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American Specialty Health

Engaged Employer

Low pay, no respect - Customer Service Representative American Specialty Health Employee Review

1.0
Jan 5, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Paid holidays, onsite gym. Nearly impossible to get fired. If you show up and don't swear on the phone, you can be as bad an agent as possible and they'll keep you just because people quit so often. Potlucks are fun, supervisors are actually cool, they take calls too so they know the job sucks.

Cons

Everything else. Who is this job for? 1 year of customer service training is required and the company will call every one of your references, sometimes 3 or more times and will leave harassing messages if they're y'know, working or something. The training is intense, you have to take 2 weeks of nonstop training before you get on the phone, then 2 more weeks of halfday training, then a few months later you take another 6 weeks of training. I've never had a customer service job where I had to know more and work harder. And for all that you get paid $13 an hour to start, then after your first "promotion" you get a dollar extra, except they only give it to you after 5 months, and then if you have a single demerit you never get your raise. There are people on the floor working for over a year at the harder job who never got their raise. HR lady is going to say that salary is "competitive". But competitive with what? For as hard as this job is, we make less than cable phone agents do to say try unplugging it and plugging it back in. We make less than appointment setters. We make less than the Chickfila counter guys asking if we want fries. I've never had a harder job than this and it's essentially just minimum wage. HR is counting 401k match as part of our pay but what they don't want you to know is you don't get a penny of the match until youve been with the company 2 years and you don't get 100% until you've been there 5 years. If you think you'll stay with ASH for 5 years, you can't pass the drug test they give you when you start. What made me quit was the benefits. Our health care and dental went up (again) and customer service pays more than anyone else. We make the least and pay the most. If I had stayed this year I would have paid 5 times as much as my boss for dental. That's not a lie or an exaggeration, I would have paid 5 times as much. ASH has no respect for customer service workers and no amount of complaining will fix anything. You can't lobby for a raise, you can't ask to be treated better, all we can do is quit. So I did. Half the people I hung out with at lunch either are going to quit this month or have already followed me out the door. I feel bad for everyone who stayed but I couldn't take another minute. Other than pay there's a lot to not like about the work. We take calls that can go an hour or longer, sometimes from call centers in India who are racist and sexist. All our callers treat us like dirt and we can't hang up on anyone. Everyone has a "crying in the womens room at ASH" story, it probably happens once a week that someone breaks down because of what a caller did. And if you take more than 1 minute to write your detailed notes, workforce management will call and threaten you to work faster. Oh but if your notes aren't perfect you'll get written up and no raise for you. What a joke.

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American Specialty Health Response
7y
Hi. Thank you for taking the time to review your previous experience at ASH. We’re sorry you did not have a positive experience. We understand that not every person will be suited to certain jobs here. Thank you for bringing your experience with our background check vendor to our attention. We will investigate to ensure appropriate guidelines are being followed. We will also investigate your claims into the off-shore call centers and their behavior towards our employees. With respect to salary, our call center representatives start at $13.50/hr. and have the opportunity to earn up to $14.50/hr., plus merit and bonus after the 1st year based on meeting Key Job Accountabilities. We wish you the best in your career ahead.

Explore other reviews about American Specialty Health

5.0
Jul 8, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good work life balance, the company always promotes from within, leadership cares about their teams

Cons

It would be nice to have earlier hours for people in CST and EST

avatar
American Specialty Health Response
6d
Thank you for your ongoing service to ASH. We’re pleased that you enjoy the balance that the remote-first work environment at ASH offers. Supporting employee growth is a priority for us, and we’re proud to see an average of 16% of our employees promoted last year, compared to the national average of 8%. We also acknowledge employee contributions through annual merit increases for eligible employees and a performance recognition program. We appreciate your feedback on offering flexible work hours and invite you to share additional details with your leadership team.
2.0
Jun 19, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work From Home and Make Up Time

Cons

Favoritism, unproductive environment. The department I worked in had a QA who belittled people in the position they just got hired from. I mean said some really hateful things. One of the worst mistakes I made was wanting to learn more and applying for a position. The role paid $15 per hour and I lost every single merit increase I’d ever earned. I liked learning this new role but put myself into debt financially at home for it and now I’m no longer here because somewhere else offered me better money for the same job. There needs to be more improvement on the micromanaging, the culture, the PAY (I don’t care what the company’s research says, the job postings by similar companies say something different). This could be an awesome place to work but the pay and some of the people need to be reviewed. It was like a mean girl club where I was and it’s unproductive and not inclusive to people who are new making a few mistakes and still learning. A good portion of the supervisors are checked out and have no idea how to help you. They just show up because they get paid to be there for maybe 4-5 hours per day. This place needs to come together and needs to actually read the bad reviews and believe them and just focus on improving. Things can get better, the first step is acknowledgement that it’s not perfect.

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American Specialty Health Response
3w
We’re glad to hear you valued the flexibility of working for a remote-first company. At the same time, we’re sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy your experience at ASH. We value a respectful, inclusive environment and welcome opportunities to learn from employee feedback. Please send us an email to hr@ashn.com with more details so we can share your feedback with our department leaders. As a national specialty health organization serving more than 62 million members, our quality assurance requirements are in place to ensure safety, accuracy, and quality member experiences. To stay competitive in the job market, we review market data and are committed to rewarding and promoting our employees. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and wish you the best in your future endeavors.
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