Original Message:
I WORKED FOR ONE OF THESE COMPANIES (by Renee M.):
Hi JayJay,
Frankly, I'm not 100% sure how to handle it. I've never been to court before, and except for a few routine traffic tickets, this will be my first experience being subpoenaed (sp?).
The great irony is this: I received a voice mail message from them on Monday offering me my job back (which is not even a consideration). They said, verbatim, "We enjoyed having you work here, and we don't want to subpoena you, so we'll give you until the end of the week to return to work. If you go to work on the sales floor, you'll be able to make enough money to cover those charge-backs. We don't really want to sue you, but we have written letters from two clients that state you helped them to obtain a refund." This is proof that no good deed goes unpunished.
On one hand, they've (the owners) accused myself (and several others) of deliberately causing them to lose revenue because we told customers how to get their money back (some of these customers paid as much as $5000 and were furious their property had not moved). On the other hand, they're willing to ALLOW us to work there again.
Essentially, it's blackmail. We either return to the job and work there (w/out pay) for as long as necessary to cover charge backs from customers, or we'll be forced to fight them in court. The owner and founder of the company is an attorney, so their legal representation costs them nothing. The rest of us are unemployed former employees struggling to survive.
I've been advised to do nothing, and wait to see if the subpoena arrives. I've prepared an affadavit which will be signed and notarized by 8 former employees, attesting to the unethical practices of this company. I also kept the voice-mail recording of them offering me my job back.
Clearly, their concern is not for the customer, the employee or anyone other than themselves. Why else would they be willing to re-hire such awful employees? They feel they can frighten us into working there without pay until we've filled the void. It's nonsense.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. As of today (Wed, 3/23) I have not received my subpoena. Either way, an employee who did will appear in court on April 9th (i believe). I will stay in touch, and let you know how this goes.
Thanks for taking the time to read this