Yes I was a TM agent from the TM Call Center down here in Texas in Pharr. I used to work at this place about 2 years ago. I worked here from 02/19 to 08/20/02. Its a nice working place and so on though this company is being run SO wrong. Before I starting to go on I will make an apology to those out there who have suffered money loss due to this bad company. There are ONLY five Call Centers, each only having about 50 reps each. Two here in Texas, another in Charleston, another in North Carolina, and in Virgina Beach.
My first problem with them is the fact that they give you only 30 minutes of lunch break. Only supervisors are allowed for 1 hour lunch. This is madness for the fact that we the people who answer the phones have to put up with the angry people complaining about having a refund or are frustrated about the long wait. Yes there may be a small fast food place just across the road but one needs a little more time than just 30 minutes to have one's head clear and eat our lunch without rush. I will explain later what happens if you are late to get back to work.
My second problem is the fact that one has to work with "buggy" computers. Their program in what we use to sell tickets is something called PCI. It stands for Personal Computer Interface, which also means it is a CUSTOM made program which TM's programmers made! IT IS FULL OF BUGS and glitches! It either freezes or crashes all the time because they also use Windows NT 4.0 without ANY kind of patches being made to correct the problem. Another reason why it may also be buggy is because of trying to intergrate Internet Explorer into the program. Also to mention that, during my break which is only 5 minutes, have managed to see that their programs are very INSECURE! For example, TM tries to keep their own employees from surfing the internet. It is not sucessful because when one uses the 'seating chart view', one can just press the hotkey for opening a new browser. All the computers they have are all connected to the internet. I tried reporting this to the Supervisors and had offered my intelligence to help them secure it. They chose to ignore me. Why have they chose to ignore me? I have seen many others surfing the internet and no do their job. Very unprofessional.
My third problem is the fact that Match.com is just on the other side of the big room, I voluteered, and paid, to have half the job being on ticketing and reviewing profiles of those who submit them for approval. Now when we are trained for this, we are told that certain words are not allowed in profiles and to be rejected. No problem with that. Though here is the problem, I happen to review hundreds of profiles and I get a notice that I need to immediately see the supervisor in this department. I figured it must be good right? Wrong! I was told that there were certain profiles that I approved and refused have been wrongly done.in other words I should've approved something when I refused it. I told them why I approved and refused some. Yet they tell me that those certain words have been decided to be either allowed or disallowed and was given a warning sheet which you have to sign. I was wondering WHY have they not notified us about the change? Turns out that the only way you can find out is by asking a supervisor all the time. They say they will not be posting any sheets in cubicals because it is waste of paper. Would it kill them to notify us about these changes? After three more warnings I was not allowed anymore on that department so I returned to the Ticketing department.
My forth problem is the way they take advantage of taking money out of you. You punch in when you arrive to work, but the moment you do, you must hurry to the available computer to log in. During this gap of in between punching in and logging in, they do not pay you at all until you log in on the computer. Now even if you are at least 5 minutes late, you are to expect a notice on your computer flashing on the screen for you to report to the attendance office. They ask you why are you late. You tell them the reason and they still make you sign in a warning sheet. The same happens if you arrive late for lunch. Also to mention than whenever you are sick even with just a cold, you need to present an excuse from your doctor to the attendance office, otherwise you will get another warning sheet to sign out. I DON'T even have the money to go to the doctor to just get a check for just a cold.
My 5th problem are the ads you MUST say word-by-word perfectly while you are selling the tickets to customers which, by the way, get frustrated enough by hearing this junk. The excuse TM makes on why we must say these all the time is because they signed a contract with American Express in the fact TM will promise a 100% meniton of their ads all the time which is not possible. Supposely if you don't say the ads as you should TM will get sued by American Express. I know they need the money but this ludacris. The ads are from Entertainment Weekly or Sports magazine or TRILIGENT. I even still remember this last ad just before you say goodbye to the person on the other end of the phone, "Before we let you go Sir/M'am, we have arranged for you to recieve twenty dollars from TicketMaster when you try a new discount program for just one dollar. May I connect you with a specialist for details?" What is this discount??!! It is from TRILEGIANT. Some company which you try for A dollar but then BILL you WITHOUT notice $60 or MORE for coupons and ads for trips and such. I will admit that I would at times ingore these ads because I, for one, don't want to end up with an already angry customer shouting over the phone.
My sixth and final problem is that most of the supervisors are either lazy or just not wanting to bother in helping the people like myself. Like say there is this angry customer who is complaining about something and wants to speak with the supervisor. Now keep this in mind that in each cubical there is a large sheet with rules and such about what to do with customers like this one. So for the customer who is angry I follow the rule on the sheet that says if the customer on the line is angry or whatever the reason to contact the supervisor. I had to do this many times because I follow the rule. The supervisor I had was complaining each time that I contacted him that I should solve the problem myself. Why ME? I tried to solve the problem before but customers just want to speak to a supervisor and this supervisor just doesn't want to deal with anything whatsoever! He says the same thing to others as well. Why not fix the problem yerself? I shall always wonder how this supervisor got his job in this position.
So after many warning of supposely being late and so on, I get fired and to top it all off at the moment I go out the front door, they tell me, "Good Luck in finding another job." I was furious when I heard this. Of course having no job and no money at all I could not afford any kind of help from the law. So here I am still with no job at all because it is hard enough to find a job here in this town. Now I am just living with the help of Texas Comission Workforce. If I am offered a job at this place again, I would refuse until they see how many flaws they have in their business and in their employers. Remember about the notice I gave them about how unsecure their computers are and I was ignored? A friend of mine says they still have many troubles with their computers because of viruses like the infamous Blaster worm. If only they accepted my help they wouldn't had this problem in the first place and I would still be working there.
Bernardo
McAllen, Texas
U.S.A.
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