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    hmv Reviews

    Updated 29 July 2018
    180 reviews

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    Full-timePart-time
    3.7
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
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    Ian Topping
    44 Ratings

    180 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "Excellent staff discount on all products, with the exception of gift cards etc" (in 23 reviews)

    • "Working with the staff is fantastic, all like-minded individuals who love music and movies" (in 8 reviews)

    Cons

    • "minimum wage job in a dying industry" (in 12 reviews)

    • "Incredible pressure to upsell Pure cards, which are frankly a ripoff and very anti-consumer" (in 10 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Moved on to new opportunities but I miss this place!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Sales Assistant in Darlington, North East England, England
      Former Employee - Sales Assistant in Darlington, North East England, England
      Recommends
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at hmv part-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Friendly staff, always changing atmosphere, can be challenging when trying to meet targets.

      Cons

      It was a temporary position.
      Some people who work there will niggle at you about the small things (like which way to put the money in the till when you have a huge line of customers).

    2. "Always fun, but slowly becoming just another corporate machine."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Supervisor in Brighton, England
      Former Employee - Supervisor in Brighton, England
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at hmv full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      Working alongside like-minded people
      Can be a fun environment (depending on the manager)
      Very social
      The occasional great customer can make it worth it

      Cons

      Minimum pay
      To progress, you usually have to move to another city
      No good incentives (used to be good bonuses)
      More of a hard sales environment at the till
      If you get a stressful manager, it can ruin the whole experience

      Advice to Management

      Stop treating staff just as numbers. Everyone used to be there because they're incredibly passionate about the products, but that passion is getting killed slowly.

      3. Join the hmv team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Good"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at hmv part-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Good management. Easy going. Fun.

      Cons

      Contact changed to less hours. Overtime paid every other month. No advancing.

    4. "fantastic"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      Pros

      Good discount
      Decent wage
      Fantastic colleagues

      Cons

      Hours are limited with no overtime

    5. "Greatest time I' ve had."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Sales Associate in Southport, England
      Current Employee - Sales Associate in Southport, England
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at hmv part-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Great atmosphere, discounts, monthly Rota, cool goodies. Fun. Challenging targets and goals. Great management structure

      Cons

      None really just normal retail constraints.

      Advice to Management

      Just keeping doing what you.

    6. "Great People Struggling Market"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Team Leader in London, England
      Former Employee - Team Leader in London, England
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at hmv full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Days go quickly as lots to do
      Great people to work with
      Enjoyable work mostly

      Cons

      Pay isn't great even by retail standards
      Targets can be a disincentive rather than encouraging

      Advice to Management

      Talk to one another -sometimes managers have different ideas that they don't talk through with one another

    7. "Working in a record store is pretty cool for a few months.."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Sales Assistant
      Former Employee - Sales Assistant
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at hmv (More than a year)

      Pros

      Was in a shopping centre so opening times were a decent 9-5

      An hours break, not entirely sure if it was paid or not.

      20% discount was alright especially if you're like me and into 90% of what they sell

      General manager was a nice guy

      Cons

      Pretty much dealing with old people all day looking to buy songs from the 1940's that usually involved a half hour search through our catalogue (not fun)

      Assistant manager was a homophobic, sexist and racist tyrant with a major attitude problem.

      Was told virtually nothing about employee benefits or compensation. They existed but i never knew about them until a few weeks before i quit.

      Training involved us re-watching the same video every three months

      Company is dying, just by being there for a year you could see less and less customers walking through the door each day. Our refund policy basically told us to treat every customer like they'd stolen the item.

      Money was always tight and unless you hit your targets every day you got a royal bollocking for not being able to up-sell an overpriced and virtually worthless loyalty card

      Store was filthy. Considering our store is one of the most profitable in the area it looked run down and virtually nothing worked. Behind the tills was the worst case of cable gore i'd ever seen.

      After a years service i got nothing as a goodbye. Not even a card. Thanks.

      Advice to Management

      Re-hire an assistant manager that doesn't make all of their employees dread coming into work.

      Clean the store, seriously.

    8. "Customer Asisstant"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at hmv part-time

      Pros

      Good atmosphere, great benefits and great holiday time

      Cons

      Upselling and the Pure card

      Advice to Management

      Focus less on the three pound piece of plastic

    9. "Great people head office were a bit behind the times"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at hmv part-time

      Pros

      HMV is a great company for people who are avid fans of music. They also had a great LGBT work environment

      Cons

      I found some of their policies a bit behind the times. I don't think a company should charge the customers for a loyalty card

    10. "Great place to work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Sales Assistant in Bristol, England
      Current Employee - Sales Assistant in Bristol, England
      Recommends
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at hmv full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      - Great people
      - Management strategies are fantastic
      - Job isn't confusing

      Cons

      - Targets you have to meet which are unachievable
      - No incentives
      - Wages are horrific

      Advice to Management

      Get rid of the pay difference for different age groups - its 2018, not the 1960's.

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