Yelloh (formerly Schwan's Home Service)

Let me express my personal honest opinion regarding this place.
I used them twice and I've had enough to understand it's a terrible place for buying food. Why? Because their prices are crazy.
Everything is overoveroverpriced. I have never seen so high rates whatsoever.
Something that can cost 30 dollars is sold for 90 there, for instance.
I spent a lot of money on nothing and I really regret it.
Who are these stores for? For super-rich people who prefer pay more than usual? I don't know rich people who would not want to save some money.

I have no idea how they are still operating and surviving among their much cheaper competitors...

I don't get it. We have been a consistent $100 an order customer for years. We then hit summer and our hours changed so we attempted to change our delivery times. Then our road was under construction. I live one house from the cross street that is not under construction. We went all summer with no Schwan's Delivery. Come Fall, we tried again. No delivery. Pre-ordered. Oh, they showed. I hate pre-ordering so I don't. But, if you don't you don't get any service. I am so tired of this service. We have complained so many times to only get points on our account that we can't use because they never show up at our door. Today, we were promised several times through phone calls from them and emails that they would be here today. Well, I just happened to look out the window at the snowy weather and what did I see? Schwan's drive on by. No slowing and no stopping. I am so done with this lousy company. Too bad, I liked several products they have that I can't find elsewhere. Oh well, I guess I don't really need them. Good bye Schwan's. We have been customers for over 15 years.

I called to customer service for mistake delivered happen. Customer service Kelly was so rude.She didn't listen me and she was telling nothing she can do.order came double.She said it my fault.it delivered 2 weeks ago.then nice this area stuffs brought early delivery for me.I ordered midnight.maybe that order record was still on my account, so it delivered again. . I have double products on this week . I wanted to give back packages I already have. They sent message I can give back next delivery date on 2 weeks after. My freezer is so small, I can't keep that much food in freezer. I had to throw away my stuffs from freezer. She was keep saying nothing she can do.also all those happen was my fault. Why she is a customer service ? A customer service is for customer.why she only can tell her opinion? Why customer service can yell customer? Very bad service. She said she will hung up my call, because I'm not listen her

I live in Independence, KY and up to november of 2016 our food was delivered on time and even if we did not pre order the food he would stop and check if we wanted anything. Since Nov they have skipped over my house 3 times in a row even we did pre order! I pre ordered food yesterday because he was supposed to deliver tonight between 5-8 pm. This is the 3rd time in a row no one as showed up. Plus no one ever calls us and tells us they are not coming!

So if and when anyone shows up I better not be charged full price for all the food I ordered. Really I should not have to pay for my order at all. If it is such a burden to deliver to us. We just we cancel and drop being customers all together. Someone needs to start doing their jobs!

Sincerely,

Joyce A Johnson

Message: in regards to order #[protected] I opened the root beer float bars and it looks like at one point they melted and then was refrozen, very messy when you take them out of the packaging, almost need a bowl to eat them, very disappointed, also, I took 4 of the corn dogs out and placed them in a preheated oven at 350 f. Baked them for 20 min and let them cool for 2 min and they were so dry I could not even eat them, very disappointed! Anyhow, please advise and happy holidays

My recent experience with www.schwans.com was very disappointing and I'm not sure if I'll order anything from them again. I have been ordering from Schwan's for 5 years now and never had an issue, they were very nice and food was great, but now I don't know what to think. As always made an order and when I received the bill I was shocked because the total price was two times bigger than I expected! When I received my order I learned that there was some extra food which I did not order! I contacted them and demanded some explanations, but they refused to explain and refused to refund me. I'm very disappointed with Schwan's!

I ordered products from the company www.schwans.com couple of times, and every time it was ok. But recently I placed the order and I received the email that the order was ready and would be delivered on the agreed day. But when I opened the box, it turned out that some of the products were missing. I was shocked, because the company warned me if they didn’t have products or changed them for something. But this time, they did nothing.

We were promised delivery today (July 5th) between the hours of 9:00 - 11:00 A.M. It is now 1:25 P.M. and the driver is still not called or delivered our order. I guess our plans do not matter. There is no system in place for me to check on our order. I have called the distribution center 4 times but no one picks up the telephone.
This is absurd.
One upset short lived customer for Schwans!

I begin having problems with delivery times and dates from the start. On my 3rd order the driver failed to return my call and after 1 week he called and said he would be at my house right after 12pm. I told him I had to leave by 330pm for a doctor's appointment, he assured me he would be there long before then. At 340pm I had to leave and he still hadn't shown up or called. When I returned he had left a note on my door that he had been there at 410pm and something about how bad a day he had. I made a compliant to the company and was told someone would call me the next business day. After 5 days I am still waiting for someone to call, this is the worse customer service I have ever seen from a major company.

2010 A driver delivered near to 2000.00 of food to individuals in my name. I had not even placed a single order with Schwans. This was one of the first frauds in a long line that led to a three house sweep and some of these people being arrested and placed in Prison, convicted October of 2010 and the last of the three in prison Feb 2011. I received several odd calls from the alleged drivers during this whole mess and months after the initial fraud charged deliveries and after the police spoke to Schwans I confirmed with Schwans they had the fraud separated out and under control. After all this dealing with Schwans I decided to try to use schwans myself as I felt it was criminals doing the evil doing not the company. I placed my first order seemed to go fine other than a pizza I did not order on my accountt for 9.00. I called Corporate they claimed I was NOT charged for the pizza and they said it must be an odd computer error. I let that go then I ordered again (we live where we have a SLIM selection of food items. This next order arrived fine we used UPS with exception of the SCHWANS driver arriving the day before the delivery from UPS and claiming he had my order but did not know what I ordered. We excused him and he left his sticker and a catalog. He then drover by regularly asking us if we wanted food. We explained it was easier to just order on-line and have it delivered on our schedule he was not very happy but said thanks. The last 2 orders we placed were the last of October and first of November. The second was ordered before we received the first of the last 2 orders. The first arrived without tape seal and the Styrofoam was clearly beat up the dry ice was all exposed and the food was leaking and sloshing around melted.

We have photos of this food we called Schwans alerted to them to what we felt was a shotty packaging and they sent a driver by who arrived at 9 pm that evening and picked up the food placed it in his truck with the stock. We were shocked. We received a refund for this order. The next order arrived in worse shape. We thought it was a Holiday substitute in shipping who messed up the first one but this one was kicked in, no tape and inside we opened one of the three packages the boxes were opened and exposed. We called Schwans and after at least 2 weeks received a refund. They NEVER arrived to retrieve the food we had to send it to the dump after 4 weeks! We were told to keep it for them and they never showed. They refund was issued on the second, the last order then they charged it again with out another order. We got a refund again through our bank then they charged it again. We finally got it back... Each of these charges the exact amount and to the same SCHWANS processing bank. We received damaged goods they refused to pick up and they charged refunded charged again and again and they had no order after this last damaged one. The last word from Schwans corp was if you are not satisfied with our products you will have to find another way to have it delivered. I asked what made them think I was unhappy with the product I was UNHAPPY feeding my kids tampered food. This comment meant to me they PREFERED the driver to ship not UPS so we NEVER used schwans again! Good luck and what a shame! The frozen food Mafia!

Have photos will be happy to share!

For all those out there who have read the ad's placed by the Schwans Food Company (the big yellow refrigerated trucks) and have been drawn to their advertisement of beginning at $40+ thousand a year, please take my word for it and do not even inquire about the legitimacy of making that type of money. In this page I will let you know the truth about what a hard working, dedicated driver will actually make for providing their 17-18 hour days to the Schwans company. The company generally starts you at what they like to refer to as a 'guaranteed pay / step down program'. Basically, you will be started at roughtly $32, 500 per year they claim. What they mean is, we will place you at $600 per week for a 2 months, at which time, that will disappear. You will then be placed on the step down program when they assign you a route. Now, let's say the route brings in an average of $500 per day in sales. You will be paid 11% of that $500 for a total of $55 plus a step down pay. Step down is a guaranteed amount they pay you each and every week, added onto your sales total. So, you make $300.00 for stepdown pay each week, plus 11% of your weekly sales. Lets say, you pulled in an average of $500.00 each day in sales Monday through Friday. Your sales pay would be $250.00 + your step down pay of $300.00 for a total of $550.00 in pay BEFORE taxes. Are you with me thus far? I hope so, because they explain it so fast in the interview / hiring process, that you think 'what did they just say', when in reality, whatever your thinking, is clouded by the quote 'You will make BIG money'. So, not a bad weekly paycheck? I thought so too, until the step down pay amount begins to dwindle each month. Before long, your paycheck is solely based on what you sell, and there is no guarantee, no assistance, no step down pay anymore. So, what happens when your routes are at $2500.00 in sales per week? Your paycheck BEFORE taxes is $250.00 How can you live on it? Believe me, many Schwans employees make that statement each and every day. If you state, that it is not so bad, divide that $250.00 by 80-90 hours per week, and your making less than a 16 y.o working part-time at a McDonalds. Now they claim that those who have not made it succesfully with Schwans did not try. Well, the management will try to put you at ease promising you to have people go out there and obtain new customers for you to increase your daily sales, assist you in boosting your buying customer level and so much more. I was promised during a 'build blitz' (employees from other depots come out and assist you increasing your customer base / sales) that I would have someone riding with me to make my route better. Well, months of promises went unfulfilled and believe me, the end product is a angry, fed up, and burnt out employee. Schwans has a higher turnover than McDonalds. For every 10 that apply, Schwans may consider hiring 1 or 2. But, because they consider hiring them, does not mean they have the job. They myust pass background checks, drug screenings, an interview, a ride along and NEO (New Employee Orientation). The ride along which from the beginning until the end is usually 18 hours (sometimes an hour less depending on the driver). So, lets say those two candidates Schwans was considering hiring made it through everything but the ride along, and they both went out on that ride along, the truth is, there is a slim chance that one will actually return to the depot at the end of the night in the truck. What happened you ask? Well, most ask to be let out at the nearest gas station because they have had enough, only to have their wife, girlfriend or friend come and pick them up. Schwans used to be a great company and the earning potential WAS there at one time, but not anymore. You may have 120 stops, but your paycheck depends on that customer actually being home, and if they are home, actually needing something. Even if they need something, is their purchase going to be so substantial that it will make a dent in that paycheck some are embarassed to cash each week? NO! People used to always be home, but with the 'on the go' world we live in, people are hard to catch! Managers at Schwans will do and say whatever it takes to get you out there and give your time, your sanity and the time which others use with their family to Schwans. Is the potential out there to make it at Schwans and bring in the paycheck? Yes, if you are willing to work 90 hours per week, and work like a slave for 10 years to get your customer base where it needs to be. Only 2 drivers in our depot of about 14 actually make enough money to say thy live somewhat comfortably. Those 2 have worked for Schwans since the tire was invented. Schwans also cares little for their customers, regardless of the good PR and other smoke and mirrors they show you. They only care about money! When I began with Schwans, they stated that 1 new customer per day was the key to a sucessful route with them. That number was the magic number since Schwans began, but in the last 6 months, that number is now 6 new customers per day. Do you know how hard it is to service 100+ customers in a day, plus knock on doors to find 6 new customers? You will have to knock on a conservative average of 30 doors to get 6 people interested at best. Yes, you may get lucky and sign a few new ones along the way, but many will not sign on immediately. If you do not come in with 6 new customers, you are considered the black sheep and feel the eyes of management looking down at you. They need those new customers to look good to their bosses and corporate, because they are on the chopping block. Yes they are doing their job because they want to stay employed, but it means pushing, taking advantage and explouiting you to their advantage at the cost of you, your health, your time with family and at the cost of your paycheck. So, if you're intimidated, and must try for 6 new customers, you spend time trying to locate and sign those new customers. In the meantime, your existing customers who are already expecting you at a certain time are growing impatient, think they missed you or your not coming. The result, a smaller paycheck because you missed those who you were supposed to service at a given time, but did not because you were trying to find new customers. The companies explanation to this theory is that new customers will build your business and justify a larger paycheck. But the reality is a smaller paycheck this week, no guarantee those customers will buy next time or again if you already signed them. My theory is SERVICE THE EXISTING CUSTOMER because they are the ones that have kept you employed, and kept the company going all this time. So, if you want to work ungodly hours for minimum wage or less, get burned out, have the wife or girlfriend leave you because your never there, alienate your children because they forgot what daddy or mommy look like because there always gone and want a job that leads nowhere, call Scwans now, because they are ALWAYS hiring.

For all those out there who have read the ad's placed by the Schwans Food Company (the big yellow refrigerated trucks) and have been drawn to their advertisement of beginning at $40+ thousand a year, please take my word for it and do not even inquire about the legitimacy of making that type of money. In this page I will let you know the truth about what a hard working, dedicated driver will actually make for providing their 17-18 hour days to the Schwans company. The company generally starts you at what they like to refer to as a 'guaranteed pay / step down program'. Basically, you will be started at roughtly $32, 500 per year they claim. What they mean is, we will place you at $600 per week for a 2 months, at which time, that will disappear. You will then be placed on the step down program when they assign you a route. Now, let's say the route brings in an average of $500 per day in sales. You will be paid 11% of that $500 for a total of $55 plus a step down pay. Step down is a guaranteed amount they pay you each and every week, added onto your sales total. So, you make $300.00 for stepdown pay each week, plus 11% of your weekly sales. Lets say, you pulled in an average of $500.00 each day in sales Monday through Friday. Your sales pay would be $250.00 + your step down pay of $300.00 for a total of $550.00 in pay BEFORE taxes. Are you with me thus far? I hope so, because they explain it so fast in the interview / hiring process, that you think 'what did they just say', when in reality, whatever your thinking, is clouded by the quote 'You will make BIG money'. So, not a bad weekly paycheck? I thought so too, until the step down pay amount begins to dwindle each month. Before long, your paycheck is solely based on what you sell, and there is no guarantee, no assistance, no step down pay anymore. So, what happens when your routes are at $2500.00 in sales per week? Your paycheck BEFORE taxes is $250.00 How can you live on it? Believe me, many Schwans employees make that statement each and every day. If you state, that it is not so bad, divide that $250.00 by 80-90 hours per week, and your making less than a 16 y.o working part-time at a McDonalds. Now they claim that those who have not made it succesfully with Schwans did not try. Well, the management will try to put you at ease promising you to have people go out there and obtain new customers for you to increase your daily sales, assist you in boosting your buying customer level and so much more. I was promised during a 'build blitz' (employees from other depots come out and assist you increasing your customer base / sales) that I would have someone riding with me to make my route better. Well, months of promises went unfulfilled and believe me, the end product is a angry, fed up, and burnt out employee. Schwans has a higher turnover than McDonalds. For every 10 that apply, Schwans may consider hiring 1 or 2. But, because they consider hiring them, does not mean they have the job. They myust pass background checks, drug screenings, an interview, a ride along and NEO (New Employee Orientation). The ride along which from the beginning until the end is usually 18 hours (sometimes an hour less depending on the driver). So, lets say those two candidates Schwans was considering hiring made it through everything but the ride along, and they both went out on that ride along, the truth is, there is a slim chance that one will actually return to the depot at the end of the night in the truck. What happened you ask? Well, most ask to be let out at the nearest gas station because they have had enough, only to have their wife, girlfriend or friend come and pick them up. Schwans used to be a great company and the earning potential WAS there at one time, but not anymore. You may have 120 stops, but your paycheck depends on that customer actually being home, and if they are home, actually needing something. Even if they need something, is their purchase going to be so substantial that it will make a dent in that paycheck some are embarassed to cash each week? NO! People used to always be home, but with the 'on the go' world we live in, people are hard to catch! Managers at Schwans will do and say whatever it takes to get you out there and give your time, your sanity and the time which others use with their family to Schwans. Is the potential out there to make it at Schwans and bring in the paycheck? Yes, if you are willing to work 90 hours per week, and work like a slave for 10 years to get your customer base where it needs to be. Only 2 drivers in our depot of about 14 actually make enough money to say thy live somewhat comfortably. Those 2 have worked for Schwans since the tire was invented. Schwans also cares little for their customers, regardless of the good PR and other smoke and mirrors they show you. They only care about money! When I began with Schwans, they stated that 1 new customer per day was the key to a sucessful route with them. That number was the magic number since Schwans began, but in the last 6 months, that number is now 6 new customers per day. Do you know how hard it is to service 100+ customers in a day, plus knock on doors to find 6 new customers? You will have to knock on a conservative average of 30 doors to get 6 people interested at best. Yes, you may get lucky and sign a few new ones along the way, but many will not sign on immediately. If you do not come in with 6 new customers, you are considered the black sheep and feel the eyes of management looking down at you. They need those new customers to look good to their bosses and corporate, because they are on the chopping block. Yes they are doing their job because they want to stay employed, but it means pushing, taking advantage and explouiting you to their advantage at the cost of you, your health, your time with family and at the cost of your paycheck. So, if you're intimidated, and must try for 6 new customers, you spend time trying to locate and sign those new customers. In the meantime, your existing customers who are already expecting you at a certain time are growing impatient, think they missed you or your not coming. The result, a smaller paycheck because you missed those who you were supposed to service at a given time, but did not because you were trying to find new customers. The companies explanation to this theory is that new customers will build your business and justify a larger paycheck. But the reality is a smaller paycheck this week, no guarantee those customers will buy next time or again if you already signed them. My theory is SERVICE THE EXISTING CUSTOMER because they are the ones that have kept you employed, and kept the company going all this time. So, if you want to work ungodly hours for minimum wage or less, get burned out, have the wife or girlfriend leave you because your never there, alienate your children because they forgot what daddy or mommy look like because there always gone and want a job that leads nowhere, call Scwans now, because they are ALWAYS hiring.

I was a former customer who discontinued service due to inconsistant delivery. On the 14th of this month, I decided to give Schwan's another chance after seven years and placed a good initial order. I was advised (and have the confirmation email) that the order would be delivered on Friday morning.

By mid afternoon, the order had not arrived and I called customer service, hoping there was just a minor delay. After all, they do happen. The rep. told me that my order was on the truck and I could receive it as late as 9:00 PM. The order never came. When I called again today, I was told that I was advised that the order was reschuled for next Thursday. That was a lie. I have a doctor's appt. that day. I canceled the order and will not do business with Schwan's again. I can overlook occassional errors but intentional lieing is unacceptable.

During the hiring process Schwan's has emloyees sign a some sort of "waiver" holding their prosepctive employer, Schwan's, NOT accountable for working employees over-time without the proper pay. Which is generally 15 hrs/daily x 5 days & sometimes 6. NO OVERTIME or COMPENASTION, ie, time off with pay. If vacationing, and a HOLIDAY falls within that period, employees do NOT receive holiday pay! They are paid NO HOLIDAYS at all. They are required to be on their route 12 hours with min.10.5 hrs "sell time". My family member works a min.of 14-16 hr/days. I'm thanksful, it's a job in this horrible economic market, but what they are doing to the employees is ILLEGAL! Their proposed scale for commission is JOKE! There is no way to earn it, there are so many "tailored Schwan's loop-hole requirements" for ataining it! The commission is something like (roughly) 1/% of XX$, but one must earn that same "goal" for a bi-weekly (pay period) in order to get paid for it! So sad for the hard-working men who go out everyday (VERY EARLY) & return home very late, anywhere from 9-11:45 at night. We have NO family time. The only good thing I can say is the base salary for a CSM isn't bad, but really, if the job market didn't suck, there are many jobs that will pay the same money for 40 hrs! The health benefits are good, but hey, the employee pays his share of the cost. My family member s lookning elsewhere, he has a strong background in sales/marketing/merchandising, not to mention a whole other host of things that do NOT fit into requirements of Schwan's. Blessings to all you out there trying to earn an honest living & to your families during their lonley times, we miss you guys at home, your love & support of family! Apparently Schwan's is NOT THE FAMILY OREITNTED COMPANY THEY CLAIM TO BE! THEY ARE GREED ORIENTED! The Depot Mgrs & upwards are the ones reaping the $rewards$ of the hardworkers beating the streets from before sunrise 'il bedtime! UGGGGGH!

Schwan's used to be about getting getting food delivered to your home at a convenient time with some value. Now it is about getting products pushed on you, inconvenient or no service and ever-changing salespeople. The have changed products so many times and the quality is always going down. Now, if you get service, they want to sell you what is on special and usually never have what you want. It seems they know more about the food business than their customers and don't care about their declining presence in our town.

They are long on talk and short on service. Good riddance.

We did a fundraiser with Schwan's to raise money for my son's CubScout troop to help pay for camp. Our kids, ages 6-8, raised $5000. It has been over a month since anyone from Schwan's would even call us back or respond to our emails. They have still not sent them their check for the money they worked sooo hard to earn. I have cancelled my home service and will never again do any business with them. That is really low to stiff a group of young boys. Now they have missed the date of camp sign ups. Thanks to Schwan's they with not be able to enjoy camp and earn badges. These are really good kids and worked hard to raise that money, I hope they do not do this to any other groups.

Last Thursday I went shopping at Shaw's. In your circular you had chicken drumsticks and thighs advertised at 88 cents a pound.

My daughter and I were searching the meat case for this chicken, but couldn't find it. We were about to go ask when this guy came up to the counter and looked at us and rudely said we're out of them.

I wanted to ask why the shaw's brand family packs that were in the case weren't them, but I chose not to due to his manner of dealing with customers.

If you advertise something and the same kind of package is there, shouldn't it be on sale? And perhaps your employees could speak to people a little nicer.

If I had of been rude to him then I would understand his being rude back, but as a retail employee myself I refuse to be rude to anyone in a store.

I take enough grief in the course of a day from customers in my own store.

Hello Everyone,

I have been hearing some pretty awful things about Schwan Food Company. I was discriminated from Schwan based on my race.
I am currently in lawsuit. Anyone that can help me in supporting
my case will greatly be appreciated. I am ready and serious to bring
justice to the harm that these people have brought to so many others.

If anyone out there can help me, and have had any bad sexperiences with Schwan, please send an email to:
[protected]@live.com

I am an employee of Schwan's Home Service and am embarassed to tell anyone. When I was hired as a Customer Service Manager (a glorified title, which is actually a truck driver), I was baited with the promise of a decent income and potential commissions, based on my sales. Being production oriented and a hard worker all of my life, this sounded good. However, I was never told that I would be working no less than 15 hours a day, five days a week (and sometimes a sixth), but only getting the same pay that everyone else in the nation gets for working 40 hours.

Also, I worked for 19 months before I was allowed to schedule a vacation. After scheduling the vacation and purchasing plane tickets and arranging accomodations and rental car, my new manager (who was hired from outside the company and was never a Customer Service Manager himself) denied my vacation three days prior to my departure date. I lost all the money I spent on it and was not allowed any time off until the holidays (five months later). The funny thing was that this same "manager" (who has no management training and absolutely no people skills or human resources experience) took his vacation just three weeks later and two additional weeks before the end of that year. I have yet to file any grievance with human resources for fear of losing my job.

Even though this is a company that has many good things going for it (everything but the Home Service side), it is not a good company to work for. Turnover is very high because of how horribly it treats it's employees. This job will rob you of your life, your family, and your health, and general peace of mind. I long for the day when our economy improves enough for me to find decent employment away from this sweat shop. Ironically, very large bonuses are paid to Schwan's Home Service managers, their warehouse managers (which makes no sense), and their District General Managers if their depot meets their annual projections. If the company paid the employees (the ones that actually do the work and give up their lives for it) the bonuses, they would have better retention. If Schwan's Home Service was unionized, it would close. If the US Department of Labor knew how badly we were treated (for such little pay), they would shut them down immediately.

I'm not disgruntled, I'm just disappointed that this company is so abusive to it's employees. The very people on the front lines that make the company as successful as it is. It's a shame, and when I do leave the company, there's no way in *** I'll ever buy anything from them again. The food's not that good and I get better quality for lower prices at Sam's, Costco, and most grocery stores. =)

I'm not going to sling mud, I'm just going to give you facts about life as a Route Sales Manager working for Schwan's (basically being a 'Schwan's Man').

I saw Schwan's advertising their job as a Route Sales Manager and I was intrigued by the $38, 000/yr salary. I filed my application and kind of forgot about it. One month later I had an e-mail from the General Manager of the local depot, he asked me to come in for an interview, so I did.

When I arrived the manager and I spoke about the job. He told me about the "great benefits", the great salary, and the fact that Schwan's had never laid off a driver. His average driver made about $45, 000/yr with salary and commission and his best made $60, 000. He sold it to me as a great opportunity to have a career with great job security. But before I considered working for them he wanted me to go on a ride day and ride along with one of his drivers to get a feel for the job. This sounded great to me. I agreed.

The next week I showed up at the depot at 8am and met the driver I was riding with that day. A nice guy about my age (26). He had already prepped the truck so we were ready to go. As we drove along I quizzed him about the job and asked his thoughts. He told me how great it was and how he loved the freedom. I asked him about the hours and he said that sometimes he has a late night and he is out until 7 or so, but most of the time he's in way before that. He'd only been with the company for a few months, but he was already on track to be a Chairman's Clubber (its what Schwan's calls their top salesman. Its basically an incentive program with three different levels. The highest is Chairman's, very very few drivers get to that level).

We travelled along his route and at 4pm he told me that he was just about done so he was going to drop me off at the depot while he tended to the truck. He said the manager wanted to talk to me before he went home and he always goes home early.

When I got back in the depot the manager was waiting on me. We talked about the day and I said I enjoyed it and I was interested in pursuing the opportunity. He had me fill out forms, go do a drug test and physical, and start 3 weeks later.

Now, keep in mind this was a HUGE decision for me. I had a fairly good job that I had 8 years in. I didn't make a lot of money, but it was pretty good. Just about the same as what Schwan's was paying me. But I talked to my wife and we decided to take the risk. I put in my notice, and two weeks later I was a Schwan's man.

The first day at Schwan's the reality of my situation began to sink in. The job was sold to me by a nice guy, but a liar. The average driver does not make 45K a year at the depot, they make the minimum, 38K. As a matter of fact out of 13 drivers only 3 had been there for a year. The rest were just part of a line in a revoloving door of drivers that is constantly changing due to extremely high turnover.

The hours were much longer than what I had been told. You get to the depot at 8am and you get back to the depot about 9pm. 13 hour days. 5 days a week. And if you get back earlier than 9pm you get in trouble because you're not out selling. You also have a quota, which was not really surprising. But what is surprising is that if you do not make your quota by Friday evening you have to work Saturday to make up the loss. And if you still don't cover your numbers Saturday you get written up. The bad part is the quota is very high. You have to sell $5, 850 a week in product, which is not an easy task. The product is overpriced (but very tasty) and in this economy people are tightening their belts and are not spending the kind of money you need them to so you can make your numbers. Basically everything that Schwan's sells can be bought at Wal-Mart, but it is typically 3 times more expensive at Schwan's than Wal-Mart or Homeland. Trust me, its true. My wife and I did the shopping to see. So basically you're working 60-65 hours Monday through Friday and typically at least 2 Saturdays a month for about 5-8 hours. You put in 70 hours a week!

The benefits just plain suck. The company doesn't cover hardly any of the costs so the burden is on the employee. For my wife and me to have health, vision, and dental it was costing me about $150 every two weeks. However, they do make a nice matching contribution to your 401k.

Holidays off? Nope. Well, kinda. If Christmas is on a Tuesday then you have to work the Saturday before or after to run that route day. So really you're not getting time off, you're just getting the day off and you're making the hours up on a Saturday before or after. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two holidays we did this. The other holidays (New Years, July 4th, Memorial Day, and Labor Day) we ran our routes. It was almost embarrassing. When you knock on someone's door on the 4th of July and interrupt their family BBQ to try to sell them Schwan's. Many times they were get upset, and I didn't blame them. But we had to do it.

If you are running your route day and you get done at 7pm you are required to go solicit new customers until 9pm. My manager actually told us we were supposed to be out until 10pm, but no one ever stayed out that late. I, for one, refused to knock on a person's door at 9:30pm. That's bad business and its just plain rude. How would you feel if you had put your kids down to sleep and you're winding down from your long day and the Schwan's man shows up on a Monday or Tuesday night at 9:30pm? Let me tell you, you'd be pissed. So as long as we stayed out until 9 he didn't hassle us.

Quota'd items. Schwan's has what they call News At The Door (NATD) items that they must show to each customer every day. These items are quota'd and if the driver does not sell a minimum number of units every week he gets written up. Most of the times the NATD items (there are always 2 of them) are made up of one new item and one item that isn't selling very well. This is a sells booster strategy. They take the NATD very seriously and I have seen them fire drivers because their quota of 20 wasn't met and they only sold 15. Granted, you get written up twice before you get fired. There were times that I actually bought 5 or 10 of an item just to meet quota. And on top of all of this, the manager at the depot I worked at was a nice guy. I liked him, we all liked him. He didn't make it bad for us, the company made it bad for him and for us. There was nothing he could do to change how the company operates. He had goals he had to meet, just like we did. We were luckier than most. Most depots do not have good managers (at least that is what I gather from talking to so many other drivers). So I guess I was lucky in that sense.

I would just like to say that Schwan's has great products. But they treat their drivers very poorly. Life as a Schwan's man is hell. It is hard work and the way the company treats its drivers is pathetic. My wife still buys from our Schwan's man just because we feel sorry for him and can sympathize with his situation. I make her buy a NATD every trip, even if its something we won't eat.

I went to Schwan's with an open mind and very excited. I was very disappointed at all the false statements and down right lies that were told to me before I was hired. The biggest career mistake I ever made was leaving my good job to go to Schwan's. I'm still paying for it all this time later. Luckily my time at Schwan's was over a few months after being hired, I found a different job.

If you are still considering working for Schwan's after all of this, I wish you the best of luck and hope you have a successful career. But, if you think that I'm just a complainer then do two things. 1: go to www.retailreality.net (its a site set up by Schwan's drivers to talk about the company) and 2: go to /link removed/ and search for Schwans and read through the reports there from all the past drivers. If you read those and you still aren't convinced that this is a bad company to work for, then I think you will fit right in at Schwan's.

If you have any specific questions about Schwan's please feel free to e-mail me and I'll answer any questions you have.

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