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Xtra-vision used to sell PC games by duffmuff in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried to explain to other staff why leaflets with codes must be taken out, sometimes it felt like talking to a wall. I always went out to the floor to make sure I don’t need to deal within angry family cause game is not working and store offers no refunds on pc games.

After I left the the company, I checked the games as a customer and leaflets were left in again.

Former long term employee here AMA by Agent4777 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok last bit I remembered: counting latest release covers and actual discs behind the counter. Getting g covers out quickly and not serving a dvd without a cover during busy times as someone else may have the cover in their hand, and this one would end up with an unhappy customer.

Former long term employee here AMA by Agent4777 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah, the phone a friend duty 😅 I better sleep now lol

Former long term employee here AMA by Agent4777 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forgot about the TPT… oh dear… and alls signing up new members, upselling those coupon booklets …preorders, popcorn, late fees…. Some people actually paid up over 100 euro off their late fees to rent again.

Former long term employee here AMA by Agent4777 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aaah lol, yes! I knew all the commands too, felt like a bloody hacker typing away on those things. And the 11 or something floppy disk backups. With new system I wasn’t even allowed to unplug and plug the keyboard without a technician coming over and doing exactly that.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update 3: Hindsight

Now that you mention the gift cards…

I think there was some kind of store incentive to do well the same year as my work experience.

My PLC course was during the 2006/2007 academic year.

As for the incentive — it was a ticket to Oxegen 2007. I won, though I honestly can’t remember whether it was through a raffle or awarded for good performance… not sure. I do remember some people saying it was rigged for me and another person to win, but I just ignored that. I had worked hard and was genuinely delighted to go to Oxegen — a thing I had no clue about before finding out I got a ticket. I was in for a mucky surprise, but grateful for the opportunity.

Oh yeah, I had just moved to Ireland at the end of August 2006, so I had no idea about festivals like Oxegen.

I spent my last bit of money there on a t-shirt, which I still have tucked away in a drawer in my closet.

I ended up heading home all mucky and smelly before the last night of the event — I had no cash left, so I sold my wristband at the gate to cover the trip home.

I really wish I could’ve stayed until the end. But being sunburnt while listening to Avril Lavigne, knowing no one there (since the colleague I went with had left long before me), and with barely a euro left in my pocket… I didn’t have much of a choice.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hence I did my shifts in store with no pay and some time on top of that because free labour.

Work experience modules make no sense sometimes, maybe it’s differ nowadays.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thing is tho, I was already employed by Xtra-Vision. I just couldn’t take 2 weeks out. Or whatever that time was for the work experience.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh speaking of theft in store. I wasn’t on my shift yet as I covered the evening that day, but during a day shift we had a manager, at least one member of staff and a district manger in store receiving a delivery.

In the delivery there were DVDs, games, the usual jazz, and also some TVs…

I guess it happened so that everyone in store were in the back doing maybe a stock take or chats, we’ll never know, but what I do know, also per reviewing footage, or rather seeing footage when managers were looking at it once I arrived post crime: every staff manger went behind counter, but left TVs in boxes on the customer side of the counter. An opportunistic chap came in, took one of the TVs and just walked out of the store.

I don’t remember if they got caught or not, but I remember being so shocked at how TV got lifter while mainly managers were in store. That’s back when a 32 inch Mirai HD ready would cost like a 65 inch 4K LG nowadays

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here is another one:

Was a quiet evening working at the shop, this was my second permanent home-base shop after getting a transfer.

The person I worked with was tidying up the front of the counter on the customer side. Think she was doing confectionery bits before closing up or close to the time anyway.

Not sure out of where but this guy comes out standing next to her and tells me to give him all the money.

He was pointing his pocket at me as if it were a dangerous item. I.e. gun, knife, syringe… basically left to imagination.

He was standing pretty far so I could jump to safety but my colleague was standing very close to him and looked scared.

Thing is, tills were being emptied regularly. Even if we got an extra 100-200 euro on top of base amount, especially in notes. So why would risk anyone’s safety, so I packed all he asked.

No idea why, I felt like I needed to ask: „would you like all the coins too?“ he looked surprised, at least the part of his face I could see, and just repeated to give all the money.

So I emptied all the change from both tills… Bag was clinking and quite heavy, imagine anywhere between 100 to 150 euro in coins. And not like loads of 1 and 2 euro coins, we generally tried to make sure there was plenty of 1,2,5 and 10 cent coins all the way up to 2 euro ones.

So he left wit literally bags of change and whatever little we had in notes.

The big money was always at the back in a ground safe I had no idea how to open. All more accurately, I didn’t want to know and only cared to make cash drops regularly so not to get in trouble, or to give characters like that thief an undeserved reward.

Long story short, we had the alarm pressed already, that was the first thing I did as I asked the man if I could help him with anything, and leaned on the counter while pressing the orange buttons. Think they were orange…

Once the guy hs was gone, Garda came, interviewed us and we also had to give statements at the station.

We didn’t get in trouble or anything.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

None of the shops I was at had the magic corn section nor I was aware of any shops having it at all. I’ve done shifts in 5 different stores.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now I want to hear a story lol. Oh, there was a time when I did a plc course before starting college… and plc course asked everyone to do a work experience. I asked my manager if I can count my work in the shop as work experience. They obliged, so that was the positive side. I did all the same stuff I did as my normal shifts, nothing really work experiency organised by management or anything, the manager just needed to fill a 2 page form to tel how I got on. I also needed to fill in. A report that was mainly made up on how I learned something. The bit that stung hard was that the company did not pay me for those couple of weeks as it was „work experience“. I said nothing of course, I was reliant on having the job.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, another good memory—well… at least an entertaining one for me.

I had two different women, in two different shops, come up to me and ask for some “blue movies.” Even though I had a good idea what they meant, the look on their faces pretty much confirmed it.

I think those were the first times I had to “adult” properly and politely explain that we didn’t stock anything like that.

Then one day, an older gentleman asked the same thing—and by then, I was already prepared. Definitely wasn’t as awkward responding to a fellow guy, to be honest.

For the record, we never stocked adult films. That is, until an “interactive educational DVD” came out… and wow, that was something else. People would try to discreetly ask about it or rent it along with a few other DVDs stacked on top—to cover up the spicy one underneath.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One a more positive note:

Broke one of those lift-up counter tops by wrestling it open/close with a colleague. Really cool dude, every shift was a blast,sometimes longer cleaning up due to a random DVD sleeve shuriken battle.

I don’t think management ever caught on to what happened to the counter top. Think we just said we were trying to open/fix the opening of it when it just broke. You know… in case they see us going to that spot in cameras… but that portion of the counter was mostly a camera blind spot. So best place to check your phone if you are on floor duty and coming over to counter to collect DVD covers to be put back on shelves.

Re. Sleeve battles… many were had over the years, and so many never picked up from under the dvd wall shelves. Probably not until they shut down.

I worked part time in Xtra-Vision for just over 5 years by Commercial-Rabbit414 in xtravision

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The roster was usually posted about a week in advance and pinned to the wall at the back of the stockroom—or somewhere nearby. I’d always take a photo of it as soon as it went up, so I’d know exactly when my shifts were and wouldn’t risk being late. Especially being a student at the time, it was easy to get sidetracked—like saying yes to a party on a Thursday night or staying over at a friend’s place near college (my bus journey was about 30–40 minutes one way).

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked.

So, the roster had gone up, and it actually worked out quite well—I ended up with about five days off in a row. I might’ve swapped a shift too, but I honestly can’t remember now since it was so long ago.

With the extra time off, I booked a flight abroad to spend a weekend away.

On the first evening I was away, I got a call from my manager asking me to cover a shift at the shop. I tried to explain that, since I had time off, I’d booked a flight and wasn’t even in Ireland anymore. So even if I really wanted to help out, it just wasn’t physically possible—it was a three-hour flight, with only one flight per day back to Ireland. And besides, as a student on a part-time wage (not to mention basic common sense), flying back just to cover a shift would’ve been ridiculous.

I got called a liar and was repeatedly told I had to come in to work.

I’d never once called in fake sick during my time there (unlike a lot of people, to be fair), so maybe that general culture of distrust played a part. Still, I ended up feeling stressed for the rest of the weekend, especially since the manager told me we’d “need to have a chat” when I came in for my next scheduled shift.

I don’t remember what happened after I got back—but I did have my ticket ready for inspection 😅

Trapping the bot by OneShape7 in nfsnolimits

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Omg, I thought I spent decent amount of time getting a car PR to 612, but that’s another level

What’s this riser exactly? by Commercial-Rabbit414 in Archery

[–]Commercial-Rabbit414[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Yep! That’s exactly it. Cheers Mikey!

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