Jim sent a message to Thomas J. Folliard – President and Chief Executive Officer of CarMax, Inc. – Email Address that said:
Good morning Mr. Follard
I have some great concerns about things that I feel that you are not aware of. However I begin letting you know my findings allow me to give you some of my background. I am a temporary employee under contract to work in the mail room. I come from a government agency that has worldwide operations for the Defence Commissary Agency. I was a Desktop Support tech and VTC facilitator for over 17 years working as a contractor through 2 contracts. My resume can be sent upon request.
Some of the issues that I see in your company is waste. From what I hear there is an effort to save money. When I see things like having to send something as small as USB or HDMI cable by FedEx this is a small example of waste. As I am sure you are aware that a USB cable costs about $8.00 at your local Wal-Mart store but then you have to pay about $12.00 to ship this to a store is not a cost effective way of doing business.
When I walk the halls to deliver mail there are some severe problems. The main problems are trip hazards. I am speaking of the basement floor. There are boxes, gay lords, cubical parts that line the walking areas. The other problem is that there are few cube markings for personnel. If I am looking for Jane Doe that is in cube 2130 good luck on finding her. You might make it to the colored area but more often than not there are no cube markers. I must say that your employees are more than willing to assist in finding or directing me to that person but that is time that is used unnecessarily and wasted by 2 people. This is at HQ and the Downtown office. Here is another example of waste. The tablets, digital cameras, equipment scanners should not get broken. The cost of that scanner alone is $4,500 each and they are being broken by careless people. The same goes for tablets that have been dropped; and the cameras. They come back dirty broken screens and other broken parts. Now I understand that the company is going to provide smart phones? That’s all good but where is the accountability? If a camera is given to an employee then he/she is responsible for its proper use and care. Not spend the company’s money to send it back and have it replace then sent it back to the store.
The manager that I work for and his team is very helpful as well as being quite knowledgeable. They work well together and it was very nice to see the mail room manager jumping in to sort mail and do whatever necessary to get the task done. I don’t know how other departments are run but this group runs a tight ship. Mr. Fedderman the mail operations manager and Mr. Jones the assistant operations manager are prime examples of a good fair working department. The other person and I am sorry I can’t remember his name at the moment is very helpful as well. I work primarily with Robert. He has turned this area of receiving and shopping parts, PC’s and just about anything else that the store needs. The way he pack things that have to be shipped FedEx could drop kick the box and nothing would be damaged.
I don’t consider myself as a whistle blower, but someone that sees things from a new perspective. I have only worked for your company a very short time and I am quite aware that my time will be ending very shortly. This is only a 45 day assignment. But I feel that these are the things that will only help your company.
I would truly hope that nothing negative would happen to any of the mentioned people that I work with. If anything they should be rewarded for the hard work, and work ethics that they have shown every day. Please remember the small guy bears the load for the people at the time. I am sure that you will find it rewarding to look low every now and then.
I wish you and your company much success in the years to come.
Thank you for your time.
In the event you choose to talk to me more in-depth please feel free to contact me on my personal cell phone
In parting I must say that no one has put me up to this.
Jim
