Archived Price Change rant #9,723

[IHeartCarts]

Bottom line: We need more devices.

Seriously it makes me so mad. There is no excuse for not having an excess amount of equipment for everyone in the store. That way if a device does break or go missing we have a backup.

 

[mrknownothing]

The reality is that MyDevices are more of a priority for other teams besides Flow, in EVERY store. How can Price Change even start their workload when all the devices are dead and dayside backroom needs the PDAs to pull CAFs and flexes? How can the SF team do price audits, set salesplanners, help guests etc. if we're all sharing one working device for the entire store?

Don't forget Instocks, who can't do their job at all without a MyDevice. Unlike Pricing and Plano, Instocks does not have the option of using a PDA if one is available, as their apps have been removed from the PDAs.

 

[Triscuit]

I am so fed up with the equipment issue! We originally started with 20 my devices, we now have about 10. At any given time about half of them are dead or don't scan. So that leave only a handful that we can use. The LOD will grab them for pricing/instocks in the morning but usually one of two things happens: they are either almost dead, or do not scan. Just today we got our 2 my devices, both about half a battery left. We start working and the scanner quit on one. After some fiddling we got it to work but the scanner battery was 25% so it lasted two seconds. Took about 10 minutes to track another one down. We get about an hour into the workload .. mine stops scanning, no matter what I try .. it wont come back. So I am walking around the sales floor and I see a hardlines team member doing reshop with a my device! Now tell me how the heck he got one when there isnt enough to go around. I go up to him and tell him I need his my device to do my work and he says "well I need it to do reshop" .. obviously he doesn't understand what the word NEED means. you do not NEED one, it is just a bonus if you have one. He then proceeds to tell me that he worked the night before and hid one so he could have it in the morning .. sheesh. I am just so tired of these things, they are POS, and I cant tell you how many times I have wanted to quit price change all together. It stresses me out and its honestly ridiculous.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

Sucks but has the priority as a team. The floor needs to get filled to do anything else

The floor can be filled without a mydevice. Pricing POG or instocks cannot be done without equipment. They only need one device to scan for second locations and it is absolute BS because the worst thing that would happen if flow didn't have equipment is it would come out on the CAFs and then the pusher would check both locations.

 

[LuminosityRed]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

 

[ClearanceMaster]

I've either been a participant in or a creator of threads where I say I'm going to quit, but I'm too lazy to search.

A few months ago our ETL-AP (who got smart and quit) and STL did an inventory of our MyDevices and linked serials to numbers on the equipment log. As a result, of this teams who should have priority in the morning were "allocated" specific devices so we can do our job. Then, when we are done for the day they are free for all to use. This worked for about a day as our ETL-LOG deems it so flow takes all of the equipment and uses it UNTIL we come and claim it from them. This worked fine when we still used LPDAs and PDAs because we could just swap out the batteries. But now the MyDevices don't come with swappable batteries so we are lucky to get equipment that will last until our break/lunch and we can get them on the charger for a few minutes.

Today we came in at 4 to audit Monday's workload since we were missing about 500 DPCI from kids. Four of us needed all four of our MyDevices. I got mine... with a dead battery. So did two others. So we're piddling around for a half hour so we could get a little charge. So that's 90 minutes of lost time to tackle our workload just waiting for equipment. Then, the battery on the scanner sled decided it wanted to die. I put it on the charger as sometimes it helps get it going again... 3 scans later and it dies again. So I'm scanning Z-racks of RTW with the iPod camera.... If you go through the motions of scanning a piece of clothing you probably spend about 5 seconds on it. With the camera it is closer to 15 seconds. It took me almost 30 minutes to scan 1 full Z-rack (two, but only one row on each).

I got more and more fed up by the minute. I'm almost at the point where I could walk away from Spot, but not quite there yet. However, I had decided that today would be a good day to put in my two weeks. While my MyDevice was charging I went back to the computer in our fixture room and printed off the resignation form. The thing that stopped me from filling it out and turning it in was that I had printed it on label paper.

Between the equipment issue, the self-entitlement of my flow team and it's bosses, and the fact my TL is spread so thin I get to talk with her once a month i am ready to quit and have been on a rampage while at work.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

There's nothing you can do, you just weren't given the hours. If you are doing a steady 100-120 tickets/labels an hour you are doing nothing wrong. Sometimes I even triple that depending on what the merchandise is.

 

[LuminosityRed]

There's nothing you can do, you just weren't given the hours. If you are doing a steady 100-120 tickets/labels an hour you are doing nothing wrong. Sometimes I even triple that depending on what the merchandise is.

Haha, yeah, I think I'm definitely above 100 per hour. Sometimes I am a little slow (started pricing in Nov) , but mainly with yesterday I didnt get anything done because I found probably a whole Z rack full of missed clearance. So I was wasting (not really wasting) time by ticketing that, which didnt count towards the workload, when I could have been scanning the rest of the department. Thanks for the reassurance, it makes me feel much better.

Is there a way to check my tickets per hour? I'm pretty new to pricing so, while I've got the motions of daily work down, I'm still not so good with the lingo and more technical things like daily scores and such.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

It has gotten to the point we keep specific numbers (with serials written down) on our TLs desk on an extra charger. Once we leave the LOD can give them to someone if there is not enough. It has to be given to the LOD at the end of the night and if not, the next morning we check the mydevice log and tell them they can't use our equipment again if they can't return it.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

Haha, yeah, I think I'm definitely above 100 per hour. Sometimes I am a little slow (started pricing in Nov) , but mainly with yesterday I didnt get anything done because I found probably a whole Z rack full of missed clearance. So I was wasting (not really wasting) time by ticketing that, which didnt count towards the workload, when I could have been scanning the rest of the department. Thanks for the reassurance, it makes me feel much better.

Is there a way to check my tickets per hour? I'm pretty new to pricing so, while I've got the motions of daily work down, I'm still not so good with the lingo and more technical things like daily scores and such.

If you log onto workbench and go into MyPerformance there is an option for Price Accuracy, and then you can go into the TM Detail Report. It will show you how many items you marked, how many labels you did, how much salvage you found, and how much rework(missed clearance) you had. You can ask any Tl or LOD to show you how to get on myperformance if you can't find it.

 

[LuminosityRed]

If you log onto workbench and go into MyPerformance there is an option for Price Accuracy, and then you can go into the TM Detail Report. It will show you how many items you marked, how many labels you did, how much salvage you found, and how much rework(missed clearance) you had. You can ask any Tl or LOD to show you how to get on myperformance if you can't find it.

Awesome, thank you.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

Awesome, thank you.

No problem and If you have any questions or just had a rough week and want to talk about it send me a message. I am on here frequently and I guarantee the same things are happening everywhere.. lol.

 

[LuminosityRed]

No problem and If you have any questions or just had a rough week and want to talk about it send me a message. I am on here frequently and I guarantee the same things are happening everywhere.. lol.

Yeah, I was actually talking to my fellow TM about this today. I asked her if every store is this behind, or if other stores have pricing done by robots as to not be late like us lol.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

Yeah, I was actually talking to my fellow TM about this today. I asked her if every store is this behind, or if other stores have pricing done by robots as to not be late like us lol.

My store prioritizes the processes. So we finish daily 100%.. but most stores I've heard of don't, especially pricing. Checking MyPerformance though, my district..... 80% of them are red for pricing, 10% are yellow, and 10% are green.

 

[Kompa]

The floor can be filled without a mydevice. Pricing POG or instocks cannot be done without equipment. They only need one device to scan for second locations and it is absolute BS because the worst thing that would happen if flow didn't have equipment is it would come out on the CAFs and then the pusher would check both locations.

No. The backroom burns challenge cafs especially if they just backstocked it so it would never get pushed to it's second location unless it came out in reseach.

Which wouldn't happen if Flow could push right

It's actually a never ending cycle

 

[ClearanceMaster]

No. The backroom burns challenge cafs especially if they just backstocked it so it would never get pushed to it's second location unless it came out in reseach.

Which wouldn't happen if Flow could push right

It's actually a never ending cycle

Well, that is a problem with your backroom team. It is challenge for a reason. Either the Sales floor quantity or capacity need changed or endcaps need to be untied. But you shouldn't be burning challenge CAFs

Again, I'm going to say.. absolutely nothing can be done with pricing and instocks without equipment. So if crap just needs back stocked we'll just have to call a closer in after pricing is gone because all your processes need done to run a successful store.

 

[YourPPTL]

Is it just our stores where flow is taking all of the equipment all of a sudden, or is it a company wide thing? They used to leave it, but now on truck days, we come in to all of the equipment snapped up by the flow team, leaving everyone else begging/scrambling for whatever scraps they can find.

It must be happening every where no my divices when I come in at 4 flow has them all.

 

[signingminion]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

We were almost clean last Saturday. We're currently at 200 overdue plus whatever didn't get done from today's work. We have 5k tomorrow with four tms scheduled. Some who like to call out, some who like to be late, some who are just lazy.

I totally need to check the scan rates though. Pptl rarely thinks to.

 

[YourPPTL]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

I feel bad for you. I've had my team work ahead before Christmas they only thing we couldn't do was toys that was the direction. We are still working ahead

 

[ClearanceMaster]

This week and last are the absolute worst weeks for price change. It only gets better from here.. hang in there. Unfortunately my team can't work ahead.. it's me and one other person flailing in the water this week.. I have to scream and fight for help and tell them I'm going home if they can't figure something out.. I'm not staying open to close anymore. Did it a few times last year.. never again.

 

[Triscuit]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

None of the leaders at my store have any idea how long the days workload should take based off the numbers. They will over schedule on days where we would be fine with 1 person, and under schedule on days where we should have 5 people but its only two of us. I have done pricing for 2 years now, so I am pretty fast and our pricing team only consists of 2 regular people and a they will throw in another person or two from other workcenters when we need help. I can totally see why you guys would be behind, but the matter of the fact is as long as you are trying your best and doing 100-120 tickets per hour that is all you can do. If the stuff doesnt get done, let the ETLS worry about it. I can count a few times that I seriously just had no choice but to skip certain areas some times and just clear the tickets out. Since I have been doing this so long, I have a pretty good idea of what I can skip and get away with. But don't stress! Pricing is heavy right now but it is not like this all the time

 

[ClearanceMaster]

None of the leaders at my store have any idea how long the days workload should take based off the numbers. They will over schedule on days where we would be fine with 1 person, and under schedule on days where we should have 5 people but its only two of us. I have done pricing for 2 years now, so I am pretty fast and our pricing team only consists of 2 regular people and a they will throw in another person or two from other workcenters when we need help. I can totally see why you guys would be behind, but the matter of the fact is as long as you are trying your best and doing 100-120 tickets per hour that is all you can do. If the stuff doesnt get done, let the ETLS worry about it. I can count a few times that I seriously just had no choice but to skip certain areas some times and just clear the tickets out. Since I have been doing this so long, I have a pretty good idea of what I can skip and get away with. But don't stress! Pricing is heavy right now but it is not like this all the time

I manipulate the schedule. I give a paper to the hr tm and as long as we use the same amount of hours, she changes it. If I think my pricing Tl was smoking crack when writing the schedule that is.. happens rarely but sometimes I don't agree with her "we gotta work ahead" mentality when she's only allowing us 1 hour a day to work ahead and then wondering by Thursday why we are swamped.. And Friday why we leave early Lol.

 

[Signduck]

@Triscuit Yeah, it's the same in my store. Well, we have maybe 15 devices and a handful of PDAs. Somehow we manage, but it's still all around terrible.

I came on here to ask something else. I know the workload for all of pricing is insanity right now. Has everyone else's pricing team been on time for the last week or so? Our pricing team right now consists of myself, another TM who is just pricing, an crosstrained instocks TM and a crosstrained presentation TM. We've been behind all week, starting with monday when there were some 1000 items to be found in kids and infants/toddlers, along with a huge backroom pull for us. The 2 of us that are just pricing TMs stayed 11 hours and still didnt get finished, and it has gone downhill from there. On Tuesday with Ready-to-wear, two of our TMs left by noon and I was called in at 930 to stay until 330 and was expected to do the whole department myself. I guess I'm just frustrated when my ETL looks at me and asks 'What do you mean you didn't get Ready-t0-wear done?'. It's like, I dont know, maybe because that workload was for three or four people and not one? On top of that, myself and the other pricing TM will reach our 40 hours tomorrrow. We only have one TM pricing on Friday so i dont even know how that's going to go.

I guess I just have to stick with it and keep pricing as fast as I can, but any advice for getting better or doing things more efficiently?

We've had crazy buco numbers. I've been pulled for 2 days this week. Our store prioritizes process teams. And process COMPLETES work before they leave. Well they used to anyway. Backroom is FUBAR and pog gets as far as they can, they are usually allowed to stay late to complete. I don't think instocks has actually scanned since September. Pricing definitely completes. And if you don't let someone know you aren't gonna finish on time.... COACHING.
But this time of year is ALWAYS high crazy numbers. And they never schedule enough for it. From corporate or store. @ClearanceMaster not for nothing, but I'm a mosey little bugger and they send down FROM CORPORATE day by day the amount of hours that should be scheduled. Like they have absolutely no clue what kind of inventory we have on hand? Seriously? It's a special sort of stupid or their computers don't work.

 

[ClearanceMaster]

We've had crazy buco numbers. I've been pulled for 2 days this week. Our store prioritizes process teams. And process COMPLETES work before they leave. Well they used to anyway. Backroom is FUBAR and pog gets as far as they can, they are usually allowed to stay late to complete. I don't think instocks has actually scanned since September. Pricing definitely completes. And if you don't let someone know you aren't gonna finish on time.... COACHING.
But this time of year is ALWAYS high crazy numbers. And they never schedule enough for it. From corporate or store. @ClearanceMaster not for nothing, but I'm a mosey little bugger and they send down FROM CORPORATE day by day the amount of hours that should be scheduled. Like they have absolutely no clue what kind of inventory we have on hand? Seriously? It's a special sort of stupid or their computers don't work.

I can go into my signing computer the exact day the forecast updates and pull up a completely different ticket count than what's on the report.. I'm talking 600-700 tickets. The report is so flawed. Then mytime tries to only give us 70 hours when we need 100. So our STL has to bump us up. It's a neverending battle and unless you stay on top of it, you will get shafted. Leadership knows next to nothing about what you need to complete the workload. They know I don't dawdle and if I ask for more hours it's because I need it.

 

[Signduck]

I can go into my signing computer the exact day the forecast updates and pull up a completely different ticket count than what's on the report.. I'm talking 600-700 tickets. The report is so flawed. Then mytime tries to only give us 70 hours when we need 100. So our STL has to bump us up. It's a neverending battle and unless you stay on top of it, you will get shafted. Leadership knows next to nothing about what you need to complete the workload. They know I don't dawdle and if I ask for more hours it's because I need it.

Exactly!!! They USED TO do that in my store. I won't get into the logistics of that tho....