Hi, bit of a dredge this, but I used to work for Dance Music Finder, shortly before it went tits up.
Basically the owner was a crook. I got the impression he used to have a partner who wasn't, and that's how they did well for a while, but then he buggered off, leaving Mike Rose to flounder.
He was an angry little man. He would come in, open up, then sod off all day doing god knows what. He'd pop in a couple of times a day to throw his weight around and bully the longest standing member of staff, a nerdy ginger bloke called Tom. At best I've seen him verbally abused pretty much daily, at worst I've seen him smacked about, for literally no reason.
Me and a couple of the other guys kept ourselves to ourselves, doing our bit and taking our money at the end of the week (in cash, natch). I remember once we lost a member of staff and his reaction was to make us all work an extra hour a day for no extra money. When I even hinted at questioning this he bolted through the room right up to me as if to knock me out.
One day one of my colleagues was late back from lunch as he'd witnessed someone being run over in the middle of Birmingham and stuck around to help. When he got back he got a load of shit for being late. He was a copper on injury leave so was probably used to cunts like Mike shouting at him.
There was no system beyond taking peoples money. Orders, some that would total hundreds of pounds, would be processed, then their order sheet would be put into a tray until the items they'd bought had been sourced. There was no time limit on fulfilling orders so many people would be without their records for months or never at all.
Once I found a letter from a Welsh TV production company who were making a consumer advice/complaints programme and wanted a comment from DMF as we'd been featured. The gaffer's attitude to complaints was either aggression or simply not giving a fuck.
While I was there he was obviously in financial trouble, he sold his car, sold his house, and eventually the business went under. My last day was a nice one, it was sunny, a Friday I think, and some heavies turned up to take some of the stock (the hardware rather than records). I don't know if they were bailiffs or from the hire purchase company, but me and a couple of staff helped to move the stuff from the shop floor to their van. They had obviously had dealings with him before as while we were in the service lift, out of Mike's earshot, the heavies asked us why we bother sticking around working for this dick. Nervous laugher all round!
Mike became increasingly agitated, rolling his shoulders and stalking around. When the heavies (our guardian angels!) were gone, he flew off the handle, shouting me down for absolutely no reason, making us (there were 4 other staffers by this point) write accounts of everything that had happened. Typical, taking no responsibility for his own failings, always someone else's fault. I gave an honest and dispassionate account of the afternoon on my side of white A4 printer paper, which was obviously not blindly loyal enough, and within 10 mins I was on my way out the door for the last time.
I don't think the company lasted for much longer after that. What a fucking mess! But the biggest question I have about the whole place is Tom, the timid, kindly dogsbody, who could have doubled his wage and gone to work without the worry of being hit in any number of Birmingham shops, he looked like he'd fit right in at PC World or Gamestation. It's not as if he was working there for the tunes, he had absolutely no interest in dance music, DJ'ing, record collecting. Would love to know what he's up to now.