sales reps at USCC vs ATT FYI

just felt like giving a little insight to the differences in compensation and operations for the two carriers.

I wont go into specifics but here are some generalities.

examples based on the following which are very attainable monthly results depending on location and hours worked etc.

35 new lines
35 renewals/upgrades
$1500 in verticals/feature additions
$3000 in accessory sales

aprox earned commision:

ATT $1300
USCC $3000

the hourly pay at ATT is just a bit more and the medical benefits cost far less there, but they don't make up for the glaring difference in commission sales

also my experiences in scheduling:

USCC full timers usually get every other weekend off and still hit those numbers

ATT RSCs are required to work every saturday and every other sunday... you have to use PTO if you want a saturday off. also, mandatory 8am saturday morning sales meetings, everyweek, yes, every week.

also,

*there is no such thing as a loaner phone at ATT. also warranty exchanges are by mail, so if a customer needs to replace the phone, you have to send them out of the store with no working phone. if its a friday or weekend, your customer could be without a phone for up to 4 or 5 days...unacceptable

there are more things that are different that have an impact on customer service but right now they are escaping me.

quagmire_g in Iowa said: just felt like giving a little insight to the differences in compensation and operations for the two carriers.

I wont go into specifics but here are some generalities.

examples based on the following which are very attainable monthly results depending on location and hours worked etc.

35 new lines
35 renewals/upgrades
$1500 in verticals/feature additions
$3000 in accessory sales

aprox earned commision:

ATT $1300
USCC $3000

the hourly pay at ATT is just a bit more and the medical benefits cost far less there, but they don't make up for the glaring difference in commission sales

also my experiences in scheduling:

USCC full timers usually get every other weekend off and still hit those numbers

ATT RSCs are required to work every saturday and every other sunday... you have to use PTO if you want a saturday off. also, mandatory 8am saturday morning sales meetings, everyweek, yes, every week.

also,

*there is no such thing as a loaner phone at ATT. also warranty exchanges are by mail, so if a customer needs to replace the phone, you have to send them out of the store with no working phone. if its a friday or weekend, your customer could be without a phone for up to 4 or 5 days...unacceptable

there are more things that are different that have an impact on customer service but right now they are escaping me.

boy, Im glad I did't take escalated calls for ATT - also decided not to go with them as a wireless carrier. didn't like a sales reps attitude here in watertown agent store, pricing isn't competitive, and don't wanna deal with a company that treats employees poorly. we all know what rolls down hill, don't we? I looked into att's call center positions in minnesota, pay not as good as us cell in Waukesha. In the words of Ernestine the operator, ATT seems to feel they are "omnipotent" If you dont' get this reference, then you are too young to be fired by us cell for being too old!

quagmire_g in Iowa said: just felt like giving a little insight to the differences in compensation and operations for the two carriers.

I wont go into specifics but here are some generalities.

examples based on the following which are very attainable monthly results depending on location and hours worked etc.

35 new lines
35 renewals/upgrades
$1500 in verticals/feature additions
$3000 in accessory sales

aprox earned commision:

ATT $1300
USCC $3000

the hourly pay at ATT is just a bit more and the medical benefits cost far less there, but they don't make up for the glaring difference in commission sales

also my experiences in scheduling:

USCC full timers usually get every other weekend off and still hit those numbers

ATT RSCs are required to work every saturday and every other sunday... you have to use PTO if you want a saturday off. also, mandatory 8am saturday morning sales meetings, everyweek, yes, every week.

also,

*there is no such thing as a loaner phone at ATT. also warranty exchanges are by mail, so if a customer needs to replace the phone, you have to send them out of the store with no working phone. if its a friday or weekend, your customer could be without a phone for up to 4 or 5 days...unacceptable

there are more things that are different that have an impact on customer service but right now they are escaping me.

oh, by the way, how do you get enough nerve to tell someone to their face there's no loaner phones? US Cell always had a shortage, especially when they featured cheap moto phones. Loaner phone shortages caused major escalated calls for me when I was at theus cell helpdesk and sometimes it wasn't even lack of a loaner phone, it was that the loaner phone had a scratch or didn't have all the features of the original phone. I guess I should have told those folks to try ATT if they thought us cell was so bad.But then customer service at us cell has gotten so bad lately, Im sure someone will

OMG that is the worst, within my first month this gal came in with an issue with her phone, couldn't receive pic messages from her daughter. after troubleshooting for 30 minutes i changed her sim card to see if that would take care of it, instead the phone quit working, wouldn't recognize the network at all. so warranty had to send her a new phone, so basically "mrs customer, you came in with a phone that worked except for mms and your leaving today with a brick. have a nice day." what bull....i felt like an a$$

if something like that had happened in the Chicago market with one of the Chicago customers, you'd likely have had to call the cops to escort the customer out of your store. As a help desk rep, I took calls on many kinds of weird situations, and more than once I had to call to the local police department for a sales rep who was in a store alone dealing with some crazed customer. And beleive me, they'd go postal over far less! But your story sure underscores why I just use my phone to make and receive calls - and not that many at that. Which is why I am really ticked about losing my 1000min/39.95 plan when I switched back from a national plan. I now pay more for fewer minutes. My contract will be over in february on the anniversary of my freedom date(the date I was terminated) and I am already shopping around. Of course, as I knew from working for us cell, there isn't a whole lot of difference in priceplan costs, and Im not eager to sign a contract with ANY carrier.

Hey Jane, I worked in the Waukesha call center as well! Chances are we probably talked a few times.

I was freed in february of 2006. When were you imprisoned there?

I began my sentence in October 0f 2006. Was released back into the wild on July 31st of this year.

I see, then I was already long gone..if you found it bad, fake, etc, you can just imagine what it seemed like to me. I was there when TDS first bought US Cell, before Jack really put his stamp of misery on the place. I know what a FANTASTIC place it was... really...management was all people who had done the same job we did, not Jack's a-tech yes men. I was hired by the center director, quite literally off the street. Wisconsin CS was in 2 cities, Mad East and Waukesha. If you needed to work in the other city temporarily, no problem. Your coach helped you find your next position within the company, even helped you with your resume! Big difference from dreaming up fake reasons to fire you. QA sessions were actually helpful, and you didn't fail them because you "sighed" on the phone - that happened to a coworker right before I left.. honestly. So yeah, as bad as you found US Cell to be, and I don't doubt it was even worse than when I was there, I know how far they've fallen - as a company and a cellular provider. Sad, very sad.

It's funny you mention failing them for 'sighing', because I remember a conversation I had with a Help Desk woman who told me she had several points deducted off a call for clearing her throat, and saying "Excuse me".
I'll tell you how I was let go: Bascially it began when I was put on an 'achievement plan' for getting a low scoring call on a Q.A. I was told by my coach that in order to get through it I would need to score high on all future Q.A. sessions for a month. He also said that failure to do so would result in a 'Performance Improvement Plan'-PIP for short. The PIP was basically your final chance at redeeming yourself. Well, I made it through the month with no problems at all and continued to recieve many 'Dynamic Deeds' from happy customers. I received a t'shirt as congratulations from my coach. Whoopee.

Fast forward to over one month later:
I was told by my coach that I was being put on a PIP for scoring low on a call. I was shocked to say the least. I mean why was I being put on a PIP right off the bat instead of another Achievement Plan? I expressed to my coach that I thought this was extremely unfair, and he of course argued it. It nearly escalated into a shouting match. He ended the Q.A. session by saying he'd let me know how I was doing in future Q.A.s. When I returned to my desk I immediately began taking down and boxing up my personal belongings in preparation for what was probably about to happen next.

After that my coach and I basically stopped the B.S. We pretty much stopped chit-chatting, and he no longer gave me anymore of his fake 'crocodile smiles'. In fact, we pretty much began avoiding eye contact. But guess what? I did not have a single Q.A. session from that point up until I was let go. My coach was gone or conveniently 'unavailable' when it was time for my Q.A. sessions.

I think its funny how you constantly hear "Management leads by inspiration, NOT by intimidation", while at the same time people are terrified at being let go

your coach's initials didn't happen to be bs, did they? no, really, Im not being sarcastic, but this is standard operating procedure for my last coach, and those were his initials. Of course, I think its pretty much standard operating procedure all over the company. When I got fired w/only one verbal warning, unemployment could NOT beleive it. Except they made it clear it wasn't the first time they'd heard of such a thing from us cell.
As for Management leads by inspiration, not intimidation..as I said under another name.. all that stuff they trumpet all over is like a bumper sticker that says "Im a Christian" -- If it was true, there would be no need to say it to everyone, right? I can say Im a tall, rich, skinny young blonde, too..doesn't make it true.. besides, if I was, I'd still be working there!

My coach's initials were actually J.K. He really seemed like the nicest most unassuming guy for a while, but as I said earlier, those smiles he gave me were just the fake crocodile smiles you see all over the call center.

hmmmmmm.. I don't know the initials, but that doesn't surprise me, as coaches come and go faster than csrs. The low-keyed, IM your friend demeanor, while all the while plunging a knnife in your back, THAT sounds very familiar. Kind of little bo-peep crossed with jack the ripper.

Oh, and your comment about tall skinny blondes is actually quite true.

There was one young woman who fit that description who told me once that she was quite sure on more than one occasion that she would be fired had she not had such a 'nice and forgiving coach'. She struck me as rather ditzy and I think she never really outgrew her 'cheerleader phase' (almost every single inch of her cubicle was decked out in the color pink). She even forgot to verify a couple times, and her coach simply looked the other way when they came up in Q.A.!

C Dizzle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin said: Oh, and your comment about tall skinny blondes is actually quite true.

There was one young woman who fit that description who told me once that she was quite sure on more than one occasion that she would be fired had she not had such a 'nice and forgiving coach'. She struck me as rather ditzy and I think she never really outgrew her 'cheerleader phase' (almost every single inch of her cubicle was decked out in the color pink). She even forgot to verify a couple times, and her coach simply looked the other way when they came up in Q.A.!

Im not one bit surprised. I was cleaning the other day, and came across a journal I kept of unequal treatment. 4 months before they fired me, I had a note about a much younger rep stating he never got in trouble for choosing the wrong credit code - he was surprised I got put on a final warnning for doing it once. Then there was the former cheerleader who spent an hour reaming out those of us w/seniority for not having to work Christmas - but it was me who was called negative one day for simply asking what happened to the cape I wore to keep the cold draft off my neck.. it had been put on a statue as a joke, which I said was ok with me, once I knew it hadn't been stolen. there were other notes in there, but those are the ones Iremember, just from one page, I'd tossed the rest, already.