Cara Miller We just recently purchased a ring from Jareds Feb. Of 2012 in Beavercreek Ohio.
We bought an engagment ring that didnt have a wedding band to go with it. He purposed May 25 2012. So we had to have it custom made for us, so we started that process August 18 or so, knowing we wouldnt have it in time for our wedding day which was fine cause that was our fault do to poor planning. The guy in charge of the custom orders assured us that we would have the engagment ring for the wedding though. So we went in for the ring 2 days before our wedding(like the guy told us to do) to pick up my husbands ring and my engagement ring, but my ring was not there we asked about it and he said he didnt have it there and couldnt have it there in time for the wedding.
Kay Jewelers is committed to promotion from within, continuous improvement and continued growth in sales and size. All of our Vice President's of Operations and District Managers started with us in our stores, many began while attending college and have since built an incredible career with us. Kay Jewelers benefits and perks, including insurance benefits, retirement benefits, and vacation policy. Reported anonymously by Kay Jewelers employees.
I was very upset with that, but we just lefted and went to Meijers and bought a cheap 50 dollar ring so I at least had something to put on my finger on our wedding day. We went on our honeymoon and they assured us once again it would be done when we got back. So when we got home Friday September 14, 2012 we called and it wasnt in. So we called back again on Monday September 17th and it wasnt in still. It wasnt done until Wednesday September 19th.
So we went and picked it up, which every drive there was an hour both ways, we got the ring. Got home and I really started to look at it closer only to noctice they had put 2 deep stratches in my engagement ring and had messed with one of the prongs which looked like crap. The new custom wrap look horrible too, it was dull and super wavey. So the very next day Thursday September 20th, I took it back to the store, another 2 hours.
I talked to a guy in there who told me he would have them buff it out. I sat in there for 1 hour wating for my ring which I found out had been done and setting back there for about 20 minutes. Another guy had to actually go back and get it cause the first guy was just standing around talking to other workers there.
Well when I got my ring back it looked the same and I told them that, so they told me to come back in when the custom designer guy came back from vacation, which would be the next Tuesday September25th. They told me to take the ring with me.
So I did and put it back in the box. I took it that night to show my parents and a diamond fell out when I was passing it to my mother.
I looked form the diamond with no luck. So I put back in the box and kept it there until Tuesday. I took it in to talk with the custom designer (another 2 hour drive) who tells me he see nothing wrong with it. So I straight told him I didnt like the way it looked. So he told me they would recast it and them he asked me if there were any changes I would like to do to it.
I said yes and told him I would like it if they just rounded off the corners where the wrap met the ring and he told me that wasnt possible. I knew it was possible so, I told him I didnt want they wrap if they couldnt change or fix the ring, but since I signed the contract I had to just have the ring recast. So they told me the new ring would be in in 2 weeks from September 25 2012 and it is now October 14th 2 days shy of being 3 weeks and I still dont have either ring. So for anyone wanting to go to Jareds DONT. And dont even get me started on the warranty issue or my husbands ring. Wrong size and only a one year warranty on custon orders.
They did fix my husbands ring and the warranty issue. But as to my ring I can only wait and see. And we have been doing the 6 month inspections.
Which the customer designer guy told me I could take it in bewteen the 6 months and have it inspected by my locate jeweler. But when he ordered the new cast he tried for a good 20 minutes to try to find another store for me to pick it up when I told him I wanted to just come back to that store just in case there are problems with it, but he continued to try to find another store. Anonymous I purchased a ring on 12/22/13 in the Marks and Morgan store in Concord, NC. I paid CASH for this ring. It was $85.59 wtih tax.
On 12/26/13 I returned that ring for a refund. I WAS REFUSED A CASH REFUND. I was told that if the store did not have the money in the registers I had to have a check mailed to my from the Corporate Office.
I have never experienced the kind of refund policy this store has. I have never been refused a cash refund when I paid cash. I am posting this information on every social media site I can to make sure other people do not shop at this store especially paying cash. The only way I could get my refund was to wait for the check to come from the Corp. I was offered no apology for this. When I tried to call about my refund I was on the phone with the 'customer service' rep for over 30 minutes while they located my refund request.
I was then told my payment was sent but they had no record of the check number. Terrible policies.I am also contacting the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. Anonymous Same thing happened to me.
Unbelievable that a company this size can't refund a cash purchase. They took the cash no problem. Why in the world would we ever think they could not refund?? I have contacted the news channels in my area (Phoenix AZ) to let all consumers beware! I offered other solutions to the no cash on hand issue. Like just credit my Debit card (can't do it) or I will wait for Corporate to send the store the cash (only $500.00) then come back with the return and get the cash (again NO), ok how about get a check from the store instead of wait for Corporate to send me a check.
Horrible customer service. Anonymous I had a terrible experience from Kay's at Sarasota Square Mall. I was referred by a colleague. His wife works there.
My husband and I had several jewelry repairs and went in and asked for Stephanie which was incorrect because her name was Cynthia. It just happened that there was a Stephanie that worked there but when I said I wanted Robert's wife, the 2 girls said she would be in in an hour. My husband and I said we would be back which we did and Cynthia was there.
I was asked by Cynthia if I was working with Stephanie and I told her what happened that I asked for Stephanie when I meant Cynthia. I came in for Cynthia not Stephanie. What cutthroats Stephanie and the other girl was. They lied and said I had been in and brought a card with Stephanie's name on it which was a total lie. The phone was ringing off the hook while Cynthia was assisting me with my repairs and the 2 girls were doing nothing and would not answer the phone instead they were in the back room with the door closed and when Cynthia asked them to answer the phone, I heard them say 'you answer it'.
How unprofessional. I even had to wait until Cynthia got off the phone with her manager because those girls called her. When Cynthia came back she was in tears.
I found out from her husband that those girls (Stephanie and the other girl) had called the manager. My opinion is fire the 2 girls.
There are a lot of experienced people looking for jobs. Anonymous I ordered an engagement ringamd was promised I would have it in time for my engagement vacation. Ring never came in. Ruined my engagement.
It ended up being a month after the promise date. When it finally came in it was missing g stones from the band and it was never sized. The compensation this company offered me for everything was a $50 gift card I could put toward a payment. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
You ruined one of the most important events in my life and still didn't have it right when it finally came in and $50 is your answer? You guys are unbelievable. I will never recommend you to anyone. It was a weisfield store but the issue is obviously Sterling wide.
Feel free to contact me any time at if you would like to discuss this matter. Anonymous THEY ARE A HORRIBLE COMPANY TO WORK FOR AND THEY FAVOR THE MEN OVER WOMAN. I LOVED MY COMPANY TIL STERLING TOOK OVER AND THE QUALITY OF THE JEWELERY WENT DOWN EVERYTHING WAS MASS PRODUCED AND THE SAME CRAP AS THEIR OTHER STORES. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT THEIR PPL OR THE CUSTOMERS.BECAUSE OF THEM I REFUSE TO WORK RETAIL AGAIN AND I LOVE JEWELERY BUT REFUSE TO DEAL WITH THE SAME BS.ALWAYS GO TO A PRIVATE JEWELER OR A SMALL COMPANY NOT THIS CHEAP CRAP THEY PAN OFF TO PPL AS THE BEST.ESP NEIL LANE AND THE LEO DIAMOND.SAME CRAP JUST GREAT MARKETING THATS ALL IT IS. Anonymous I cannot speak to any issues regarding employment; however, I purchased a Leo Diamond ring from Marks and Morgan in the fall of 2015. It was a stand-alone wedding ring so we opted to have a separate wedding band designed and crafted by their 'Master Jeweler.'
The band was created and up to this point, there were no issues. During the time I've owned and worn the rings, I've been responsible for routine inspections (keeping the warranty valid). During one of those inspections, a loose diamond was discovered on the Leo ring so off to the repair shop it went. On top of the fact that Marks and Morgan attempts to conceal the site of their 'Master Jeweler,' they had my ring an inordinate amount of time to begin with, which went well past the length of time they promised to have the ring returned. When I forced the issue of wanting to know what the holdup was and where MY ring (operative word is 'MY,' not 'theirs'), I learned that the Master Jeweler lost one of the diamonds! Supposedly they contacted Leo Jewelers and had a replacement diamond, however, no proof of this was provided.
For all I know, the replacement diamond was/is one of their own (Marks and Morgan). At any rate, I finally get the ring back. Since then, I opted to have the bands solder the bands together. My Leo ring has a Halo and the accompanying band has a cradle in which the Halo is to rest; the Halo cradled nicely but wouldn't remain cradled unless soldered. When the jeweler soldered the bands, the Leo (Halo) no longer cradles but sits up above the area designed for the Halo. I brought this to the attention of Marks and Morgan who conveyed excuses.
Encouraging them to make this 'right,' I requested an audience with the Master Jeweler in an effort to ensure we agree on what to do and the end result. Once again, the identity and location of the jeweler is withheld and I'm still waiting on an answer. Little do they realize that I actually know the identity and location of the Jeweler but am trying to give them the opportunity to cure. My experience with this Corporate chain has not been positive and I will not purchase another piece of jewelry from them or recommend them to anyone.
Yesterday, with our employees at our own behest. HR bought, paid for, and implemented the chatbots. Today, we’re going to chat about chatbots that listen even when they are not our chatbot but it is our business.
We’ve learned the unfortunate statistics that do not get reported. Employees fear for their jobs, they don’t want to be “that” person who upsets the apple cart, or they simply don’t know that what happened to them violates an employee handbook or who to talk to about it.
There’s one more reason though. According to this and the of most harassment news reporting, employees don’t trust us.
However, they’re willing to trust a chatbot. Allows employees to go through a bunch of questions about potential harassment, develop a report, make it anonymous, and then submit the conversation report to the company (if the chatter wants to).
The chatbot helps potential reporters organize their thoughts, think about other evidence that might exist to help show something inappropriate happened, and it can show them that they can have this conversation with their organization, bolstering their confidence. These are all good things. And, things that will be ultimately good for the organization. But the bot also can give the employee the impression that by conversing with the bot, their job is done, they won’t have to deal with this directly.
This impression is wrong, very wrong. Humans have to be involved. If (and when) a report gets sent to the company, we have to do something. Most often, we launch an investigation. We talk with the individuals involved, including the reporter. We look for other evidence, review policies, and then take action if necessary. Failure to do something could mean liability.
Moreover, anonymous reporting doesn’t mean that the reporter isn’t going to have to talk to someone. Even if a Spot user scrubs the report to make it more anonymous, we have an obligation to figure out who is reporting and how can we stop any bad behavior. We might not know who or even what department, but HR has to ferret out the information based on what little information we have.
Failure to do so could mean liability. For HR, we must accept complaints from employees in any and every way they come to us. We will get anonymous reports through chatbots like Spot. We will hear from the water cooler gossip mill. We may see a negative post on Glassdoor or Indeed. We will have employees come to our office. We will get hotline calls.
In any and every instance, we have an obligation to do something. Our first priority to make safe, respectful workplaces for our employees. So, we listen. Please listen. If you use the internet, you’ve used a chatbot.
It’s quite possible you didn’t even know that you were. Chatbots are cool – using one is like texting a new friend without emojis. (My favorite is the.) As HR professionals, we see chatbots in,. Chatbots offer quick, easy conversations with candidates and employees to help ease the burdens of busy HR folk. Yet, as chatbots become increasingly easy to implement and cheaper, we should be careful of the risks.
Picking Up Issues Last year, I attended a vendor demonstration of a chatbot. The demonstration was “live” so we’d know that the chatbot’s conversation was not canned. The sales guy (and I intentionally say “sales guy” as he clearly had never worked in HR before) asked his Watson-based chatbot the following question, “How much time is available to take a leave?” The answer from the bot, “Hannah, you have 72 hours (9 days) of PTO” Let that ruminate in your brain for a second. Two of us in the audience immediately raised our hands. “That’s not the right answer to that question,” we said in near unison. Because PTO is not leave and leave is not PTO. The term “leave” brings up things like, and.
While PTO can be used during FMLA or leave when it is an accommodation, PTO is not a substitute for legally required leave. The right answer would have been, “How do you intend to use leave?” The use of leave would give an indication of whether FMLA or ADA will come into play. If Hannah said “I’m pregnant” then the chatbot could say she could have 12 weeks available under the FMLA. Twelve weeks is significantly more than 9 days. A human in HR would probably be able to identify an issue whether the chat came from a potential applicant, seasonal employee, or a team member.
HR and recruiting professionals know that certain words when uttered by employees trigger certain laws. Unfortunately for chatbot vendors, the list isn’t well defined or kept somewhere so that they can feed it into their bot and the bot will then know as much as a human. Knowing all the words also means knowing employees, their situations and needs. Until chatbots get really human-like, they will miss issues, including things like requests for reasonable accommodations, reports of harassment, or work injury issues. (Imagine someone chats about a boss who grabbed a breast. How will a chatbot respond to that?) Why is this Important?
If anyone misses a legal issue – like Hannah’s leave issue – the clock starts ticking under the law. If Hannah’s question about leave availability related to a pregnancy, she could now believe her company will only give her 9 days off for the birth of her child. While we’d hope Hannah would reach out to an HR human, she might not.
She might think she can only take off two weeks and would be expected to return to work. This could spark her to leave us, tell her friends how bad we are as employers, or even start a lawsuit once she learned of the FMLA. This chat and the lack of follow-up could be a violation of the FMLA or state pregnancy leave laws. The other reason this is particularly important is that there is a record of what the chatbot said. Most chatbot conversations are recorded. So, if Hannah meets a plaintiff’s attorney, her attorney will be able to request a record of her conversation with the bot. Her attorney would be able to tell the date and time of Hannah’s question and (potentially) the lack of follow-through from the company to deal with Hannah’s question and request.
This is great evidence. If Your Gonna Use a Bot While there are risks, good things exist in chatbots too. “How much PTO do I have?” or “How do I get my paystub?” are great questions chatbots can answer without interrupting an HR pro’s day. This is why chatbots are hugely useful.
So, if you’re going to take advantage of this significant benefit, here’s what I recommend:. Have someone read through the chat records. You might find trends that will help develop training or modify your practices or even onboarding to help ease questions. You’ll also pick up on the leave/FMLA issue described above. Reading chats takes significantly less time than engaging in the conversations themselves, so please do it.
Talk with your vendor about compliance issues. Ask how would the chatbot respond to words like “leave,” “sick,” “boob,” and “hostile.” These are just some of the big issues, and if the vendor stumbles here, move on to the next one. Test the chatbot on these compliance issues. Pretend you’re going be an employee. Test how the bot will work.
Your own interaction will help determine the ease of the chatbot and whether you want employees interacting with it. Ask your vendor to do compliance issue updates. We get to hold vendors accountable only if we hold them accountable. So, seriously, ask for compliance whether it is a new HCM or a chatbot.
We are all going to use more and more chatbots in HR and everywhere else. We have to be careful as this is another way we talk to employees.
When we are not mindful of our conversations with employees, we fail. On Tuesday, The New York Times published an – complete with advice – about the office fridge. Give employees only a specific amount of space in the refrigerator, ban certain foods, if an employee violates the rules, take fridge privileges away. Seriously, this was the advice listed in the article. Don’t we have bigger things to worry about?
We’ve got a issue. We have new laws. We have super low unemployment so recruiting is tough. Technology driving head-long into our work lives.
Employees are facing both at work and at home affecting their abilities to get their jobs done. All of these issues are more important than the office refrigerator. Not gonna lie, the focus on the fridge irks me. We have bigger fish to fry. Yet, it is human nature to find the “easier” issue that can be solved. Fixing the fridge shows immediate results, whereas growing a positive culture takes significantly more time and isn’t easily measured. The same is true with Mitchell Hamline’s.
I’m honored to be an adjunct professor in the program and one of the authors of the case study used in the program. My teaching partner, and I added a kegerator to our fictional workplace that is rife with compliance issues. The workplace has no affirmative action program despite having a large Department of Defense contract, potential wage disparities, misclassification issues, recruitment issues, employment agreement issues, outsourcing problems, etc. Yet, so many of students jump on the kegerator as the first problem they would solve. I’m taking aback each time. It surprises me as I assume that employers hire who they think are responsible adults, yet we want to remove alcohol every time we see it.
But when I look at all the other issues plaguing our fictional software company, I see that kegerator is easy and immediate. I’ve got a challenge for you.
Write down the issues you want to tackle. Ask some managers and some employees about what they think you should focus on. Consider each issue carefully. What will take you more time?
What will take more effort or resources? How will you know if issues have been resolved? Once you have a list, ask your leadership where they want you to spend your time. Then, prioritize the list.
Here are some priorities I recommend – priorities more important than the fridge:. Renewing a commitment to effective training on the and discrimination. Revising employee handbooks that reflect. Training managers on basic management skills like having with employees. Implementing effective performance management systems HR guru (and my friend), recently that audacity is her word for 2018.
We need to have the audacity to take on the biggest challenges facing our organizations. That probably does not include the office fridge.
It’s the week between Christmas and New Years. You may be still be overdosed on food, family, friends, and festivities. This week is kind of a fog in most offices. So what could we do that wouldn’t require too much? Make it rain paper! Take out those old personnel and recruitment files, and get the little delight as several sharp blades chew through now irrelevant information to make more room in your soon-to-be irrelevant file cabinets.
What could you get rid of? You can probably get rid of a lot. First, check your document retention policy. If HR does not have one, check with your Finance or Accounting group. They might have one that covers your files too. If you have a policy, follow that.
Second, if you don’t have a policy, determine what record retention laws apply to you. If your organization is a federal or state contractor, your records are covered by different laws and regulations. For example, the require employers to retain recruitment records for one year, but the requires recruitment records to be retained for two years. State law may have additional requirements for you as well. Third, prepare to shred.
Put all the payroll records that are more than four years’ old in one pile, the personnel files of employees long since departed from your organization, and the old copies of employee handbooks in separate piles. Lastly, find your shredder and giant garbage bags. Order a pizza. Pretend you are a group of roadies preparing for a concert. Make the confetti.
Occasionally, I get questions about arbitration. Should we have arbitration agreements?
Why would we not? Isn’t it cheaper? Isn’t it quicker? Isn’t it secret?
In theory, arbitration can be cheaper, quicker, and maybe even secret. That said, in real life, arbitration isn’t any of these things to the people that matter – the employer, the employee, and every other employee. Arbitration is private court. Depending on the rules you select, you have between one and three judges. Attorneys represent both the employee and the employer.
There is discovery where the parties exchange information and depose witnesses in front of court reporters. There are motions where attorneys for the parties argue (probably only in writing) over the rules of the hearing or whether the employee has a case at all.
And, finally, there’s a hearing that looks remarkably like a trial but most likely in a hotel conference room rather than a courtroom. But, unlike court, once an arbitration is completed, there may be no right to appeal for both parties. Each could be stuck with the judgment. The employee and the employer must agree to arbitration. Employees must sign arbitration agreements (most often at the start of employment) promising only to bring their case before an arbitration panel, not in court.
In most cases, the arbitration agreement is presented at the start of employment and is a condition of employment. The arbitration agreement may include things like class action waivers (frowned upon by the, and possibly the ), confidentiality, and attorney’s fees provisions. Arbitration is also controversial. Just this past month, arbitration has been criticized by former FOX News host and Roger Ailes sexual harassment target, U.S. Senator, and. Carlson has taken up the flag of eliminating arbitration as her cause, making her an with Minnesota’s super-blue Senator. Slate argued that the current sexual harassment nightmare is the result of stripping the right to a day in court away from sexual harassment victims.
When arbitration class action waivers were argued before the Supreme Court just a few weeks ago, the. While the Court has also allowed (some would argue encouraged), the pendulum appears to be swinging. Employers spend a great deal of time and resources on preparing arbitration agreements and educating employees that they can only seek redress through arbitration due to a piece of paper they signed when they hoped this job would work out. No one starts a job thinking about how they’re going to sue them later. So should we be forcing them to make that decision when they are optimistic about their future with you? Would it be better to spend these resources on making employees feel valued, that they are contributing to the organization, and fixing issues as they crop up? I would argue it would be better.
Currently, over are in arbitration with Sterling Jewelers over sexual harassment claims throughout Kay and Jared jewelry stores all over the country. The case was originally filed in arbitration in 2009 – over eight years ago. When this many employees are involved (and many others are witnesses), the attorneys’ fees are this huge, and the time these cases have taken, the reasons for arbitration seem silly. It has not been quick, cheap, or secret. Somewhere out there (and probably closer than we think) is a smart, capable plaintiff’s attorney who is gunning for arbitration agreements. With sexual harassment scandals coming from every direction adding to the calls to end these agreements, it might not be too hard to finally take them down. DISCLAIMER: This site is for informational and educational purposes only.
It does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Further, your use of this blog does not create an attorney-client relationship. Readers should not act upon any information presented on this blog without seeking professional legal counsel. The legal information provided in this site is general and should not be relied on as legal advice, which I cannot provide without full consideration of all relevant information relating to one's individual situation.