Outbound Sales Representative | Florence, KY | Sep 16, 2020
A Poor, Unforgettable Experience
Being that my tenure at this company is likely coming to an end, I thought it might be beneficial for those that have hired me to have some feedback from the eyes of a new hire; regardless of my own experience, I hope that this will help future new hires in this business.
My tenure at Spectrum started on January 21st of this year. As much as I want to find positive words to describe the experience, the initial disorganization perhaps was a foreshadowing of what was to come.
While our class was in training, it more than the entirety of a month for my class to have access to our necessary order entry systems (CRM/CSG) in order to do our future occupations. We did a great deal of role playing (which was actually very helpful) and activities to pass the day. When we did get access to those systems, though, we had about a day with them on our own personal login before we were put on the phones. Truthfully, this was the most enjoyable part of the whole experience.
Soon afterward, we were assigned to teams, and we continued honing our skills at outbound telemarketing. At this point, about half of our class had left due to pay issues, and some had left simply because they did not like the occupation. With my depression and anxiety, I was a bit hard on myself when my selling was initially not so great, but I kept on pushing, and I like to think I became a much more proficient salesperson. I think I was perhaps a little bit too self-critical as the result of being recurrently preach
Horrific Point of Sale Systems, and even worse environment.
First let me start off by saying this is in fact a Sales Commission based job. When I initially started I was drawn in by the initial commission they offer for free in the beginning of employment. What this means is that they pay you commission for a short while when you start, then it's up to you to keep it going. They do this to "inspire you" to keep that money flowing. However that is not enough to make the job worth it. When I first came aboard I was told I was to be paid my full commissions for my first five paychecks. What they did not tell me was that you get three full commission payments, and the last two are cut basically in half. Commissions are taxed very high as well. What's worse is that in the environment I am going to be telling you about, you have to make a minimum number of sales to even QUALIFY to receive commission. What this means is if the commission sales requirement is 32 sales for the week, and you make 31 you will not receive commission, meaning you will not be paid for those hard earned sales. I was also told employees were given two weeks pay if they were to contract Cov19 because of needed sick leave. I contracted Cov19 and was only given five days. Now to the worst part. Every morning you badge in, clock in, count your cash drawer and spend 10-15 minutes getting your system to come up properly, so you can be prepared for all matters of customer service issues. There will be a minimum of 5-10 people waiting outside the doors to get in and 90% of
1.0
Technical Support Representative | Orlando, FL | Nov 4, 2019
Please stay away from this company
Spectrum does not care about you at all. If you are a call Rep in the Tech dept your working conditions will be terrible. While you are working extremely hard sometimes taking back to back calls for hours you get the pleasure of watching the managers and supervisors do nothing.
The Customers when they call aren't just upset, they are angry and rightfully so. Technicians don't show for client appointments. If they do they don't complete the job or show people how to use the service such as wi fi that seniors are clueless about. A lot of our calls is “We just got the service installed today and it doesn’t work.” When I hear that I ask myself why didn’t the technician check this before he left, or why didn’t the customer check everything? So as Call Center Technicians we must take the heat for another departments fowl ups. To make this fair you can’t totally blame the technicians the company’s priority is time and the techs only have a hour window to install or repair. So basically, a customer can call 3-4 times a month after techs have been out to repair the issue only to say their problems are not fixed and they are angry.
Rules to abide by or your fired avg handle time 9 min, which means you must get the customer off the phone in 9 min on AVG in a month. You must stay at your desk 92% of the time you are there. A new rule they just came out with is you must record why you transfer a call. The troubleshooting you do is basic; however, you must use there over cumber
This review is of the Indianapolis branch. When I started out with Spectrum as an outside sales rep it was my first sales job and I was very excited to start working. When had me so excited was the local leadership and the commission plan. I was able to make six figures within my first full year here which was money I had never seen nor thought I would see for another 6 years.
Typical word day
When I started we were told we were to work from 1 pm to dark or when we made a sale. It was very flexible in that regard because if you make a sale and need to go home early, you could. It's hard work because you generally deal with people who might want service but don't have the money to pay for those services at the door, so you really have to hound people for payment and check in to see when they get paid. Over time, they started making the start time go from 1pm to 12pm, and now 11am. This does not include the conference calls you have to do almost every morning an hour beforehand, so your workday is actually starting at 10 am. The most frustrating change though is Spectrums HUGE push to sell mobile service at the door. This was something they had going on since I started more than a year ago but it is now something they stress sales reps about to a ridiculous degree. So much so they are critically watching your metrics and want proof you tried to sell one every day if you haven't sold one for the month. This is what makes the job almost unbearable now because you have to sacri
ProsReliable Local Management, Healthcare, PTO, Good Pay
ConsMoving Towards Micro Management, Weekends are Unclear, Overworked Sales Territory
They go out of their way to make you miserable and wonder why you don't like it
I am a long-time employee going back to the pre-merger days. Since the merger there have been a number of thing that the new company has done to change us from an enjoyable place to work into a "Well, at least the check clears" environment.
1) A top-down approach to management makes everybody work the same across the company whether it makes sense or not. I work in an environment where there are certain times of the day that are way more busy than others during certain times of the year because of weather patterns. Rather than allow each region to adjust for the influx of work at certain times they believe in a wholesale shift change over the course of a half hour which leaves the second shift holding the bag for the work left over from days and then adds to their misery by having them deal with the afternoon storms and the 5PM everybody-else-wants-to-go-home surge. It makes no sense to not have this be managed locally.
2) Silly dress code policies. While I understand business casual being the norm on a weekday it doesn't make a lot of sense for someone working overnight on a weekend in a department where you don't even deal with customers come in in slacks and a dress shirt. Even when our local group wants to allow it we can't unless we get approval from an EVP, and that won't be granted because the largest group in our building (which is under entirely different management) doesn't want to allow jeans. (This is especially funny as people there consistently not only vi
ProsChecks clear. Local management is pretty good
ConsUpper management couldn't find their own butt with two hands, a map, and a sherpa
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Wisconsin | Dec 2, 2012
I do not recommend working here.
There is an extreme lack of communication which results in a very negative, stressful and confusing work environment. This goes hand in hand with being only a number to the corporation, unreasonable performance requirements, decreasing pay opportunities, little to no room for advancement.
Two things you can expect are inconsistency & bad communication. In policies, enforcement, from one supervisor to the next you'll receive conflicting answers. You'll have to know more about your job than the person managing you.
You are a strictly a number, management couldn't care less about you as a person. For example, if someone in your family dies and they are not immediate they will not approve time off. It doesn't matter how close you are with that family member. If you have a family reunion planned and request over 1 year off in advance, chances are extremely high that you will not get granted time off.
Upper management consistently under staffs the call centers. In the 5+ years I've worked here they never figured out that under staffing leads to a negative impact on not only their employees, but most importantly customers.
Because the staffing is so bad, mandatory overtime is required all the time. You can not opt out. This will impact your family and personal life. When you are at work it is so busy that you do not even get 5 seconds between one upset customer hanging up and the next one on the line. It is back-to-back to back calls, non-stop.
Your every move and minute, down
Prosbeing employed, insurance, free cable & internet
Consdecreasing pay, no communication, you don't matter, stressful
The good -
If you have a high technical aptitude and can leverage skill sets not currently available or developed in your department or business unit, you will be praised often.
There is a large enough churn/ growth that there are often new opportunities.
Vendor/ contractor perks for food and events are decent 10-12 times a year you will be provided meals.
Your managers care about you, and your co-workers are nearly always nice. 'Team' and even 'Business Unit' employee relations are usually good.
Preface for the bad and ugly:
I genuinely believe that most of the employees want it to change for the better, and it could be a GREAT company if Charter commits to and takes real action on improving the following.
There should also be a feedback mechanism for these suggestions outside of the pre canned internal surveys that doesn't allow for it.
The bad -
Your immediate management is not empowered to affect positive change for you and your peers. They will spend months/ years fighting battles on your behalf.
- Empower your front line managers, and take their suggestions, feedback and needs seriously.
HR designed title structure and career development feels like it was built 15 years ago and not updated. There also seems to be an active effort to create titles that aren't reflected/ recognized outside of the company.
-Flat out this needs to not be an issue in 2019 if you are going to stay competitive.
Internal pay transparency and discussions ar
ProsFree Cable Service, could absolutely compete with top tech firms in all respects
ConsThe culture is best described as apathetic to change discouraging to real improvement.
1.0
Inbound Sales Representative | Akron, OH | May 2, 2016
Joke of a company filled with illegal actions
This review is written based on my experience as an inbound sales agent at the Akron call center for time warner cable. After my experiences there I have no issue in saying Time Warner Cable is the absolute worst company I have ever worked for. Between being ordered onto a medical leave of absence by an HR person (illegal seeing as only licensed physicians can order medical leaves), to not being paid for said medical leave even though I was told I would be (even have the paperwork given to me when I was put on the medical leave documenting that I was to be paid during this leave), to them changing the length of a commission cycle so you don't earn the money you worked for. Because of all of the above and more I have no issue saying that Time Warner Cable was the worst employer I have ever had the misfortune of working for. Worse than any other employer I have ever had, hands down bar none.
Time warner cable DOES NOT value their employees or their customers. Just take a look at what I've gone through (and that's not all, that's just the most recent items that have pushed me over the edge to the point that I am now building a case with my lawyer against them) And as far as the customer aspect, look at how they treat their existing customers (they will continue to charge you more and more year after year while new customers get sent advertisements for better prices). Time warner also uses the bait and switch technique heavily. They will tell you they can get you this deal f
ProsYou can get their awful service free of charge!
First the prices of the services provided are extremely overpriced. We are taught and trained to lie to customers, we are taught to save 80 percent of clients (even though they claim its less if you really want top tier commission that's where you have to be in order to get it), the other 20 percent are the people that move out of area (must be verified or people who are deceased). Everything is about money. Nothing about this job is about customer service. They rarely do anything to help the customer out but they expect the reps to show sympathy and empathy. And let me explain the real deal with spectrum mobile, it is not a savings okay it is not. They claim it is and it is far from it. They only use it to gain more money from customers. When customers call in to cancel either tv or internet (mainly tv cause thats the most expensive product), they expect mobile to be pitched to save that line (ex) even though in the long run its not going to save the customers money. Ive seen it firsthand it does not save money! They want mobile before anything else, yeah it may save them on their current bill they are paying but at least be honest about it, dont but they arent and they never will be honest. They dont know how to be honest.
They are not an honest company. Everything comes out of your commission, if you give dollars off it comes out of your commission, if you cancel the account, it comes out of your commission even if its a move out of area disconnect or regardles of reasao
Not a job for everyone, especially if you have a family
When you go to work in a call center, you obviously aren't expecting it to be amazing, but working at this call center was so stressful I eventually had to quit due to being concerned about my own health. Pay is decent, but just after I left, everyone took a pay-cut and commissions were all but eliminated for my department.
A typical day involves taking any number of calls, busy days were usually 100+. While I worked there, we were still retention agents, not billing or whatever they have decided to call the department now, so we pretty much took any kind of call except phone repair and new sales. 90% of the customers are actually at least decent, many were pleasant to talk to. The 10% were the ones that would give you stories to tell when you got home, but as to be expected when you take disconnections, payments, and general complaints.
Management was... interesting. How well you did really depends on what supervisor you get, and there are definitely some to steer clear of (anyone working there can tell you who). I was very frustrated on many occasions by 2 things with management: never getting a straight answer and getting anything done was like pulling teeth. I asked my own manager once to do something very simple (I knew how to do it but the system was changed to prevent the agents from being able to do so), and she didn't know how. My assistant supervisor turned and looked at her, couldn't believe she didn't know how to do it, then offered to show her, to whi
ProsDecent pay, 401K, OK health care, 2 weeks vacation
