customer service representative

branch manager

retail sales associate

retail store manager

call center representative

Advance Financial

I would highly recommend this for single people with no children.  The schedule is always changing and Friday through Sunday are their busiest days so you typically don't get those off on a consistent basis.  So having time for tball, soccer, dance,  or just personal time is out the window.  If you know a month, yes 30 days, in advance you may be able to get some unpaid time off. Even though you get 40 sick hrs and 40 vacation time, the sick time is accounted for with a drs note/vacation is requested and approved in advance,  it is rare that retail associates get a consecutive week off. The work is easy. The pay is fair. The opportunity for advancement is there but only if you are willing to take on a tremendous amount of responsibility.  If your drawer is short at the end of your shift,  it gets taken out of your paycheck. If you're over, it does not get deposited.  Your shortages are taken out of the overages, supposedly.  You have to keep records of it to prove it.  They will move you as they see fit.  They want tellers to become safeholders, although the company does not officially recognize the position.  It is basically 2/3 the duties of a promotion without the pay.

Basically,  you need to be a career driven individual to work here.  For those with families,  its very hard to work and plan activities because of the schedule changes and you must request unpaid time (with blackout days) 30 days in advance.  Weekends don't exist after working here. You may get a Saturday or Sunday off but never back to back. The company does its homework and stays at the forefront of the industry.  It's hard to form an honest opinion about the workplace because you work beside those that are not happy and those that trying to advance.  immediate management is young and does not have a lot of experience in handling people.  I like the idea of moving up but I don't feel the company is there to support me. I feel they are there to correct mistakes not build stronger employees.  I feel that any given mistake could be my last and there is no adequate explanation for mistakes or preventing them. Instead there is a programmed response and if you don't get it right, you shouldn't work there. There are 3 types of employees here. Retail - bottom,  call center - middle, corporate - the top. All 3 get treated differently and have different rules apply to them. Corporate hours are banker's hours (for the most part), weekends free, and holidays off. Call center works 12 hour shifts but has a better bonus structure and gets consecutive days off(a rotating schedule). Retail works whenever they want you to. There is no method or reasoning with this schedule. Rarely get consecutive days off. Never get a whole weekend off because these are "busiest times".  Lunch is the only break for shifts over 6 hours. can not take between the hours of 3 -7pm. 6hr shifts do not get a break at all. So the 11 to 8 shift takes their only break just 1.5 hrs into their shift. You will stand the entire time. You will turn into a "courtesy caller" (telemarketer) if your store is slow. Computer hardware and software will crash frequently. And in most cases its at the store's busiest moments. So I'll let you decide what's fair with the difference in employees. 

As far as the morality of business,  that's a personal choice.  I feel that if customers aren't getting it from us, they will elsewhere.  I might as well try make a living from it.  There are some shady practices. Like lying (redirecting the question,  shifting the focus,  not disclosing exact amount of fees, halftruths, whatever else you want to call it) to customers.  

Mostly, coworkers are willing to provide honest help. But there are some crooked ones that are hard to prove if they should take from you.  

Overall, its not as good as they(anyone) makes it sound and its really not as bad as anyone would describe.  I've worked for better companies their size. And I've probably worked for worse. Just be aware of anything they tell you. Assume that whatever they tell you, they are steering you from something they don't want you to know or do and you will be advance in this company. Or take with a grain of salt!

Advance Financial has good pay, good benefits package for smaller Corp.  Be careful of vision coverage, not worth the premium compared to cash price for glasses & exam.  Dental coverage is average compared to other Corp policies.  Health insurance employer paid is very high deductible for salaries paid. Your average employee can’t afford the deductible.  The life insurance is great though.  Great community volunteering within the company (40 hrs paid volunteer time yearly).  Employee outings often.  Seems to be a family within a family in the stores.  There’s a relationship between employees, managers and higher ups that can be an issue if someone is being singled out by their Peers and cause unfair treatment and disciplinary actions which aren’t accurate to the data & accutal causes of missed margins etc.  There’s a lot of variables to consider when trying to meet goals set within the store.  Employees have little to no control of certain operating systems working with the information provided by the customers or the system working properly to obtain certain verifications.  When an overall store is lacking in a margin & your singled out for lacking in that margin this is an unfair practice.  Your trained & given information on how to process transactions then the system doesn’t accept the information as directed to input it, that’s a problem.   You’re expected to work alone quickly which is an issue if your unfamiliar with the glitches in the system.  You’re trained to be accurate & efficient, however there’s so many different variables you come across it’s difficult to be accurate & efficient because you don’t have the knowledge to correct an issue.  Employees tend to form clicks & newer employees are left training new hires as well. Seems to be a good company to work for if you’re what they’re looking for right away, not so much if you’re singled out by the click which includes the management as well.  Be an employee that learns quickly, rolls with what you have & smile regardless of your true feelings and you’ve got an easy job.  The shifts are hardest when you’re a working parent because you don’t have a set time schedule unless your an overnighter.  If you’re promised a certain schedule upon hiring get it in writing because you won’t be working a 7-4am shift daily as promised.  The shift differential is from 11p-6am. 
Most stores In E TN aren’t covered for all their shifts at this time, you’re working a lot of weekends which isn’t what was promised at hiring stages.  Once the company hires the people they’re looking for maybe the scheduling will be better. Once you are hired as an overnight you’ll never go to another shift is the unwritten rule at Advance Financial l.  Be careful If your life’s circumstances change & are wanting this type of change. Advance Financial is growing faster than most other companies in TN.  
You may want to seek other type of financial career over working in this trade if your ultimate goal in life is to truly help your fellow community in times of financial crisis, you may find this industry unethical & trying on you.

Working at Advance was a terrible experience that NO ONE should take part in.

They preach in training about how wonderful they treat their employees, while at the same time making you sign papers allowing them to take your hard earned money away from you out of your paychecks if your drawer is short. The company itself brings in a few million dollars every month, whether you lose $20 or $200 they will take every last penny of it from you. 

You will NOT get to spend your holidays with your family. But the corporate office people do. (Not fair)

They WILL work you to exhaustion.

They DO NOT work around school schedules. (They give you the days off you need for classes and then work you over 40 hours a week...no time to study or do homework)

They give you a script. You are now their robot. You HAVE to say what they tell you to say or you get written up.

They are write up happy. 

They are fire happy.

They WILL NOT pull cameras if you suspect an employee is stealing from your drawer

They have NO paper trail to find errors or mistakes.

They TELL you you made a mistake, they DO NOT prove it to you!

You are no longer a human being capable of making the slightest of mistakes.

If you're a trainee and you're late or your drawer is off, you WILL lose your job immediately. 

DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS COMPANY! 
They are owned by a money hungry, rich, married couple who hardly have a hand in what takes place in their business. 

If you do not like your job with them, they do not care. They tell you to quit because you're just another number to them. 

This is a company that is trying to open over 100 locations in the next few years. They're well on their way except they WILL put themselves out of business because all the locations are close to each other putting themselves in competition with themselves. They will no longer have a "busiest store" or "number one store" in their inner rankings. 

They're more concerned with opening so many locations that they have terrible supplies in their stores that only work half of the time. Phone lines go down often, their fax machines and scanners rarely send on the first try, their computer system will go down EVERY Friday. Although their "Queen B" of the company will tell you their system is flawless.

If you apply here, good luck. This is all words of experience. You deserve better!!!

The company likes to play off as "Friends Helping Friends" and all that jazz but its the complete opposite. If management doesn't like you its known. If you don't understand something the first time God help you depending on what type of person your supervisor is. They have this deal about "Being on Stage" but the people you saw making a scene the most where the supervisors and management. One of the big rules is no cell phone on the floor but at any given time you look at your pod manager they are sitting there on their phone playing games or texting instead of making sure their team doesn't need help. You are expected to be that creepy condescending fake nice all day, even during your lunch period otherwise everyone thinks you're mad and you're just trying to enjoy your lunch in silence. The company is kinda stuck back in like the 50's or 40's as far as dress code. Even how many earrings you wear are monitored, no tattoos, basically no form of expression unless you are just like them. Rules change and no one tells anyone until you get pulled in the back. They change the process to things but do not explain exactly why or what the new process is. The script they want you to say, even when answering questions about interest and payments, is not clear and the customer doesn't understand any of it half the time. Some questions you where even told to tell the customer to refer to the website. The team I was with was told the virus would not cause the company to lay off people and if it did they would give us fair warning. We didn't get a fair warning. We got phone calls saying "Hard choices had to be made and your position with the company has been affected" followed with please bring us your key and badge. Whoever cleared our desks helped themselves to what they wanted and only returned what they did not when we came to get our things. We where promised things they did not deliver.They gave us a false sense of security and then kicked us to the curb. 

I worked for Advance Financial for over a year and a half. I enjoyed it for the first year. The pay was nice, I enjoyed the people I worked with, and it seemed like a place that I could enjoy moving up. It had your typical problems when working with finance. But the general disregard for their employees livelihood was the kicker. I worked as an overnight auditor. They required every employee, regardless of where they lived or what hours they worked, to attend a weekly meeting in the store at 8am every Monday. For overnight workers, it was okay on the weekends that we worked. We alternated weekends, so every other weekend, we were already there. But expecting those people who had worked until midnight the night before (closing shift) to show up bright and early at 8am was a lot. They couldn't even get eight hours of sleep because of it. That killed morale there. But we come to my termination. I received a text message from a co-worker informing me that they were planning to move the majority of the 24 hour stores to an 8am-8pm schedule. I called my manager, they confirmed it. So, because I was on a particular schedule that week, I didn't work again. I was laid off with absolutely no notice at all. And the worst part about the situation is that this had been something in the works for six months. Even the managers were told about it, but they weren't allowed to disclose it to the employees that were to be affected. Almost all of the overnight employees were out of a job with a snap of the finger. No severance, no exit plan, nothing. I think this really speaks to their complete disregard of the well-being of their employees. I understand layoffs. But to keep this information from their employees until the last possible second is appalling. To give all of these people who are going to lose their jobs no notice ON PURPOSE is shameful. And the owners and senior management of this establishment should be ashamed of themselves.

Advance is honestly the worst place to work. The managers are lazy. Corporate is unorganized. Breaks are sometimes non-existent. I worked a 15 hour shift with no lunch break. This is a drama filled work place. They will throw you on a schedule for a store in a completely different city without your knowledge. They are always short handed so working 47 + hours a week becomes routine. Weekly meeting on Monday that are mandatory for you to show up even when it's your day off. There attendance policy is horrible. If you are 1 minute late, you get wrote up. Your passwords will expire frequently and if you are locked out, they will write you up. You can be in the hospital with a serious injury and they will ask you if you are coming in when you are released from the hospital. They have cameras everywhere and you are not allowed to bring your phone into work. If you do, it's ground for automatic termination. You will work late shifts that require you to walk out to your car alone without your phone and the parking lots are poorly lit. You always run out of money. Management will throw you under the bus to save themselves for telling you to do something so that they don't get in trouble. The computers constantly crash and despite if you triple count your money to customers, you will end up short due to the computer glitching. They will deduct this money from your pay and you may have worked two weeks and however much you're short they will take out and you will end up with a $200 paycheck for two weeks. This is a horrible place to work. There is no job security and nothing you will do will ever meet their expectations. Just don't do it. I would never recommend this job to even my worst enemy. Put two years of my life into this subpar, abusive, scamming company and wish I would have never put myself through it.

I have been very impressed by the company structure for Advanced Financial.  The employee culture is supportive at the store level & also on additional levels into upper management, as there is a consistent response level to support employees & stores who need assistance as being valued for growth, strength, & consistency.

The training needed in order to do the job is conducted in an organized & detailed way, which allows employees to have a greater competency when performing their duties.  I have found that all of the employees who are already part of the company have been more than willing to answer questions to assist new persons in doing their job, which is definitely not the case in other corporate cultures.  Information sharing of training education between employees in stores is a valued part of preparing new co-workers to succeed in their job & their new duties.

Benefits, such as a health care insurance are provided free of charge to all employees from the top to the bottom levels, schedules offer flexibility for varying life schedules, in addition to a supportive work culture that does not promote any bullying, negativity, or allow any type of misconduct prevalent in other work environments today.  Working for Advance Financial has been one of the best career decisions I have made for my life.  Too bad I did not apply for to work here sooner, as we are also able to assist hundreds of people with cash needs to improve their quality of life & accessibility to funds for emergencies & life events to many individuals, who may not have had the opportunity for the services we provide prior to having been our customers.  Looking forward to growth & continuing to learn in continued work with Advance Financial.

The most ironic thing about the Customer Retention department is that they cannot even retain their employees! This department is very poorly managed & lacks consistency. A typical day begins with you unlocking your headphones & personal belongings from a locker... (that's right, you are not suggested to leave headsets out because people steal them). Once you get to your random desk (they do not believe in the luxury of assigned seats/ also because they do not have enough seats available), you are suggested to bring your own cleaning supplies in case the desk is nasty. Once you can finally get clocked in, you have to have a "huddle" with a manager & the rest of the people scheduled at your shift time. Once you log in, you're automatically calling random customers through a predictive dialer. The script is monotonous & repetitive. The people you talk to are desperate & most times ignorant of their contractual obligation, yet your job is to convince them that 279.5-360% interest is okay & payments only having 3% go to the principal balance is normal. While you speak with cryers, yellers, & liars, you have management YELLING for you to collect money on every call. I can hardly ever hear the customers on the phone because the call center is so loud & no one has a sense of respect for another. You are only allowed 30 minutes for lunch. You are required to work 10-12 hour days and 7 days a week to be able to make your goals. More time is spent with the managers arguing amongst each other about every insignificant detail; this company is more of a circus than a call center. Professionalism is nonexistent; the hardest part of my job is waking up every morning, convincing myself that my suffering is worth my paycheck.

Overall, the company is a great company to work for.  It offers great benefits.  Company pays for insurance and offers vision and dental insurance for the employees.  Each year the company offers employees 40 hours of paid volunteer service to employees.  It also offers paid time off and sick pay.  They also offer a newbie night, which is something fun you can do with people who have just been hired.  They also reimburse you if you do 5k events that the company advertises.  The job isn't bad.  You will be dealing with customers, counting money, and processing transactions for loans, money orders, bill pay, and Western Union.  Co-workers and management can make or break your day, but that is part of any job.  They put you through a lot of computer training in your first thirty days and it can get boring.  The manager that I was assigned to is very nice and would do anything to help anyone.  Upper management doesn't seem to be on the same page as those at the corporate office.  Upper management has told the retail stores something to do three different ways, which has been a waste of time for those working in the retail stores, which means overall, it's a waste of labor for the company.  The biggest downfall of this job is the work schedule isn't consistent and the hours are all over the place.  It makes it hard to plan for things going on in your personal life.  Each meeting there is also a meeting at 8am, whether you work or not.  The meetings are pointless and the points could be outlined in an e-mail and the manager could go over one on one, which is also a waste of labor for the company.  Overall, it's a great place to work and a good job.

In my opinion start: “Friends Helping Friends”  but somehow I felt sick.  I thought it was suppose to be a caring environment where employees would be treated as worthy just as many of my clients felt with me when I worked there.  I felt a love for coworkers even those I only had the pleasure of speaking to over the phone at other stores when we had job related questions.  My heart ached and I felt crushed when I found out that hours were being cut and some positions even terminated for some stores and for some without much of any notice.  I heard coworkers who live paycheck to paycheck now worried if they will be able to pay for rent and properly take care of their family and a few had that job and another to try and make ends meet.  Positions at some locations also being cut left a pit in my stomach as a two week notice wasn’t even given so that the employees could at least have some sort of preparation.  I can count the coworkers in the past who left but made sure they gave notice to AF24/7 of two weeks or more so that the company wouldn’t be left hanging.  I can say that there are employees left there now that we’re worried if now they will be next even one has all uniform in car just incase given last minute notice that they are fired or laid off. Mentally it is not healthy for many remaining who wonder what is truly next as many are the breadwinners.  Good luck AF I guess some now 24/7 and others now 8 to 8 ...sure it is business and if you need to cut positions and hours for money reasons that is understandable but what isn’t understandable is the little notice given and lack of what many call honesty and basic respect. In my opinion end.

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