PictureME Photography review: unfair treatment of employees 52

I am currently seeking other employment as I am in that nasty cycle of CPI Corp. employment. I could not believe what I was reading in the complaint listed here! It is very true. And unfortunately has gotten worse with threats of unpaid suspensions, written and final warnings, etc. if there aren't 'enough sittings and / or appointments made per day'! And one still receives very little training but is expected to just do the job on a wing and a prayer! And it is a constant struggle to maintain a positive attitude when you are consistantly being threatened and talked down to by your Managers and District Managers! I would suggest to anyone, if you see a NOW HIRING sign posted with Picture Me or Sears (both owned by CPI), run as fast as possible away from their grasp on your body, mind, spirit, & life!

Absolutely agreed. Literally, my last day of work was yesterday. Couldnt take it anymore! They made me the new MIT in our studio, and considering the title "Manager in Training" you would think I would be trained! I wasnt, obviously. I did get written up twice, once for missing ONE conference call and once for my numbers being low. I definitely am with the "do not apply" when you see a sign!

Haha I'm going to 4 studios right now i'm not even suppose to be a traveler.
I totally understand I've been written up for not filling out paperwork, up numbers but most weeks mine are in triple digits., dress code, taking under 1/2 on pics, using the modify button to much, taking to many pics.
oo and a no call no show... in a town i wasn't informed to be at.
I think they don't fire me because people buy my pics cause i take the time with them and i treat them well, I also have in the 2 months i've worked there built up a clint list that has already started returning and asking for me when they make they're next pointments...

even in the other studios i've been traveling too. I'm going anywhere from 30mins- alittle over 2 hours out of my area... in 1 or 2 districts.

I'm waiting to be fired.

This corporation disgusts me, on ALL levels. The corporate office allows their district/regional/studio managers to get away with so many illegal and abhorring things on a daily basis. I've watched my studio manager put her hands two inches from a customers face (not in a striking manner but gesticulating) who was irate. ### customer or not, you have no right to have your hands that close to someones face, It's disrespectful and unprofessional on all levels. Corporate does nothing more then give that customer a free picture *whoopy* to justify that managers actions. Our studio manager and district manager have both told me they have every legal right to work me for 6+ hours without a meal period or rest break. I've contacted my county Labor Bureau and had them confirm that what they are doing is illegal. My final straw with this company is the fact that the studio manager is not reprimanded when she falls low on sales, doesn't show up for her shift or slacks on any other portion of required work. Her spouse sits in the studio and cusses loudly about a customer taking to long or whatever other reason he feels he should be cussing. If that doesn't sicken you, she also allows a registered sex offender to sit in a portion of the studio unsupervised where the studio camera can not see, nor could the parents while looking at photos.

I am still trying to collect my pay for PTO time taken the 1st week in June.
I have talked to my manager and DM (Amy Wittham) several times. My DM says she has submitted this twice. It is only for 12 hours but it is money that we need. How do you reach these people? This is totally insane. I ended up walking out a couple weeks ago. I doubt I will ever see this money. I would NEVER go back to CPI! I was in a Sears Studio in Indpls.

I and everybody body else that was hired on at PictureMe, were hired as MIT. Found it somewhat odd that we were ALL MIT. I worked there for 3 days. After being trained between two different stores and managers I qickly learned that this job was not suited for me and I was way to nice of a person to treat people the way our managers treated us (as we were being trained) and some of the clients. And even more odd, our DM was at each studio we trained at... everyday. After I was hired by one manager, I started training at another store where that manager told me that the only reason that I was hired was because of my pictures that I brought in during the interview. I was also informed that the company and managers don't look highly on folks who try to do a photography busniness outside of the PictureMe yet come to find out- the DM has her own running business, and both Managers were working on and have done some of their own business stuff, but it wasnt okay for me in the long run. And training was a joke and the trouble one would get into if: there aren't enough sittings and/or appointments made per day! One gets very VERY little training but is expected to just do the job, all the paper work, conference calls, calling numbers every night, people with appointments, and work the entire shift by yourself, with-in days after you start employment. Oh, and when I was one minute late, after I had called and said I will be a few moments late because of a car accident on the interstate, and punched in 1 (ONE) minute late, I had my ### handed to me. Taking photos is and should be fun and entertaining, both for you and your client... with PictureMe/CPI Corp/Sears or whatever company they wish to go by, its not! It is stressfull, hecktic and an insane mess and I am proud in myself for walking away within three days of getting hired. They is no way a person should be treated like that and you, your clients and your employees should feel welcomed and enjoy what they do. And when one of the managers called and asked where I was, I informed her that I was done and she was like, "Well don't you think you should have called me? I was worried about you!" Keep in mind my shift was at 10am this call didnt came in till almost 3 that afternoon. What a joke.

By the way, this was in Sioux Falls, SD @ both wal-marts

I too have gone through the mess of each story! I was also hired on as a Manager because of my sales background!
I came from Wal-Mart Loss Prevention, so when I worked my third day without a break or a lunch I was blown away by how each associate working with me was use to this everyday illegal treatment and didnt see a problem with it!
With Wal-Mart you have to take two breaks through out the day and a lunch by your 5th hour of working or you will be coached and paid to take a luch, so I am suprised that Wal-mart would have such a company working inside their stores, a company who is breaking labor laws such as CPI CORP. With how many time Wal-Mart has been bad mouthed and sued by their associates for labor laws you would think that they would be ashamed to have Picture Me associated with them, or take the time to listen and research the company.
After I was hired by the Market Mgr I was told by the studio Mgr that I wasnt hired on as a Mgr, but just a regular assoc. and that I will not be hired on as a mgr unless I make it with the sales part of the job. So #1- I was lied to by the Market Mgr, #2-she didnt have the nerve to tell me this herself, instead she has a 26 year old Mgr tell me, #3- my training was pathetic, #4-every single day I was given off, I was called 5-15 times a day to come in and cover a shift, not on one day off, but basically every day I had off, #5- my studio mgr gave out my cell phone number to other studio associates to call me over and over again to come in and work for them, which is also illegal, #6-the Mgr's they train to work the studios have no prior mgr experience and are very unprofessional. I could go on and on with how unfair and illegal CPI treats their associates. I too will be calling the Market Mgr this week to quit! It is a shame because I was so excited to be hired, I thought WOW a real photography job, ya right! Real photographers laugh at CPI CORP, they have untrained people taking customers photos that they will have a life time, with backgrounds off center, or heads being cut off, or table equipment showing in the background! This company is a joke!
To all Picture me associates out there reading this, SUE the HELL out of them, they cannot work you without a lunch or a break, or work you over time and not pay you! They cannot call you at home more than once without paying you for phone time to tell you that you need to come in! They also cannot give out your phone number to other associates. And if you have been told to take your work home while in training, that is ALSO ILLEGAL! IT is called working off the clock!
No this is not WAL-MARTS laws this is every labor law in California and I'm sure in any other state as well! Dont let them get away with it!

We couldn't agree more...aceept. for the moment, CPI is paying our bills. We've all seen this stuff firsthand. The question is, why are we all venting on a website instead of actually doing something about it?

Ok I couldnt agree more with all that is said...however if you can actually find someone to complain to in a position where they could do something then i dont think we would be ### on here. I have a ###. DM that time thefts like theres no tomorrow. A Dm who loves her to death and nothing will hapen if complaints are made. The company is useless, and i cant find contact info for a loss prevention person or team or whatever. So even in Canada things are no better. and if i didnt have bills to pay and finding a job that i love to do was easy i wouldnt be there either. And having worked for other companys from small business to large there is always issues like this so i think most of us pick our battles til we can actually accomplish something and then nail thier ### to the wall. Until then there are websites like these to let us vent to other people who know what it is like. Good luck to you all to find other employment that you love to do.

As a now former employee of PictureMe! I agree with everything said here. After being a loyal employee for 2 years everything went south very quickly. Going into my third holiday season, all managers were told that we were required to work 6 days a week, open to close. Why, I don't know, since we hire seasonal part time help. It makes no sense to have your highest paid (I am laughing while I type this line) employees working 20 hours of overtime a week. We all said that it was not necessary but also would wipe us out. This is a very physical job in a non stop business. Then the week of Christmas, oh no!, we are all dangerously over labor budget! How did that happen? Studio Managers are now required to work open to close by themselves, even though in 2 of the studios our operating hours do not close for lunch, making it impossible to take a break! After one day of this I questioned my DM, who ignored my question of how I was to take a lunch or break, so I submitted my resignation effective immediately. This was 3 days before Christmas this year. This company is running itself into the ground and does not even care! If you are walking through Wal-Mart and see the constant Help Wanted sign: Run, Run, Run!

I actually started working for one of cpi corps' studio. I think our studio is a great place; all the employees are great people (even the manager) and are such a joy to work with but I seriously cannot stand our DM. She is such a pain in the ###. It's so stupid how they want us to be busy at ALL times even when there's nothing to do! There's no customers and everything is already neat and organized so what else do they want us to do?! Since I'm still sort of new to this job, I'm still not quite use to the dress code (dressing professionally which is stupid in my opinion; it's just pictures for crying out loud), so the other day I wore something pretty professional but my DM (who watches our every move on the camera and I find that extremely creepy) complained what I'm wearing is not professional enough. It got on my nerves SO much because I was the only one that actually dresses professionally (black/white) while the other employees are wearing like jeans and sweaters and slip-on shoes. Also, it's so stupid how because ONE customer wants to just rebook to another date, the DM still wants us to make up for it by fishing walk-in customers. What difference does it make when we didn't lose the customer? Another thing that I find really stupid is that they have this "5 star program" thing where they evaluate the employees' pictures. Out of all the worst things they do, this has to be the worst. I don't know about you guys but I am in love with photography; it's a part of who I am. It makes me so mad that they have a 'standard' for what is good and what is not. Shouldn't it be what the customers like instead of what the DMs like? What's the use in getting the opinion of the DMs? Because I just started, I can't take portraits yet but when I do and the DMs come to evaluate, I will tell them straight out that they are not needed here to tell us what's good and what's bad...which might get me fired but like I give a crap.

I have been working with CPI for 3 Years (before they were PCA). But anyways, alot of yalls complaints are ignorant. Yeah there are some valid points but...ok- for instance. This is an entry level job which offers excellent advancement for people who will not go to college. AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB FOLKS...meaning associates are easily replaceable if their attitude or performance is not up to par. This is reasonable. Portrait buisnesses that have prices like Picture Me and Sears leave very little room for profit. They need the best out there, and it is hard to find. They have been through quite a few associates in my district since I have started. You have to be very responsible and value your job to make it with CPI. Yeah sometimes no lunch break, but you can either take your lunch break or make money for your studio, or take pictures for customers that were only available on your lunch time (which during christmas this is reasonable!). You must be devoted. Sometimes you can not eat, unless you have medical problems this should not be an issue if you ARENT SELFISH. Customers are more important than a lunch SOMETIMES. Also, with an entrylevel job it is hard for a company such as this to find enough good employees, so if your mad about the studio manager...please understand that if she is that bad you can probably replace her. Develop a good relationship with your dm and always talk to her about issues NOT THE STUDIO MANAGER. Really the manager is just an associate with no real authority that has to do more tasks than associates. I mean comeon you guys...if you can not talk to your dm because she is not doing right either talk to the regional director (this number should be easy to attain). Just build a solid logical case before calling so you dont sound dumb.
ANYWAYS- DO NOT label this company a bad company JUST BECAUSE your DM can not do a good job. I have been in 2 districts and both dms were great.
PLEASE do apply but do make firm guidelines about traveling and times available and do not travel once if you dont want to other wise you will have to alot.
I can say so much more...but CPI has been good to be because I care about my job and have good work ethic and am rewarded for it. If you think you can do the same then go for it.

I worked for Picture Me for 2 years and after being on several websites reading complaints by employees and former employees of CPI I don't think that it's just one or two bad DM's. It is way more than that. Reguardless of whether it's an entrylevel job or not no manager or company has the right to tell you that you can not take a lunch break. It is a federal law that each employee is required to have a lunch break and if they don't get one the government will place very heafty fines on a company upon their discovery. It is not selfish to want to eat as you need food to survive. I used to not label this company as a bad one however upon the research I've been doing lately I realize that they are a bad company as far as employees go. They are treated unfairly and asked/made to work hellish hours and not want to pay them for the dedication that they have to their job and customers. As far as customers only being available during your lunch time during christmas, it's NOT reasonable. We start doing christmas pics in October and you are saying that for two months the only time they have available is during you lunch time, give me a break! I have worked in all kinds of retail places during the holidays and I have never in my life been denied a break or lunch. There is definately a difference between being devoted and being a CPI slave!

Look up lawsuit cpi sears portrait studio in your browser. If you have worked or are currently working for cpi you should get in on this lawsuit. its going big

I am working in Colorado. I have seen the horrible atmosphere. CPI had recently took over Kiddy Kandid. I have watched managers fight in front of new employees and bash each other in front of the trainees. They have fired people and are telling other employees why the other employee has been fired. They also force people to come in sick if they don't have coverage. Tell me if I am wrong but when people are working with infants should they be sick? I am pretty sure that infants don't develop an immune system until at least 3 months and even then it's not strong. I am sorry but I would not want a sick photographer handling my infant. In all reality CPI and CPI management don't really care about their employees. Really the only thing they care about is the money. I almost forgot. They try to make PART TIME employees work FULL TIME hours with out the full time benefits.

Can not find lawsuit on browser. what do I need to put in?

www.zimmreed.com

class action lawsuit, represented by zimmerman reed
complaint filed in september

http://www.zimmreed.com/uploads/CPI-Complaint.pdf

also contact information for law firm at

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cpi-portrait-studio-employees-represented-by-zimmerman-reed-pllp-file-class-action-against-cpi-corp-2010-07-27

I also am a FORMER employee for CPI Corp. I paid them $400 for 2 cd's that I had burnt and took home. PLUS $170 for a 16x20 that I bought for a friend of mine, which I NEVER received due to the fact that my associate sent it back to corporate. My CROOKED DM refuses to give me back ANY OF THE PROPS that I paid for and brought in. Some of which, weren't even mine... They were borrowed by me from family members. WHAT CAN I DO TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE? Please help.

Glad to see that I am not the only one being subjected to poorly trained management. My manager at Sears Portrait left an email to the DM clearly taking me to be 'slow' when in actuality, it is her failure to properly train that has caused the issues. I am in the process of attempting to deal with the DM, will be sending a letter with a copy of the email to head office and am filing a complaint with Human Rights for discrimination (the manager was told about my panic disorder and blatantly told me it does not matter. She has hired three kids and is using one of them as a scapegoat to vouch for her poor management...this kid is of course going to back her...I don't get the privilege of having a 3rd party to vouch for me...why should she?

The saddest thing about reading all of this is knowing that CPI is still growing. They did buy out Kiddie Kandids, where I worked. Since we had just opened, we did not have appointments and were responsible for going out and finding our on business. But on our own time and dime. My manager was the sweetest person and I feel so bad that CPI turned her. She did not have reliable transportation and I lived the closest to the store, so I was always called in. I was called in so much, I was fired from my other job that was paying me more. Big mistake on my part to want to make our studio great and get kicked in the [censor] for it. My DM was the worst. Amber Allen would call my personal cell phone at 11:30 at night to ask a question the manager could have anwsered. She wrote me up for something she agreed I could do, but "forgot that she approved it". When I wanted to discuss talk about it, she decieded the right time would be while I was in the middle of a shoot with a 4 month old baby. I told her over and over again that I was in a shoot and needed to call her back. But no, she went on and on and cussed me out. (All while I'm with a customer). I finally left after I was put in a full leg cast due to a stress fracture in 3 different spots, which I got because I had to cover for my manager yet again on a sprianed ankle on my day off. i told my manager I was in a lot of pain and should not be working. She told me the bus ride was too long to get to work. I asked for her to call someone else in to cover her shift, without calling she said no one was available. And now after being gone over 2 months, a new employee (I dont even know her name) got my phone number. I was called over 200 times from a restricted number by her harrassing me and threatening my life. Her performance with a customer was horrible, I watched first hand. I still liked my manager and studio at that time and felt that I should let my manager know how her studio was being represented while she was not there. I wrote a confidental letter to the manager simply saying she was rude and lazy. And in return I get harrassed for 3 hours and have my life threatened. Sorry not for CPI. Are you freakin ridiculus, get a life. And of course as we have all stated her, there is no way to contact CPI to let them know. They dont care, but I thought they might want to know before their employee gets arrested out of their studio. So from Canada all the way down to Houston (where I am) CPI, Picture Me, Sears, Kiddie Kandids is a horrible place to work.

To poedass! I'll call u on ur BS. First of all as an employee, you did NOT pay $400 for 2 CD's. Second of all, even at full price, a 16x20 is 99.99 framed and mounted! And, if ur the person talkin about teading CD's for tattoos on another post, then, yeah, you should have had to pay!

I wish I would have read this before I decided to take a job at a wal mart Picture me! I hate how i am treated and I'm tired of reading e-mails that threaten your job... I'm about to quit on the spot! And I just got told about a conference call that I have to be on today... I have another job and am unable to be at their beck and call all the time. I also never get off when I am supposed to and I get rude remarks about it from my manager. She thinks its funny!... I also barely get to take pictures when I am working with my manager because she takes my sessions and pretty much pushes me out of the way of the camera. Then gives it to me when she realizes that they are going to get the cheap package... That way her average is amazing and mine goes down the drain. Coorporate is even worse then she is. We get about 10 e-mails a week that tell us our jobs are in jeopardy... welll at this point I could care less if I was fired.!

CORPORATE SUCKS! My manager did the same thing to me when I started.

I had the opposite problem! I had to take almost every session (on the half hour) while my manager did nothing!

I worked for PCA/CPI for three years and went through hell for most of that time. I was promoted to Studio Manager within 6 months and in less than 6 months after that was promoted to District Manager. During the time I was District Manager, I was responsible for closing 3 out of 4 of the studios I ran and then was put in charge of another 4 studios that were at least three hours from my home town and base operation. I was expected to travel accross Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota in the middle of winter which was a feat of its own. While traveling to Wyoming I had to stop and get a room for the night and watched the 10:00 news which stated there was a huge winter storm moving in. I contacted my Regional Director to inform him of the storm, while informing him of this storm he decided to degrade me and tell me that I better get my but up and on the road home first thing in the morning. He also told me that I had wasted the companies time and money for a useless trip. Not more than an hour of crossing the Montana/Wyoming border all roads leading to and from Wyoming were closed and remain closed for 5 days. I would have been stranded in Wyoming for this time without the funds to survive. This is just one of the several situations I faced when dealing with higher management in this company. This also a man whom yelled at me infront of my peers for yawning in his meeting. I had just flown for the first time since I was 12 years old, was 30 at that time, and went accross time zones. My body didn't have time to adjust to the changes it had just been through. My Regional Director brought me to tears infront of everyone and expected me to just deal with it and later accussed me of walking out of his meeting when I had less than two hours to catch my flight home, and he had not offered any soulution if I had in fact missed my flight. Does this seem like a company that treats their employees fairly? I think not. This company needs a lesson in human relations!

By the way, I was forced to step down after this trip to St. Louis Mo. This was the worst job I have ever had.

Ive been working for PictureMe! for 15 months. I went 3 months with out a day off. I havent had a single person working with me for over months at a time. I didnt get any lunches and worked over 10 hours a day. All this with out a complaint. I work in Alaska and the weather is freezing. My heater was broke all winter and I was wearing a jacket, gloves, and two pairs of socks and still was sick all winter. They gave me a little 1o$ heater a YEAR later. So all my devotion and sacrifice for this company and I go into work today, to find my ACTING DM sitting there and told me I was Terminated. After all ive been through and done. I am at lost now and need to find a job. I have never been written up or verbally disciplined.This came out of no where. When's enough, fair?! Never for CPI Corp. If you are desperate for a job dont even take this one. They treat you so bad, or just leave you high and dry. I have a 98$ prs which is good in the company and the best in my district. I was a great employee!

I am a manager without training and as made to work through my lunchs and when the other girl quit I as made to work open to close without any breaks and also have had someone else "fix" my time sheets, to show that I had taken a lunch. I also got forced to sign a document for owing the studio money for sheets I had ordered of my family, (at regular price no discount). I am looking forward to sueing them.

CPI is laying off more people this week to ensure Managment bonuses.

David Meyers, Tom Gallahue, Renato Cataldo, and Dale Heins are all terrible people. Do yourself a favor and avoid the company both for employment and services.

They do not care about employees or customers...just the bottom line. Moral there is awful...

I have worked for and personally observed the complete abuse of hourly employees, and salaried employees for this company. There is a CLASS ACTION SUIT currently pending, and the higher ups are in a frenzy! Continual conf calls from upper management to cover up, lie, and get rid of anyone who might be a good witness. FRED WANISKA, THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR IN TEXAS, HAS A CRIMINAL RECORD IN COLLIN COUNTY FOR DISRUPTING A 911 CALL FROM HIS WIFE AS HE WAS ABUSING HER. THE COURT TRANSCRIPTS ARE PUBLIC RECORD. HE HAS HAD CHARGES FROM FORMER EMPLOYEES ABOUT SEXUAL HARRASSMENT, BUT THIS WAS ALL SWEPT UNDER THE RUG BY JIM MATTOX AND ADELLA IN HR.Hmmm...yet this is the type of person CPI choses to lead the LARGEST Region in the company. The Regional Director in Arizona also worked for Jim Mattox in the past at PCA, before he was fired for NUMEROUS SEXUAL HARRASSMENT COMPLAINTS. But when CPI purchased PCA out of a bankruptcy, Mattox brought his "good 'ole boy" back to run Arizona and Nevada. I've seen, heard, and witnessed calls, photos, and text messages exchanged between many of the upper management joking and teasing about the "larger women" working for the company. I have made complaints to Adella in HR, but everything gets lost, or overlooked, with the proof. The class action coming up is in numerous states, and more people need to jump on board in every state. I hope the people whom have been terminated will hear of it, they will make excellent witnesses, and CPI will be paying out BIG for the uncompensated work time. I also hope the corruption and cover-ups are seen by the Board and soon. RD, Fred Waniska talks about being a Team, then laughs and boasts about his wife who is terminally ill, and the life insurance he will be collecting. There are several of us who hear him talk to us or on the phone about how she is suffering, and deserves it. THAT IS PLAIN SICK. I hope he gets reported so the State or CPI can check and see if she is ok or being tended to. HE HAS BEEN OUT OF HIS MIND TO DISCUSS SUCH HORRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES, AND IT IS CLEAR THIS SICKO SHOULDN'T BE MANAGING ANYONE. He takes pleasure in scareing people and degrading people. I AM GOING TO TRY AND FIND HIS WIFE AND 3YR OLD DAUGHTER AND SEE IF THEY ARE OK, BECAUSE THOSE OF US WHO WORK FOR HIM ARE NOT, AND THE COMPANY DOESNT CARE. Everything gets trashed and oredered to be covered up. This company is going to take some BIG financial hits, and many of us wont be keeping quiet about it any longer

The worst place ever to work.. Bad attitudes, amateurs, no concept of costumer service, no knowledge of how to properly run a business, and all they care about is money, and selling bigger packages. If it's someone that's only coming in to get the one pose package and the know they can't upsell them, they wont even give them the time of day. Sad sad sad sad.. I will never work for another place like this again! and I feel really sorry for the people that get stuck with the crap overly priced prints they receive from them..

I have been an employee of both Sears portrait studio and Picture Me! and I am in the process of filing a lawsuit against Picture Me! for several reasons I had to wait over a year to receive my mandatory managers raise. iI have had an associate, who is friends with my DM walk off the job on three different occasions during the middle of the day and be rehired at a higher rate. My DM diane Jackson Dist 382 is now trying to force me to quit my job after all the money i have made for this company I am so disgusted. My studio was the top in the district for almost the whole year and I was made to work without an associate every time the one I had would walk off the job. She has been rehired at a managers pay rate, Yes I checked it and now they want me to quit, well guess what I am going to wait and see what corporate has to say and if I dont like it I am on my way to court!

CPI corp is a great place to work and most of it's employees have been there for 10 or more years. Yes, you probably all did get wrote up for not performing and doing your job, dressing appropriately, following the rules, but it isn't for everyone and some people can't follow simple rule or instruction, so if you're not good at it then it's a good idea to move on.

I worked for Amercican Studios and PCI for 11 years back in the 1990's, and I can understand why everyone of these complaints were made. CPI and Picture Me were derived from the companies I used to worked for. You have to understand that senior management started out in this business working 10 to 12 hour days with no break and no lunch, so wmaking their employees work unreasonable hours is norm for them. I don't know how I lasted as long as I did, but when I finally got fired - which every former employee does - it was one of the happiest days of my life. For most of the time I worked there, I was either a DM or a RM, and backed them I thrived on firing people, writing them up for nothing that had to do with photography, and running my areas on the least amount of labor possible - that was the culture I had learned. That is the same culture the upper management of CPI use today. I took the job when I was young because I loved studio photography, but within the first week of the job I found out that it had almost nothing to do with photography. Bottom line it is about money and showing profit to WalMart for their survival.
When I worked there I drank a lot, sat at bars with other managers and we all knew we would eventually get fired once our numbers dropped.
I can just imagine with the state of the economy now and the increasing amount of jobless people, that this business has become even more ruthless than it was in my day.
For all you discount store portait employees, keep your sales average up, book those appointments and don't plan on retiring from there.

All The BS with the company is true, because people cant afford a $400 dollar packages we are threatened to be replaced, because we can't pull customers in we are threatened write ups and potentially being terminated, not to mention that we are the companies only marketinf tool doing spin to wins, call list, own your own customer, constantly harrassing customers we have pushed them completely away we are drivin to PUSH sales and customers see that so it becomes a negative experience and people don't want to come back. Us as manager and Associates are what hold the company together, we are taught to lie to customers and basically steal their money, and if we dont we are replaced, the company dont care if you take amazing portraits all they care about is you taking the customers for eveything they have. I hate waking up everyday to know how many single moms and elderly people I have forced to pay insane amounts of money for portraits that they can get for alot cheaper someplace else.

Reading this almost makes me dizzy. I could respond all day about how half of the complaints made are on policies set by CPI to be a successful, profitable company so we can stay afloat and pay employees such as yourself in such difficult times. I understand there has been some upper management politics but let's get real here people, what company doesn't. and OF COURSE it is all about the money.. what business isn't is what I would like to know! No doubt this job takes a very self motivated, sales oriented type person.. and probably only 25% of our national workforce is cut out for this type of job.. so move on to better things before it makes you so bitter and vindictive over not being fond of business practices you never agreed with in the first place? I have heard people talk about how they were offended over miscumminication (confusing yes.. fixable definitely a yes) .. dressing professional (knew this when you signed your new hire paperwork yet you went against dress code regardless) .. having to do marketing/outreach, GETTING MORE CUSTOMERS WHEN ON AVERAGE A STUDIO DOESN'T SHOOT MORE THAN 3 ONE HOUR SESSIONS A DAY .. ! Come on, administratively it gets to bog you down at times but in reality I am suprised I even wasted this long rebuttle on people that simply went about all of this the wrong way, and with a piss poor work ethic.

in response to your poedass, If you paid 400 for 2 cd's and only 170 for a 16 x 20 then you shouldt have recieved them, As an employee, you dont get a discount on regular priced items without a 10 sheet MINUMUM purchase...and THEN the cd's are 75% off still paying about 165 PER CD. So you didnt pay the correct amount that was owed to the company. I love my Job @ Picture Me. I started as a part time seasonal help in october of 2009 and i am now a SMIT as of 6 months ago, I run a pretty large average and i believe if you go to work with the attitude that you all seem to show on here, you will run low averages as your heart is just not with the job!

No matter where CPI is--from Canada down to the States--they still suck. I've experienced EXACTLY the same foul treatment in my home studio in Canada. You can't say it's "just one or two bad DMs", it's the way the company works. They set up my studio in a WalMart that is in a lower income area and expect 400$+ sales out of us when our clients just can't afford it. We aren't in the richer part of town like the other studios in our city district so it's a big struggle to get them to buy the big collections. I KNOW my photography and my sales skill are very good. I came into this company keeping a 90$ MINIMUM prs average during Christmas season. I worked my ten hours a day shifts. I did my sales. I dressed appropriately. I had customers ASKING for my business cards. And what did I get for it? I got FIRED, right before Christmas Eve. Yeah, they terminated me before the end date on my contract without solid grounds to do so. What did they do when I asked them to show me the paperwork I had signed off on when I was trained in the studio I needed to take two and a half hours by bus to get to? They "couldn't find it". My former Studio Manager (with six months of experience) drove another associate (she worked for the company for two years and refused the manager position, knowing how bad it would get) to quit her job. Without her, the studio ran itself straight into the ground. She was a model employee. Not to mention that the SM was a complete idiot without photography experience and a complete lack of people skills.
If I hadn't been so desperate to pay my bills--and partly to shame them for what they've done--I wouldn't have taken back my "part time" job when they offered it back after Christmas season. I say part time in quotations because that same Studio Manager would purposely cut my hours and call in another girl from a different studio to take my hours when her sales average was lower than mine, her photography was below mine and the way she deals with customers is not very professional or friendly.
My DM is also a two-faced jerk who will act very sweet and friendly to your face and behind your back tell everyone else in the studio--while she's degrading them--that the reason we can't get high sales (keep in mind, we're in the lower income neighborhood) is because all our photography is complete garbage and only worth 7.99. Completely unfair to say when I've had AMAZING sessions with families who just can't afford the large packages.

@s12345: I did NOTHING wrong. I hadn't been written up once. I did everything that was required of me and even bought props for the studio (which I've yet to be reimbursed for). Don't tell me it's a great place to work for when obviously there is so much WRONG with it and their head office is impossible to contact. If it really is the "great" place you say that it is, they wouldn't have to hide and NONE of the same, reoccurring incidents would happen in studios located in different states and COUNTRIES.