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      Achieve

      Engaged Employer

      Achieve reviews

      3.8

      70% would recommend to a friend

      (913 total reviews)
      avatar

      Andrew Housser and Bradford Stroh

      78% approve of CEO

      64% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.3

      Diversity & inclusion

      4.0

      Culture & values

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.8

      Career opportunities

      3.7

      Senior management

      3.7

      Compensation and benefits

      Achieve has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 913 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Achieve employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      913 reviews
      5.0
      Dec 20, 2013

      Growing company with great resources and enthusiastic employees

      Account executive
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Fast-paced, high energy role that rewards you for your hard work. Like any sales role, the job is stressful at times, but my team and management allows me to stay motivated. Everyone is encouraged to work hard, and is rewarded for that. If you're looking for a sales opportunity that pays well, allows you to challenge yourself, apply at FDR.

      Cons

      Challenging to advance in upper management roles

      5.0
      Dec 20, 2013

      Freedom Debt Relief is a great company/ negative reviewers must live in an alternate universe

      Senior account executive
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I was just googling my company to see what people say about us and I found a couple negative reviews here by current employees and just had to respond. WOW. I took notes on some of the outright nonsense. I am a father with three teenage kids and some of the whining and lack of accountability reminds of them. The shameful thing is the person writing the negative review is an adult. So here goes. The reviewer said roughly the only pros are a flexible schedule and free lunch once a month. Really? We also have a couple parties a year that are NOT cheap, great healthcare and 401k benefits and a very positive and upbeat culture. I will list other pros as I address the supposed cons from the previous review. The reviewer stated we are firing people right up to Christmas. Yes, that does happen. This is a business and that is real life. Sorry. To get fired here, you know WELL in advance that it is coming. They give you all kinds of chances, coaching,etc. I have walked into the office of upper management several times for advice, help, etc. If this person does not take advantage of ALL the tools and assistance they have to do this job, well, whatever. That is their problem and they will take that lousy attitude to their next job. Yes our business gets slow around Christmas. Anyone with some sense and rudimentary business skills will prepare for that. That is true of any job that involves selling some sort of product, including debt management programs. I have sold real estate, advertising and cheeseburgers. Sales is sales. Maybe this just isn't your thing. This person also said leads are pumped to "lifers". Um...NO. Everything here is very fair. In fact, it is extremely fair. We have even implemented a new system that makes it even more equal. We all have access to the same information, files, etc. This person said we do not get credit for cancelled deals. Well OF COURSE you don't. This is a business. How can you be paid for something that no longer exists? Part of being a successful salesperson is spending 80% of your day on new business and 20% of your day on old business. I give all my clients my direct number and tell them to call me whenever they feel like it. I take each one of my clients very seriously and that is how my co-workers operate as well. We actually help people here at Freedom Debt Relief. I save people hundreds of dollars off their monthly expenses right away and then our negotiations team saves them thousands, often TENS of thousands by the time they are done. I am very proud of what I do. I have years of experience in non-profit work and my reputation is that of a very moral person. This is a VERY moral company and I would not work here if it were otherwise. Some of the people I talk to are in tears and freaking out. I help them to get their lives back on track. What we do is not for the faint of heart I guess, but it is a very meaningful and important thing we do here. So yes, you have to "babysit" your clients. So what. They call us because we are the number one in America. That is no accident. We became that way because we DO babysit our clients. When people are in debt, they are emotionally raw and they might cancel if you don't call them occasionally to see how they are. I would think that would be common sense. This person stated we are micromanaged. Wow. I have been gainfully employed for 26 years. I have had a number of bosses over the years. I KNOW what micromanagement is and it is a miserable thing. My team leader at Freedom Debt Relief is SO far from a micro manager....I just do not get that. He expects me to do my job and if I am not doing what I am supposed to, yes, he will intervene. That is true of any setting unless you are self employed. As long as I am doing my job, my boss completely leaves me alone. I am a professional, he trusts me and so I have a very calm and even fun workday. I do not get that. And I know all the team leaders here by first name and they are ALL very nice and helpful people. Which leads me to another ridiculous criticism...this person said no one knows each other here. Maybe you just are not a very sociable person. I am friends with people on my team, people on other teams. We hang out after work several times a year. We are like a little family. I have had chats with the co-founders of this company! Several times! In the office and offsite. And I am not in the top ten of the employees here. I am pretty average in my performance. You know who is to blame for my average performance? ME. No one else. Even as an average performer (and a few months underperforming) my income was still in the $50k range. With a few tweeks, I will most likely make $80k or more next year. I honestly do not know how this person is making less money or what they are doing all day.They deserve to be fired. I love this place. I just do not understand what this negative reviewer is talking about. It comes off as very delusional.

      Cons

      Occasionally some people slip through the interview process that just are not a good fit. They are a real pain to work with, but do not last long. This is rare. Most of the people on my team have been here a long time and we love our jobs. We ARE the best in the industry and we expect everyone here to bring their "A" game daily. Those who do not, like in any office, are irritating to be around. I avoid such people and enjoy my day.

      2.0
      Dec 12, 2013

      Typical high-turnover call center environment

      Account executive
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Schedule flexibility. If you need to work around school or kids then this is a huge benefit and management will approve schedule changes without much issue. Free lunch is provided one time per month as a nice gesture.

      Cons

      Christmas is two weeks away and management is still firing people almost daily. I understand the need to do that if people can't meet their numbers but come on, right before Christmas? Leads slow down to a trickle in December and January but management doesn't lower the sales quota in these months at all! So they give you nothing to work with yet they still expect the same production out of you. The leads that DO come in are disconnected phone numbers and people who didn't even inquire. Only here is that called a "lead opportunity". Management is really good at spinning things. In the interview they mention that people have worked here for years. The reality is that 80% of the workforce turns over every 12 months and the other 20% are the lifers that get the leads and phone calls pumped to them on a priority basis. A few other gems....if you sell a deal and submit it but that client calls customer service (without your knowledge because customer service doesn't notify you) and moves their first payment date or their payment doesn't go through because of insufficient funds then guess what, you don't get credit for it! The company will still collect on it but you just don't get paid anything for it. If you meet your sales quota and things happen that are out of your control (like a customer moving their payment date or just not having the money to make their payment) then those deals don't count and you miss your quota and you're written up. So you get to sell the deal AND become a babysitter to make sure that people that are already bad with their money end up paying on their program start date. Nothing like adding a little administrative/collections work to an already stressful sales job. You get micromanaged at every turn. Compliance reviews, call reviews, one-on-one manager meetings, team meetings, meetings about other meetings, you get the picture. I made a mistake coming here but I did my homework and bought into the "Phoenix Business Journal Top Companies to Work For" award that Freedom talks up and I took the job based on blatant lies, omissions and half-truths that were told to me in my interview. I've never worked harder for less in my life and the constant threat of missing quota is always there. Soon I'll also be fired because like so many of my colleagues I can't meet quota. This job is like so many other sales jobs these days: just bring them in and work them until they burn out or continue raising the minimum requirements until everyone is gone and bring new people in. That's the mentality here too. None of the sales people here know each other because they have one focus: try not to get fired. People disappear every week and you don't know about it for a while because nobody talks to each other. It's just heads down and get on the phone and that's it. If you take this job you'll regret it. Maybe not immediately but definitely once your "ramp up" period is over and the actual real monthly quota requirements kick in that's when it gets real.

      avatar
      Achieve Response
      12y
      Freedom Debt Relief would like to respond to this posting by first saying that we have an open door policy and would like the opportunity speak to this employee to find a solution to their concerns. I would like to address the issues that stand out in this post: 1. We fire people almost daily during the holidays. 2. Sales quotas are not adjusted during the holidays. 3. 80% of the workforce turnover every 12 months. 4. client moves their programs start date or NSFs the AE does not get paid however FDR does. 5. Once your "ramp up" period is over and the actual real monthly quota requirements kink in that’s when it gets real. 6. FDR Sales is very scripted 7. Lies during the interview about salary expectations for average sales agent. 1. We fire people almost daily during the holidays. The FDR Sales group has not had a termination, either voluntary or involuntary in 2 months. 2. Sales quotas are not adjusted during the holidays. This is correct. Just as we do not adjust sales quotas higher during peak times. At the close of our last commission month over 75% of our sales staff met or exceeded quota. 3. 80% of the workforce turnover every 12 months. This is simply not true. Total turnover of staff in 2013 is 25.20%. About 75% of our staff has been since the beginning of 2013 or longer. We have 21 sales representatives that have been with the company for 5 plus years which makes us very proud. 4. Client moves their programs start date or NSFs the AE does not get paid however FDR does. Our commission policy pays agents when the client makes their first payment into their program. If the client moves the original start date we will pay at a later date when the actual first payment is made. In the case of an NSF, we will attempt 3 drafts per client and if the client’s payment is processed we will pay in that commission cycle. 5. Once your "ramp up" period is over and the actual real monthly quota requirements kick in that’s when it gets real. This statement is correct. We have a very liberal ramp up period for our sales agents. They are given almost 90-days to ramp up to a full production quota. 6. FDR Sales is very scripted. FDR has created several scripts to be used by our sales agents. Most of these are used to help new hires ramp up, however, as with most industries there is dialogue that must be either shared with the consumer or that we cannot say to a consumer. In these cases the dialogue is more scripted. We do allow our AEs latitude to sell in a manner that is comfortable to them as long as it is within the compliance boundaries 7. Lies during the interview about salary expectations for average sales agent. Because the jobs we are hiring for are commission based the annual income is as varied as the individuals. In the last analysis of our sales team we evaluated employees that worked the full year in 2012 and averaged their base pay, their commissions, and any other bonuses and the average AE earned $63,000. The range of income was from $43,000 to $126,000.
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