Pros
I loved the people I worked with. I made some great friendships while working there. Attendance bonus. $100 tax free for a month of perfect attendance. If you have perfect attendance for the entire year, you can an extra $500. Employee discount. 40% off full price and 20% off sale prices.
Cons
Product information - We did get a couple training sessions a year (usually in the Spring and Fall), but it wouldn't cover what the customers really wanted to know about the products. And when we asked those questions, we would rarely get the answers. Response from vendors - When customers needed a replacement part or had a question about a product (that we didn't have the answer to) it was a minimum of 10 business days, but most took weeks, even months for answers. A lot of the vendors are in China. During Chinese New Year, they shut down for at least a month. This delays the vendor responses and some special order items even longer than normal, the customers are not informed of this shut down and have to deal with the delays. Backorders - There are many and they are so far out it's shocking. Not all, but when I left some items were already on delay until June. 6 months to wait for a table or bathroom vanity is just crazy. The Supervisors don't want to help. If a customer wanted to speak to my Supervisor, it was like pulling teeth to get them to take the call. One time I asked for help and while going back to my desk to inform the customer it would be a bit longer, the Supervisor I was asking for help from left (as in leave the office for the day) and had never told me they were planning to leave. Verbal Abuse - Most of the customers that called in were upset, understandably as it was a call center. A lot of the customers yelled. Even that is expected, but they yelled about the company itself. Then there's the customers who are yelling at you directly, obscenities being directed at you, that it's your fault for whatever is wrong. There is nothing you can do about it. There is no protection, no matter the threat. We're not supposed to ask them to stop, though some have, and we cannot just hang up on them. There's no appreciation for the employees. Yes, there's the attendance bonus. Oh and there's the monthly birthday cake, though they don't even make sure the people whose birthday is in that month even get a piece before everyone else gobbles it up. No holiday party, just a Christmas card signed by the Supervisors. There has been a company picnic the past 2 years, but neither were well planned. They started before the center closed for the day so anyone working who wanted to attend missed all the games and kids activities as the picnics started around 2, the center closed at 5 and the picnic over at 7. Moral is very low in the call center.
