One year later

Well, it's almost been a year since being laid off by Doug and Netshops. Hope everyone who was let go in the past 12 months has been able to move on and have found a satisfying position.

To those still employed by Netshops keep your resume updated and keep your eyes open for the next opportunity to come. When it does, jump on it! After all, we can't all open an ice cream shop with a Netshops owner. If I did, I wonder if I'd be exempt from future layoffs....

As always, any info you want to share can be submitted as comment here or emailed to me.

Stay classy Netshops.

Netshops taken off Wikipedia

I wonder if it was someone's job on the SEO team to monitor the Netshops Wikipedia page. If so why they didn't see that it was nominated for deletion and has, in fact, been deleted?





Netshops no longer on Wikipedia

Just a tip for whomever it was that was supposed to maintain the page. If you have a meeting scheduled with Doug in the next couple of days and he says "I think we need to go in a different direction" just get a box.

Also, I've heard that the warehouse was not sold, but almost the entire warehouse staff has been replaced....how many employees were out there? 15? 20? (I'm sure some of those were temps or part timers so they won't be counted against the federal layoff numbers, but they're still out of a job, one way or the other so they count just as much as a full timer in my opinion.) That would take the total number of Netshops employees laid off to over 100 this year alone.

Those of you still there - do you still believe in Doug's long term, 'scaleable' plans? Seems to me 'scaleable' really means 'layoff employees and reduce the scale of the workforce'. Maybe that's just me though...

As always, keep your resumes updated and keep the rumors coming!

6 month anniversary, laid off by netshops

So its been 6 months. I know I've moved on to bigger and better things. More opportunity with [shock!]actual potential to move up in a company[/shock!]! Hope everyone else in the Netshops Layoff Class of '07 is moving on in a similar fashion. (Maybe that'll be the theme for Doug's next sync meeting...)

A special message for Doug, Tina, and all the other management who participated in the layoffs - both here in Omaha and those that took place in Duluth:

Simon's identity?!? Netshops shill trying to get ahead.

I've heard that "Simon" - the person defending Netshops for so long was really Joey S. (However you spell his name. Whatever. It is what it is.)

Poor Joey. Always passed over for promotion - not even good enough to be made Andrew's assistant, dealing with transportation issues. Y'know, just my opinion, but I think it was your sh!tty attitude that held you back. If you didn't have such a big head and had actually been open to criticism, you might've have moved up.

Maybe sucking up to management by causing trouble on this blog was your ticket to moving up? I sure hope so - you need something to justify your sad existence...

Response from transition team member - Temps running Thralow.net sites

Kind of a lengthy response, but I can understand how they might be upset. Keep in mind, to my knowledge, I've never heard from this individual before, whereas I have heard from the other person/persons providing info on Netshops - thus the reason for my belief that this individual was someone spinning the story for Netshops. (Wouldn't be the first time someone from the company has tried to stir the pot here, right 'Simon'?)

Anyway, here it is:

I can assure you that I am not a Netshops shill. Please do not assume that because I said that the information you received from your previous source was
incorrect it means that I am from NetShops and want to cover something up. I have very few positive things to say about NetShops and am very happy to be back in
Minnesota. I am most upset by the fact that you made assumptions on my legitimacy based upon unsubstantiated information you received from your previous source.

I would be interested to know who gave you that information and how they can "prove" that it is true. Of course I do not expect you to give me that information but I would suggest that you ask them to prove it.

There are still quite a few previous Thralow employees who still cannot let this go. We were all very lucky to work for Dan. Blaming the loss of their job on him
and giving out false information is not going to get their jobs back.

We all know that NetShops is not going to be able to run our sites like we did...come on, they have temps doing our jobs! Three weeks of training as compared to years and years of experience with the reps we had
running the show, having supervisors from other departments come to oversee things when they had less training than the temps that were on the phones did...the list goes on!

I would prefer that if you had any questions that you ask me directly before posting assumptions on your blog. I am happy to be truthful with you!

This individual is right about a couple of things.

I have no way of knowing that any of this information is true. All I'm doing is relaying info that is passed to me. Consider this a gossip/rumor blog if it makes you sleep better at night.

Also, it isn't Dan Thralow's fault those of you from MN lost your jobs. I'm sure Doug shook his hand and said something like 'we'll keep your people and take good care of them, blah blah blah' - he kept you for all of 6 months to get through the holiday and then let you go when he needed the lift for his bottom line. Doug and Netshops is who you should be upset with - not Thralow. Once he sold the company, it was out of his hands. (Of course, some would say he shouldn't have sold the company to Netshops, based on Doug's previous history of laying people off, but that's a different story....)

Another interesting piece of information was revealed in the above email. Temps are running the Thralow sites. Now, I don't know if that means they're handling the customer service calls or they're actually managing the sites themselves. I suspect they're only in call center roles. Regardless, weren't temps part of the problem last holiday season? Lack of knowledge, lack of enthusiasm, and just there to make a quick paycheck - those aren't the Netshops employee qualifications I remember. Maybe cheaper labor, fewer benefits to provide and more profit as a result is worth the loss on customer service related issues.

Course, that could be why Netshops loses so much money from the call center end of things. Or it could just be the call center management doesn't know what they're doing....

Update - Thralow.net sites not struggling? Netshops warehouse for sale?

I received an email from someone saying they were part of the 'transition' team and the information about Thralow was not correct.

Unfortunately the individual did not go into details. If they'd like to provide some additional information, I'd be happy to correct any misinformation. (I've received another email from the original person saying they can confirm the info though... so is this in fact true? Maybe the person on the 'transition' team is again, a Netshops shill trying to put things in a positive spin?)

Another email I received this week states the Netshops warehouse has either been sold or is up for sale. Again, I don't know if this is fact or not - just relaying what I've heard. Supposedly it comes from someone higher up the chain who was impacted by the layoffs.

So, the warehouse - Doug's jewel and a bragging point when talking to potential vendors "We have our own 10 bajillion square foot warehouse with 12 docks to handle product on a seasonal basis" could be up for sale. Wonder why?

Thralow sites may or may not be doing well. Optics versus wine racks. Which do you think is going to take more time to learn about? Which do you think would be a more technical sale?

Here's how I'd imagine a Telescopes.com customer service call would go:
Customer 'I'd like to look at the Netshops Nebula in quadrant alpha delta beta zed. Will this telescope let me do that?'

Netshops rep 'Ummm... let me submit a product question and we'll get back to you.'

Now the Wineracks.com call:
Customer 'I need a wine rack to hold 26 bottles.'

Netshops rep 'I've got one here - it says it is MDF'

Customer 'What is MDF?'

Netshops rep 'Ummm... let me submit a product question...'

Funny story - Netshops pay sucks

Man walks into a bar with a leprechaun on his shoulder...

Wait.

Wrong story.


Waaaay back when, I was interviewed and hired by Netshops, I negotiated for a number of things - higher pay, more vacation, etc. Regarding pay, I was told they couldn't match what I was currently making, but if I was with the company for a year and was promoted, they'd bump me up to what I'd been making pre-Netshops.

Silly me, I believed them.

When it was time for my review, I met all of the requirements discussed in my interview. I got a raise, but it was well short of what I'd been making in the past. I convinced myself (and my family) that it was ok, because the benefits and the 'fun' of working at Netshops outweighed the pay I wasn't getting.

Then I got laid off.

As you know, I've had a new job for quite a while now. Funny thing is, I'm making more now than I was before I started at Netshops. So I guess I owe Netshops management a thank you. Thank you for lying to me about my future pay increase, thank you for laying me off. I'm better off now for the experience and I no longer have to worry about being laid off once every 6 monhs.

Current members of management still have to though...

Karma's a bitch.