I worked for AT&T WIreless in Bothell, WA for 3 years.By the time I left, I absolutely despised my job. This is truly sad because I have been in the customer service industry for 15 years and I truly love giving good customer service. At AT&T I was penalized for doing that.
The only thing AT&T Wireless cared about were "stats". One had to come in under the 6 minute 20 second call time average or risk getting written up and lose your job. I must have had over 100 customer compliments from grateful customers who left messages in my supervisors' voice mail about me caring enough to take the time to resolve a situation in a professional manner, but was told that none of those compliments counted. They would not be recorded in my file because I took longer than the alloted 6 mins and 20 seconds to handle those calls.in several instances, my caring about the customers and taking longer the allowed time nearly cost me my job. I was told it would all average out. It did not. I couldn't help it. I do customer service. Not customer DISservice!
No wonder the customers who called in acted like beasts, they never got anything resolved! They had to wait in que for 20 minutes just to speak to a rep and go thru a maze of voice mail hell pushing buttons to get to the right dept., by the time they got to you, they were already frustrated! This resulted in those customers having to call back on several occasions to get issued resolved. Doesn't it make more sense and cost the company less money to get is resolved the first time. AT&T called this "One call resolution"; however if it couldn't be done in under 6 mins. And 20 seonds, then forget it! The day I seperated from AT&T brought me almost as much joy as the birth of my daughter!
There was also something called "adherence" that one could get penalized for it not followed to the "T". We had 30 minutes a day "leeway" and could not go over that. For instance, if we had to use the bathroom, it came out of our adherance time; if we got stuck on a long call that did not allow us to leave for a break or lunch at the exact time, it came out of our adherance. If you came back from a break one minute late it also came out of adherance. Just one long call in a day could throw you out of adherance. For being out of adherance, you were penalized and it would reduce your over all "score" and possibly get you on a written warning, ultimately resulting in losing your job.
TO avoid this, many reps would simply not take their breaks or shorten their lunches if they were stuck on a long call and it ate into their a allotted adherance. Our supervisors would tell us we had to take our breaks and lunches for the correct amount of time, but how could we if we were already on a written warning for it... Then we'd lose our jobs. I believe this practice is illeagal in some form. I got written up once for adherance while I was pregnant. I had to go the bathroom a lot and, unfortunately, had to throw up frequently, too.
My supervisor was good enough to get me on something called and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accomodation during that time so that if I missed any work time due to my condition, it would not be held against me. My supervisor was on vacation and the guy filling in for her had only been a supervisor for a few months.
He was known as the call center "Nazi"... Hated by all. He had the reputataion for being a hard ass and firing some of the best reps who had been with the company for long periods of time. This guy had no clue. He had no idea that I was pregnant and had this accommation. He tried to force me to sign something that said I was out of adherance; one more time and I'd be fired. I regret that I did not sign it. I refused... But had I signed it, perhaps I could have sued the pants off AT&T for unfairly terminating me while on the ADA accomodation.
All the unfair business practices were bad enough, but what really took the cake was the juvenille manner in which the employees were treated. There were "call time contests" and dress up day and there were always some stupid decorations being put up for one reason or another (not just holidays... Hey, I'm no killjoy!) It constantly looked like a kindergarted classroom in the call center.
I felt like AT&T should have just given me a number and had me identify myself as such. I don't know why I was allowed to use my name to introduce myself to a customer; it's not as though a customer could call back and ask to be transferred to me. This was not allowed. I felt like a robot; forced to say specific phrases and not allowed to use certian words (like "cool" for instance). I was reprimanded and penalized for saying, "Thank you for calling AT&T" at the end of the call instead of saying "Thank you for calling AT&T WIRELESS". Rediculous that one should have to worry about something so menial or risk getting written up enough times that one could get fired because of it.
I could go on and on here about the crookedness of the "delayed billing" practices etc... But I think I've said enough.By what I have read so far, it seems all wireless or phone company call center operate in the same, sad way.
Let me just end by saying that with all the stupid acronyms used within the AT&T company, I have come up with one that suits them the best: Assasine Telephone Tactics!!!
The day I separated from AT&T Wireless brought me almost as much joy as the birth of my daughter!
Jacqueline
Las Vegas, Nevada
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