Fingerhut Review

In college, I got a job at the local sweat shop where we made FingerHut bedding items. The women (including me) stood for 8 hours on cement floors with 10 minute breaks that were clocked in and out. Several of those minutes were spent in line punching in and out. Not much of a break like that.

One lady had to drop off her kid at day care and would arrive a minute or two late (never more than that) coming in. They docked her 15 minutes every day even though she worked over 10 minutes or so daily. This lady was one of their best workers. She worked more than 8 hours always. They paid her for 7.75 hours - docking for the minute in the morning and not counting the extra minutes in the afternoon.

That was my introduction to FingerHut. I was one of their worker bees. They would hire in a group from the temp agency and then can most of them after the first week. I'm a hard worker. I was retained and offered full time. No thank you very much. I worked about three weeks until I found a job where they treated people like humans. They never even knew I was a college kid on summer break. They didn't care. It was the most inhumane place I ever worked.

One of my jobs was on the line putting on "for your waterbed" stickers on sheet sets - for your waterbed of course. That was the last spot on the line. I then jammed the sheet sets in the shipping boxes and taped them up and stacked them. It was heavy and hard work, and I was younger than most of the workers. Generally they had women close 50 years and were working them to early graves.

I did rotate around and also did some of the sheet folding, so I got a good look and feel of the bedding products they sold. Cheap junk. This is a Canon area where the products are high quality in textiles. FingerHut was the low rent stuff. The cheap material made my skin crawl when I did the folding and packing. I could in no way imagine sleeping on these sheets and comforters. Yuck.

Since I buy a lot online, I did get on the FingerHut catalog list. I recognized some of the junk that I'd helped fold and pack out. They looked nice in the catalog, but I knew what they were selling. Really gross stuff.

The big draw with FingerHut would be the base prices and the credit with low monthly payments. Add it up though. You are paying for high end textiles and getting trash. I crunched the numbers once out of curiosity. Not pretty. I would have paid and paid and not had anything I would want in my house to start with.

If you need bedding products, try J.C. Penney. They have good cotton items that are high quality. They last and wash well. They are reasonably priced. Also watch the big department stores like Belks. When such products are on sale, they are not bad in terms of the prices.

Do avoid Wal-Mart textiles. They sell cheap junk like FingerHut though the prices are low. I tried Wal-Mart a couple of times and ended up giving the stuff to Good Will (though felt bad about it). Those bedding items are like leisure suits from the 70s. You will break a sweat in the middle of the winter, since the material does not breathe.

If for no other reason, put FingerHut on your "do not buy from list," because they treat workers really bad. Some of those older ladies looked like they were going to die on the floor. If they sat down for even a second, the manager bouncer screamed at them to stand up. Didn't matter if they were caught up. No sitting - ever. Plus, they ripped off that one lady who was working hard and had kids to drop off at day care but could not put them in earlier than they opened. That first shift was 7 a.m. She dropped off at 6:30 and came straight over but would often be a single minute or maybe 2 late. Cost her 15 minutes per day or one hour and 15 per week of pay.

Some of the FingerHut product makers and packers told me that I was a smart girl and ought to find something better. I never intended to stay but never shared that. Some things are better not told. I have, however, carried that experience with me for over twenty-five years now. I wouldn't take FingerHut goods as gifts or if they paid me. The stuff is junk for starters, but the main thing is that I know how they treat Southern women. Like trash. I can only thank my lucky stars that I was a temp hire and that I quickly found something better.

As an added insult, this place where FingerHut produced products picked up temp workers to weed out any slow women and then offered the hard workers full time. If you took a full time job, you made less with the company full time than you did on temp. Some women wanted permanent work bad enough to go for that. All I can say, all round, is BIG SHAME on FingerHut.

They know they can come down South where we aren't big on Unions. Women, especially, are not inclined to complain. A job is a job. FingerHut did those fine ladies real bad. I will never forget how it was. Really bad!