Nordstrom Sucks

If you are not a legal alien of the USA then Sandra Tuerek the kitchen Manager at the Alderwood Nordstrom Bistro will hire you!!!! And if you are a hardworking national trying to keep your job and fight for what’s right… JUST OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNTRY!!!!! YOU WILL BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!

spoken like a true racist. i’ii admit alot of Hispanics are working in the biz right now, but they are taking crap and then moving up the ladder ,bottom line u we re fired cuz ur not good enough.

When I was eighteen years old, I was a “skater” type: Long hair, shabby clothes, etc. I didn’t make much money at all, and thus dealt with the criticism associated with being less presentable. That summer, as I was heading to the mall with a friend, his mother asked us to return a pair of shoes she had recently bought at Nordstrom and worn once. Receipt in hand, we made our way.

I admit we looked out of place, two skater punks in the womens’ shoes section of Nordstrom, but we were polite people even back then. My friend approached the counter and exclaimed “I’d like to return these shoes for my mom.” The lady at the counter looked at the receipt, then the shoes, and asked “What’s wrong with these shoes?”. “She didn’t like the way they fit” he replied. “How many times did she wear them?”. “Once”. After speaking with another lady behind the counter, she concluded “Sorry. We can’t refund these shoes since she didn’t purchase them at this Nordstrom location”. It turns out she had bought them at a different Nordstrom. No big deal. He called his mom to tell her what happened and she, disappointed, asked us to get the name of the gal who turned us down.

We returned to the counter, and my friend explained his mother’s request for the representative’s name. Just then, the representative slammed her hands on the counter and, trembling, barked “Why don’t you give me your name!?”. She proceeded on a tirade about “you people” coming in with outrageous expectations only to be interrupted by her supervisor, who said “Guys. I am her supervisor and I’m sorry, but we cannot refund those shoes for you”. She gave us the name of the representative who, at that point, was calling security on us to escort us out of the store! We had been cordial the entire time, but we stuck out like sore thumbs because of the way we appeared. Needless to say, we got the names of the ladies, and my friend’s mom called Nordstrom and gave them an earful of disapproval.

The story doesn’t stop there: I vowed to never spend a penny of my money at Nordstrom for the rest of my life.

A few years ago (10 years later), a friend and I were Christmas shopping in the same mall when she excitedly noticed the Nordstrom store. I told her I would not go in there, she begged me to, and I agreed to on the condition that I wouldn’t buy anything. As we walked in, I began telling her the story. Then I noticed the women’s shoes department. Then I noticed the lady, still working there. By this time, I was fired up and telling repeating the encounter passionately in the women’s shoes department. My friend digressed and led me out of there (after I took down the lady’s name again for my own letter to Nordstrom). I wrote this story to their customer service section, which redirected to the store manager, which ended up going nowhere (i.e. an email reply from the manager saying “I would love to hear more about your problems if you want to call and vent).

It has been nearly fifteen years now, and a lot has changed. I am an engineer earning much more, and I am together with a doctor who loves Nordstrom. We dress well. My old skate clothes have been replaced with Brooks Brothers, Burberry, etc. I have held true to my vow, and have never purchased (or accepted from my girlfriend), any item originating in a Nordstrom store. My social status has changed, but my core principles remain intact.

I had to leave the restaurant division because Nordstrom is getting cheaper, and cheaper and cheaper. First, they only want to pay $10.00 an hour for line cooks; there are dishwashing positions that pay more than that, and if that is sucky enough, they only will give you 20 hours a week so there is no way you can make enough to even pay rent–then they ask you to wash dishes, prep and work the line, all because they want to run things on the cheap and not hire a proper staff. I was SO glad to get out of there; the lead cook at the Northgate store loves to throw temper tantrums, and that’s what did it for me. Well, actually, what did it is when Nordstrom said, okay, we are so cheap that we are no longer giving cafe or restaurant employees free meals, you have to pay half price, which for a job already at the lowest income level is like a pay cut. How cheap can you get! I’m a cook, and you’re telling me, I can’t eat for free? SE YA! Now I have a GREAT kitchen job, I’ll never do the restaurant thing again! Nordstroms may have good apparel, and it may be great to eat there, but NOT to work there.

My experience with Nordstrom in Atlanta, both the Perimeter and the Phipps stores, does not live up to their reputation.

Clearly Nordstrom has been drinking their own kool-aide.

For years they have been the cliched example of excellent customer service. Currently, however, they are the real life experience of NO SERVICE.

Being able to return a used product isn’t the hallmark of service–polite employees [including managers] who use professional business practices [why would a manager brush off an employee asking for my social security number over the phone?] including calling when a special order has arrived ["It's been sittin' here for two months, I have no idea why no one called you. The reason the other person didn't tell you it was in was because it's from our previous sale."]

I spoke with a Nordstrom exec last year and asked what kind of training salespeople get. “Nothing, really,” he replied.

It shows.

The pendulum is about to swing. All the laurels in the world won’t cover for sales clerks who are “too tired” to go check on stock, or “don’t have time before closing” to ring up a special order, or use insider jargon to explain to a customer with a ready credit card why they can’t check availability at another store right now.

I used to be a Nordstrom fan.
I miss those days.

Don’t shop here, especially if you are for basic human rights, to be treated fairly and treat others in turn. The Nord Brothers are a bunch of circus clowns who have no clue how to run a business. I think if they ran a snow cone machine at a state fair, they would have problems. The seasoned employees who know what is going on are slowly being replaced by minimum wage employees. While the proces remain high the service has declined, the name brand is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

the preceding message Should read “prices” not “proces” Looks like the Nord brothers spelled that one. Class Clowns, a crappy store, substandard service and unhappy employees! Don’t shop at Nordstrom!

And too you, my friends, I explain why Macy’s gave us the wonderful gift that is Bloomingdales.
BLOOMINGDALES>NORDSTROM

Just had to spread the word, ever wonder why they keep turning cooks over at the Nordstrom grill/cafe’s? Because they burden you down with the most mundane details, it only drives you out of the kitchen. Portions weighed to 0.1 oz., checklists after checklists, they want you to still do these in a standard shift, put labels with way too much information on everything, it sucks! Not to mention, pay is below standard, let me tell you the meaning of freedom, my friend, it is getting out of any Nordstrom kitchen. Regional managers who don’t really care about you, the worker, they’re only interested in maximum profit and minimum cost. This means no free meals, no full time, substandard wages, two or three jobs rolled into one–the best part of the day is knowing the end of the shift is near and the freedom of leaving, knowing that another job is on the horizon and true freedom from the stupid, most petty tasks the nordstrom’s managers put on you.

I worked at Nordstrom East-coast, in the Loss Prevention dept. I seen many things that were truly annoying. Nordstrom has a policy to give back refunds, no matter what. People take advantage of that policy. Although, it is not a written policy and can be denied at anytime. People come in, buy and wear shoes, dresses, makeup, colons, handbags, exc. Then they refund them for cash. These people are classless assholes. Or, shoplifters come in and buy one steal one. Return one item with the receipt one with the UII sticker and get back full price. We do have a detector that shows when the item has been returned, so the second refund shows up, along with a camera video of the shoplifter refunding the same item in another Nordstrom. They still give them back the money, because these asswipes start yelling and screaming, and threaten to call corp heads. Nordstrom needs to change that old school policy involving there refund policy. Besides all of that, it really is a great place to work. And as far as the Nordstrom brothers are concerned, they are great guys.

If it’s a great place to work, can you tell me why 7 years of retail experience + 2 years of store management experience is deemed “not qualified” for a sales position at Nordstrom? Also the fact that everyone they hired has American names and mine is a Middle-Eastern name. Sounds like a fu*ked up company to me.

Nordstrom DOES suck. Unfortunately, those people who often drink Nordstrom Kool-Aid have been brainwashed to believe that it is SO COOL to shop at Nordstrom.

NORDSTOM IS RIDICULOUS!! I have worked at other retailers such as Sacks and Neiman Marcus and they are soooo much better to their employees. If you work in cosmetics..you have to set up and take down all the tables, chairs..etc. On top of that you get out at midnight with these events and are expected be at work within the next 7 hours to work a 12 hour shift. Your paycheck isn’t that much bigger. They are slave drivers and have the highest turn over of any retailer. They don’t give a shit about their employees and to top it all off, you’re threatened with your job every couple of months for outrageous criteria that you must follow. They SUCK.

I am angry at Nordstrom. Because of Nord’s great PR machine, they have everyone believing you can return items at any time. I used to shop a lot there, but I say “used to” because I will no longer do so. I had a number of items that had never been worn, which I returned with the tags on. Certain customer service people were fine; others acted like I was offending them personally that I did not want the items. They smirked at how “old” the clothing was. One took it upon herself to send me a letter from her store manager, telling me that future returns from me must have the original receipt, and that I can no longer get cash refunds. She also had the audacity to copy the manager of a neighboring Nordstrom on this letter. I am annoyed that I have a different policy now applied to me. I have heard PR stories of how people have returned tires, etc. that Nord clearly doesn’t even sell. I would never do that. The items I had were ones that I had bought from Nord and were unused, and fell within “guidelines,” i.e., they all had the tracking “shank” so you could tell they had indeed been purchased. If the company wants to change its overall policy, that’s fine. However, it must apply to everyone. I feel as though I am being discriminated against. My money is as good as the next person’s. I will take it someplace else.

Nordstrom is a cheap company. You will not make a lot of money there, or even close to the market rate for your skills/education. They will pay you below market rate and then smile, because they got the good deal and not you. If you are getting multiple offers, Nordstrom should be your last choice, on the bottom of your list. They will work you, and then maybe, you’ll get a raise, LOL

Unbelievable, but that’s the reality.

Mark

Just today, saw yet another job opening for a line cook at Alderwood Nordstrom. If the emotions are tossed aside and only the facts are examined, what does high turnover tell you? Do people quit good jobs for no reason? Is there a valid reason why turnover is high at the Nordstrom cafes? Because you do not have one iota of creativity working there, you are a slave, following all the recipes to the ‘T’ (they even have a recipe for salted water(!). You cannot express one degree of what you learned in cooking school, it’s “do it this way or else!” (there’s the door)!. The worst cooking jobs in the industry are at Nordstrom, and I have no fear of telling the truth. It was a good learning experience, in that I learned how NOT to run restaurant. When I heard the regional “chefs” (ahem) say to “get rid of all these old people (customers) and get some young people in here!” I knew that I would take the next job at the earliest opportunity and never go back. Working at Nordstrom’s cafe after two years is still on my mind like a Vietnam veteran is haunted by memories of combat. Like the guy said, “Hey, man, all you got to do is make it out of here, and the rest of your life is all gravy…” Not a truer statement uttered by mankind has been said. What kind of restaurant makes the cooks do the dishes? Since when does the dishwasher’s hours cut into the cooks’ hours? Only at Nordstrom. Buh bye! SEE YA!