canadian sirius
12-23-2005, 02:29 AM
#62
Guest
Posts: n/a
All I know is that the company I work for currently does not put holes in the ground for free, and never will. I make $26 an hour for 8 hours and 39 dollars an hour for 4 hours of every shift. Then I get paid $125 for living allowance that I spend maybe $50 of on food and lodging. Assuming 30% taxes I make $329 a day for less actuall work than I did as an FS install manager. I am sure that FS will always find suckers in Alberta (since other provinces may vary) to manage their car audio, but it will get very hard to recruit new people in Alberta when McDonalds is paying $13 an hour in Calgary.
Personally I have nothing against FS, but do they realize that with all the baby boomers retiring they will have to rethink their way of pay structure if they expect people to consider it a career?
When I started with them, there was a great support structure in place. No matter how much I thought Mike Chorney was a "full of himself, self promoter" he knew how to sell install and was a great motivator on the sales floor. But I never saw him once in the last two years I was there. The new bay in Medicine Hat can't even fit a full size extended cab in the bay, where are their priorities? The computer and telecom departments expanded, but everything else shrank. Rumor is that both installers here are quitting in the new year, and if FS tries to contact me, I expect at least what I am making working in the oilfield, which will never happen. All you FS employees check the numbers, that store experienced 30% growth each year I was there, how has it done since last November when I quit? One person can make a difference, and until FS realizes that they will continue to decline in this market. So far this year I have already done over $3000 in labour into my own pocket since I have started in the oilfield from labour alone. Any equipment required has come from Visions as they will cut deals with me which FS will not do, Heck we were not even allowed to do jobber rates for other shops on kits when I was there.
When I quit FS I was pretty sure I was going to open my own shop, and live the installer dream, now I am not so sure. FS and Best Buy are ruining the car audio business not only for themselves but for everybody else. This is not directed at Claudio or Paul, I have met one of them (Claudio) and they are good people. But they will not change FS from the inside (I know Claudio had more power over that a few years ago when he was regional, but ask yourself which way you are heading 'power' wise? Don't you think that FS would sell sat rad for $200 if they could show the value in it? Of course they would, but they can't, the sales staff are just clerks now, and they are taking the value out of it, and selling strictly on price. I won't get into who offered free install first, but here it was FS and they run it all the time if you ask for it. There is no going back, you are now working for free on every deck install. Once you open Pandora's box, there is no closing it. If the deck installs are free which are a majority of FS's car audio install sales (since the sales staff can't explain why an amp and speaker upgrade is the best solution) where does that leave the installers wages at?
Sorry for the long winded post, but I am someone who deeply cares about real car audio. If it hadn't been for a salesman who was deeply passionate about car audio I wouldn't be where I am at today, in fact that salesman just gave me a Soundstream banner for my garage from the same era as when I bought my Class A 6.0's.
Personally I have nothing against FS, but do they realize that with all the baby boomers retiring they will have to rethink their way of pay structure if they expect people to consider it a career?
When I started with them, there was a great support structure in place. No matter how much I thought Mike Chorney was a "full of himself, self promoter" he knew how to sell install and was a great motivator on the sales floor. But I never saw him once in the last two years I was there. The new bay in Medicine Hat can't even fit a full size extended cab in the bay, where are their priorities? The computer and telecom departments expanded, but everything else shrank. Rumor is that both installers here are quitting in the new year, and if FS tries to contact me, I expect at least what I am making working in the oilfield, which will never happen. All you FS employees check the numbers, that store experienced 30% growth each year I was there, how has it done since last November when I quit? One person can make a difference, and until FS realizes that they will continue to decline in this market. So far this year I have already done over $3000 in labour into my own pocket since I have started in the oilfield from labour alone. Any equipment required has come from Visions as they will cut deals with me which FS will not do, Heck we were not even allowed to do jobber rates for other shops on kits when I was there.
When I quit FS I was pretty sure I was going to open my own shop, and live the installer dream, now I am not so sure. FS and Best Buy are ruining the car audio business not only for themselves but for everybody else. This is not directed at Claudio or Paul, I have met one of them (Claudio) and they are good people. But they will not change FS from the inside (I know Claudio had more power over that a few years ago when he was regional, but ask yourself which way you are heading 'power' wise? Don't you think that FS would sell sat rad for $200 if they could show the value in it? Of course they would, but they can't, the sales staff are just clerks now, and they are taking the value out of it, and selling strictly on price. I won't get into who offered free install first, but here it was FS and they run it all the time if you ask for it. There is no going back, you are now working for free on every deck install. Once you open Pandora's box, there is no closing it. If the deck installs are free which are a majority of FS's car audio install sales (since the sales staff can't explain why an amp and speaker upgrade is the best solution) where does that leave the installers wages at?
Sorry for the long winded post, but I am someone who deeply cares about real car audio. If it hadn't been for a salesman who was deeply passionate about car audio I wouldn't be where I am at today, in fact that salesman just gave me a Soundstream banner for my garage from the same era as when I bought my Class A 6.0's.
12-23-2005, 10:06 AM
#63
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 445
You are right Dereck
The day of passionate sales persons and Tech are going south FAST. Sometime being big is not a good thing as there is a thing as being too big. when you are the size of FS you lose the ability to "over" see both the Sales and Install Side. When I was Regional I over saw 44 Stores with over 100 Techs. Not the mention the sales side. If we {FS) and the rest of Car Audio is to survive we need to educate the staff coming up and pass on the pasion. (sniff-sniff)
The day of passionate sales persons and Tech are going south FAST. Sometime being big is not a good thing as there is a thing as being too big. when you are the size of FS you lose the ability to "over" see both the Sales and Install Side. When I was Regional I over saw 44 Stores with over 100 Techs. Not the mention the sales side. If we {FS) and the rest of Car Audio is to survive we need to educate the staff coming up and pass on the pasion. (sniff-sniff)
12-23-2005, 12:26 PM
#64
That is a huge problem right there. I was driven away by the stick in the mud attitudes and red tape when I worked at the Big Box. It has gone down hill since then. FS needs to sit down with the other regionals and agree to something very simple, no more free installation. Business is about making money, someone explain to me how charging for install is not making money..... Of course some people will walk, but the revenue generated by the install will more than overcome the person that does walk. I don't offer free install, never have, never will. I do not see the need for it. People like myself that have almost 20 years into car audio are damn hard to find. We are the people that should be dictating to others how things are done, instead of sitting back and watching the industry self-destruct.
<EDIT> We might even be a bit harder to find, the RCMP just called and have accepted my application, interview is on Jan 4. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
[ December 23, 2005, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: MR2NR ]
<EDIT> We might even be a bit harder to find, the RCMP just called and have accepted my application, interview is on Jan 4. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
[ December 23, 2005, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: MR2NR ]
12-23-2005, 06:30 PM
#66
Guest
Posts: n/a
Hm, I would like to know what your annual earnings were Derek. I have known the annual earnings of a few bay managers and none were less than $40,000/yr. IMO that is "ok" bux for a relatively easy job, mostly indoors, with no formal education. There is better money to be made but really, that ain't bad. Your new job pays double but, frankly, it sucks so it should.
But this discussion wasn't about labour, or who is charging what for it. It was about Satellite Radio - and in that department, it seems to generate fair labour $$/Hr. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
But this discussion wasn't about labour, or who is charging what for it. It was about Satellite Radio - and in that department, it seems to generate fair labour $$/Hr. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
12-24-2005, 08:45 AM
#68
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 143
Wait a minute? $40K? I wouldn't be here for $40k.
Claudio? You here for $40k?
Yeah, were suckers then.
Blah blah blah, FS sucks yadda yadda...... yeah we know.
Really sucks driving MY car everyday too......$$$$
Claudio? You here for $40k?
Yeah, were suckers then.
Blah blah blah, FS sucks yadda yadda...... yeah we know.
Really sucks driving MY car everyday too......$$$$
12-24-2005, 09:00 AM
#69
Guest
Posts: n/a
^ That's what I am saying... You may not get rich but you can make a decent living doing what you supposedly enjoy doing. [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
12-24-2005, 09:08 AM
#70
Guest
Posts: n/a
Paul, my hourly wage was $14.50 when I left. Iknow in other markets people were making more, but the excuse always was "it's more expensive to live there" which was utter BS, it's not my problem someone chooses to live in Calgary or Vancouver. As you know Install Managers (sorry Leads) make 10% of whatever the bay makes, we were just over $100,000 a year I think when I left. We had a one car bay and the mamangement fired any other installers ever November on me. They kept saying to get a raise I just had to do more labour, which was possible in the summer, but there was no way to do that in November-February as we were maxed out in the bay.
Every year we get the email saying "overtime is justified if you have the work", not once would my managers approve overtime, and I ended up working the time anyways unpaid as I just wanted to get as many customers taken care of.
Oh and they are already discounting labour on Sat Rad here in the Hat, trying to dominate market share. Do you think they will be able to go back to posted prices once they are the segment leaders? Doubt it.
Every year we get the email saying "overtime is justified if you have the work", not once would my managers approve overtime, and I ended up working the time anyways unpaid as I just wanted to get as many customers taken care of.
Oh and they are already discounting labour on Sat Rad here in the Hat, trying to dominate market share. Do you think they will be able to go back to posted prices once they are the segment leaders? Doubt it.
