Porter/Maintenance (Current Employee), Ann Arbor, MI – April 29, 2013
Pros: you can have a random (unpaid) vacation
Cons: you are doing other people's job descriptions on top of doing yours
It is an easy job to get, but you better be ready to work. The most enjoyable part of having this job was saying you had a legal job. There are no benefits.
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Novi, MI – April 22, 2013
Pros: designing and assisting guests
Cons: long hours
Most days I loved my job. I loved what I did as far as helping guests create rooms and designing. Long hours and a lot of family time missed. Worked usually 12hour Saturdays and often late Sundays. Meeting higher goals than I had when I started created stress.
SALES (Former Employee), Ann arbot – April 15, 2013
Pros: pay can be ok
Cons: they hire anyone and flood the floor
Pay can be good, but every couple of years they change something that makes it harder to stay at same level and when they do get lucky and make change that is better for employees, it goes away just as fast. Absolutely not the place to work if you ever want to see your family. Also as soon as your production falls they will find way to make you leave. – more... Advertising is absolutely false. – less
Sales Associate (Current Employee), lansing, mi – April 8, 2013
at this location the management is very helpful, the co workers are fun to be with, and there is certainly opportunity to exceed sales expectations. On the downside, this position entails long retail hours, working weekends, and can be stressful due to the unsteady pay of commission sales.
Sales Consultant (Former Employee), Bloomfield Hills, MI – March 30, 2013
A typical work day would consist of checking your back order(s) to ensure that the product is in and to set up delivery for the customer. Making sure you keep in contact with your customers about products, payments, and scheduled delivery. What I learned is how to sell to customers, as well as, the construction of furniture and what good qualities and – more... bad qualities are. Both managment and co-workers are a flip of the coin you can get good ones and bad ones as well. The hardest part of the job is knowing what the customer wants before they shut down, as well as, closing the sale. The most enjoyable part of the job when the customer comes back and thanks you and requests you because you did an amazing job servicing them in the first place. – less
Professional Sales Representative (Former Employee), Novi, MI – March 18, 2013
Pros: supportive upper and middle management
Cons: the computer systems are in need of updating, this would help customer support.
Fast paced work day, with some of the most professional and smartest working people that I have ever worked with and for. The hardest part of this job was literally the floor, being aware of the condition and quality of your footwear is essential to mantaining a happy and healthy attitude. Management is another strong suite, not only do they continue – more... to educate you, but they also promote from within. – less
Seasonal Sales Person (Former Employee), Bay City, MI – January 10, 2013
Pros: great pay
Cons: everything else
The jobs was not that great for young people. They build your job up with all these false dreams and build up all this nonsense. The disrespect that was in the air wasn't healthy at all either.
Customer Service Representative (Current Employee), Waterford, MI – December 3, 2012
Pros: common sense/easy job
Cons: transferring to another location or position is hard
Schedule deliveries, tender orders, help with warranty issues, open financing accounts, answer phones, and supply superior customer service to all Art Van guests.
Customer Service Representative (Current Employee), Warren, MI – November 28, 2012
Pros: free lunches, free gifts
Cons: part-time benefits, part-time hours
A typical day at work: Counting the money till, making sure I have the correct amount of money to begin the day. The day consists of filing, faxing, scheduling customer delivery appointments, confirming customer addresses, cashing out, working with different finiancial agencies (such as Progressive and Tidewater), counting down the money till at the – more... end of the day to make sure I am balanced.
I learned to handle customer concerns to the best of my ability, though sometimes it may be challenging.
The management staff at Art Van Furniture is awesome! They are very supportive and a joy to be around, but at the same time able to handle business!
The co-workers are also a joy to be around! We work together well and we have fun while being productive and able to get the job done in a timely manner.
I believe the hardest part of the job is when a customer is not completely satisfied. Although we strive to satisfy each and every customer to the best of our ability, there are those who are never completely satisfied. When this happens, we always offer something to that particular guest for free, whether it be free delivery of their merchandise, a free voucher, etc.
The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that we have completely satisfied our guests. Knowing that they are happy, makes us happy! – less
Sales Consultant (Former Employee), Livonia, MI – November 2, 2012
Pros: free lunches
Cons: the failing economy affected when and the amount of money people could spend.
Sales Consultants had a group meeting with the store manager for 20 minutes at the beginning of each day informing us what is in stock or has been pulled from stock and not to order more. You got a customer by going in turn by your seniority unless it was one of your return customers. While waiting your turn for a customer, you made sure the sale tickets – more... in a selected area given to you by your store manager each day, was correct and in plain view for customers. You check to see if your special orders is available for delivery and if delayed, you, must let your customers know the explaination for the change of the delivery date and ask for a future date. Slow days during the week you might only have three customers for a nine hour day. Not many customers at all during the week and you had to work extra hard on the weekends to make sales. We work for commission only. – less
Competetive environment with management that are basically key holders
Home Furnishings Consultant (Current Employee), Holland, MI – October 14, 2012
Pros: make your own schedule
Cons: rarely able to take a weekend off since that's when couples can shop.
- A top heavy company that is run by people who don't realize what happens on a day to day basis from the sales side of things. - Management doesn't seem to see a lot of issues, even with other managers.
Customer Service Representative (Former Employee), Kalamazoo, MI – October 3, 2012
Pros: good pay, great benefits
Cons: long hours, long drive
This was a great job. I made some really close relationships with the people that I worked with. The management worked with us on a daily basis to help us get the job done. They cared about their employees, and what was going on in their lives.
Home Furnishing Consultant (Former Employee), Grand Rapids, MI – September 20, 2012
Cons: too many to list!
I started working for Art Van in Grand Rapids with the promise that I would be making some awesome checks. When I first started they took mattresses away from most employees, but a few.
When the mattress was taken away it removed over 40% of all commission, they never bothered restructuring the commission tier to compensate for that. Then those who – more... lost that 40% were still expected, in the month of JUNE which is the slowest month of the year to make up for it. At the end of my first full month which was June I was let go because I didn't meet the quota and I refused to harass the customers. THIS IS THE ART VAN CULTURE!!! If you like to be aboard this terrible practice and you DON'T care if you make a living please apply. – less
Backroom Manager- (Current Employee), Warren, Dearborn, Taylor, Clinton Twp. Stores – September 19, 2012
Pros: if you show the proper attitude and work ethic there is many promotional opportunity
Cons: under-staffed
Unloading shuttles, Learning to decorate, Loading customer vehicals, Transfering Merchandise, Hardest Part understaffed for the amount of work needed to be done and the turn over-rate for the backroom employees Better side is time flys by and you meet some nice people
customer pick up associate (Former Employee), Ann Arbor – September 12, 2012
Cons: dishonest management, very low pay, high expectations.
Was lured into this position with the promise that I would assume a management position in receiving and also increased pay. Once hired, I learned it would take nearly 2 months for this transition to happen and in the mean time I would have to survive on 7.25 an hour. Anyone that takes this position to do heavy (I mean 200+LB couches/etc) labor for – more... 7.25 an hour is extremely desperate. Save your time and effort, there are much better positions out there. – less
