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Report: #1287263

Complaint Review: Restoration Hardware - Nationwide

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  • Reported By: movers — Stafford Texas USA
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  • Restoration Hardware Nationwide USA

Restoration Hardware They are a horrible company to work for Houston Nationwide

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I have been in the moving industry for over 17 years as a helper .  Then later in 2006 I bought a truck and started doing it for myself.   In 2016 or 10 years after we started the company we decided to add another source of income by adding what they call in the industry "last mile delivery." Up until 6 months prior we had never heard of that industry.   But to recap briefly: when you order your furniture from a furniture store like The Dump or Restoration Hardware they hire a third party to handle the delivery part from their warehouse.  The most popular companies in this industry are Home Delivery Link, XPO etc.  Then this company (who doesn't own any trucks) hires another carrier to do the actual deliveries. And that is where we came in as an independent carrier for the first time. During our time there I was exposed to business practices that were unfair and unlawful.   I am humbly writing this letter to shed a light and help the general public to understand this aspect of supply chain that is so important and yet ignored by the general public. 

 

One of the reasons why companies like Restoration Hardware hire a third party to handle their delivery is to hedge against inherent fluctuations that occur in the selling of furniture.  For instance when sales of furniture go up during the holidays they will have an army of independent contractors to work for them at very low wage and when business is down they don’t have to worry about assets (trucks, labor) that are idle, instead they pass those responsibilities to the independent carrier.    

      

 

In early January we were assigned to work as an independent carrier at a company called Restoration Hardware.  Unlike the drivers and helpers in the Restoration Hardware distribution center we were the only non-Hispanic crew there and none of the workers there spoke English.  When I noticed that I did ask myself why that was.  However never did I imagine that a company in America could be so unfair and exploit people so flagrantly.  To start let’s talk about the physical aspect of the job that is unfair and simply unlawful on a safety aspect.  They overwork their drivers because they have large deliveries and have to stretch their labor beyond capacity.  You start work as a driver or a helper at 4:00 AM.  Your job description is to put furniture together, load them in the truck and deliver them to different homes.  On average you drive and deliver from 4:00AM to 7:00 PM.  By allowing their drivers to drive on average over 13 hours a day is a flagrant violation of the 11-Hour Rule 395.3 (a)(1)) of the Texas Highway Patrol Division rules on “Hours of Service of Drivers.”   In addition because delivering furniture inside of people homes in addition to driving it makes this job even more demanding on one’s body and therefore creates a true hazard on our roads.  

 

When it comes to payment of their workers, the average helper works for over 13 hours a day and gets paid between $80 to $90 maximum or between $5.00 per hour to $6.92 per hour.  This wage is below the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and certainly in violation of the Texas minimum wage $10.10 per hour.

 

The other component of this last mile delivery industry is the independent contractor.  The independent contractor is typically the owner of the trucks and technically the one that provides the labor.  The independent contractor is financially responsible for everything that happens to the furniture, the truck and their employees.  With no solid contract in place that will guarantee work, the independent contractor is responsible for a long list of insurance that come with a very high cost.  However when their busy season picks up one is required to work 7 days a week with no break and if you try to agree ahead of time with them on days you can work and days you can’t work well they will not call you to work again.  This last practice deters independent contractors from sharing their availability to work and therefore are indirectly forced to work at the time set by the company that hired them.  This practice goes against the IRS rules of misclassification of an employee for a contractor. 

Lastly Restoration Hardware charges their independent contractors a fee for everything including a fee for printing the check they gave you for the work that you did.  When I called management to ask about other fees that were on the check they were unable to provide with an answer and admitted that this practices of “fee stuffing” was as he said “shady.”

 

 

I left Restoration Hardware after less than a month.  My experience gave me a look into the unfairness being done to independent carriers and workers right inside of our great state of Texas.  While we can understand why financially a company adopts a business model does not relieve them when unfairness starts to occur within that model.  I want to convey to readers of this letter, whether you are thinking about purchasing furniture from Restoration Hardware, or the owner of such a company there are people that are risking their lives for a pittance and at the end of the day we should ask ourselves who benefits from these unfair and unlawful practices?  Last mile delivery is a great industry but individual companies like Restoration Hardware is truly setting a bad example and making that industry one made with modern day slaves.     

 

 

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/12/2016 01:32 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/restoration-hardware/nationwide/restoration-hardware-they-are-a-horrible-company-to-work-for-houston-nationwide-1287263. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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