[UPDATE] Employees at Phone Kiosk in Eureka Costco Laid Off With less Than 9 Minutes Notice
When Benjamin Goodman, a sales representative at the Wireless Advocates kiosk in Eureka’s Costco woke up yesterday he had a job. But an email sent at 1 a.m. told him there was a mandatory company wide phone call at 8 a.m. By about 8:10 a.m., he was out of a job in the middle of the Christmas season. Almost all the employees were told not to go into work anymore.
“The company just stopped doing business,” he told us by phone last night. “Obviously, coming in December, it is a pretty lousy thing to do.”
Most of the company which has a contract to sell phones at Costcos and on military bases appears to have been laid off in that mandatory phone call this morning. Nationwide an estimated 1300 to 3000 employees are out of a job right before Christmas. The CEO, Dan Bretler, blamed COVID and worldwide supply chain issues.
Listen to the CEO lay off the employees with no notice.
“I’m sure this decision was made some time ago,” Goodman told us. “They had been sort of reducing pay and commissions for some time…It’s Christmas why you got to do this now? Why do you have to do this so suddenly?”
Employees are struggling to gather information about their employment with the company as websites were shut down almost immediately. “A lot of people can’t log in to get their pay stubs,” Goodman told us.
The Eureka employee says he has other plans and isn’t worried about himself but he is concerned about his fellow employees. “I really feel for my coworkers–one had been with the company since 2015,” he explained. “He was a manager.”
Beyond the employees though, Goodman is concerned about his customers. Many of them had placed orders where they were expected to come into the kiosk to pick them up. “I’m not sure how that is going to get worked out,” he said. “All of those customers are going to have to contact [the company they were buying the phone with such as Verizon]. I suspect a lot of people are going to lose their holiday promotions.”
A organization that reports on wireless companies posted this tweet which includes a photo of a Wireless Advocates kiosk with advice for customers to call their wireless carriers if they have questions about their orders.*
Michael, yes, it's true about the end of telecom sales at Costco and the demise of Wireless Advocates. @NWIDA_ORG is a rock-solid source. Also, our West Coast analyst took this pic today at a California Costco. pic.twitter.com/wCj4eoDhoB
— Jeff Moore (@wave7jeff) December 6, 2022
One customer lamented on Twitter, “I just received my phone in the mail and now I can’t activate it because no one is available from this damn company to help me :(”
Any customer in a similar situation should try contacting the numbers shown in the photo above.
Goodman is trying to keep a good attitude. With only a little bitterness, he said, “Hey, its America, dude. Businesses have the right to fail.” He added, that he wants to send his “sincerest apologies” to any of his customers. He said that if he has given them his personal number to call him if they have any issues and he’ll try to help.
*Attempts to contact Wireless Advocates customer service line (206) 428-2400 were unsuccessful.
UPDATE: A reader contacted me with this information saying,
This chat is for former employees to once again be a family, even if it’s just through a chat.
The link to the chat is:
https://t.me/+K0S_pstmRVY0OTMx
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
FWIW, Apple recently announced that there would be supply constraints due to the unrest at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn. Veterans had been brought in (as scabs) to work the assembly lines, but then joined the strikers after being paid at a rate far less than what they had been promised.
During a similar period of unrest about a decade ago, a trend of Foxconn worker suicides was averted when Apple had nets placed installed directly underneath the rooftop, so despondent workers’ lives could be saved along with production quotes as workers were promptly returned to the assembly lines.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-28/apple-to-lose-6-million-iphone-pros-from-tumult-at-china-plant
Seems to me that if they had time to make the sign, they had time to inform employees so they could apply for jobs elsewhere.
Signs are done on a computer, took maybe 5 minutes at most. It’s not like someone has to sit down with supplies and fix it up
Could just as easily have been Costco that put up the sign.
this is just the beginning, wait til next year. Alot of corps. aren’t meeting their expectations.
Damn. Merry fucking Christmas, I guess.
I feel badly for anyone who has their life derailed through no fault of their own, especially at this time of year.
Do the fat cats who make these decisions ever even think about how they affect the actual people who lose their income?
Yes, while they tap all their fingers together and say “exxxcelllennnt!”
It is not cost co’s job too employee every body. if you have a problem with that you do not have too shop their. If you do not like working for some body whom can fire you when they want start you’re own business. If you feel bad when some body gets fired you hire them and pay them. It is called capitalism folks. Are free market does this kind of stuff every day. Our you going too complain or take matters in too you’re own hands. This is Merica, you get too chose what too do.
@freebrandon
NLM
they didn’t work for costco, they worked at costco, big difference.
I…..I think this is sarcasm.
If it is. I missed it.
If it is, he’s really bad at it.
It isn’t sarcasm. This is consistent with Sonnyb’s comments.
I always thought they were a satire/parody account. But as discussed before, that sort of thing is getting very hard to discern these days
It must be exhausting to be such a miserable wretch as Sonnyb.
The comment is consistent with a voice transcribing program. The conceptions are his. We all enjoy the first amendment.
But isn’t sonnyb a humorist? I have to believe that no one can consistently use the wrong synonym as much as her. ‘Our you going to complain or take matters in too you’re own hands.’
At least to me, it’s humorous.
The he really is that dumb? Astounding!
Sucks to hear working-class people sellout their co-workers and neighbors with such obsequious, and servile, fawning of their rich-gods.
WOW
What?
Are you functionally illiterate or are you playing a character? If this is a serious reply, I’m amazed you have a job.
Murry crismiss, sonny, I gotted yew an dikshinury wif wurds n such
Maffs two?
This is America, where you too can get a quality education (sarcasm)
I’m so sorry that this happened. It’s disreputable and impossible to justify. I hope that Costco can reach out to these people with job offers.
Costco reach out with job offers? Costco probably on the verge of layoffs themselves, where you been? Check out 101 any given Saturday or Sunday, economy in a recession. All sign on bonus are gone, lets get through Christmas season and watch all the layoffs, this economy is tanking fast.
That’s not what I see going on out there. Employers don’t have near enough applicants to fill positions. If you want a job, there’s plenty out there.
Not as of lately , companies laying off left and right. Fuel prices dropping, why? Cause way less demand.
Cranky Ole lady might be a little behind by a few months. Jobs once unfilled, are now gone. There has been a drastic drop in available job positions, and layoffs have started at many companies and will continue especially after the holidays. Its good you are busy, as hospitals are, many other job opportunities are drying up. It’s good you can’t see it, it is a rather depressing observation
Still help wanted signs every frigging where in Sonoma County.
Humboldt, too
So you don’t know anything about economics or about what’s going on at Costco. They’re opening a new building almost every other week, e-commerce has lagged a bit, but is doing fine. There’s no downward arrows. [edit].
I just wanted to say I’m sorry to you all. You all have always been so helpful and nice. Any problem we’ve ever had Brendan or another member was there to help.
Grew up with Brendon, nice guy, but felt like he looked stuck there over the years, I hope ge gets to spread his wings now and use this opportunity to go do something he really wants to do.
Wherever Brendan goes, they will be lucky to have him. Good luck.
The Corpse are realizing they don’t actually need employees in a Vending-Machine culture.
Gonna be a nightmare for those employees to sign up with EDD.
Also part of the plan.
It’s setup to give the employer all the power.
They can flat-out lie about why you were let go, and you have an almost zero chance of winning the appeal.
Unless you’re in a union.
Yeah, yeah, what a (sad) joke.
Corps got no power over the economy, and this one is tanking fast , big thanks to all that voted. It’s been a great ride on the economic roller-coaster, now let’s sit back and watch the bankruptcies.
Surprisingly Strong Jobs Report ”The labor market remains strong, complicating the picture for the Federal Reserve.”
NY Times-
The economy is quite robust if you bother to check..The fed is trying to slow things down by raising interest rates.
Oil prices sinking fast today.. A week ago was running close to $90 a barrel.
If rampant inflation for almost everything can be described as “robust”, that is.
And though crude oil futures fluctuate wildly and have been considerably higher in the past, the run up for price at the pump has been unprecedented. The NYT is not a reliable source anymore.
More jobs and higher wages increase household incomes and lead to a rise in consumer spending, further increasing aggregate demand and the scope for firms to increase the prices of their goods and services. When this happens across a large number of businesses and sectors, this leads to an increase in inflation..
don’t forget about deficit government spending devaluing the buck.
not to forget the employment numbers have been adjusted for 20+ years not to include the labor non-participation rate in the umemployment numbers.
Rising thefts at Walmart could lead to price jumps, store closures, CEO saysPublished Tue, Dec 6 20229:48 AM
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/walmart-ceo-says-shoplifting-could-lead-to-price-jumps-store-closures.html
My groceries are way the hell more expensive than just a year ago. Telling regular folks how great the economy is while they are struggling to pay their inflated bills is simply gaslighting.
e·con·o·my
the wealth and resources of a country or region, especially in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.
Inflation is up because of a robust economy.
Then maybe you need to think about expanding your earning potential. Last time I went to the grocery store, I noted a decrease in some prices, which surprised me. Generally, once a price goes up, it stays there because the company making the product likes the extra profit. So seeing the price of a few items go down was a pleasant surprise. Let’s hope they stay there.
?
Give job reports about 3 months , I haven’t laid anyone off yet due to Christmas season. Falling oil prices is a good indicator of the economy. 40 percent of small freight companies are expected to go bankrupt in 2023. Freight is down, lumber already tanked, fuel prices dropping. We headed down fast, California in the negative, people aren’t buying, tax money petering out. Job numbers are a good way to bs the people .
It’s sad that this happened to these employees during the holidays. On the other hand another company just failed…a financial disaster during the holidays. We are told the economy is improving? Think about it.
I once worked for a company where everyone was laid off at the same time. But instead of shutting us down, we all had to go back to our desks after the announcement and get right back to work, talking to our customers and vendors as cheerily and helpfully as ever, or our actions would be construed as voluntarily quitting so we’d get no severance benefits. Working in sales requires a person to be an actor, so as I recall, most of us got through it OK, but it certainly was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, at least in the work world. On the other hand, unlike the phone kiosk workers, we had several weeks on the job to gather our wits about us and do some planning, individually and collectively. And it was not Christmas.
To the best of Ben’s understanding, there are no severance benefits at all for Wireless Advocates employees.
Tangentially,
As AI gets more and more pervasive, more and more jobs for humans are going to disappear. Often the only thing delaying replacing some workers is that it is (temporarily) cheaper to use a human worker than AI. AI is gonna have an enormous, vast impact on people.
California is and will be one of the leaders in developing the AI based companies and technology that eliminate human jobs.
My guess is that one way or another, the human population is going to shrink a lot.
I think robotics aren’t positive, either. For every worker displaced by a robot, the company utilizing said robot should have to pay the salaries into a Universal Income fund. They might think twice about replacing workers if they not only have to keep paying them, but pay for the robotics and their upkeep as well.
As one of the employees on the call, it was a bit mind boggling how sudden it was. Frankly, in hindsight, there were signs (shrinking commissions, cut hours, increased quotas, the pushing of harder sales tactics), but this came out of left field. No heads up from our DM or RM, and frankly little to no support afterwards. I just made sure I got to the kiosk before opening to clear out my personal stuff and help my manager clear out his as well.
It’s more than a little surreal.
They didn’t tell you because they needed you to work right up until the last moment. If you had known two weeks ago, you and your coworkers might’ve found another job and that would have been two weeks the company wouldn’t have been able to scam their customers with the sales you brought in.
I’m so sorry this happened to you and your coworkers, Brandon. If you’re good at sales and you like doing it, contact UpNorth Distributing. They’re in the cannabis industry and word is they’re always looking for qualified reps. ?
This last-minute closing appears consistent with the poor way they have treated many employees for years, now, resulting in many federal lawsuits against the company for wage issues….and now, a class action lawsuit was filed yesterday in Texas over what appears to be an allegation that they failed to notify employees 60 days in advance. Here’s the first page.
No severance? Each employee has to be paid every cent they’re owed as of termination (today) or it’s a labor violation.
That’s not severance, that’s wages.
Laying off all those employees with an email sent to them at 1a.m. is just disgusting! I am a Costco member, and I am going to buy the rest of my groceries for December from Winco. At least they are looking for employees. If Costco continues to pull this on other department employees, they can kiss my membership goodbye. Stand up for our local workers and boycott Costco. Hit them in the wallet where it hurts!!
Costco is no more responsible than the Bayshore Mall is responsible for Walmart firing an employee. They are two different businesses.
Kym, they may be two different businesses, but the tactics used to notify these folks at 1a.m. stills burns my behind. I am not going to change my mind I and will continue to shop Winco where employees are treated very nicely. I appreciate your comment though.
Re-read the article. Costco had nothing to do with it.
Me, I do not plan to re-read the article. It said the business was located in Costco. My basic problem with the whole matter is with the way the employees were terminated by email a 1 in the morning. I am pretty sure Costco was aware of what was going to happen, and if they did, they should have given the employees a heads up!
By all accounts Costco was taken by surprise. “Costco was reportedly blindsided by the closure as well, learning of the news alongside the rest of Wireless Advocates’ employees earlier this week…The exact nature of the breakup and how Costco will now handle mobile services at its locations is the subject of much online speculation.” https://tmo.report/2022/12/company-responsible-for-mobile-sales-in-costco-implodes-overnight/
Thank you for the info, Kim! Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you and family. I enjoy batting the ball back and forth with you.
I read that Costco did not renew Wireless Advocates lease. Why was not given but , if true, it’s not like Costco was unaware. That it resulted in an abrupt closure maybe surprised them but they were apparently going to remove the business anyway. “According to one poster on Reddit, Costco was already in the process of phasing out its partnership with Wireless Advocates in recent months, seeking to install kiosks directly from the mobile service providers instead.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/suddenly-you-cant-get-a-mobile-phone-at-costco-anymore-heres-why/ar-AA151rEw
Yes. I don’t know how long the lease was supposed to last but it was long enough that Wireless Advocates could have given a decent notice to employees.
Biden will save us just ask Hunter.
Hello, I ordered an IPhone 14 pro Max through Costco’s phone kiosk in New Rochelle on November 30th. It wasn’t in stock therefore I paid for 2 day shipping. After a few days wondering where my phone was this shut down happened. The shipping info shows the carrier is still awaiting the item since the purchase on November 30th. T-Mobile my carrier and that Costco say they can’t do anything. Now this phone is on my account which I don’t have and still awaiting the phone. What is going to happen to customers like me that paid for a phone and haven’t received it from the company that closed weeks ago? Very stressed and lost.