Schwan's Home Service Unfair work conditions and expecations Marshall Minnesota

I have already posted on this site.... but noticed that the pay schedule talked about here has been dramatically changed.   So though this person spent much time explaining how things work.. it is different.  I would say worse.

I'm not sure where to start but here goes. I was an employee of schwans from april 2003 to nov. 2007 MN. I will start with my first day. I did the ride along day with the LGM because they were so short handed the LGM was running the routes. Like I herd from others on here I was fed the glits and glam. Soon there after I was thrown in the truck. Never went to schwans univesity or the eight weeks of training. I road with one route driver for one week and was on my own.

The Lgm at that time (we went through three in the time I was there) told me no matter what to get the routes done and be there every two weeks. The routes that I took was a 5 and 4 that were averaging 1010 per day. Six of these route days it took an hour and a half to get to my first stop. Witch I was not paid for. At first did not bother me. I had to learn on my own what needed to be done to make my routes run better numbers. I started stopping at new houses, carring products to the door, asking current customers for new customers and so on and so forth. It didn't take long and a year went by. Then schwans came out with the $1 fuel surcharge. I lost alot of customers that I worked so hard to get. I will not forget that day I went on my route and got door after door slammed in my face after telling them about the new charge. I went from having 46 BC's (buying customers) to 30BC's per day in a matter of a 2 week call back. It took a while before some of them came back. Some of them I even offered to pay the $1 for them just to keep there business. After a year of that Schwans decided to drop the $1 surcharge for our district. I managed to get most of those customers back plus a few more. For anyone out there that wants to tell me I didn't try go right ahead and think what you want. After that whole mess I was just plane old getting burnt out. I gave and gave and got nothing back but a bad paycheck and a couple of placks. The people that work there right now more power to you. Schwans took all of mine.

A couple points:

Schwans is generally around $8 per hour

no sick days

no paid holidays

no advancement

if someone works for Schwans as an alternative to jobs that they can get for $7 per hour-I feel sorry for you.

upgrade your education-there's better jobs and a lot better companies to work for.

you certainly do not get what you put in-13hr days to Schwans

anyone who gets their 11% of gross sales for the week-looks back at all those hours-pathetic benefits-and feels it is worth it must live in another area of the USA than the rest of us.

Schwans is 3rd rate, and crooked as well.

SALES JOBS SHOULD BE ELIMINATED, PERIOD!

If a salary is paid, that is a much more incentive to working any job. When I was just out of high school and had to have a job to live while I pursued other interests and additional education, I applied at several major mall dept. stores. After interviewing and finding out you had to make comission and end up getting paid less than, I took a job in a large discount store. At least there I knew I had a wage and 35 hours a week to be able to move out and get an apartment.
Sales positions are utterly ridiculous!! Why should someone have to make sales when they are delivering. They are a DELIVERY PERSON, not a sales person. Let some suit sit in the office and do that.

I would never work in any kind of sales where I had approach people for business. If the business can't sell itself by not hounding people then the business should be out of business.

Sorry, but that is just the way I feel. I don't like being followed around Dillards, Macy's, etc asked over and over again " Can I Help you"! If I need help, I will find someone, if not leave me alone to think and make my purchases wisely!!

I just wanted to say that I can understand your frustration. My husband recentally became a CSM at Schwans. He was told he would be working on flex run. For the past 2 days, he has been putting in 14 hour days playing catch up because they have been so short staffed. Some of the customers haven't seen their CSM for 6 weeks!! It is very frustrating considering this was a job where he thought he would be home more than his previous.

The good news is that he loves his job. The area we live in offers jobs at $7 an hour. It makes it hard for anyone with a family to be able to survive. Schwans opened a door of opportunity for him where all the other doors had been closed. He has sold over $1000 a day on his first 3 days alone. He has lead his depot at news at the door and the promotional sales. We are looking forward to seeing our income potential grow where it could not grow before.

We are very leery, while my husband is having $1000 days, his flex partner is having $400 days. It is very frustrating to us that my husband is going to fill this guys pockets, while the other guy is leaving my husband behind.
I know that he has only been there a short time, but thinking about it, this is the best job for him and many others in our area. You get out of it what you put into it. If you just stay positive and use the tools that Schwans has given you, you can do well and accomplish anything.

This year my husband is shooting for a grand slam and I have no doubts in my mind that he will accomplish it ( with a little push from his wife). I wish you the best of luck and don't give up, you can accomplish what you set your mind to. If you think you are going to have a bad day, you are. Only you can determine you happiness and your income potiental.

Daniel is right on with his report. This may not hold true for the entire country, but certain districts/regions do suffer from what Daniel mentioned.
We have been loyal Schwan's customers for many years and like many, had the same driver up until a couple years ago. We noticed something changed in the company or management. Suddenly, drivers appeared at our door different hours of the day, sometimes they wouldn't stop, but we watched them drive by our house. We did our part and called Schwan's, they gave us a depot #, but then that was just a recording. Our neighbors have also mentioned the "Now Hiring" signs on the trucks... been there for at least 18 months.
Since our Christmas dinner internet preorder was not delivered AT ALL, we've dropped service & have decided on alternative companies. Our friends have decided the same.
Our original driver mentioned the long hours & time away from his family. So we did tip him & always had our list ready. In today's world, it will be very hard for Schwan's to survive in some metro areas due to the fast paced lifestyles, competition, bad reputation & from what we've experience, the lack of customer satisfaction.
One of our drivers (he lasted 3 visits) mentioned a revolving door being installed at his depot. And unrealistic sales goals coupled with poor business decisions. He did bring new items to the door & we liked that... but one day no one stopped, so we immediately thought: "Well, there goes another one."
Maybe the men/women who have the great routes & have the experience do great w/ Schwan's... but what about the new employees, who must deal with customers like us who have been burned & have no faith in the Schwan's delivery service.
Is it a "oh well, there's enough people in this world, who cares if we piss off this customer. NEXT!"
Negative word of mouth will always damage, often kill a business, regardless how big or how long in existence.
Daniel, for the sake of your family & your sanity, if you haven't already, save yourself the pain & stress... get the resume out there!

Daniel is right on with his report. This may not hold true for the entire country, but certain districts/regions do suffer from what Daniel mentioned.
We have been loyal Schwan's customers for many years and like many, had the same driver up until a couple years ago. We noticed something changed in the company or management. Suddenly, drivers appeared at our door different hours of the day, sometimes they wouldn't stop, but we watched them drive by our house. We did our part and called Schwan's, they gave us a depot #, but then that was just a recording. Our neighbors have also mentioned the "Now Hiring" signs on the trucks... been there for at least 18 months.
Since our Christmas dinner internet preorder was not delivered AT ALL, we've dropped service & have decided on alternative companies. Our friends have decided the same.
Our original driver mentioned the long hours & time away from his family. So we did tip him & always had our list ready. In today's world, it will be very hard for Schwan's to survive in some metro areas due to the fast paced lifestyles, competition, bad reputation & from what we've experience, the lack of customer satisfaction.
One of our drivers (he lasted 3 visits) mentioned a revolving door being installed at his depot. And unrealistic sales goals coupled with poor business decisions. He did bring new items to the door & we liked that... but one day no one stopped, so we immediately thought: "Well, there goes another one."
Maybe the men/women who have the great routes & have the experience do great w/ Schwan's... but what about the new employees, who must deal with customers like us who have been burned & have no faith in the Schwan's delivery service.
Is it a "oh well, there's enough people in this world, who cares if we piss off this customer. NEXT!"
Negative word of mouth will always damage, often kill a business, regardless how big or how long in existence.
Daniel, for the sake of your family & your sanity, if you haven't already, save yourself the pain & stress... get the resume out there!

Tom,

First of all, I would sincerely like to thank you for your response. Truth be told, I was pretty bummed out on the night I wrote it. I had my worst day ever (other than working last year's 4th of July) and did $314 in sales. What I now realize is that I have NOT been doing everything I can do be successful at this job. Do I carry to the door? No. I honestly don't, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because I feel my customer's will look at me as a salesman if I do that.

I usually have good NATD numbers, but I know they can be better if I start carrying. You are right. Warm doors? None, to speak of. I do not like to build. The main reason? I am afraid of going to someone's house to try and get them on the route. Yes, that is stupid. I know part of my job is doing this. If you could offer me any advice on this, I would love it. When I trained, we did not do any building. My SS trained me and he did an awesome job, but building was something that we did not do. As far as rounding out meals. I do that, but not as much as I should.

You gave me a dose of reality and I really appreciate it. I know that there are things I could be doing to improve my route. I do like working for Schwan's; that is what is so maddening. I am a likable guy and all I have heard from people is that they enjoy me, but there are people who have been turned off to Schwan's do to the turnover. I need to do a better job of trimming the fat off of my route and finding out who wants to be a customer, and focus on building. Another thing: I work for two awesome individuals. My LGM and SS are great guys who want us to succeed. It hurts to think that I could leave them high and dry if things don't start looking up, because I think they have high aspirations from me because I transferred from a squared away depot and was running good numbers.

There is a fear that I need to get over... and that is the fear of rejection. I hate the feeling of feeling that I am a nuiscance to someone, and unfortunately with this new route, I do feel that way at times.

Oh, and about my math... Well, there are 52 weeks in a year, but I was taking into consideration vacation and holiday time (our depot lets us push the days up so we can have a week off during Christmas and New Year's). I know we get paid for vacation, so that was my bad.

I feel Schwan's is a tough company to work for, but many of my words in the original post were off the mark due to frustrations I was feeling at the time. I also feel it is a good company to work for. Please do not think that I compound the problem of turnover. I am not ready to give up on this job yet. I plan to implement new things to my route, such as carrying to the door, more building and even creating my own website for my route. I do have high goals and I want to it to work; I was just feeling the growing pressure and mounting frustration. That is an issue of maturity, and I am learning. Slowly, but learning.

Please offer more advice if you have any... I am scheduled to get on an Excellence route by May, but my partner and I have to improve our routes before we can do it. I would say my route averages about $700 right now. Three or four years ago, it was a club route that ran awesome numbers. It was abused between then, though I don't mean that as an excuse -- it's just reality. I want to get it back and be successful. Please offer any more words or advice, or you can e-mail me directly (((ROR removed for security purposes)))

Thanks, Tom!

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Tom,

First of all, I would sincerely like to thank you for your response. Truth be told, I was pretty bummed out on the night I wrote it. I had my worst day ever (other than working last year's 4th of July) and did $314 in sales. What I now realize is that I have NOT been doing everything I can do be successful at this job. Do I carry to the door? No. I honestly don't, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because I feel my customer's will look at me as a salesman if I do that.

I usually have good NATD numbers, but I know they can be better if I start carrying. You are right. Warm doors? None, to speak of. I do not like to build. The main reason? I am afraid of going to someone's house to try and get them on the route. Yes, that is stupid. I know part of my job is doing this. If you could offer me any advice on this, I would love it. When I trained, we did not do any building. My SS trained me and he did an awesome job, but building was something that we did not do. As far as rounding out meals. I do that, but not as much as I should.

You gave me a dose of reality and I really appreciate it. I know that there are things I could be doing to improve my route. I do like working for Schwan's; that is what is so maddening. I am a likable guy and all I have heard from people is that they enjoy me, but there are people who have been turned off to Schwan's do to the turnover. I need to do a better job of trimming the fat off of my route and finding out who wants to be a customer, and focus on building. Another thing: I work for two awesome individuals. My LGM and SS are great guys who want us to succeed. It hurts to think that I could leave them high and dry if things don't start looking up, because I think they have high aspirations from me because I transferred from a squared away depot and was running good numbers.

There is a fear that I need to get over... and that is the fear of rejection. I hate the feeling of feeling that I am a nuiscance to someone, and unfortunately with this new route, I do feel that way at times.

Oh, and about my math... Well, there are 52 weeks in a year, but I was taking into consideration vacation and holiday time (our depot lets us push the days up so we can have a week off during Christmas and New Year's). I know we get paid for vacation, so that was my bad.

I feel Schwan's is a tough company to work for, but many of my words in the original post were off the mark due to frustrations I was feeling at the time. I also feel it is a good company to work for. Please do not think that I compound the problem of turnover. I am not ready to give up on this job yet. I plan to implement new things to my route, such as carrying to the door, more building and even creating my own website for my route. I do have high goals and I want to it to work; I was just feeling the growing pressure and mounting frustration. That is an issue of maturity, and I am learning. Slowly, but learning.

Please offer more advice if you have any... I am scheduled to get on an Excellence route by May, but my partner and I have to improve our routes before we can do it. I would say my route averages about $700 right now. Three or four years ago, it was a club route that ran awesome numbers. It was abused between then, though I don't mean that as an excuse -- it's just reality. I want to get it back and be successful. Please offer any more words or advice, or you can e-mail me directly (((ROR removed for security purposes)))

Thanks, Tom!

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Tom,

First of all, I would sincerely like to thank you for your response. Truth be told, I was pretty bummed out on the night I wrote it. I had my worst day ever (other than working last year's 4th of July) and did $314 in sales. What I now realize is that I have NOT been doing everything I can do be successful at this job. Do I carry to the door? No. I honestly don't, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because I feel my customer's will look at me as a salesman if I do that.

I usually have good NATD numbers, but I know they can be better if I start carrying. You are right. Warm doors? None, to speak of. I do not like to build. The main reason? I am afraid of going to someone's house to try and get them on the route. Yes, that is stupid. I know part of my job is doing this. If you could offer me any advice on this, I would love it. When I trained, we did not do any building. My SS trained me and he did an awesome job, but building was something that we did not do. As far as rounding out meals. I do that, but not as much as I should.

You gave me a dose of reality and I really appreciate it. I know that there are things I could be doing to improve my route. I do like working for Schwan's; that is what is so maddening. I am a likable guy and all I have heard from people is that they enjoy me, but there are people who have been turned off to Schwan's do to the turnover. I need to do a better job of trimming the fat off of my route and finding out who wants to be a customer, and focus on building. Another thing: I work for two awesome individuals. My LGM and SS are great guys who want us to succeed. It hurts to think that I could leave them high and dry if things don't start looking up, because I think they have high aspirations from me because I transferred from a squared away depot and was running good numbers.

There is a fear that I need to get over... and that is the fear of rejection. I hate the feeling of feeling that I am a nuiscance to someone, and unfortunately with this new route, I do feel that way at times.

Oh, and about my math... Well, there are 52 weeks in a year, but I was taking into consideration vacation and holiday time (our depot lets us push the days up so we can have a week off during Christmas and New Year's). I know we get paid for vacation, so that was my bad.

I feel Schwan's is a tough company to work for, but many of my words in the original post were off the mark due to frustrations I was feeling at the time. I also feel it is a good company to work for. Please do not think that I compound the problem of turnover. I am not ready to give up on this job yet. I plan to implement new things to my route, such as carrying to the door, more building and even creating my own website for my route. I do have high goals and I want to it to work; I was just feeling the growing pressure and mounting frustration. That is an issue of maturity, and I am learning. Slowly, but learning.

Please offer more advice if you have any... I am scheduled to get on an Excellence route by May, but my partner and I have to improve our routes before we can do it. I would say my route averages about $700 right now. Three or four years ago, it was a club route that ran awesome numbers. It was abused between then, though I don't mean that as an excuse -- it's just reality. I want to get it back and be successful. Please offer any more words or advice, or you can e-mail me directly (((ROR removed for security purposes)))

Thanks, Tom!

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Tom,

First of all, I would sincerely like to thank you for your response. Truth be told, I was pretty bummed out on the night I wrote it. I had my worst day ever (other than working last year's 4th of July) and did $314 in sales. What I now realize is that I have NOT been doing everything I can do be successful at this job. Do I carry to the door? No. I honestly don't, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because I feel my customer's will look at me as a salesman if I do that.

I usually have good NATD numbers, but I know they can be better if I start carrying. You are right. Warm doors? None, to speak of. I do not like to build. The main reason? I am afraid of going to someone's house to try and get them on the route. Yes, that is stupid. I know part of my job is doing this. If you could offer me any advice on this, I would love it. When I trained, we did not do any building. My SS trained me and he did an awesome job, but building was something that we did not do. As far as rounding out meals. I do that, but not as much as I should.

You gave me a dose of reality and I really appreciate it. I know that there are things I could be doing to improve my route. I do like working for Schwan's; that is what is so maddening. I am a likable guy and all I have heard from people is that they enjoy me, but there are people who have been turned off to Schwan's do to the turnover. I need to do a better job of trimming the fat off of my route and finding out who wants to be a customer, and focus on building. Another thing: I work for two awesome individuals. My LGM and SS are great guys who want us to succeed. It hurts to think that I could leave them high and dry if things don't start looking up, because I think they have high aspirations from me because I transferred from a squared away depot and was running good numbers.

There is a fear that I need to get over... and that is the fear of rejection. I hate the feeling of feeling that I am a nuiscance to someone, and unfortunately with this new route, I do feel that way at times.

Oh, and about my math... Well, there are 52 weeks in a year, but I was taking into consideration vacation and holiday time (our depot lets us push the days up so we can have a week off during Christmas and New Year's). I know we get paid for vacation, so that was my bad.

I feel Schwan's is a tough company to work for, but many of my words in the original post were off the mark due to frustrations I was feeling at the time. I also feel it is a good company to work for. Please do not think that I compound the problem of turnover. I am not ready to give up on this job yet. I plan to implement new things to my route, such as carrying to the door, more building and even creating my own website for my route. I do have high goals and I want to it to work; I was just feeling the growing pressure and mounting frustration. That is an issue of maturity, and I am learning. Slowly, but learning.

Please offer more advice if you have any... I am scheduled to get on an Excellence route by May, but my partner and I have to improve our routes before we can do it. I would say my route averages about $700 right now. Three or four years ago, it was a club route that ran awesome numbers. It was abused between then, though I don't mean that as an excuse -- it's just reality. I want to get it back and be successful. Please offer any more words or advice, or you can e-mail me directly (((ROR removed for security purposes)))

Thanks, Tom!

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I would like to start my statements by saying it sounds to me like you need to find a new job. If you are truly this miserable that at 1 am you are typing into this website to vent your concerns, you are truly unhappy. Life is too short to be this bitter and miserable about your job every day. I would suggest that since it is the weekend that you get the sunday paper, look on line at career websites and get yourself a new career. From the sounds of it any job that pays $8.00 per hour would cover your pay and make you far happier.

I have been an employee of Schwan's Home Service now for the past 4+ years. I started my career as a CSM just as yourself and most people in the Home Service side of the company have. As a matter of fact I know that majority of all management above CSM's in Home Service started in a yellow truck just as you are. I do agree with you concerns of the long hours that our CSM's must work. However that was made clearly evident to you on you initial ride day from the sounds of it.

When you break down the math that you used to explain your ride day you would have realized that what you did that day would have only paid you approximately $12.50 per hour for each of the 14 hours you worked that day which does include your bonus used in your example.

However, it is clearly evident that math isn't your strong suit since in a year you only fiugre that every month has 4 weeks and with 12 months that only equates to 48 weeks. Last I check we still have 52 weeks every year.

Schwan's is a job that you get out of it what you put into it. We do tell all of our employees that it is a strictly comissioned base job from the beginning. If you aren't comfortable with your pay being based on your ability to sell food then you should not have taken the job.

I personally took over a set of route that we averaging about $800 per day. In my first year I grew my routes into the "top in company" type route you speak of. I was a chairman club level driver and accomplished the "grand slam". I was also able to do so my second year by not working nearly as hard as I did my first and giving myself about a 10% raise that year. I was then promoted into a sales supervisor position with the company helping to teach and coach others as to how to be successful with Schwan's.

After doing that for 10 months I was able to take over my own depot as a General Manager. I have now moved back to my original depot as the LGM. I have a true "veteran" staff. The average years of experience of my 20 CSM's is over 6 years. And that number has been affected by at least 3 individuals being promoted in recent years.

I am part of a region of change for the corporation. You were offered "flexibility" which we do really have at my depot and in my region. All of our employees have the option of working some or all "flex days" with a partner. They can work from either 7-4 or 2-11, & they alternate shift per week. They then are able to have more time off and be with there families. They make comission of the entire route days sales. Pretty sweet deal to get paid while you are at home spending time with your family. Your concern about holiday's is well understood.

Unfortunately we are in the Customer Service business, hence our title CSM. We need to provide a service to our customers wether it be on the holiday or not. I do know that most depots you can make up any holiday on another day. Unfortunately due to truck avalibility it might be on a Saturday and not on your "day off" of Friday.

I guess I would like to pose a question to everyone. If Schwan's was such a horrible company then why have they been doing home service delivery for 55 years now? I don't dispute the amount of high turnover that we have. Unfortunately it is individuals like yourself that help compund that problem. It really takes 1 full year of being assigned to a route to establish a relationship with your customers. Too many new CSM's like yourserlf get too frustrated at about the 6 month point, hmmm imagine that you are at 7 months since training, and quit. It does take time to build that relationship with your customers and for them to trust you. We do have an excellent pilot program now that will help our CSM's pay during this period while still putting expectations of growth upon their weekly performance.

I would like to conclude by asking you Daniel if you have done all of the things that you were trained to due during your initial eight weeks? Do you carry to every door every time? Do you promote the NATD to increase your income? How many warm doors do you get on a daily basis? Now many new customers do you add on a daily basis? Do you round out every meal? Do you ask for referrals from your existing customers? How do you increae your customers buying frequency. Do you use grocery lists and day dots? Do you properly educate your customers on our catalog? Do all of your customers know what's on sale every time your their? I think the place that you need to start Daneil is with the man in the mirror. If you can't honestly answer yes to all of these above questions that you truly haven't given this career everything you can. If you are not willing to do all of these things every day then I will stand by my open paragraph's suggestion. Find yourself a new job that you will be happier and more successful at. I wish you best of luck in whatever you decide to do.