@Zeniq: Aha, yes. If I understand the end of the insider's submission correctly, he implies, by saying how disappointed he was that employees could not rely on \"still employed\" managers and trainers, that he was not employed by the call center when he wrote the submission.

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KCChiefsFan

January 30, 2009 5:53 PM

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If I were a VP, and I had read that article, a vein would probably have popped in my head and I'd have had to give the order to drop that call center from the hospital.

Good show, Sprint VP. I hope it isn't too late to start doing this sort of thing, considering that you are the largest employer in my area.

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Shadowman615

January 30, 2009 8:06 PM

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@KCChiefsFan: Yeah, it pissed me off almost that much, and I don't even have anything to do with Sprint or any other call centers!

I'm sure they investigated further and didn't close a shop solely based on an Internet report and an interview with a vendor manager. But if it's really as bad as they said it was (which I have no trouble believing it was), I'm sure they didn't have to investigate for very long.

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Das Kommunist

January 30, 2009 8:13 PM

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@Shadowman615: The Fishers site was notorious for their \"issues\" within Teleperformance and their clients.

A lot of the clients would not sign a contract involving the Fishers site.

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ZukeZuke

January 30, 2009 6:09 PM

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Hooray, another Consumerist triumph!

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WeAre138

January 30, 2009 6:16 PM

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I just read the original story. Sadly, most of the things that insider says is fairly common with call centers. Just about everything the guy said, except credit card theft, happens at the call center I work at.

I think it has to do with the caliber of people this type of *career* attracts.

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4 replies

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harleymcc

January 31, 2009 12:27 AM

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@WeAre138: You state \"happens at the call center I work at.\"

So \"I think it has to do with the caliber of people this type of *career* attracts.\"

So if a=b, b=c

Are you a .22 caliber or below?

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Jack T Ripper

January 30, 2009 10:29 PM

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@WeAre138: It is the outsource call center that attracts it. The centers owned by the business are usually much much better. I work for the company, but I have been to the centers that we outsource to. Even though the jobs are the same, it is night and day difference to the quality of workplace, employee, and benefits. I make about an easy third more than other leaders in my exact same role doing my job who work for outsourced centers.

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cynical_bastard

January 30, 2009 6:39 PM

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@WeAre138: I had that song stuck in my head earlier today.

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WeAre138

January 30, 2009 6:53 PM

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@cynical_bastard: Hehe I'm listening to them right now, although not that song. Horror Business is playing now. Love the group :)

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se7a7n7

January 30, 2009 6:36 PM

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Sadder, this type of awful management is EVERYWHERE. I seen many jobs where managers take way too many vacations, sick days and show up late/go home early. Cronyism, nepotism, hiring unqualified people, firing qualified people they just don't like...

Our Nations companies are largely ran by assholes with only their self interest at heart.

I was fired from a job a week after I figured out how to save the company (that was hemorrhaging money at the time)appx $15,000 a year just by sending out mailings via bulk mail. The fact that I figured this out actually played a large part in me being fired because the receptionist was pissed,thinking my plan meant more work for her... It actually would have been less work if done correctly.

Unfortunately the manager was a disgusting slob that made most decisions from his pants even though he couldn't get laid in a morgue.

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3 replies

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philipbarrett

January 30, 2009 8:15 PM

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@se7a7n7: Been there, after I implemented a plan that saved my company hundreds of thousands a year I was frozen out because I was not a corporate purchasing agent!

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WeAre138

January 30, 2009 6:50 PM

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@se7a7n7: Sounds like you might have worked where I do lol. Company name start with a \"C\"?

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se7a7n7

January 30, 2009 7:20 PM

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@WeAre138: No, it was a free New York Paper. The last 3 words of that sentence may or may not be incredibly similar to the actual name...

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sumgai

January 30, 2009 7:02 PM

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I used to live in Fishers, IN. I would have applied here if I knew employees could have sex and do drugs at work. To hell with health care, I want sex and drug benefits.

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Jack T Ripper

January 30, 2009 10:27 PM

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@sumgai: Well, unfortunately most of the sex you get at call centers like that will keep you on drugs for the rest of your life. Drugs that treat herpies, crabs, HIV, etc.

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Sam Wille

January 30, 2009 7:15 PM

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More companies out there need to do a better job at keeping call centers in check. It is a thankless job, perhaps giving them a little more 'thanks' and a little less up the arse treatment and we might see better service.

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FuryOfFirestorm

January 30, 2009 7:24 PM

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1 shitty call center down and 999,999 to go...

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Steve Walker

January 30, 2009 7:29 PM

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I live in Indianapolis (like 5 miles from that call center), and after I read that article, everytime I got dicked around on a CS call, I wanted to drive up there and start face-punching. Hulk-smash.

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Freebooter Fox

February 1, 2009 3:30 AM

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@Steve Walker:

Well, that's exactly why they're not supposed to tell you their location. Besides, they have dozens of call centers around. And there are plenty of other companies that have hired TP, so you never know when you're going to talk to one of their agents.

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Das Kommunist

February 1, 2009 4:21 AM

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@Freebooter Fox: That is true. I know TP does XBox support in the Phillippines and when I've asked if they are TP, they say they can't tell. Generally that's a good indicator they are.

Now, depending on the client, they can tell you their general location. With Sprint, we were able to tell them the city or state. Verizon DSL, we could only tell them the region i.e. West Coast, East Coast and what not.

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Das Kommunist

January 30, 2009 8:18 PM

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The easiest way for them to shut down this site would be to use the economy as an excuse.

Sprint is absorbing the entire site into the layoffs due to the issues they've had with the Fishers site. Easier to take care of the problem that way.

Good bye, good riddance.

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TurboWagon00

January 30, 2009 8:26 PM

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Sprint will be out of business in short order anyway

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Jack T Ripper

January 30, 2009 10:26 PM

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@TurboWagon00:
It's not just the fault of Sprint. It is the fault of the garbage outsource providers they choose to do business with. I've worked for one of them on the SprintPCS project and we were in competition to see which center could be the least of all the evils. We all sucked, but who sucked less was the big question.

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GretaDandradeine

January 30, 2009 9:08 PM

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Another victory for the consumers & consumerist.com. I'm still waiting for the one attached to Dell. I refuse to purchase anything from Dell anymore just to avoid having to call the so called \"Customer Support\". Dell, you don't offer customer service, so stop pretending this department even exist.

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b612markt

January 30, 2009 9:18 PM

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what's with the picture change?

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savdavid

January 30, 2009 10:11 PM

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That insider wasn't doing his job to begin with.

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2 replies

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audemars

January 31, 2009 12:22 AM

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@savdavid: He was mad he didn't get to have sex in the bathroom.

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Das Kommunist

January 30, 2009 10:22 PM

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@savdavid: And how did you come to that conclusion? Just because you say so?

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Bocaraton

January 30, 2009 10:22 PM

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To me, the best customer service is the one you never need. I have a net10 phone and I've never had to talk to anyone from there about anything. That's fine with me!

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Anonymous

January 31, 2009 7:27 AM

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@Bocaraton: That's funny, cause if you ever do need to call them, you're screwed! Net10 is run by Tracfone, I worked in their call center for 3 years. I really hope for your sake that you never do have to call!

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Jack T Ripper

January 30, 2009 10:25 PM

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Something worthy of note that is TPUSA related is that the AOL call that is so famous and I'm sure we have all heard on this site, is a call from a TeleperformanceUSA office in Ogden, Utah that was outsourced by AOL. I played the call in a class I was facilitating and one of my learners was a team leader in that particular office when that whole thing went down. The vile evil that is TPUSA is everywhere!

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Anonymous

January 30, 2009 10:43 PM

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I'm glad they are finally getting after this. If you are a phone \"service\" provider...service of any type should be your #1 priority.

2 years ago I called to get my cell number changed to a local number. Silly me...I thought that because my area code was the same, they could change something that would make my phone be \"local\" (by local I mean if I called from my new house phone It wouldn't be long distance). Can't be done, which is fine...but the CSR changed my phone # while I was inquiring about this and I did not want him to. I have a business with business cards, blah, blah blah. I he told me \"what's your problem? I made it better dude.\" The \"manager\" gets on the phone and baisically calls me stupid for thinking that I could just \"change my # to local\". And if getting treated like a retard isn't bad enough I was actually called a retard by the CSR. Needless to say that sent me over the edge. This whole phone call lasted 2 hrs and sounded like this guy was in a dorm room full of kids...2 hrs, even if I was just changing # altogether why did it take 2 hrs? I'll never know. (BTW I didn't hang up because the CSR took my old phone # and did not give me a new one, I was in limbo. I was afraid that if I hung up, I would be super screwed so I stuck it out.)

My local sprint store gave me a new phone and some free texting for a year.....after a month of bitching.

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audemars

January 31, 2009 12:20 AM

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Oh how I miss working in a call center. Not really, but it was quite fun as long as you were \"friends\" with the supervisors. My friends and I would sit upstairs in a section that wasn't even for our project and just make up random games to play. The best being Office Jai A'lai.

Those were the days!

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failurate

January 31, 2009 2:25 AM

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So now what happens to those employees? Will they just go back to breaking into cars? History Channel's Gangland show has taught me that selling drugs and sex outside a semi-structured environment of a work place can be difficult and down right dangerous.
What will these poor people do?

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Acolyte

January 31, 2009 11:13 PM

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@failurate: Good one!

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frodolives35

January 31, 2009 4:09 AM

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The problem is outsourcing sucks. Why do companies sacrafice quality service to save a few bucks. I hope the shake up in the big business world of late wakes up a few bean counters and makes ceos look further then the next quarter stock rise. Andrew Jackson was right corporations will be the end of capitalism.

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Front_Towards_Enemy

February 2, 2009 4:27 PM

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@frodolives35: Why do companies sacrafice quality service to save a few bucks.

You ask a very interesting question. The answer has more to do with said outsourcing company achieving a level of metrics that makes the host company's executives smile. As long as the outsourced company keeps the metrics at the rate the host wants, everything else is overlooked.

When the host executives sit in their boardroom meetings, they all point to those same metrics to prove how much of an excellent job they themselves are doing even through the reality might be the exact opposite.

Its when the curtain of deceit finally falls that anything will actually change. Why ? Because those same executives who were shaking each others hands when things were going good are the same ones who go into full ass-covering mode and deflecting blame onto someone else when things go bad.

If you have ever sat in a corporate executive meeting you would be shocked at the level of sheer incompetence and the outright lies that go on in said boardrooms.
Most CEOs are so detached from the internal goings-on in their own company to know the difference.

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sonneillon

January 31, 2009 9:53 AM

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Why can't I get in on one of those drug and sex crazed job sites?

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Chase Teschendorf

February 1, 2009 10:07 PM

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It's a vicious problem. Customers are rude out of their asses to people they don't know on the telephone. Most people wouldn't want to deal with that crap, so they get crappy employees. Crappy employees get the worst out of people.

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Dogooderus

February 2, 2009 11:29 PM

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Teleperformance is to blame for the conditions at their call center. It's easy to blame the customer service reps for their bad behavior, but it's the company's responsibility to make sure things are done properly. This company is also charged with not paying its own employees for the hours they worked. Look at the lawsuit filed against them at: [tpclassaction.com.] The lawsuit alleges that TP didn't made its employees work off the clock and didn't pay them wages and overtime for all the hours worked. No wonder they have such a huge turn over and are constantly hiring new people. You can read about the allegations against TP in this lawsuit at: htpp://tpclassaction.com/case_info.html

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SimplySinful

February 7, 2009 6:45 PM

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I agree with the one poster and the type of employees a call center attracts. But you cannot blame it all on the employees. I worked at the Orlando call center and I was appalled in my training class to be taught by Sprint Trainers that we could sell or upsell anybody if they could verify the account, even if it was the 7 year old child calling in. We could even extend the contract by 2 yrs for a 7 year old child. Then Sprint turned around and taught us on internal fraud for they do not want internal fraud but it was ok for us to defraud the customer? Then I am now going through all my training papers from my classes and when they taught us in class, we were given copies of real Sprint customer accounts with their Social Security numbers visible and you have a class of 20 at a time reviewing this and then they photocopied it and sent it home with me. Scary to say the least!! Keep in mind when employees are fired, most are either fired for points meaning too many absences or they are fired for FRAUD. But I sit here staring at somebody else social security number from North Carolina.

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Anonymous

March 24, 2009 1:20 PM

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lol -- it wasn't that Sprint lost millions of customers and they have pulled back on all of their Sprint customer service folks... oh no...it must have been the article that was made. lol. All of this doesn't matter guys, its only about whether Sprint has customers and the cheapest way to help those customers with quality. What you say or I say on web comments in the millions of pages that's posted around the world no matter your hit count or web traffic...doesn't really matter.

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