#by WineRelatedThrowaway

[prorevenge]

Screw me over the day I'm supposed to start a job? Enjoy your worst sales year in decades.

Background: A few years ago, I worked in the wine industry and I traveled to Australia to try to broaden my experience of the industry, as well as of life and to try out living abroad for a while. I also knew the pay there was vastly higher than what was my home at the time, in the UK. I had quite a bit of experience, a decent CV/Resume, great qualifications in the industry and academically and I was young and eager. At the time, I had a one year work visa, but this could have been extended to two or longer, depending on the employer. I applied for loads of jobs; many were listed on the various employment websites, industry specific ones, gumtree, if I liked the sound of it, I applied for it. I also wrote to various wineries in the area that I really liked with my CV and various details. I got a lot of replies, but one of my favourites got back to me, they put me in touch with their hiring manager.

I was stoked to have an interview with one of my favourite wineries in the region, for a sales rep job. I drove to the winery, met with the hiring manager, and had the interview of my life. I nailed it; to this day I've never had a better interview. I met the winery manager, got along great. At the end of the interview, the hiring manager told me I was a shoe-in, and that they'd be in touch shortly to let me know if I got the job, followed by a very reassuring wink/nod. The very next day, I got a phone call saying that they'd be delighted to have me as their regional sales rep, and we discussed a start date.

This winery was several hours out of the city, so I had to move quite a distance, rent an apartment, buy a car, and so on. This cost me the vast majority of the savings I'd accumulated back home before the move. A few days before the starting date, I give them a call to let them know I'm moved in and that I am looking forward to starting, and to ask if they wouldn't mind if I came along a few days before just to get a better lay of the land, etc. They said the owners weren't around so don't bother coming in, but call again tomorrow. I did, and again, the owners weren't around again. I was due to start on the monday, so I figured oh well - I guess I'll meet them then.

I showed up bright and early, 20 minutes early on the first day, ready to meet the crew and get stuck in. I walked around until I found someone, as the cellar door and main areas weren't open yet. They told me to hang around until someone showed up - eventually, the general winery manager appears and when I say I'm supposed to be meeting with him, the hiring manager and the owners today, his eyes widen, he goes a little white(r), and then, after some "uhhh"-ing, lets me know that they aren't ready today and need a few more days to sort things out, but to call back in the afternoon to find out when I'm really supposed to start.

I call back, and it goes to voicemail. I leave a voicemail, saying "hey it's no worries, let me know which day this week you'd like me to start". I call the hiring manager I had spoken to before, that goes to voicemail, I do the same. Two more days pass, and I'm starting to get irritated. I want to start work. I call the hiring manager again, who picks up. I am as civil as I can be, but I do ask why I haven't been called back. She lets me know that the owners have changed their minds, and don't want to hire me any more. She admitted that this was pretty shitty, and she'd been trying to convince them to take me, but they had issues with the fact that I was a temporary worker and wouldn't be there for more than two years. I let her know that there were options for extending my ability to stay in the country, etc. She said she knew, but they were adamant. I was pretty pissed at this point, so I decided to call them directly.

Their number was easy to find, so I called them and left a voicemail asking them to call me back. And another voicemail a day later, all the time remaining as polite as I could. Eventually I called them from skype, with "no number", and they actually picked up. I asked why they no longer wished to hire me and tried to explain that they could apply for an extension/sponsorship if they liked having me. Then came the line. "We just don't want a pommy working for us, plain and simple mate". You dicks. This had nothing to do with the sponsorship thing, you just don't like brits. I'm not even a pom (this is typically slang reserved for English - I am Scottish). I terminate my lease, cancel my internet, and drive back up the coast about $2000AUD in the hole (not including the price of the car, fuel, food, time wasted, etc).

Revenge: Pissed off, but at this point desperate for money, I stay at a hostel and begin job hunting again. This time there's a pretty great job as a regional manager & buyer for a decently sized chain of liquor stores. This is a little beyond my previous experience but fuck it, I go for it. I get the job, and suddenly I'm responsible for 7 stores and the purchases they make. 7 big stores, that buy a lot of wine. When store managers make their weekly orders, it was done through an online system where the various products and quantities were put in. There was a short window between the order being submitted and the order actually going through to be fulfilled. I simply cancelled each and every store's orders of the wines from that winery. I did that every single week until I left. Each store was ordering between 15 and 30 cases of this producer's wines per week; an average of about $6,000 per store in sales (closer to $4000 per order, per store). When the store managers saw that their stocks were dwindling or gone, and asked me about it, I simply said that they'd changed their pricing and we can't afford to sell it right now. Every time their sales rep (who did not know me) called to ask what the problem was, I just told him that their product just wasn't moving and we don't need any stock right now. He didn't think to even compare previous years sales records, he'd have seen that their because wine was great, it had always sold well.

I wasn't there long, I hated that job, the hours, and the stress of taking care of seven freaking stores and their problems, but the revenge was sweet. After four months I packed it in, and I reckon their shitty attitude cost them over $400,000 in sales. I could have made that for them if they'd hired me.

TL;DR: Winery hires me, backs out at the last minute, so I sabotage their regional sales, costing them many times over what my yearly salary would be.

(source) (story by WineRelatedThrowaway)