Senior Customer Service Representative | Salem, OR | Mar 27, 2013
Stress, stress and more stress.
PART 1/2
Through training of this company I was lead to believe this was such a fantastic , and amazing place to work, with great pay, benefits and values, but just outside of training, I realized this was all false.
Lets start with the position itself. Customer Service Representative II (CSRII) or a Retention Rep. Your work come into play when someone, usually angry, calls in and states they want to cancel service... At least, that's whats supposed to happen. 50% of the calls I received were people looking for free stuff, or transfers from other representative in other department who have no idea what they are doing, often making false promises of what I would be providing for the customers. The Salem, Oregon call center is the only center for the company that is only retention, all other call centers hire as a General Care Representative or Customer Service Representative I (CSRI) (unless they provide technical support, fraud care, etc) to begin and CSRII is a promotion that you can get after 6 months, but usually a year or more later. 6 months to a year or more of learning rules of the company, getting familiar with the systems, etc. In Salem, you are dropped right into the position of a CSRII and expected to preform at the same level of these tenured representatives.
The expectations of a CSRII are unreasonable, even for a tenured representative. Not only are your calls timed to the second (499 seconds is your average goal for calls every day), you have goals for the n
Customer Service Representative | Chattanooga, TN | May 11, 2013
Started out as a wonderful job.
I absolutely LOVED T-Mobile when I first walked in the doors. I was excited to be working for such a wonderful company. Training was excellent as well. I couldn't say enough positive things about this place.
Then, I got out of training and onto my 'team' and it went downhill from there. My coach was not really a coach at all but just a regular senior rep put in a coaches position. There was a lot of pressure on her to make her team perform and we were the guinea pigs unfortunately for her test run as a coach. I felt like I was constantly getting harassed and picked on by her. I actually went home in tears from getting talked to like a child. I have never been in a workplace before where I felt so belittled. When I did good, no mention took place or applaud. When I had 1 bad phone call, I was treated as though I was the most horrible person in that place. I was told we are not allowed to have a bad phone call ever. The way I was talked to over what they felt was a bad call (which it wasn't a bad call actually, it just wasn't the best) made me feel so low and my self esteem drop that I felt like I had to hang my head the whole day. I actually felt like a child in the corner of a classroom and that is what happened. I ended up having to move my desk from a nice area to the corner even though I explained how unhappy I was and how punished I felt. They claimed we had to move around , however the favorites kept their seats and eventually they even let another rep go back to her o
Prosexcellent pay, nice breaks and lunch, great benifits
Consmanagement, short of an American version of a sweat shop, push calls through less than 6 min or get yelled at
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Salem, OR | Mar 29, 2013
They should hire retention reps to help retain their retention reps...
During training it was AMAZING! We had a huge group (about 25) and there was hardly any cliques. We all loved each other and we were supportive and kept each other going. Once we got into taking calls things got more difficult but we were still doing well and encouraging each other to keep going. This group started in early September and now I think there is about five people left from the training group, give or take one or two.
It didn't take long after training before everyone was disappearing from work. :( I wasn't really surprised since while I was in training my floor supervisor was trying to get me to quit before I even made it on her team! Almost weekly I was hearing, "Are you sure this is the right job for you? I mean it looks better on your resume if you quit rather than wait around to get fired." Which is true but a little offensive still.
Things got pretty ugly in the end. I was suspended from work because I was not renewing enough contracts. On my team, I had the happiest customers, lowest amount of people cancelling and hardly anyone called back in to get help from someone else or seek a second opinion. One of my biggest disappointments about the job was that I got hired to retain customers, fix their issues and rebuild the broken relationship...I was hired to do customer service. But in the end one of the biggest things is that you have to get a certain amount of contracts...so in reality...I ACTUALLY got hired into a sales position. So, I tried my absolute h
Customer orientated sales job in busy mall location
I worked for one of the largest distributors of Sprint in the State of Minnesota which is Phoenix Distributing, but the atmosphere is the same you would receive in a corporate Sprint Store. I spent almost 5 years previously working at Target where my skills in customer service were greatly increased, allowing me to be successful at Sprint. I learned, however, that working in a service and repair center is also very focused around the fixing of devices, and often times it could be difficult to hit sales goals on months where service and repair outnumbered sales in which I worked. At first it was difficult since I was a newcomer to the cell phone world, where knowledge is power because customers in our present day demand that we be knowledgeable and prolific in the field in which you work. This makes sense of course, and after the first few months I really started to see large increases in sales. One con, however, to sales commission jobs at Sprint is that each sale has a chance of a customer survey in which it can affect the outcome of your paycheck. If your survey wasn't perfect, meaning all 5's on all the questions which meant very satisfied, that sale could actually hurt your commission check by taking the credit for the sale away. Beyond this, the pay was steady hourly, and overtime was not uncommon. In fact, it is definitely considered a positive because of the pay but it can be interfering sometimes in your personal life, especially since I'm a full-time college studen
ProsGreat pay, terrific co-workers, and friendly management
My typical day at work would consist of opening the store – gathering the team together before we open & review our daily goals and set the team their individual goals to reach our store goal for that day.
Once I have that done I finish the morning paperwork and jump back on the sales floor observing my team on how they interact with customers and how they resolve their concerns. As they are with customers I am either floor coaching the line of customers to make sure they are acknowledged and any simple question I do my best to answer them or I am observing my team for future coaching on opportunities they have to improve their skills.
I manage the contests that T-Mobile has with their sponsors (Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Huawei, LG, Nokia) at a district level with my store. Since December 2011 my store has won every contest put out. The reason behind that is consistency – I follow up with every individual in my team every day I work. I make sure they take every test they need to and I review with them where they stand and doing so motivates them.
Day to Day I review how stores are doing in my district and reviewing what their quotas are motivates me to push for better and exceed my quota and theirs and doing so has made my store #1 in the district for 2011. My district manager and his boss have recognized me for my accomplishments.
My co-workers, a very diversified team indeed. The team is a great asset to T-Mobile and to myself. We have grown to be a team for when it was
Senior Customer Service Representative | Salem, OR | Mar 27, 2013
Stress, stress and more stress.
PART 2/2
When people become familiar with the inner working in the company, often because they've called in and been told just a bit too much information, they all of a sudden take advantage of it, just as anything else. You begin to get things called "Contract Parties". What these are are people who know they are Net Adds calling in an asking for free money and discounts on their monthly bill. For no reason, mind you. Customers taking advantage of these "safe offers" which are supposed to be used to help customers who have been wronged by the company, and because they are signing new contracts,it becomes okay to throw free money at them. You can get many people on the phone at once doing these contract parties, with a friend or family member with them who would like to take advantage of the same offer, if they qualify, you give it to them as well. I've had a call where I have signed 60 contracts. 60 contracts on one call. So it becomes okay to bend over backwards for these people who don't really deserve any kind of discount or credit, but when you feel personally and morally someone else is, you are unable to help them.
The reason I compared this to Verizon is that my service with Verizon hasn't been perfect as with any other phone company I'm sure. But never when I have called in for a issue was I offered money before a solution for my problem.
Within a week of working for T-mobile, I was contacting about participating in a lawsuit against the company, and throughout my
Performed testing, development, deployment, support and systems administration. Projects worked for are Special Accounts, Desktop Tool, J payment, MCSA&GSA, Kid Connect, Cam and Non Cam,TAC Expansion, RJ11, Remedy, Remedy Care, PCI (diff forms of payment), and Consumer Mail, Electronic Check Payments and Credit Card Payments – Master card, Visa, American express and Discover, Generated Credit card numbers, Routing numbers, Account numbers, commission payments, Bill reprint forms, Reprint Bill Address Form, Flex pay.
Worked on QAT and UAT test environments.
Worked on customer related, web based and intra applications for testing.
Responsible for running the Manual Test Cases using Test Director 7.5 and Mercury Quality Center 9.0
Involved in writing the Test Scripts, Test Scenarios, Test Cases and Mapping the requirements with the Used Test Cases.
Tested the new functionality and ran test cases in Test Lab and generated documents and did User acceptance testing (UAT).
Defects found while testing were resolved on own and or assigned to the appropriate teams through the test management tool, Quality Center. Once the issue has been resolved, it was re-tested and it was closed if it is working according to the desired functionality.
Extensive testing done on PCI (Payment Card Industry), and Consumer Mail, Electronic Check Payments and Credit Card Payments – Master card, Visa, American express and Discover.
Worked on PAG - Prepaid Application Gateway, activated number of pre
I have really enjoyed the time I’ve been with the company. It’s pretty straight forward, you have to sell, sell, sell. Depending on your store your staff experience can vary.
1.They are very responsive and quick about the hiring process. They kept me on the loop of every step from interviewing to orientation. The process took about two weeks and it was a group interview where you basically have to show you got the charisma and determination to sell.The orientation was simple you have to be willing to take a month long class where they show you how to sell and basically putting the customer first.
Once you pass the orientation you begin to shadow other employees. This can be a mixed experience where either they want to show you or they prefer to ignore you.
2.A typical day you have to make each customer count and offer them something so you can hit your numbers. Which is not that difficult to do if you offer to everybody. You will have some off months and some really good months. Just like any retail job where there is some off and on months. I truly believe this is the best retail job available. Reason being its straight forward and you don’t have to stay late to fold clothes. If you are a tech savvy this job is for you. For me, it has made me into a better salesman and being truly appreciated for my work at the company. There is different ways to grow within the company. There is many employees that have been within the company for years.
3.I would have to say the hardest
ProsWork ethic, pay, benefits, work-life balance
ConsOccasional dramatic coworkers
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Rockville, MD | Jun 17, 2016
Horrible Company, horrible management.
I worked at this specific location for about two years. At first, everything was actually really really good. We used to get paid bi-monthly and 15% commission every 15th and the last day of the month. On the 15th you would get a 25% advance on your commission and on the last day you would get the remaining 75%. This definitely seemed like the ideal job for me flexible hours and pretty decent pay until...the company "Express Stores" not T-mobile decided to change the payroll to bi-weekly. The reason behind it was we would get paid more frequently and instead of a 25/75 advance they just gave you one commission check at the end of the month which would help you "save". Not so much the truth, as well with the new pay structure they decided to add "metrics" for those of you who don't know what that is, it pretty much means specific goals you have to reach. So for every metric you don't hit you lose 1% of your commission and if you hit all 5 metrics you get 20% commission (remember its 15% commission). The metrics involved activations, upgrades, added data (more than just 1GB of data), mobile internet/broadband/tablets, added features (long distance calling, caller tunes stuff like that), accessories, and VOC (Voice of Customer) which is customer feedback. Now this may seem as easy as 123 but in a store that has usually more than 5 employees each personal goal was about 85 activations, 65 upgrades, 90% of added data, 10 mobile Internet, etc. Working at a location like Aspen Hill,
ProsFlexible hours, learn about technology, and fun environment
ConsShort breaks or no breaks, if it's busy while you're on break you gotta go back, 6 days a week, weekends are mandatory. No overtime.
Easy hire, easy job, not a forever job, ironically bad communication.
So a typical day in this job has you seated or standing re-voicing client phone calls. You are never acknowledged by the parties like TTY captionists so people assume you're a phone with captioning tech. Clientele tend to be older people and boomers. Calls can be draining if the speaker talks long, doesn't actually need our assistance, talks fast, or talks about really challenging political gripes or disturbing ideologies. This job can be enjoyable if you can find a craft, book, or page to color. Job's queer-friendly. They respect pronouns and preferred names. You'll have to remind people. You get dental, vision, health insurance whether you're full time or part time. We got a bonus just because the company did ok once. It was never explained. You don't have to dress up and they have a very relaxed policy on personal appearance, Hair color is ok. Piercings and tats are ok. Jeans and tee-shirts are fine. You can be accommodated for disabilities but no one presents that to you as an option. You get a longer lunch but then you have to come in earlier, so probably doesn't help.
********************************************************************************
The most challenging part of the job is that you have competing, confusing, and contradictory information coming from all the supervisors and the manager of the center. One day this is a policy, then it's never spoken of or enforced again, too much change and policing actually makes the environment hostile and uncomfortabl
Questions And Answers about Metro by T-Mobile
Why did you leave your job at T-Mobile?
Asked Mar 15, 2017
The main reason was the obvious favoritism and discrimination toward new hires. The retail positions truly enjoy feeding new hires to the wolves and watching them fail. They truly expect you to know everything day one and th be the best sales person as soon as you enter training. They do NOT pay well, as they've recently cut commission. You are not treated like a human. You're treated like a number in a system. I spoke to my manager multiple times about multiple issues. Each and every time, I was laughed out of the office for not "bleeding magenta".
Answered Aug 1, 2020
My Team manager only helped out who they wanted to help out. My center in particular within my community management sometimes was too wrapped up in their own development or wasn't there for the night shift that we had to rely on other communities or floor support to help. They had their favorites and took them off the phone if they were having a rough day. I followed all the feedback that I was given to improve my metrics and still didnt get the personal development coaching because I didnt meet the "image" part. Management told us not to give adjustments but when you didnt and got a bad score they'll copy the rest of the management team and state that I should have just gave the adjustment to cover themselves. I left only because I got tired of playing cat and mouse (sending countless emails) with my management team to add back on promotions or do something that was within their scope and then get yelled at when they call back and get a different rep and they escalate to them.
Answered Mar 18, 2020
What benefits does T-Mobile offer?
Asked Feb 25, 2016
Fresh clean smart
Answered Jul 13, 2021
Discounts on most phones, all lines, and accessories. Plus a matching 401K and full benefits after 90 days.
Answered May 5, 2021
What is the interview process like at T-Mobile?
Asked Jun 11, 2016
Invasive. They asked about my life, my health, why I was overweight, if my being overweight would effect my job, my mental health, and what medications I was taking. I was not allowed to ask questions or offer feedback. I was given the position, trained, and thrown into the pit.
Answered Aug 1, 2020
U ask for a job and they hire you on the spot. no drug test or anything
Answered Jul 28, 2020
What would you suggest T-Mobile management do to prevent others from leaving?
Asked Mar 15, 2017
Just pay more and hire better staff
Answered Jul 28, 2020
Better security and cameras
Answered Jul 11, 2019
If you were to leave T-Mobile, what would be the reason?
Asked Mar 16, 2017
Awful pay and no benefits. They pay favorites more then regular employees.
