to graduate. They're going to be leaving soon so might as well get out in front of it.
 

JM4CY

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Aug 23, 2012
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What are your Ames employer horror stories?

When Campus Book Store was open I was training to be a cashier and they didn't have a POS system so every price had to be manually entered.

I sold a textbook and accidentally typed in $89.99 instead of the price of $99.99. at the time I didn't notice it but later that afternoon the buyer's parent comes in and hands the owner $10 and said he noticed his daughter was undercharged.

The owner screamed at me in front of the entire store about what kind of cheating scam I'm running. It was packed full of students buying books and I was really embarrassed. I walked out right then and there and only went back to pick up my last paycheck, which they refused to handover until my roommate's father (attorney) called and threatened a lawsuit. I think the check was $200 lol.

Anyway, I never went back in there after that. I forget her name, but the owner was not a pleasant woman.
I had a couple friends that worked there. Sketchy as hell from what I was told. What was the deal with why they shut down?
 

CYdTracked

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2006
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Grimes, IA
I think former Hickory Park employees could probably fill this thread up. I never worked there but the stories my friends who did work there told me we’re some crazy ****.

My brother worked there, apparently loved it but had some run-ins with the owner's son a few times who apparently is an ass. He chewed his ass out in front of some customers once for something stupid that he (the owner's son) was wrong about. From what my brother told us he had a good relationship with the owner and the owner asked him about the situation to get his side of the story and actually took my brother's side instead of his own son's once he got enough info from everyone that was working that day that witnessed it.

I do have 1 kind of "bad" story of my own but isn't nearly as bad as some have I am sure. I interned 2 summers for Hy-Vee's corporate IT department and I was in need of a part time job for the fall semester as I was taking just the minimum 12 credits to finish off my degree in 4.5 years with an additional fall semester. Was doing some work that summer before at the East Ames Hy-Vee and was chatting with the store director how I was living just a few blocks south of the store at the time and needed some part time work for my last semester and I had a really light class schedule that would allow me to take some daytime hours if needed too. I already had worked in the meat department at the largest store in West Des Moines for several years prior to this and had a great reputation there as they allowed me to come back and work holiday breaks and summers all through college. The store director liked that I had plenty of experience and meat department was always a place they needed good part time help so he hooked me up with the meat dept manager and we transferred my employment from the WDM store to his store for the fall semester including my current hourly rate I had at the WDM store. I was told I would get at least 20 hours a week, I got that to start then 20 hours started to dwindle down to 16, 12, then just 8. I had all this extra time to offer and work ethic has never been a problem for me so one night I pulled the assistant manager aside and asked him what was up because my hours kept getting cut and I wanted to know if it was because of something I was doing. He assured me he thought I was one of their best workers but the department manager tends to dish out hours based on how long you have worked there regardless if you were a good worker or not and that my hourly rate I brought over from the WDM store was probably higher than any of the guys they had on the part time roster so his "off the record" answer was I was the new guy and I cost more to pay than the other guys do. So I called down to my internship supervisor at the corporate office in WDM and asked if they had any work for me and it turned out they had a few clean up and side projects going on they needed some help with and could offer me some hours if I wanted to drive down 2 or 3 days a week. Well my intern rate with them was at least $5 more an hour than what I got working at the store and was worth the drive so I basically took my 8 hours at the store and supplemented it with at least 12 hours of afternoons at the corporate office. It probably was a blessing in disguise because I wound up working 40+ hours part time at the corporate offices for 5 months after graduation until I finally landed a full time job elsewhere.
 

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