Blain's Farm and Fleet Blain's Farm & Fleet Insider tells all Janesville, Wisconsin

Blains Farm & Fleet in Janesville operates in a very sly way. They will try to sell you an extended warranty plan on your purchases, which really isn't necessary for a huge majority of items. These plans = big $$ for the managers and corporate people. Do you really think that when the manufacturer warranty runs out in 3 years something is going to happen to that pooper scooper? Do you really think you will still have the receipt and warranty brochure after such a long time? But guess what? That warranty you just bought doesn't kick in until AFTER the manufacturer warranties end.

It's just a way they steal your hard earned cash from you.  And they threaten to discipline (leading up to termination) cashiers who don't sell enough of these warranty "B.E.S.T." plans to vulnerable customers. And as if it's like a cashier can force a customer to buy one of these warranty plans. Oh, they will tell you it's not a warranty; but will tell you that its a replacement plan or a service plan. So lets play word games with our beloved customers now. Sounds like a warranty to me, and probably most people out there. You should see the nasty notes and memo's management sends downstairs when too many customer's said heck no I don't want to waste my money on that. 

Very interesting that employees who work in the departments are never threatened with their jobs or raises like the cashiers are. (They are never given memos saying such on a daily basis.) The department employees as well as management rarely sells one of these warranty plans. (B.E.S.T. plan.) The department employees are never given the same nasty memos from management that the cashiers get when they don't sell enough plans in a day. Hmm.. maybe the EEOC would be interested in some of this--especially if someone gets fired or demoted for something out of their control, which would be a customer saying NO I DONT WANT TO BUY A BEST PLAN.

The next thing is they have to try to talk you in to signing up for their credit card which has a 29.9% interest rate for standard purchases. They go to the desperate measure of having a poor cashier (always a female....) stand at the front doors and offer the card to people coming in to the store. How demeaning. They also threaten to discipline and terminate jobs if not enough completed credit cards applications are sent upstairs.

Pretty soon the store will be operated by part time employees. They know full time costs them more in benefits, so they seem to be hiring an awful lot of part time help while cutting full timers hours. Only full timers you'll see there will be managers.

Where does this madness end? Yes, everyone wants to be profitable, and everyone wants the store to be profitable, but when you have to resort to what is in my opinion greedy, desperate measures to get your profits, its just plain sad. What happened to the good, honest values this company formerly had?? Trust me, the cashier doesn't enjoy asking you any more than you enjoy getting asked for your zip code, if it's going to be on a 29.99% rate credit card, and if you want a replacement plan on the lawn mower you just bought..(that the guy in seasonal just told you was a great product)