;
  • Report:  #26593

Complaint Review: VoiceStream Wireless -

Reported By:
- Mouse, PA,
Submitted:
Updated:

VoiceStream Wireless
Pennsylvania U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
As an employee of VoiceStream wireless, let me just say how much I and everyone in our center hates our job. The depressing thing is, no matter where you walk, what you do, or where you sit in that godforsaken company - there is always someone who hates being there.

As a company who has been in Allentown/Bethlehem since Omnipoint days, it has been reported this is the only center where we're not allowed to have fun. Contests, carnivals, balloons - are all set around the center to raise morale, reminding us how childish they treat us despite how we feel. The sad part is? Someone is very likely to flip out with the stress in that environment..

Nationwide, centers surround the US to provide adequate customer service - most of the time providing wrong information, or rushed information because we're limited to 6 minutes on the phone with every customer. After the 6 minutes, we're forbidden to take a break and sit on After Call Work, because that too raises the 6 minutes we're allowed to "help the customer & get off the phone". During the day, we have to work to complete requests from customers, get back to customers, and then try and save them when they wish to cancel.

In this center, this corporate atmosphere - we are told that if we dont maintain stats, we're fired. We're given warnings, verbal documented or written warnings with the possibility of termination -- for doing our jobs and helping customers. If we go over the 6 minute handle time, the 10 second ACW time, or the hold time we're given - we're written up, reprimanded, and some of us are even fired.

.. And you think being a customer was bad?

Customers with VoiceStream wireless get more than our employees. Be thankful when your phone is broken we offer a discount to replace it, an exchange to remedy the problem, and sometimes a free handset upgrade if you have been with us a while. As employees, if we break the phone or lose it, we're paying FULL RETAIL value every time. Some of those phones are $500+, and to think, you as the customer get them sometimes for as little as $19.99 or for free. All we ask from you is, stay with us 1 more year.

The company has no team attitude, no team environment. The door closes on you the second you walk into the human resources dept, and you're criticized, laughed at.. and so much for keeping it "all between these 4 walls". We have had center management harass us, say we could tell them something - and then report it to the nearest person they find to tell them "all about so-so who was just in my office". So much for security.

Here's where it gets good. Reps who are new to the company in some cases are barely given 7 months before they're promoted to manager. Some of us have been there 5+ years, excellent stats, good training standpoint with the company, and are easily shrugged aside when they meet someone who was there a year, but had management skills in the local gas station/shoe dept. You as a customer - in MOST cases - are better getting a rep on the phone when you ask for a supervisor, because that supervisor may have only been one for 2 weeks, and doubts what they're doing.

Our company has the highest stress level. Some reps leave on Stress Anxiety, which apparenly isnt covered under medical insurance with that company. On more than one occasion I have seen women carted away by ambulances for miscarriages, nervous breakdowns, anxiety, breathing problems and so on. I have seen people escorted from the building for saying something listening ears have not liked, and I have seen managers, center managers, reps, and janitors get away with harassment and sexual harassment. Furthermore, I have seen people walk from the building crying, for fear that if they report these things they'll be looked down upon, questioned further, or asked to leave the company. I dont know many companies like this, but I know enough to think "What am I doing here?"

Being with the company over the 4 years that I have been, I have witnessed a lot, and been through a lot. I currently hold a high position as a manager, and feel insulted that they make us do what we have to. We are required to monitor 10 reps daily, run statistical reports, coach our reps, and take escalated calls - all this sometimes without a break. There are manditory meetings we dont get paid for, requirements we need to meet, and everything falls back on our team. Reps who call off, reps who dont show up, and reps who have a talk time of over 6 minutes give us an "f" on our report cards for the month.

Believe me when I say I have seen it all at VoiceStream. I have been through a number of changes, including the upcoming transition to T-Mobile. Rumors fly in our center that it will be shut down, and I as a member of this company am looking forward to it.

As a customer, please understand you may be treated better than some of us. I'm not saying the company doesnt have problems with service, coverage, plans and billing issues, but at least you dont get fired from your current job for talking to us on the phone over 6 minutes. Patience is a requirment, and in this company it's not even a word in the vocabulary.

Thank you for taking the time to view my report. I wish to remain anonymous for the sheer fact that yes, if my company read this and knew this report came from a manager - I would be let go. And all for an opinion.

What is this world coming to when people turn only on each other? Is life meant to be a corporation such as this?

CCR Supervisor

Pennsylvania

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Voicestream


3 Updates & Rebuttals

Steve

Lansdale,
Pennsylvania,
...it seems Voicestream is the same everywhere

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Mon, September 16, 2002

I've decided to toss my two cents in here. It's been over a year since I've had anything to do with Voicestream at all .. I never worked directly for the company, but rather worked for another firm called "Communications & Commerce" .. which was doing a good portion of Voicestream's Activations and Customer Care for a while. Everyone always told me that CommComm (as it was called) was so horrible, and how everyone is treated perfectly within Voicestream itself. Actually, if you took any of the Voicestream reports I've seen on here and replaced it with CommComm, you'd have an accurate description of where I worked. It's weird that way. Before I get onto the Voicestream specific content of this .. As far as I know, CommComm went out of business .. I know for sure the call center I worked in is shut down now.. it shut down about 3 months after I left. From what I understand, they lost 3 clients in 6 weeks.. (Providian, AT&T and someone else..) and then shut the call center down with no warning. Management just came onto the floor and told everyone to go home, they were all fired because the call center was closing. (You think they'd have the decencey to lay them off so they could collect unemployment for a little bit while they looked for a new job.) Anyway.. back to Voicestream .. when CommComm had them as clients.. we got authentic Voicestream Trainers to train us. It was 3 weeks. You think we'd be ready to go and really knowledgable after that, right? Not at all. We had no clue what we were doing out there .. and because something was wrong with the call equipment for the first 2 months I was there, it wasn't uncommon for there to be 2-3 hours between calls. For instance .. I'd start my shift at 7am .. I'd get my first call at 9:30 .. my second call at 11:45 .. we'd break for lunch at noon .. come back at 12:30 .. I'd usually have my third call sometime between 1:30 and 2pm. It'd speed up at that point .. between 2pm and shift end at 3:30, I'd usually have about 5 calls... so, 8-10 calls per day was considered a lot. (People would actually b***h if they got more than 10 that they were "working too hard.") My point is.. there's no way we can get comfortable doing this stuff when we get 10 calls a day. (By contrast.. at my current call center job.. I took 138 calls in a 10 hour shift today. I've taken as many as 160 before.) Anyway... I seem to be the only person who actually read Voicestream's Intranet site.. with all the policies and procedures and that kinda junk .. I d**n near had the customer care part memorized.. and we were only Activations at that point. I did ti beacuse I was bored, not out of an interest to know what was going on with Customer Care. Anyway.. After I'd been there 2 months, they were phasing Customer Care into our call center. (It was previously handled by a CommComm center in Utah. Ours was in Pennsylvania.) I pretty much ignored most of training, as I knew everything I could learn from a textbook/classroom. We went back otu ont he floor, and everyone was clueless, me included. It took weeks, but some of us finally got competent. (They also immediately upped our call volume so we were constantly in Queue.) I seem to be the only one who had knowledge. I'd have the floor support coming to me to ask questions on stuff. There was really only two other people who knew anything there .. one was shipped back to Utah, the other was fired. I was basically the floor support guy who the managers got off the phones whenever they could. But, the other employees didnt' care to the point where they'd lie to the customer, rather than ask a question... so most my day was spent walking around aimlessly. In 8 hours of walking around, I'd answer maybe a dozen questions... and yes.. based on our quality scores, most reps didn't know crap. They'd let me take sup calls once in a while .. and I'd spend 10 minutes dispelling all the inaccuracies the rep prior to me told the customer. I was essentially doing the job of a supervisor.. minus the meetings .. for half what they made. I even did some call monitoring in a pinch for the Q&A person for my team. (And d**n it.. Q&A is what I wanted to be in the entire time I was there.) Anyway .. it seems Voicestream is the same everywhere .. even when you're not really working for them. (btw, Voicestream pulled calls from CommComm in violation of their contract, which is how we lost them.)


hell

Allentown,
Pennsylvania,
Stick together

#3UPDATE Employee

Tue, August 27, 2002

Stick together as employees! This company needs to go down and the EMPLOYEES will be the one to do it. Spread the word about your hate for VoiceStream/T-Mobile! Together we can FIGHT this insanity and stop this company and get BETTER SERVICE for ourselves!! Allentown, Bellingham, Bellevue, Jacksonville, Salem, Ft Lauderdale, Wichita, Albuquerque.. STAND AS ONE!


free

bell,
Washington,
Nationwide nightmare

#4UPDATE Employee

Wed, August 14, 2002

Before I found this site I thought that Voicestream's disgusting business practices towards their employees (to say nothing of their customers) were limited to my call center. After reading several of the comments here it is obvious that this is a nation- and company wide disease. I am beginning to believe that Voicestream is another company like Enron/ Worldcom-out to make the big bucks for upper management, and leave the rest of us spinning in the wind. I cannot begin to convey the constant harassment that occurs at these places. customers wonder why reps cannot help them-its because their training is completely idiotic and useless-their learning and development dept. is an JOKE! All they do is have these icebreakers with a little (very little) info spliced between. the company constantly jumps on these fad ideas-Hey this week let's change everything and monitor how many times our employees are using the bathroom! Let's purchase useless collection training materials based on infantile psuedo-psychological mumbo-jumbo and make all our employees waste two days taking it. Over the last few weeks we have been totally slammed with calls-because we have opened the CA/NV market (more poor suckers for VSW to ripoff) which our idiot site director said we had the 'capacity' to handle! NOT! No Strategic planning, no resource planning-I mean how hard is it? A) you are bringing on two huge markets, B) you will need more people due to increased call volume, equals C) you start hiring before you open the markets! DUH! This company does everything in its power to dehumanize and denigrate its employees in all of its call centers. I think we need to unionize-but I just want out because my morals and beliefs are in such conflict with the thievery and dishonesty that this company values. It has gotten progressively worse and just keeps going. Warn everyone you know not to get their service and not to work for them.

Reports & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
Also a victim?
Repair Your Reputation!
//