another commission cut?

Originally Posted by JP Whoregan

Welcome to "25% Feature Hell". Chances are they're cutting the Feature payout from 75% to 25% in your market. The southern markets have already moved to this cut, and it looks like it's spreading like a cancer to other markets.

I've already had my feelers out at a few other companies as well because of this. It's bad enough the Accessory payout is a joke, but now the feature cut is just ridiculous. It looks more and more like AT&T is trying to drive all of thier sales traffic to the internet channels, while slowly trying to make the B&M stores nothing more than customer service outlets where people can come in to complain about the phones they break.

Do the math:

Commission cuts for salespeople + chronically raising GA quotas on those same salespeople + cheaper phone prices on AT&T core internet = ???????

Originally Posted by ivwshane

I've heard of a restructure of the comp to adjust for the more people they are asking us to hire and for the less opps we will get as a result but nothing necessarily a cut.

Originally Posted by lowkey16

well the thing is, my store isn't hiring anyone new and our opps actually just went up for a 2nd time in 5 months. but my source is my small biz adviser as she said she found out last week, but couldn't give me any details until my manager decided to go over it with us.

Originally Posted by ivwshane

What region are you in?

Originally Posted by nextel2cingular

My commission checks went up since the new comp plan started (in SE region as well)

My gripe is we're getting paid 30-40% on features but getting charged back at 100%! Can anyone say lawsuit?

Originally Posted by JP Whoregan

more reps in store = less opps per rep = lower GA's per rep = lower features per opp = lower paychecks.

AT&T's apparent goal is to drive as much new act business to the online channel as possible by making it LESS lucrative for a customer to purchase "in store" (i.e. cheaper phones on the internet) and simultaneously lowering the potential paychecks of thier top-performing reps by reducing feature payouts and saturating every store with more RSC's than it needs. Lower commission checks for everybody, higher goals to hit, makes it easier to eventually "weed out" high-commission sales people and replace them with new-hire CSR robots who take bill payments, handle complaints, and sell the occasional car charger.

I know everybody and anybody in the company would tell me I'm wrong, but that sure is the way it looks. In my store, we don't have enough opps for the 6 reps that currently work in the location, but our DOS is determined to have our store staffed with 8 to 10 reps by the end of summer.

I can't think of any other way to explain it, other than my theory above.

Originally Posted by nextel2cingular

Not true. I didn't say I was making TONS more, just a little more. On the old comp plan, I was making about 2500-2700 a month before taxes. Now I am hitting 3 grand a month + every month. Our GA and opp quota did come down a little bit-maybe that's part of the reason. I think the new comp plan is ok as long as you know how to work it. It is all about opps...

Originally Posted by lowkey16

sure it's all about opps, but i could hit tier 3 and not hit 3k...it's virtually impossible with the comp plan that i'm on to get more than 2500 and even that's a ridiculous stretch because our opps goal is much higher than it should be, so the chances of you hitting tier 3 is slim to none

Originally Posted by JP Whoregan

more reps in store = less opps per rep = lower GA's per rep = lower features per opp = lower paychecks.

AT&T's apparent goal is to drive as much new act business to the online channel as possible by making it LESS lucrative for a customer to purchase "in store" (i.e. cheaper phones on the internet) and simultaneously lowering the potential paychecks of thier top-performing reps by reducing feature payouts and saturating every store with more RSC's than it needs. Lower commission checks for everybody, higher goals to hit, makes it easier to eventually "weed out" high-commission sales people and replace them with new-hire CSR robots who take bill payments, handle complaints, and sell the occasional car charger.

I know everybody and anybody in the company would tell me I'm wrong, but that sure is the way it looks. In my store, we don't have enough opps for the 6 reps that currently work in the location, but our DOS is determined to have our store staffed with 8 to 10 reps by the end of summer.

I can't think of any other way to explain it, other than my theory above.

Originally Posted by Lambert

Our store just hiredn 3 guys straight out of high school and no previous employment AT ALL.

They seem to think the $12 per hour and free cell service is good enough.

The end is here.

Originally Posted by ivwshane

Whoa!! I just looked in my comp and our store did indeed just take a cut!!!

We've been dropped to essentially a 35% feature payout! (compared to 50-60%).


I'll get clarification tomorrow.

Originally Posted by JP Whoregan

<---frantically resisting the urge to say "i told u so"

At least you're at 35%, be glad it isn't lower. From what I've gathered on this issue, the attitude of upper management is that if you don't like the commission structure, then go ahead and quit, because there's a whole line of pimply-faced 18 year old teenagers who (they think) can do this job as well as we can, and do it for less money.

Hrm...where did I stash that union rep's number?

Originally Posted by shorty28

the commission restructure is generally geared towards unity plans. since unity is the "big thing" now there are gonna pay some big bucks towards getting that implemented versus features which are already making tons of money in revenue. its like at&t will always have another way to bring in revenue, we as reps just need to exploit it and make that paper.

Originally Posted by ivwshane

I've been telling my guys that but at our particular location we do a lot of iru/cda customers and if we pushed unity they would lose their discounts. Add to that that you can't have any negative payment history and our potential opportunity for unity sales goes even lower.

Originally Posted by shorty28

my only objection to unity plans is the fact that we as at&t reps feel powerless to help out customers with billing issues they would have to go to bellsouth with that. it does reduce traffic flow but it also reduces the opportunity to sale accessories and features.

Originally Posted by ivwshane

Maybe thats their plan. Get everyone on unity so that customers have to go through customer care and now they can pay their reps less because there isn't anyone for them to help

Originally Posted by Bill McNeal

I'm in the empire market and I get 50% on features at the base level and at the highest level I get 130%, I guess I've got it good. Pretty much every rep, except one retard, gets over $1000 in commissions a month, even the part timers.

Originally Posted by shorty28

the commission restructure is generally geared towards unity plans. since unity is the "big thing" now there are gonna pay some big bucks towards getting that implemented versus features which are already making tons of money in revenue. its like at&t will always have another way to bring in revenue, we as reps just need to exploit it and make that paper.

Originally Posted by The Champ

Did you skip everything and just go to the dollar sign?

His first sentence was I'm in the empire market.

Lambert, since you're in LA too, we should be in the same market correct? (PAC)

Did we get a cut? if so to what?

Originally Posted by Lambert

Didn't even see that lol. Yes we did take a cut.. the $ in features we need to get the at risk went from around $1200 to $1700 (give or take). So basicly, last month you need to sell around $1200 to get the $750.. now you need to sell $1700 to get that same $750. To top it off we are already overstaffed in my store and we have more reps on the way!

Originally Posted by BIGshorty79

Welcome to the DC/Baltimore payouts. $1075 gets you $407 and it's been like that since March.

Originally Posted by BIGshorty79

Welcome to the DC/Baltimore payouts. $1075 gets you $407 and it's been like that since March.

Originally Posted by ivwshane

Let me just remind you:

$1200 for $400

Originally Posted by cyrus369

Thats really bad, I checked mine and its still the same, $1700 with $935 at risk

Originally Posted by lowkey16

mine is now $1170 with 535 at risk...i sell $1600+/month, but get 500 in chargebacks every freakin month