<![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> This is a very interesting subject... I am also a Convergys Rep in Ontario, Canada! As confirmed above, convergys is working on behalf of ATT and other clients. However, as a representative, there is nothing that a outsourced rep cant do! We all follow the exact same rule book. In fact, believe it or not, we may even have more power than a true ATT employee because of the simple fact that we are working in customer service.. Agents working directly in a store need to call someone, and mostly, they call us... in Canada... I do understand how some people do not like this, but its just a job. I often find myself asking, would I want a Customer Service Representative like me, and I say YES.. The standards for convergys are set way above what is outlined in the contract, we are overtrained, and if we do not overacheive, we loose out.. I cant speak on behalf of convergys, but I can say that we want to continue to be contactors of att, so to dispute what the first guy said.. we are overtrained because we want to renew our contract with ATT. "real att call centers" have lower standards and generally perform lower... So remember that when you call att and ask for a real att agent, your asking to be transfered to a call centre with lower standards, who dont have to prove anything to the client except the bare minimum... Which do you prefer?? Att rep with lower standards with the same training... or Convergys reps with higher standards who are overtrained...?? Plus! You get the added touch of great canadian hospitality!! There's gotta be a reason y the client would keep us!

Employee #54

Employee54

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Coming from a former employee, Convergys is a hell-hole. They have centers all over the world, and more accounts than I can even guess at. In my building was SBC, Palm, Sunbeam, some cable company, and who knows what else. They really try to drill into you to just read the script. I was on the SBC accounts, doing DSL tech support. They tried to build a flowchart to troubleshoot everything, but helping nwebie customers setup DSL is very complex, and you can't fit everything on a flowchart. That account had 2 weeks of training, which is not nearly enough to learn everything you need to know. I don't think they handle SBC anymore, I haven't worked there in almost 2 years. They also used to handle Dell and Gateway. The place is a pit, avoid it if you can.

acidrain69

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> @KernelPanic: lol good eye.

Convergys (based out of Ontario) also handles calls for Time Warner Cable, not sure if national but at least for NYC they do. Service is friendly but you immediately know when you ask for a courtesy or billing credit. They freeze and even for a $2.00 credit for a payment, they have to ask a supervisor whereas the TWC reps can just issue an instant refund.

I don't like OS centers because they seem to malfunction when you have a unique problem or something not part of the script. This always happens when calling Chase Credit Card Services in Mumbai, you can almost always hear them shutting down and restarting in the background.

Helvetian

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> test

Kaila Hale-Stern

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> ptkdude:

Since I'm typing this from a Cingular-outsourced call center in Victoria, BC, I think its safe to say you're wrong :D

FYI, roughly half of Cingular call centers are outsourced, although the vast majority of them ARE in the US.

cbear

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Synergy, see the photo page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/418219187/?#comment72157600013942489) for location.

notallcompaniesarebad

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Synergy, that building is in Houston. I see it all the time.

notallcompaniesarebad

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> I think that's the building here in San Antonio. I drive or ride past it all the time. Bastards did lay off my brother 2 weeks after giving him and his crew a banquet for being the best CSRs in the state.

synergy

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Oh-- and for the record, when I was at Sitel we were specifically prohibited from indicating that we worked for anyone BUT the person we answered the phone as. This was true on every contract: Nationwide, ATT, AOL, Fidelity, Solomon......

Of coruse, things may have changed in 10 years.

Kornkob

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> It is important to note with this story that it does not apply to Cingular. All Cingular CSRs are US-based.

ptkdude

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> nice pic. that building reminds me of those big black cubes that the borg rode around in conquering the universe. which, imho, is a perfect analogy for at&t.

mac-phisto

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> I enjoy the quite irony of the the old Ma Bell logo that is still burned into the side of the AT&T building.

KP

KernelPanic

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Please...AT&T has been outsourcing customer service jobs for the last 6 years...in Fairhaven Massachusetts AT&T had a major call center employing 1000 AT&T union customer service reps handling inbound long distance billing questions...by outsourcing there are less than 100 reps left working at that site....the same happened all over the country...if you wanna pay 2 cents per minute to make a LD call the company has to save $$$$ somewhere and that somewhere was on the backs of its US based work force....I once was at a meeting with an AT&T Vice President of Consumer Long Distance he told this meeting that even if AT&T's US based customer service reps worked for free and AT&T only had to pay benefits and taxes it is still cheaper doing business out of the country...the sad thing is many of the managers who voluntarily traveled to foreign country to train the outsource workers are still employed by AT&T....send me an email ... I will tell you the names...am I bitter about AT&T laying everyone off...you bet....

razz4901

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> FWIW, COnvergys also handles calls for OnStar.

jetmore

]]> <![CDATA[Avoid Outsourced CSRs By Asking For Someone Who Works At AT&T]]> Because CSRs will always tell you the truth and an outsourcer has such a strong motivation to be honest in response to that question. /sarcasm

Now it's been a few years but there was a company called Sitel here in Madison and one of their contracts was for ATT support. They handed business lines mostly (and before that I was the technical lead for a helpdesk for their internal people-- even got to visit the Florida ATT offices for the negotiations).

I'm not sure when this 'no outsourcing' contact went into affect but it must have been fairly recently.

Kornkob

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