Toys R Us Employee Reviews for Electronic Specialist

What do you like about working at Toys R Us?

"At Toys R Us, I like the employees, vacation time and earned time off."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"You will only be hired as seasonal employees. TRU rarely hires anyone outside of season, but I was ages ago. If you want to get hired be prepared for the group interview, which now consists of one of 3 activities. Our store usually uses the one where you select a product and then try to sell it to the hiring manager. Just be polite and somewhat energetic and you're a shoe in. If you want to stay on after Christmas you need to: A) Try and be in the first batch of seasonal hires in September. B) Never call off. C) Show up on time. D) Be willing to work when called in. Your fellow seasonal hires like to call off or never show up, and being dependable and willing to be called in is a 100% sure fire way to stay on. Don't be shy about leaving a note at customer service that says to call you in if someone calls off. Your managers will eat it up. E) Try and get cross-trained to do returns, we pretty much automatically keep anyone who can do something other than cashier."

What don't you like about working at Toys R Us?

"I dislike the way the company handles things. Especially since I work in electronics I see entirely too many flaws. There have been several times that Toys R Us has no idea what it's talking about when it comes to electronics. We rarely get product knowledge, and when we do it's usually wrong somehow. One product knowledge sheet about the WiI actually said it didn't come with a Nunchuk! We even had a Nintendo DSI bundle that included a case that could only fit the DS Lite! Needless to say customers were not happy. Get someone higher up appointed to these things. Kids are all about the gadgets these days and I feel like we're asleep behind the wheel. Don't sell electronics if the people in charge of that sort of thing have no idea what any of it is. I make my own knowledge sheets for my employees, and that's sad! At a store level, it seems fairly consistent that there is no such thing as seniority. People who've worked for the company a few months get the same amount of hours as someone who's been there for years. Anyone who is not a manager will basically get no more than 2 days a week between the months of January and September. 3 days is a lucky week. It's not worth it for the poor pay. You get a quarter a year raise, meaning if your state increases minimum wage while you're there, most of the new hires will make pretty close to the veteran employees! I've been there 5 years and I only make like 80 cents more than a new hire. Where is the motivation in that They obviously don't care about keeping veteran employees, like most retail places. Depending on the managers at any given store, there is little incentive to actually do what they want. They hound you for rewards card sign ups, credit card sign ups, buyer protection plans, and battery sales. Don't get any and you get yelled at. Get a lot and you get absolutely no recognition. Again, why even bother Off season the electronics department is almost always dead, yet required to be staffed by a single employee at all times. I spend most of my day standing around waiting for customers. There is rarely any work to do, and when there is, it's all done within an hour and you're back to standing around. It's boring, but I do it. I just think it's silly the company is really wasting money on the position. Make a call button system and let the Rzone person go work the floor."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Incentivise your employees! Other retail chains I have worked for at least try to. At Kohls you would get a measly 50 cents per credit card sign up, and here you get nothing. At least increase the discount, 10% is worthless. Target gives 20%, Best Buy has a cost + program. TRU employees are some of their best customers, and it's sad they could care less. Higher up managers need to fix the product knowledge. Giving us information that we could get by reading the box is NOT product knowledge. Work with the vendors to get inside operating info on items."