Wanna know why your call to customer service went so poorly? Maybe because it was routed to an outsourced call center run by Teleperformance USA where, according to an insider, customer service goes to die…
insiders
Every Christmas Target Execs Fight Over Auto-Printing Guest Receipts
By 12.18.08
Regarding this story, turns out, every year at this time, Target has an internal clash of the titans over whether or not to automatically print guest receipts, according to a former employee.
End Of Month Is Best Time For Gadget Haggling
By 12.1.08
A salesman at a major electronics retailer told FreeMoneyFinance a bevy of tips you can use to bargain down the prices in-store on big-ticket items, like:
Circuit City Bouncing Refund Checks, But Will Reissue Them
By 11.26.08
If you have a Circuit City refund check not deposited before 11/10, it’s going to bounce.
28 Bad Things That Will Happen On Black Friday
By 11.24.08
A Fry’s electronic worker has posted his predictions for 28 bad things that happen inside stores this Black Friday. There’s things on there like registers being down, full-on face-punching between customers, and customers and employees getting away with shoplifting. It’s not just for Fry’s, I imagine these things will be happening in stores across America, assuming people have any money left to go Black Friday shopping this year. Maybe you can make the 28 things inside into a Bingo Card and play against your friends…
Best Buy To Employees: Survive The Meltdown By Making Customer Service A Priority
By 11.12.08
Today Best Buy announced that it was officially freaking out about the current financial meltdown: “In 42 years of retailing, we’ve never seen such difficult times for the consumer,” Brian Dunn, president and chief operating officer of Best Buy, said in a statement. “People are making dramatic changes in how much they spend, and we’re not immune from those forces.” A Best Buy employee forwarded us an email that went out to all associates this morning — stressing that a renewed commitment to customer service was the way forward during these troubled times.
Insider: Smart Shoppers Are Going To Circuit City Stores That Aren't Closing
By 11.10.08
An employee of one of the closing Circuit City stores tells us that they were offered “big bonuses” for sticking around until Dec 31 instead of looking for a new job — but when the liquidator showed up the “bonus” was $0.75 an hour. Ouch. Oh, and yes, the liquidator is raising prices according to this now disgruntled employee.
Beware Items Without Pricetags At Liquidated Circuit City Locations
By 11.6.08
A former Circuit City employee says he visited some of his old coworkers and found out about a trick the liquidators are using that you should beware:
UPDATED: Breaking: Circuit City Closing 155 Stores
By 11.2.08
According to anonymous insider tips, Circuit City is closing 155 stores and withdrawing from 12 markets. This will be officially announced tomorrow at 8am, says our source. A scan we received of a letter distributed to CC employees helps corroborate the story. The tipsters say that store employees were told this morning. No information was provided at that time about severance pay. Employees in certain departments, like car installation, and Firedog, will likely be out of a job within 48 hours. Warranties will still be honored. UPDATE 6: Here’s the complete official list of closing stores.
Geek Squad's Unionizing Efforts Met By Best Buy's Concerned Bulk Email
By 10.31.08
Emails are shooting around to Geek Squad employees, encouraging them to join the Communications Workers of America union, so Best Buy retorts with emails of its own to voice its concerns. In an email sent by corporate management, Best Buy spoke of its concerns about unions, that unions would hinder its ability to speak with and negotiate with each Geek Squad employee individually. For, there’s nothing like the closeness created when one employee negotiates with a hydra. That’s just one fun piece of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in the email, posted inside…
How Outsourced Call Centers Are Costing Millions In Identity Theft
By 10.27.08
A former Chase call center rep tells the story about this one thief who was able to rip off one customer for over $40,000, thanks to his constant outwitting out the internationally out-sourced security department. It wasn’t that hard. Over and over again, he was able to commit credit card fraud just knowing the guy’s name, social, and mother’s maiden name.
FDIC Sheds Qualifying Beneficary Coverage Rule
By 9.26.08
The FDIC is going to make two changes to their coverage. One affects beneficiaries and one affects trust accounts, according to a bank insider who participated in teleconference call the FDIC held banks this morning as a refresher course on FDIC coverage. The big news is that the “qualifying beneficiary” rule is gone. Here’s the specifics:
Insiders: Probable 1-Year Timeline For Customers In WaMu To Chase Transfer
By 9.26.08
One of our commenters, mavrick67, who says they have over 20 years banking experience and have witnessed 8 takeovers throughout the years, provided a timeline as to what you can expect.
What It's Like To Be A Flight Attendant
By 9.25.08
“Who would have thought, after 30 years, that we’d be a flying 7-Eleven,” Becky Gilbert, a three-decade veteran of the industry told me during a break in our training session in Fort Worth.
Ex-Credit Card Bankers: "Every Customer Who Calls In Is A Mark. It's A Great Big Con."
By 9.25.08
CNN has an interview with two former credit card bankers who are admitting that their job was to get consumers to max out their credit cards and take on as much debt as possible, regardless of the customer’s ability to afford it. They both worked for MBNA at their “sprawling consumer call center in Belfast, Maine.” The bankers say that they were told to aggressively push cash advances, and were trained to convince consumers that they needed the maximum amount of debt at the highest interest rate.
Postal Employees Ordered To Stop Offering First-Class Mail
By 9.21.08
Postal employees have been ordered to upsell pricey express or priority mail services to anyone sending anything more than a letter, according to an anonymous tipster. The directive comes straight from Washington to help combat the Post Office’s $1.1 billion operating deficit. To avoid the upsell, specifically ask if there is a cheaper way to ship your package. The anonymous tipster’s letter, inside…
Home Mortgage Collector Confessor Responds To Your Comments
By 9.12.08
In response to some of the comments posted on 12 Confessions Of A Home Mortgage Collector, the confessor has sent in a followup letter to answer your questions, and clarify some of his statements.
Why I Quit Staples Easy Tech
By 9.11.08
Sick of seeing customers screwed over and billed for unnecessary repairs by undertrained technicians, a Staples tech writes in to tell the incident that made him quit. See this picture? This is the floor model computer where he was told to copy all of a customer’s hard drive data as part of their diagnostic process, then he had to leave the area and leave all the data up on the screen for any customer to see or snag with a thumb drive. The full story, inside…
