The gift card function has been disabled so staff have no way of honouring

Annual and long service leave has been frozen and jobs are uncertain

She said another was punched and she heard another was spat on

Staff have been harassed and assaulted since the news broke

Many customers had gift card vouchers totalling up to $1,000

Dick Smith staff have been spat on and punched by disgruntled customers while the future of their jobs remains uncertain after the electronics retailer went into receivership.

Gift cards and some deposits will not be honoured, refunds will not be issued, and customers have been told products bought online may not be delivered after the retail giant was placed into administration on Tuesday.

But customers and shareholders have not been the only losers in the collapse, with an Australian store manager informing Daily Mail Australia the staff have been harassed and assaulted by customers over the past two days.

Scroll down for video

The troubled electronics retailer was taken into receivership this week - and many customers are furious their arrangements won't be honoured. A store manager has told Daily Mail Australia about the abuse they have suffered from customers over recent days

A private Dick Smith Facebook group for staff had been shut down by head office after staff vented their anger and flooded the page with questions. The company had been trying to run a campaign, requesting staff post using the hashtag #dsproud ‘to vamp up the staff and be proud’

The store manager spoke under the guarantee of anonymity, as all staff have been strictly told not to speak with media following the news on Tuesday.

‘In the past two days I have been abused and threatened to be shot,’ the store manager told Daily Mail Australia.

She said another store manager had been punched in the face and has heard another staff member was spat on.

‘We’ve had stock thrown at us, people throwing the gift cards at us, people screaming at the top of their lungs.’

Some customers had told them: ‘Suck sh** for not having a job’.

‘It’s the same in every store in my region. It’s been pretty crazy,' she said.

‘We’ve had to call security about five times today alone.

‘It seems like everyone thinks the front line staff had something to do with it.’

A letter sent out to store managers said 'no issued gift vouchers will be accepted' and 'no new gift vouchers will be issued'

'You will no doubt have concerns about your future. As our investigations are at an early stage, it is too early to determine the current position of the Group,' the letter said

'Your entitlements accrued prior to the appointment of the Receivers (e.g. Annual Leave; Long Service Leave) are frozen at the date of appointment,' the letter to staff read

The store manager said they had not tried to explain to customers how they’ve been affected by the collapse of Dick Smith, and merely wanted to ‘diffuse the situations’.

She said parts of the system had been shut off so they could not disobey orders and honour gift cards to customers.

‘There’s no way in store we can do it,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing we can do. They’ve actually shut off the system.’

The store manager said a lot of staff are trying to find new jobs and are ‘freaking out’ about their current positions.

‘Everyone just wants out of it and just wants a new job,’ she said.

Others, however, are holding onto hope that Dick Smith will be bought out so they could keep their job.

Many of the staff have families and mortgages to pay off, she said.

‘All of our annual leave and long service has been frozen,’ until ‘secured creditors are paid first’, she added.

She said a private Dick Smith Facebook group for around 700 staff members had been shut down by head office after staff vented their anger and flooded the page with questions.

'At this stage we are unable to provide refunds,' a letter sent to staff said.

‘In the past two days I have been abused and threatened to be shot,’ the store manager told Daily Mail Australia

The company had been trying to run a campaign between staff before Dick Smith went into receivership, requesting they post selfies of themselves in stores using the hashtag #dsproud ‘to vamp up the staff and be proud’.

However, following the receivership, staff had instead used hashtags such as #dsunemployed and #dspridesnotgonnapaymymortgage.

Before head office shut the page down, the store manager took a screenshot of a post a fellow staff member had written to the page.

‘Congratulations, Anchorage Capital Partners, the CEO, and the Managing Directors. A half billion con pulled on the sharemarket, roughly $8 million in bonuses for the Board last year while crowing about the miracle turnaround, and now our company collapses into receivership, to be wound up for the benefit of the banks,’ the post read.

‘Truly, the millionaires in Sydney and elsewhere have done a fantastic job feathering their nests then destroying a historic company once valued for superior service and quality products, where many of us have put in years of hard work, to almost certainly be put out in the cold as the banks close in to ensure they got their money first.

‘We asked for honesty. We asked for transparency. We expected integrity and responsibility from our employers. I hope the Board is extremely #dsproud of itself,’ the post read.

The store manager told Daily Mail Australia they had barely heard a word or received any direction aside from two conference calls over recent days and a letter delivered to each store.

It said they’re trying to find a buyer but that they’ll be closing up shops if they can’t.

‘That’s all the communication we’ve really had.’

The retailer halted shares trading ahead of the announcement they were going into receivership after plummeting stocks

She said she believed only the Directors were aware of the situation, as her own area manager only heard of the receivership through the media.

CONSUMER GROUPS TELL WHAT TO DO IF YOU'VE LOST MONEY The devil is in the detail, with some banks offering chargeback services for some credit card transactions. Consumer group CHOICE said: 'Customers who buy goods with a credit card, or certain debit cards, are generally better protected than those who pay by cash. 'If you have used a credit card to pay for goods in full and haven't received them, you may have a case for chargeback.' People who pay with cash or popular debit card options may not have as much luck, with the consumer group saying they should apply to be part of the administration process. 'The only option available to customers who paid with cash or a cheque, or who used a debit card and chose either the "cheque" or "savings" option at time of purchase, is to wait for the outcome of the administration process.' 'After that it's a bit of a waiting game. You may get the full amount, a little bit, or in very unfortunate cases you may get nothing.' You can find more information from CHOICE on warranties and faulty product returns here. Advertisement

‘He didn’t have a clue,’ she said.

She said wages had been cut across stores and that many had been trading understaffed, and that the company could have been saved by a new buying team.

Backrooms in stores had been ‘piled up out the door’ with ‘unnecessary’ stock they had been ‘inundated’ with.

Prices were inflated and too expensive so ‘the buying power for customers just wasn’t there’.

Despite the abusive customers the Dick Smith staff had dealt with over recent days, some have posted to the company’s Facebook page asking for others to respect the staff.

‘Please don’t go in and yell at staff. They have no control over what happened,’ one customer wrote on the Facebook page.

‘Staff are most likely out of a job and they shouldn’t have to endure abuse on top of that. I realise people are angry and rightfully so but direct that anger at the right people not Stacey from your local Dick Smith who is earning minimum wage and wondering what she’s going to do when she loses her job.’

‘Please be mindful that these 3300 staff have families and can lose ther [sic] jobs – I seen [sic] how some been abused – these employees are just like you and me and have families and are under a lot of stress,’ another wrote.