Another one bites the dust

[b11nds]

Well after seven and half years of building a business, and customer base for a company a firmly believed in i have now called it a day and terminated my agency (does this mean i cant log on any more).
Nearly eight years ago i saw an ad and became an part time agent for Hillary's, my own number was advertised in the local paper and i answered every call professionally and even took calls on holiday in France. I built up my area from one that was doing about £1500 a week with two agents to one that is doing £6-8K a week with just me full time with up to two fitters. I don't have any customer complaints on file (as far as i am aware) i always followed the Hillary's doctrine, I paid for my own sign writing, I had polo shirts printed years before Hillary's, I traveled miles out of area (142 to be precise) to help my FSM sort out a customer complaint, I trained any one who asked me to help them, I went around the area with my FSM selling the benefits of SAM and all in all I was a bloody good agent.

So why leave?

1. Hillary's have taken agents on around me and supplied them with my business, my customers my income!
2. Hillary's are becoming a very arrogant company and now tell us rather than sell us the message.
3. My income has dropped by £8k this year yet i turned over £60k more for Hillary's. How, they have got rid of third stage bonus with no consultation no discussion no apology.
4. The senior management will not listen, in my previous life I was a sales and marketing manager/director and in developing and growing a £5million business into an £8million business I listened every day to the key people around me THOSE DOING THE JOB! The sales guys, the engineers and most of all the customers. Hillary's should learn from the mistakes of M&S before its too late.
5. The product i believed in for years is reducing in quality, the wooden Venetians are a joke, the wood weave is beyond a joke and if we carry on selling at the lowest common denominator PRICE we will become a joke.
6. The dictatorial methodology employed by Hillary's at this moment in time is beyond belief. I am self employed which means i choose how, when and where i work. Hillary's have stretched the term self employed that it is now so thin as to be unrecognizable. I don't like being told i must work so many leads a day, i must sell so much or else on each lead.
7. But the final straw came when I had to face a very irate customer who had just paid over £850.00 for vertical blinds who had just had her friend call around to tell her she had some blinds fitted by me but had only paid £198.00. The first customer could not or would not understand how the price was arrived at and despite me telling her over and over again about pricing and promotions she stood up and called me a ****ing con-man. In fact the second customers blind were Manhattan Peach which in truth were a better quality than the lace willow ones the other customer had.

Marketing if you read this let me give you some advice, Hillary's are the biggest blind brand in this country, you are renowned for quality and service. The average customer will pay for quality and service. Until you started this ridiculous 3 for £99 you had the message about right although the 50% off was wearing thin. All you have succeeded in doing is alienating the existing quality and service customer and confusing the hell out of any new customer. When we go back to sell them the extra roller blind in the new year you tell me how we explain the fact that the roller will be the same price or more than the 3 blinds she had for Xmas.

So what now for Hillary's, Mr Ritson if you are to grasp this nettle and turn the company around you could do worse than to email me and others like me (the really good agents who actually give a d**n about the job and the customers) and arrange a meeting where we sit down gloves off and really talk. You are in control of 800+ little business empires, some agents i grant you are problematic ( i have met some) but there are a awful lot of us who could possibly teach you a little about the coal face issues of running a blind company.
I fully appreciate you are beholding to the city and the bank and they in reality don't care about the day to day running of the company at our level, but please remember WITHOUT US THERE IS NO COMPANY!!!!!


And as for me, well I am off into the sunset to maybe practice what i preach. I leave Hillary's with 3500 customers who they possibly would not have if i did not do my job properly. [glow=red,2,300]Hillary's remember this you only make the blinds and the lead WE SELL THE BLOODY THINGS[/glow]

So finally I bid you all adios, I shall miss the 12 minutes waiting for the phone to be answered so i can raise a dor on another blind, I shall miss the driving from one end of my area to the next in one day because no one at the call centre has a map or thinks to book leads with a bit of thought. I shall miss the SAM system crashing on me five times a day and losing all the measurements. I shall miss Kirk the driver the font of all wisdom (if you need to know whats going on ask your van driver)
I shall miss my FSM Paul Stothard who has been a really good person to work with, if he did not return to my area i would have left years ago. Hillary's look after this guy he is an asset to the company. (you can send me £50 now Paul ;D)
I wont miss the pointless sales meetings listening to the doctrine as per Hillary's, I wont miss the lack of leads (and therefore losing me money) because someone cocks up my advertising. And finally I wont miss trying to explain the 101 different pricing promotions that Hillary's have on this month.


GOODBYE ALL

[RED]

Very sad end to your time with Hillary's indeed b11nds, but one I feel will become more of the norm during the next 12 months.
I doubt very much whether any one will care at Hillary's, I wish I could say differently but alas, I can not.
As you rightly say, there is a lot of passion involved with this job and it is up to Hillary's to stir this passion not dampen it or put it out all together.
It does not take much, just a little loyalty.
Good luck.
Red

[hereticus]

Sorry to see another good agent driven out - we can all relate to your comments and hope that Hillarys take some notice. A company's greatest assets are its workforce but that seems to have been forgotten in some quarters. Good luck in your future endeavours.

Nice, however, to see that your parting shot is to praise your fsm - they're not all bad.

[RED]

hereticus said:

Nice, however, to see that your parting shot is to praise your fsm - they're not all bad.

You are right hereticus, they are not all bad. In fact I am more inclined to belive that none of them are that bad, just manipulated, like us, by Hillarys. Just who is Hillarys anyway?
It certainly is not the advisors and not the fsms so who is it really. We used to be able to say it was Tony Hillary, now we do not have a clue who or what it is.
Red

[JoY]

How sad to read B11inds last posting.....

please come back on the site from time to time and let us know how you're getting on...... or better still stay with us!

I sometimes think we are still with Hillarys because of Paul too......
other FSM's take note.......

[saxman]

i have been with hillarys for just under a year now, and seeing posts like b11nds, and seeing the rubbish i fit first hand, makes me think i shall be looking for alternative employment in the near future. if these stupid promotions carry on into the new year, i shall be off.

[b11nds]

Thank you all for your comments, in response to did Hillary's try to get me to stay. Paul did no one else even noticed.
As for what next well I shall have to wait and see but i have blinds in my veins so I might need to dry out first or carry on giving myself daily injections

FOR SALE:

If any new advisor needs a SAM printer and does not want to spend £300+ on it give me an email at [e-mail] and make me an offer.
I will provide you with a VAT receipt to allow you claim it back as a legitimate business expense.
I also have 16 packs of paper if anyone is interested.

As for the mag signs they are free to a good home!!

I will come on-line from time to time to see how the managers are doing at screwing up a really simple idea like selling window blinds to people who want to buy them from a company that is very good at making them (most of the time )


Don't worry Be Happy ;D ;D ;D ;D

[nonails]

So sorry to see you jack it in , mate...

It really is a worrying trend..I can see the seeds of it happening to my patch too..
However with the huge thingy-up in commissions at the moment,( No statements, wrong statements, denials of money paid in when receipts available, missed commissions from weeks back, ) I see this particular problem as a very big rock that Hillarys may founder on, and maybe they dont care that you have left, but what happens when 4 or more of us leave in a week bcause we now work for a Bank ( who I sincerely believe are pulling Hillarys strings.

Why else would deposits have gone up from 25%, to 33% to now 50% unless cash flow was a problem and the Bank begging letters were piling up on the mat at "Ivory Towers" No 2 Private Road ??

Now they are using my back commission to fill the hole the Bank wants plugging??

Give them one week to sort it and then concerted action is the only way.
Bullys are cowards when confronted.

Nonails

[stuartdotpotato]

Hi to all.Never posted before,biding my time.Full time advisor for many years.I am also leaving in the new year haven't told the t**ts yet.Never give a sucker an even break!!.Message to everyone involved with Hillarys Blinds Ltd:- Get out now.They are going down.
Question:-If FSMs are there to advise us on best selling techniques,then, how come, when selling the useless SAM device they had to resort to threats from the start?
It ain't a new thing.Milkman and waiters have been using it for years.Its great for ordering milk and a meal but multi order blinds? Planks.They haven't even bothered to develop the software properly.Jumping into bed with Vodaphone was truly a marriage made in hell ,they are as amateur as Hillarys!!Sorry if I have upset the timid among you but then you are the ones that Hillarys want i.e the gullible.Anybody leaving wanting to terminate their SAM device?Just mention the mal-practice involved when sold the crap.Its called extortion.Take every opportunity to take down Hillarys and Vodaphone they deserve it. Farewell to all I genuinely wish all advisor's well you'll need it.
Good byee, Stuartdotpotato.
P.S To those of you thinking of giving up your identity.Beware the subversives and infiltrators for there are many amid you!!

[farmer]

Jesus what a nights reading. If thius carrys on Hillarys are finished. We are talking about big advisors here.
I know for a fact I i go, my colleague in this area will join me. Can you imagine how long 2 new advisors will take to build up to 60-70grand a month. especially on 3 for 99. The other companies around here will be laughing their gonads off. And 1 of them is an ex- advisor too

[farmer]

Good on yer.

You will do o.k. You have taken the words right out of my mouth

[RED]

jayandemm said:

How sad to read B11inds last posting.....

please come back on the site from time to time and let us know how you're getting on...... or better still stay with us!

I sometimes think we are still with Hillarys because of Paul too......
other FSM's take note.......

I had Paul S as my fsm a few years ago, one of the best, hard if he needed to be but straght with it. Black was black, not a darker shade of white with Paul.
All of them have been ok so far but Paul is different. I truly respected him and his judgement.
Red

[scotton]

Mellissa ..... As an agent of some years I have to ask How the hel have your management let things get to this state. When agents like bl11nds are packing in and with all the comments that are being posted I have to doubt whether anyone on the management side has a clue about whats going on. When I first joined this site I thought it would be a few agents letting off steam but it has shown that hillarys have a very serious problem the major one being
that they have lost the confidence and respect of the very people who provide the large part of hillarys business. In any company the biggest asset is its people you lose them and you lose your business and it looks to me like you have lost a big percentage.
Its nice to hear there is at least 1 good fsm around I have to say that my experience of most is not as good. I find that most use threats to achieve goals( Sam is aprime example). they do not consult when bringing new agents in and reduce the income of full time agents who have shown loyalty and achievement .We are mushrooms and fsms treat us as such.
I am usually a very positive person and hate being negative but the way the company is being run is frustrating and depressing its time we got back to being a quality company which requires quality management sadly lacking at the moment
Good luck to you B11nds

[mellisa]

Doggy

I think we need to put things in perspective. Yes there are disgruntled advisors and you will hear more of this on a site such as this because that's what it is here for. By far the majority of the FSMs do a cracking job and work incredibly hard for you and the company.

On the positive side, I use this site to get informed of your issues and suggestions. I genuinely use the information I receive here to get changes made for you. I really want every advisor to be happy and hungry to attend Hillarys leads because you feel happy and confident that you can generate a large order from it.

I do not want a bullying culture I want a consultative approach where you feel your FSM has your best interest at heart and is supporting you as well as coaching you. I want every change we make to improve the service to you and the customer, otherwise it doesn't work.

Be wary of the "grass is greener" statements from advisors who have left. I have looked into the other options for advisors and the alternatives require a large investment from you, you are generally tied in most cases to a supplier and reality is you make less money (but at greater risk). If you are really thinking of leaving, talk to me or your FSM to see what we can do to improve things for you.

kr

Mellisa

[b11nds]

Dear Melissa,

As the author of Another one bites the dust i feel i have the right to respond and as no one at Hillary's has bothered to even talk to me (excluding Paul Stothard) this is the only way i can voice my opinion.
I was not and am not a "disgruntled advisor" who believes the grass is greener.
I was very happy, even content, turning +£200k a year for your company and earning my £35k in commission. But Hillary's changed not me.

You mention consultation, did any one consult us when you changed the rules (to save money obviously) on the third stage bonus.
Did Hillary's consult us when we were forced to take SAM or else.
Did Hillary's consult us when extra slots were forced into our diary with out thinking about the impact it may have on our lives.
Did Hillary's consult us when they removed our own numbers from the local advertising.
Did Hillary's consult us when they said you will do it our way or no way
Did Hillary's consult us when they changed the advertising of "my business" and cocked it up and took 6 weeks to sort it out AFTER I told them it was wrong. (You try living on £18.00 a week commission as a full time agent)
Did Hillarys consult us when at a stroke they reduced our earnings per lead by bringing out a stupid 3 for £99 deal.

I have always been a very positive well motivated agent who never wanted to leave and i have spent many sleepless nights wrestling with the positives and the negatives. I have always taken a professional view on the development and growth of my business and have spent many hours on the phone to my fsm suggesting ways we can improve for the benefit of all concerned but Hillary's have now changed beyond all recognition.
It is an arrogant company that has very little skill in motivating people who don't actually work for them but has a greater skill in de-motivating people and constantly demanding more and more but giving nothing in return.
Hillarys seem to have forgotten that we are all self-employed and as such they should learn as a company to ask people not tell them. When you are an employee, the company you work for can assume a degree of compliance, however when self employed neither party can assume anything but the onus should always be on the dominant company (Hillarys) to ask another to work WITH them to implement the philosophy and aspirations of the dominant company. To achieve this the dominant party should always be prepared to offer more in return for the agreement of the lesser individual.

I know we are only self employed agents who don't count, and all the chiefs in Head Office make all the important decisions, but we made this company you at the ranch only run it.

It has been Hillarys philosophy for a long time to assume that agents will comply without question, and accept that when the company makes a mistake we as agents pay, and when it suits them they play the “you are self employed” card especially when business is slow, the advertising is messed up, new agents recruited around you or any one of the other myriad of excuses Hillarys can put up in defence of their attitude or to ensure that they are not exposed to any risk.

I have never been negative about Hillary's (ask Paul Stothard) I have always pushed hard to ensure my business and yours grows at a good rate. I have always given my customers the best service possible and have always given the troops at Head Office my support in ensuring all questions and problems are dealt with swiftly and to the correct outcome.

I am slightly offended that you personally look on me as a disgruntled agent because you are so far from the mark it is untrue, but unfortunately Hillary's and I will part not because I want to but because Hillary's have made it difficult to stay on and enjoy the job i love to do.

And as for the greener grass, time will tell Melissa.