Wow. Something to think about if I ever need a temp job.

I love Zappos.

Crazy. I still won't shop there. Just a bit too expensive for the brands I like.

Wow, that is an interesting practice!

i have to admit, their customer service is amazing. i always call after finding a lower price on items and get my money back! its awesome

zappos has the best customer service. love them.

Interesting concept. I'm for anything that improves customer service.

What a brilliant idea!

Their customer service people certainly are fantastic!! I know because on my first [last and only] purchase from them, I had experienced a handful of issues that took about 3 months of calling customer service to resolve.

The issues were resolved, I got anywhere from $20 - $50 off coupons after each call [which I never used, because I didn't want to have to go through all the crap I went through the first time, discounted or not], and everyone was very helpful and friendly.

HOWEVER, I really don't like that company. Their shoes are at least a season old... prices are too high, and you deal with multiple complications afterward.

But their customer service people are great!

hmmm... i've never shopped there before but all of your comments are making me want to try it.

I feel like when zappos first started out they were a lot cheaper. Anyways 4 weeks of training sounds like a lot!

Zappos is great. The few times i've ordered I got super fast shipping and the customer service is awesome. I do agree that the prices are a bit high though.

These days 1k won't get you very far.

I wish Bloomberg did that with me. I decided a call center job was just not for me the first week into it, but I wanted to give it fair shot..well, after 3 weeks I quit, and the company said they would take a week's salary because I didn't give 2 week notice. F that! I didn't go through hell to not get paid, so I negotiated and got paid for the full three weeks. It took them a month to deposit it into my bank account though.

That's pretty cool, & I like how they have 4-week train for customer service. Hopefully their cust. serv. reps are better than some you deal with nowadays.

I am such a Zappos-a-holic. Their customer service is great.

Zappos customer service center is headquartered in Las Vegas. I spent 3 months living in Vegas over the summer and it is difficult to get ANYONE to give you a job unless you have lived there forever. The reason is that the population is incredibly transient. A lot of employees work long enough to get a couple paychecks and recoup gambling losses. The reason Zappos does this is because thatextra $1000 is very tempting to a person who is only trying to come up with enough to get caught up and back to the casinos. Yeah, it is a test of commitment, but not commitment to customer sevice!

Strange, my wife and I were just talking about Zappos on sunday. It seems she likes to look there for ideas and different styles, then shops elsewhere where she gets a much better price. I had no idea how much, till she came home with 3 pairs from Broadway Shoes that cost the same as one pair from Zappos. Literally the same exact brand and style were $44 at Broadway, $129 at Zappos. I will say it buffered her telling me that she just bought 3 pairs of shoes (not a common thing in our house), after seeing the discount she got. All 3 pairs of the name brand shoes cost her $134 with tax.
So, Zappos is great for ideas, but any frugal shopper can find the same thing for ATLEAST half, if not more.
Now, go shop.

i love how they put this under the guise of quality service to impress the consumer while it makes absolutely no sense in a business perspective. the real reason they try to bribe them out is because companies like this gain government subsidies for hiring entry level people through the tax credit act i believe it was called and perhaps many others that im unaware of, paid for by the taxpayers, through this they get well over the 1k severance bonus for 400 hrs worked/trained...nice try though

Take the easy month summer job salary
and RUN.

Perhaps there's more than meets the eye, such as Zappo building a reserve work force which is strictly against the Federal law. A reserve work force is when a company hires and trains employees, then lays them off immediately after training so as to have a large reserve work force in the area on instant call. That stagnates the economy because the reservists hold out hope for a recall and don't seek another job. Zappo doesn't seem to be doing this, only getting rid of the undedicated fluff, but it does raise concerns.

I talked to a CSR via Live Chat a few nights ago w/Zappo and was disappointed. I wanted to know the difference between Rapid and Rebel Heelys - she said "It looks like the bottoms are different colors, one has ABEC 1 608 reinforced bearings and the other has ABEC 1 608 micro bearings, Rapid has removable wheels, while Rebel does not. The person wasn't familiar with the Heelys product line and said I needed to call Heelys to have my questions answered. It's apparent that 4 wks of intensive training isn't enough for these CSR's to be competent to answer questions about the products that they sell. Two thumbs down Zappo!

wait, so do they actually pay you a thousand dollars or is it a trick to weed out the bad employees?

The headline of the story got me interested in reading, but the shoes are even better!

Someone please tell me how to find those great purple pumps!!

If this company was so great why did it take them a month to get Mintie's problem resolved? They are not all that great and I've found cheaper places to get shoes. Thanks but no thanks to this company.

Minty doesn't know terribly much abut fashion...perhaps PayLess is a trifle trendier but Zappos stocks what SELLS. What's the use of trendy if you're the only one wearing 'em? Not much of a trend!!

And just last week I was thinking what a great customer support system Zappos had when there was a mistake with my order. I think this is very interesting that they do that to ensure good customer support. I love zappos. I am happy with their service.

Please explain how offering an employee 1000 to quit has anything to do with customer service?! I just don't understand the point and think it is ridiculous. So if they don't take the 1000 it means they are excellent at customer service? Doesnt make sense to me.

Punkydoodle, thanks for giving us the low-down.

cvandoorn, here's a repeat of your story: "I wish Bloomberg did that with me. I decided a call center job was just not for me the first week into it, but I wanted to give it fair shot..well, after 3 weeks I quit, and the company said they would take a week's salary because I didn't give 2 week notice. F that! I didn't go through hell to not get paid, so I negotiated and got paid for the full three weeks. It took them a month to deposit it into my bank account though."

I had a similar thing happen to me at a restaurant. I quit and they were holding back a paycheck but when they mailed it to me they conveniently got the street# wrong. Mine is 934 Watson and they got 434 so the post office sent it to the wrong street with the right number. Luckily my friend lived there and called me up! What luck!

I would love a job there.

try payless shoesource for any new style and incredible prices. i worked there for 2 years and the most i EVER spent was about $35 on some incredible boots for winter. plus -- they have buy one, get one !!!

still love my payless!

zappos prices are higher to recoup the free overnight shipping they offer. their cust care cannot be beat, but i always check other sites for the same shoes to compare prices/shipping.

tip: the shoe reviews are very helpful even if you are buying from a different site.

Weww!! This headline hit me so hard. I felt guilty. Well, this is not exactly what happen, yet somewhat similar.

I dont believe it for a second. their customer service is great, but I still wont shop there. Buyandwalk.com is much cheaper and I get the same great customer service. sorry zappos but your prices are just too high

this is how a componie creates a employers markit.when they have any typ of turn over in a feild that you need spicific training in its always hard to finde qwalifide workers becaus what you do is specialy suited for that componie and the product they produce..so thay have to train you..well if they train alot of people to do these typs of specialty jobs there not so special anymore becaus so menny people know how to do them,,your a dime a dosen ,,and they actuly de value you as an employee and therefor do not have to pay you mutch becaus they can finde anyone to do your job since the pool is so huge.....be aware of componies like this ,,,there part of the problem not the salution. besides whats $ 1,000 anymore? not worth more then a steddy paycheck..

Getting paid to quit a job, come on, you just started, you obviously want the job to make money so you can pay your bills not to mention have a possible career come out of it. If I was paid to quit a job just after I started, it would have to be no less than one years salary paid me to through Direct Deposit on the company's (or my regularly scheduled paydays as if I was employed there)and that one year would have to start come the next pay period. I would also require that my vacation or PTO time build up and be paid to me at the end of the year in hours and that I get the company medical, dental plans for the year as if I were employed. If the company aheared to those terms, than yea I would quit just after starting.

I'm all for weeding out the dead weight when it comes to representing my company-

Even if you have to pay them to exit stage left! HA!

If your looking for commitment, try outsourcing. That way you know for sure loyalty and commitment is there plus you won't have to spend extra $1000.00 to entice them to quit. You'll know that having a job is more important than not be able to put food on the table. They will be doing 100% all the time.

239sunshine4u said "It's apparent that 4 wks of intensive training isn't enough for these CSR's to be competent to answer questions about the products that they sell."

As a person who has worked in a call center before, I gotta tell ya - they tend to just barely gloss through the product, the majority of the training is regarding how to use their call system effectively, how to handle irate callers, what type of coding to use in their note-taking, etc. And honestly, with the product being shoes and there being literally thousands of different manufacturers, styles, etc... it would take a lot more than four weeks to learn how to use their specific system *and* learn about all the products they carry to answer questions like "what's the difference between these two brands?"

PaidStopSmoking .. what -are- you talking about? Zappos is offering people a grand upon completion of training as a way entice *honesty*. Some people aren't suited to call center work, they're just not good customer service agents, but if money is tight they're gonna ignore that and stick around - what Zappos is doing is offering them a 'free' paycheck essentially to give them a little buffer space above the hours they've already worked so that they can find a new job if they don't think this is the place for them. It has nothing at all to do with smoking or health care. And just fyi, I'm a non-smoker and I *still* get my pair of paid fifteen minute breaks each day that I'm at work - those breaks aren't -just- for smokers and haven't been in a very long time.

Too bad I don't live in Vegas, it would definitely be interesting to try working at Zappos knowing about that incentive plan!

Zappos is a great when you need to find difficult sizes, very narrow or very wide. They offer very high end shoe lines at a lower price than in the major department stores, e.g. Macy's. I have never had a problem with online order and free return (with UPS label printed from online), so I've never had the opportunity to talk with their Customer Service. I love Zappos!

Where do I apply?

As someone who is very familiar with zappos.com i feal the need to stand up for this company and let everyone know what they are all about. Although that offer is great it is rarely taken because in the long run it is not worth it. Four weeks of training is way more than a thousand dollars and is not worth loosing the shot to work for one of the best companies ever. Their stock is great and the customer service is amazing.Buying things online is not an easy thing to do but zappos makes it very accessible and easy to navigate.I will protect zappos from the haters any day. ALl the other online companies wish they could be as great as zappos.

I absolutely love this site.. i found great shoes that I couldnt get in my size at store.. I'm a size 3.5 Big Kids... they rarely carry my size in store... so this was great!

That is BRILLIANT! more companies and not just online ones
should give this one some thought. Pay not so good worker to quit now before they cost you millions later with bad days and attitudes. They still leave with skills to use elsewhere WHEN and IF they come to the realization that they played themselves since $1000.00 doesn't really go that far!

I just read Kzello's comment about protecting zappo's from the hater's and I just want to say---YOU GO GYRL shoot you make me want to buy a pair of shoes just so I can talk to cust srvc rep

their shoes are 2 high 4 me ---but I should just call and say Hi

I actually work for Zappos. It really is a great job. With the whole $1000 offer, you may say you would take it, but when the time actually comes and the offer is on the table. Every single person that was in my training class denied it right away. Why? Cause this is a type of job that you will NEVER find anywhere else. I can promise that.

Please note, employees (disgruntled or not) who are fired from companies will never have anything positive to say about their employer and/or their staff.

We all have free will and if we do not agree with the management of a company and/or their style, then simply quit and go elsewhere. We all make choices in our lives, we all make sacrifices and we all pick the battles we wish to fight.

If you are not (or were not ) happy, then you need ( needed) to make a change.

Please review the success of ZAPPOS.COM financially and most recent article in FORBES JUNE 2008. We lead by example.

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/forbes/2008/0602/078.html

I think that's a very smart idea when you're hiring that many call center people, especially for a web based company like Zappos. Our client, LL Bean, hires tons of call center people who come back to work for the holiday season every year just because they love the company. If you're going to work for somebody, the first rule is to like your job, call center or otherwise.

I am not sure I like this Idea there is no customer service retention, So new agents take a while to familiar themselves with products and service. Crappy idea for customers.

I love love love Zappos. Turning down 5 other job offers so I could actually be HAPPY when I go in to my job was not a hard decision. I love my co-workers, my bosses, the customers, and what we do! I turned down "the offer" - I would have turned down $10,000 over and over again! We have fun at work, and you can't buy that. Any time you contact Zappos, we will do everything that we can to assist you and leave you saying "wow." That's what we do!