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Hello i've worked at Party City for a good while now and trust me when I say my store in North Texas is 100% friendly, dedicated, and enthusiastic. Not just saying that, me personally it took me years to find as good a job as this one while i study at school. So this job to me is a complete blessing to make customers smile and have a party every day. With that being said this page is a complain page so obviously 90% of what i'm reading is guests complaining about employees on things employees have no power over, such as return policies, balloon orders, online orders, out of stock item, etc etc etc

Return policies are there for us to listen to. No ifs ands or buts. We make an exception to return without receipt then we have to answer to the big guys and that may not go our way and we just lost a job on returning a ripped costume a customer brought in when they couldn't. Our instincts are to please our customers always but sometimes it's out of our power

Balloon orders, ALWAYS order ahead. Never assume walking in is fine. For your good. Busy balloon days are always weekends and unexpected on weekdays. People that call will be a bigger priority than walk ins. And if you call , you will get your balloons on time, 2 hour waits on walk ins are sometimes needed when there are SO many preorder calls. We NEED those ready! Understand that someone is expecting to walk in at a certain time, if we aren't ready because we stalled to do walk ins, they wont be happy. Then the orders get backed up. CALL and you'll get the best experience from us.

i could go on but these 2 topics are the most important okay. Just look at it from our view. We aren't evil people who want to make your life bad, most of us are good! MOST. Can't speak for all. We work at a party store, we're ready to partayyy but we have guidelines we can't break. and also, it's a party store, understand that 1/2 the customers who walk in hate parties. We all know those people who hate parties! So obviously those people will let the business know they don't want to be at the store and they're angry for spending money on a party. Our jobs are a challenge when trying to please 100s of parties a weekend. But trust me, the good customers (hopefully you guys reading this) make it WORTH IT! I love my job, just tired of looking like a bad employee by following JUSTIFIED corporate rules.

Location: Dallas, Texas

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Guest

I work at Party City and even I'm not that *** to say anything negative about my place of employment or customers, or even show where I'm located. Anonymous Party City chic I guess isn't that bright after all.

I think she got confused when she said she loves her job with blowing things and getting paid for it.

When you get fired, I hope I get your pay. I need a raise.

Guest

To Common Sense and Blake! That's why I'm a successful business owner.

Because I don't take b.s. from anyone and I expect excellence from my employees. As for the likes of both of you, well Blake I don't care what you think. I've already started the process with corporate, so too bad.

I suggest you purchase a dictionary and look up what the word "bully" really means. Then you can come talk to me. As for Common Sense, that's a total oxymoron. So you think people don't work for free?

I have news for you. First of all, you are no business owner. If you are management or a supervisor, and you are not an hourly worker, if you work overtime, depending how your company handles overtime, they do NOT get paid for working extra. I don't know where you get your information from, but YOU are incorrect.

You are also incorrect for thinking that you should treat those who walk in with less priority as those who call in their orders. Don't worry about my workers or think I'm a horrible boss. My employees are loyal and my newest employee started a little over 4 years ago and pretty much worked his way up faster than most. I'd love to work for you because everyone loves a pushover who will eventually lose her business.

Yes! Workers need to shut up and do their job and fill ALL orders. Your lack of management and business skills are shining right through, thus proving you have no business. And no common sense to boot.

What you two dopes need to figure out by now is, you're not supposed to crab about your job on any social media. It's a a darn good way of getting canned. Little Miss Party City decided to complain about customers, the very same ones who pay her wages. And you guys just added fuel to the fire.

And by the way, no it's not illegal for companies to do searches on websites and use it against their employees. Now that I think about it, you're right.

I'm glad none of you work for me. I would hate to have you waste my time.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808805

Common Sense probably owns a lemonade stand and thinks she's a business owner. (by the sound and looks of the whiny blow-hard know it all and know nothing at all comment, it has to be a female)

And Blake.

Who names their kid Blake. Are you even a dude?

Do you act like one? Do you still want to be one?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808805

I'm not saying it was right of the original poster to complain about customers...I'm saying I think it's VERY wrong of you to tattle on her for it when it is absolutely NONE of your business. It's sickening that you would go out of the way to potentially get someone fired from their job when you could have just said, "What you are posting here could hurt you, and you should be careful about what you say," or something to that extent.

Is this person directly hurting you? No. So why hurt them? Why go the whole nine yards and purposely try to get them into trouble when a warning would suffice?

You are not this person's boss. They very may well be quite young, this may even be their first job, and they are still learning.

And don't say "Well warning them wouldn't teach a thing so I am giving it to them the hard way," because that is absolutely not true. People only post complaints like this out of ignorance to what it could do to them, and I think if the poster thought about it a bit, they wouldn't do something like this in the future.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808805

Anon, kudos to you. Every employer should expect excellence from their employees as do I and it's a great rule to follow.

You should probably re-evaluate your stance on taking b.s. though. Taking b.s. from customers at times can pay off handsomely.

One of my best clients brings b.s. by the truckload but it's one of the best decisions I have ever made. It's not to say that should take it from everyone but as a business owner you should take it when it pads the bottom line.

As far your lack of knowledge on what constitutes a salaried employees compensation, I may suggest you speak to your HR employee if you have one, or your business lawyer or business advisory service. A salaried employee is a salaried employee to compensate them appropriately for the extra work they may or may not put in at the discretion of the employer, as long certain minimal requirements are meet.

If those requirements are not meet, then they are working for free which then at that point as an employer you breaking the law. A quick google search for the US department of labor could probably direct you to the fair labor standards act and you could read all the legal mumbo-jumbo requirements there. Let it be clear, no one works for free unless you are a small business owner or a sole proprietorship. Even then I don't consider it working for free unless the business was in the red, which at that point you are working for less than nothing.

Remember that even Wal-Mart got sued not too long ago because at one of their stores the managers where requiring workers to do what you suggested, to work off the clock in order to get things done. No one works for free in this great country.

I see that no matter what I say that you won't understand that when a business that takes pre-orders, call-ins, or reservations and it has more business and demand than it can handle at any one time, it will be forced to fulfill it's prior commitments first while trying to fulfill the coming orders the best it can. Good luck getting that cake at that busy bakery before the person who had then sense to call ahead to order and pick theirs up. Good luck getting seated at that popular busy bistro before the person who called ahead.

Good luck getting into Six Flags during opening hours before that guy who bought his tickets online in advance. Good luck walking into that mobbed movie theater on a Saturday night before that couple that ordered their tickets in advance on Fandango. All these are examples of businesses that value each and every customer. When demand exceeds capacity each business will try to serve every customer as quickly and efficiently as possible but it will strive to please its prior commitments first since the fall out and backlash will greater from those who made prior orders than the ones from last minute business.

An employee not being able to serve a walk-in balloon order in a timely fashion because they are trying to fill a prior balloon order is not an employee problem, it is a management problem.

You are wrong to berate Anonymous employee. If walk-in orders are told they have to wait then management needs pull extra employees from register or somewhere else to help. If customers are still being told to wait, it is still a management problem in which he or she will have to physically help or do nothing at all. It is not shut up and do your work!

This is a management problem and it's sad that employee came here anonymously and couldn't tell his/her manager because of poor management or simply that management doesn't care. I'll let you in a little secret, it's the latter of the two. Of course they'll tell you they care ( and they do to an extent ) but the real profits from Party City come from Halloween accessories they sell followed by plates, candy, and party favors etc. I know.

I used to work for Party City in franchise with family relatives of Jenny Craig which at the time had considerable stakes in the company at the time before Amscan bought it. If the balloon counter is swamped with walk-in orders and long wait times, it is managements discretion to pull employees from other locations to help out. But guess what? If there are two or three trucks waiting to be unloaded, guess what employees won't be coming to help with balloon orders?

Good luck getting that balloon order filled in two minutes if you had two people walk in front of you. You may think it's wrong but Party City has grown to over 1.3 billion in revenue, which is more I'm sure than what you or I can bring in combined. If they go out of business it won't be because people walking in had to wait for their balloon orders to be filled, it will be because they can't bring in the revenue per store as they did before these pop-up Halloween stores that rent empty spaces during October for pennies. And you know what?

They still currently use the same system to fill balloon orders. They won't go out of business because you can't wait 15, 30 45 minutes while they fill the call-in orders they are behind on. Regardless of what you think that your order has to be done right away if you walk in ( and most times it will ), having people wait during busy times will not change and it's wrong for you to berate an employee who has no control over it.

I think it's fair to assume by your comments that you know nothing or very little about the industry. Which gives you a very tiny slight justification through general ignorance to assume what you do.

Good luck in your business endeavors

Guest

Interesting comments! Was wondering what the complain was about Party City and now I know.

It's the employee, Anonymous who should be thanking her lucky stars she has a job. Anonymous, you're not praising your job, you're whining about it. Let's be honest here. You came here, claiming to be such a happy employee, you love your job, blah, blah, blah.

In reality, you thought everyone would be praising you, giving you a pat on the back telling you "good job." It backfired, honey. Just got done firing someone just like you. Had complaints that my customer was ignored, because my (ex) employee was too busy with another order. Meanwhile left my customer feeling like they were bothering them.

Now I'm sure they're on their way to the unemployment line That's reality. Just because you told Anon you "smile" at customers, doesn't mean diddly squat. It's not genuine. You're not genuine.

You assume too much. You don't know if customers like parties or not. That's not your call or your business. To you that's just a job, to us, our business is our livelihood.

I don't think twice about firing someone like you to prevent losing business. I've had customers walk out, because of clueless people like you. That's less money in my pocket and even less in yours.

Get a clue from Anon. You really need one

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808639

I hope you didn't fire them for that one instance...No one is perfect all the time, and if they stopped what they were doing for one customer to help a second, wouldn't the first one be upset? If they were lousy in other areas, sure, fire them, but if it's just from one complaint I feel sorry for whoever else works for you.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808779

I give chances, Anonymous. But let's make one thing clear.

Depends on the complaint, too. Don't feel sorry for my workers, because I have fired people after making one mistake and it has to be huge. If I witness rudeness and even worst of all, someone being racist, they're out the door. It's my business and I don't tolerate such insolence.

No, you don't stop helping the first person to help a second person. You politely tell them that you will be with them as soon as possible.

We treat our customers who call into the store AS customers who are standing in front of us. Just because someone calls in, doesn't make them any different from someone who drove in.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808639

how can someone be fired for the orders management gives them?

Guest

A customer walking in to order balloons right then and there ARE just as important as the customer who called ahead. It's your job to get everything done for the pre-orders and for the customer walking in.

Period! You try to come across as customer oriented but your comment proves otherwise. And not all people walking in hate parties. They hate paying the exorbitant prices Party City charges for stuff that's just going to end up getting tossed in the garbage in a few hours.

It's great you love your job, but let me teach you a little something. There is some rhyme or reason for your post. I suggest the next time a customer walks in last minute and orders balloons, you do your best to treat them as top priority too, or you'll find yourself on the long end of an unemployment line.

The customer is always right. You're not.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808112

corporate rules are corporate rules, i'm nice, in fact its impossible for me to be rude. I treat everyone as top priority , however waiting time is waiting time, i WISH i could take a couple exceptions here and there but rules FORBID it.

I never say "no mam can't do it" we'll do it but we have to follow the rules. And i never said all customers hate parties, read above. so you're right on that not all people hate parties, but i stated that. I've never been rude to a customer, i was raised better however i can't change any rule i'm given or then i'll end up at the long end of an unemployment line.

if you don't work behind a balloon place then you can't understand the amounts of balloons and time crunches there are. We have to get there an hour before we open to start on them. Highest peak on a saturday is 12pm where we get a good 35 orders for that time. those orders can range from 6 balloons to 100.

With that combo someones always on balloons all day. Dozens and dozens of customers do walk ins and if it's not a crazy hour the waiting time is 10 minutes, but around 11am my coworker will tell me "ok walk ins need 30 minutes wait i'm getting backed up now " i'm very customer oriented but i know if we start accepting walk ins regularly then the preorders wont all get done in time, thats a fact of trial and error. corporate saw it and changed the rules . like i said!

i'm an employee who loves my job and customers BUT CAN'T CHANGE THE RULES! EVEN IF I WANTED TO!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808121

No one asked you to change the rules. What you said was in plain black and white, that you treat customers differently if they just walk in wanting balloons compared to someone who calls ahead.

You need to act more professional and see EVERYONE as a customer. If someone calls on the phone, they aren't just another voice on the other end...THEY ARE CUSTOMERS and should be treated as such. I'm a boss and a business owner. I don't CARE if you are swamped and sinking on a Saturday morning over balloons.

THAT'S YOUR JOB! Party City has no rules posted that walk ins are to be made to wait. Seeing that you live in Dallas, I should give my friend a call. I bet you work for them.

Perhaps they should see your comments. Maybe that'll determine whether or not you continue to complain about walk ins. Remember this, it's those walk ins that allow you to keep a job and get a paycheck every payday.

If that's a corporate rule then so be it and this conversation is done, but if your coworker is not the boss nor does he or she come from corporate. I'll be sure to contact Party City and give them a heads up.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808112

and again, these rules that i'm stating are making it come across to you as if i'm a bad employee. these are rules that i cant break.

so i follow them while being as friendly as possible.

that's what i can do! i love my job :) i love what i do but the balloon order procedure is set in stone !

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808124

What are the rules? You're not explaining them properly.

Are the new rules from corporate that if you have customers that walk in, they must wait 30 minutes, or they come last and pre-orders come first? One suggestion would be come in 10 to 15 minutes early before doors are open to the public and start making your orders. Before you say that's not allowed because of OT, you don't punch in until it's time. Meanwhile, you start working.

That's what all professionals do. In the real world, you don't always get paid for doing work.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808112

do what you like. i know what kind of employee i am.

i'm a proud one but if that's not coming across ok. I guess some pointers from the officials of party city will change what you feel should be changed. although i never said a calling customer is different. "call and you'll get the best experience from us" and i didn't ever say i treated people different.

i just gave a waiting time! that's the only difference. not my smile, not my tone of voice, not my willingness to help with issues, just the waiting time i'm given from another worker. but ok ok if someone goes to my work and asks who posted on here, i'll state it was me if that's what you want.

I was never rude on this page either! :upset

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808614

If you're such a "great" employee, you wouldn't complain. If you don't care if I call, then give your real name.

Let's see how much the district manager cares about your comments. I love websites like this. They allow business owners like us to really see who is worth keeping as our employees. Keep your head down, do your job, follow the rules like you claim you do and do yourself a favor; quit complaining about customers.

Any customers. Your job is to service them, not teach them the rules of calling ahead. That's none of your business or concern. Your concern is to ring up their purchases, fill balloons and other orders, keep the store clean, maintain the register and stock, be there on time and when scheduled to work, wear proper attire, be polite, produce an order or product to your customer in a timely manner, etc.

Yes you did say you treated people differently. You may think that smiling and being polite to a customer's face and saying it on here is not treating them differently, but the fact remains, you are. You need to comprehend the fact, that you said, PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER ASSUME TO WALK IN AND EXPECT THE SAME SERVICE COMPARED TO THOSE WHO PLACED AN ORDER AHEAD OF TIME! Unless you work for a business where you MUST make an appoint, you have no say in this matter.

Comprehend the fact that you work for a business where people can walk in any time, purchase whatever they want and expect to get that product in a timely manner. You still didn't answer my question, on whether or not waiting 30 minutes is a corporate rule or your own. Let's just say it's yours, because if I were you and thankfully I'm not, I would jump at the chance to run down all the facts of my business. If you're such a happy employee, you wouldn't be on here complaining, because that's exactly what you're doing.

As for being rude, yes you were. You complained about customers who walk in who don't bother to call ahead, which by the way, if they don't come in, how are they supposed to know what balloons to order? Giving a waiting time or not, pre-orders wait when a customer is standing in front of you.

They are still paying customers. PERIOD!!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808628

Anon, your comments to Anonymous original poster show that you miss the point and you couldn't be more wrong. The advice by anonymous makes sense.

If you need a balloon order filled on days where common sense would dictate that they might be busy ( weekends & holidays ), the best tip is to order ahead. Of course, those who call ahead will be priority. For example, if you called ahead and made a reservation for 5pm on a weekend at a busy restaurant, you would expect to be seated before John Doe who just walked in. John Doe is a customer and will also get seated, but he will have to wait.

It does not mean though that he is not as important as call ahead customer. Both people get seated and served, but John Doe has to wait. You insinuate that Anonymous doesn't consider walk-ins as important. Anonymous never said that.

Anonymous said " People that call will be a bigger priority than walk ins. " Walk-ins are just as important as call-ins, but call-ins will be a priority. It's a simple concept that applies across all industries and it's not something that needs to posted on a wall( e.g. flower shops, tire shops, restaurant, manufacturing, financial, or any service oriented business ).

It's simple logic, if walk-ins get the same priority as a call-in then there's no point of having a call-in order. That is a management issue, not an employee one.

Your other comment about coming in 15 to 20 minutes earlier and working without pay is absurd. This is the exact reason why laws exist to protect workers. I myself am a business owner and I would never expect any employee to work for free.

Hourly employees will get paid OT if they work it, salary employees get paid if they work 20 hours or 60. No one works for free. Even if I work for free, it really isn't. I get the benefit of possible repeat business or referrals.

You must be a terrible boss to work for.

Your attitude of shut up, do your work and the customer is 100% ALWAYS right, shows poor sight in management skills and encourages poor worker morale. Your front line is your biggest asset on information on how to improve sales and customer relations. Your comments imply that you give no value to your employees other than the numbers they bring in.

Your comment could of stated that telling management to post a sign for walk-ins that it may take a while to fill orders on busy days, but instead you say to fill out all orders period. Very short-sighted...

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808628

Asking for this employees name and threatening to alert her employers of her posting is harassment, and as a "business owner," you should know that that is extremely unprofessional. Your comments could almost be seen as bullying, and you are no doubt making the original poster at least slightly uncomfortable, which is in no way okay.

If you disagree with someone, you tell them why and your reasoning behind it.

You do not call them bad people and threaten to tell on them. There is no reason for it other than a sad attempt at trying to make yourself feel bigger than them.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808628

You're harassing an employee what makes you any better? No one should work for you or your "business".

You think because you have some sort of upper level position that you're entitled to be a dousche. Guess what? You're not little miss my parents didn't teach me manners. God sees what you're doing and let me tell you, karma will *** your ***.

So don't be so quick to lash out because you'll probably be unemployed before you know it. Get an ego check. The customers are not always right. I say that as a customer myself.

I appreciate all underpaid and overworked retail associates. Not management because, the part-time associates are the ones that make it all happen, not management who slaves them away just because they get paid $25/hr at least to do so. By the way honey, NO ONE in the real world as you call it, works for free. Not even illegal immigrants!

You're a sorryass sucker if you do. Especially for party city. People need to learn how to wait and not expect things right away, whether you're rich or not. There are thousands of starving kids in third-world countries who wait for food daily and never complain.

Think about that next time. No ones going to die waiting for balloons or an item from the top of an aisle. And if you don't want to wait, well walk out. SIMPLE.

No one forced you to shop at an under-staffed & poorly run by corporate store.

Shop online. :)

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-808112

I don't know if you work at Party Cityl, but I can tell you right now if you've twenty 12 o'clock orders and it's 11:00am, you're going to focus on the twenty 12 o'clock orders instead of the walk ins since the people who made orders made you aware of the orders ahead of time.

It's almost like holding a reservation at a restaurant. Though instead of an ensured spot at a booth or a table, you're holding a spot for a secure balloon order that'll be ready right when you walk in.

Though with my store, they put one person on walk ins and about three others set on just balloon orders themselves.

However, when we get desperate, we'll tell customers that there's going to be an hour wait, which is usually because everyone orders balloons for 12 and we need the extra hands to help.

Even so, orders just make things simpler. I get that taking walk ins are our jobs, and I honestly don't mind them if we're not too busy- especially if I'm the one to blow up the balloons since it takes up some time- but if you expect service on the spot when it is incredibly busy and you have a walk in, then I think you need to get your head out of your *** with your, "the customer is always right," bull ***.

A lot of the times, they're not. They're just blaming employees for their own mistakes or for not having enough power.

Your thought process is incredibly linear.

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