Durstcycle

This review goes for the management and owner on how they treat their employees, which is unfair. I worked for Ron Durst for six years, sold hundreds of thousands of dollars annually of bicycles and fitness equipment, and was dedicated to the company. In fact, I was their #1 salesperson - yet was paid the lowest in the entire company. I even offered to lower my personal commission in order to give my fellow employees a bigger slice, since a lot of the grief was reflected down to me since I did sell more than everyone else (little did they know that they were making much more than me in base pay). I just wanted it to be fair for everyone. When I asked to be fairly compensated as the others, I was let go.

On top of that, Ron & Mary Ann had made a personal pledge to me that they would pay the interest on my home loan for a year, as they had for other employees. I was very surprised by the gesture, and thanked them immensely. They had even asked for my payment schedule so they could make the contribution. Not once did they ever make a payment.

In truth, Durst's mistreatment of me, personally, goes back several years. In late 2017, my mother became ill, and we lost her in January of 2018. Knowing that my father would have problems following, I asked if I could change my day off from Thursday to Monday so that I could spend the two days off with my father. At first they reluctantly allowed it, but as time progressed, I was asked to go back to my regular schedule. My father then started declining rapidly, and his falls were becoming weekly events. In January of 2020, I had to put dad in a nursing home. In a short time, he was to go to Barnes in St. Louis, and it did require me to ask for vacation time. In March, COVID hit, and I had to return home. I never saw my father again. When he passed, that May, I was under a lot of pressure to sell the house and close up the estate. I was so afraid to ask for time off, so I drove back and forth to Decatur twice a week for a year, trying to get everything finalized on the one day I had off a week. It eventually took A toll on my own health, and I relapsed into symptoms that mirrored MS (something that had happened several years before). Durst was never supportive of what I was going through - in fact, Jared often made comments that made fun of me.

On the day we buried my father, Ron and Jared sent me on A wild goose chase just hours after the burial, telling me that I could not return to work until after I had a COVID test. This despite the fact that I was one of the only employees that had been vaccinated, I had no symptoms, and my father's funeral was attended by less than 30 people and we practiced social distancing at the largest church in Decatur. So, in short, I had to drive back to Champaign for a test and did not get results back for two days - this was August of 2020 and results were not immediate as they are now. I did not have COVID, but I was forced to take time off, time I should have had later when I could work on the house.

I also wanted to purchase a bike that summer, but Ron refused to sell me a bike. In fact, he took the bike to the other store, where it sat for over a year - this during the time when we sold out of bikes. The bike I was going to buy should have easily sold. I'll never understand why he did that.

Any time Ron wanted to "talk" to me, he belittled me and treated me like a child. He even handed me a Boy Scouts code that he wanted me to write a paragraph for every point. I am a 55 year-old man and do not need to be treated like a child. I have over 30 years of experience in retail. Never in my life have I been treated like Ron Durst treated me.

But - I am not the only one he treated like this. In fact, I saw two other employees mistreated during my tenure at Durst. I also heard him make racist and homophobic statements, as well as push his conservative views.

In short, Ron Durst is a bully, liar, hypocrite, and a coward. He is an evil man who does not care about his workers or for anyone else.

I would NEVER recommend shopping at Durst again.