vB Easy Archive - Coming over from another carrier

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Coming over from another carrier - as an employee
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Posted by: nepacell

I've been lurking on here for a while and have a pretty good idea for how most of the Cingular employees on here feel about their employer:

and the occasional

One thing I don't see too much of is comparison of Cingular as an employer vs other carriers from people who have actually spent time at other carriers. There's a lot of "I hear VZW pays better" or "my friend likes her job at TM better", but not a lot of "We had / didn't have the same thing at Sprint".

I've got just shy of 12 years' experience at other carriers (360/Alltel, TM, and VZW, in that order). Chargebacks, belligerent/violent customers, CSRs cancelling/reactivating features (which is clear-cut fraud in my book), crappy hours, commission payout changes, 40% commission taxes, systems failures, advertising cuts, management failures ... it happens everywhere. It's not exclusive to Cingular.

Not that I'm downplaying Cingular employee concerns, but I have to say most of the ones I've heard were nothing compared to what we had to deal with at the other carriers. A Cingular rep came to me for a job complaining that Cingular was "expecting" him to sell one data for every activation, which was "impossible"; I didn't have the heart to tell him that we were selling data at 1.6:1. Another Cingular rep was leaving because Cingular made him sell one in three plans at $59 or higher; we were expected to sell 45% at $79 or higher.

Again, it's not that I'm trying to put down Cingular employees or say your concerns are petty. And I'm not trying to start a flamewar or anything. What I'm looking for is advice or commentary from someone who has spent several years at another carrier and then moved to Cingular.

In other words: Yeah, I hear you loud and clear that Cingular is awful. But is it really any worse than the other carriers?

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

in terms of pay? yes.

there way way way too many cingular agents and corp store.

****, if you combined dc/md/va tmobile stores and verizon stores THEN you'd have the same # of store as us.

the problem isnt so much sellin at 59.99+. the problem is oversaturated industry with around 80 corporate stores in nova/dc/md (just an example) and commission cut.

cingulars the only company who cut payout in every angle in terms of commission. both in acts,upgrades and features.

now thats what i call lowering the bar.

Posted by: ivwshane

For me the main reason for leaving cingular wasn't the quotas or the numbers expectations but rather the pay.

Untill cingular took over I had no problem hitting my goals or having my goals raised. I was paid for it and paid well. Then cingular comes along and keeps the same goals yet cuts my pay by 40% (I was making $60k and then was projected to do $35k ever since cingular took over).

A small pay cut I can handle, $5000, even $10,000 cut would have still sucked but would have been tolerable but to take a $25,000 pay cut!! Who the hell takes those kinds of pay cuts? I would guess people that normally make $200k.

But the icing on the cake was when stan got a pay raise, he gets almost $700k a month as an incentive (wtf is an incentive bonus?!!) bonus with a payout of $7 million (I think these numbers are right) if he hit's his target!! Oh so that's where my money went...

Posted by: nepacell

Thanks for your feedback, both of you (and in advance for anyone else). As far as pay goes, I'm hoping to see $35-$45k annually for 100% - 110% total performance (I'm not sure what term Cingular uses, but at Verizon we called it your "blend" -- your overall attainment in all metrics combined). That's a slight hit vs what my TM friends are making, and right around what I was doing at VZW. Sound reasonable?

The density of stores is a tough one, we had that everywhere I worked. Malls have always been the worst, with 5 corps, 3 major agents (Radio Shack etc), and another 5 mom-and-pop agents before you walk out the door.

It sounds to me like Cingular suddenly found themselves with the largest customer base, and figured they could cut back in a lot of areas. I know this is probably sensitive, and I'm not trying to incite anyone, but ... what's the union got to say about all of this? And while I'm at it, where's the "cutoff" for the union? Are assistant managers in? Store managers?

Thanks again for the info. Good stuff.

Posted by: ivwshane

Cingular's union, which by the way, cingular is the only major carrier to have one, is pretty useless. The only thing the union does for cingular is collect dues and make sure pay is the same across the board.

Talking about unions is a touchy shubject here so maybe we should leave that out.

$35k should be resonable with anything higher requiring a little more work.

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

simply hitting quota gets you 30k, so just put a little more effort in.

if i were you, stay with verizon or go to tmobile, trust me.

Posted by: Freakshow105

Thats it!! I am quitting and gonna go work for Cricket!

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepacell

I've been lurking on here for a while and have a pretty good idea for how most of the Cingular employees on here feel about their employer:

and the occasional

Posted by: BellaDea

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepacell

I've been lurking on here for a while and have a pretty good idea for how most of the Cingular employees on here feel about their employer:

and the occasional

I completely agree with this. I have 5 years experience with other carriers directly and indirectly and you're right. They all have the same issues. that's probably the reason I don't say too much that I'm going somewhere else cause i've been there. a lot of people do have a point here tho.... the pay. I've never really been through a merger on the direct side (left voicestream before the buy out) but i've never seen so many pay drops. i guess being on the indirect side you don't have to experience that, just a lot of other crap.

Posted by: coinstar99

I enjoy what I do and for the most part I like talking to the customers I do, even though we all have our customers that just need a good pop in the mouth now and then. My issue and my reason for wanting a change, is I am in a market that was a former AT&T market, and fortunatly for us, no new Cingular stores have been built that would compete, we always competed with the mall and thats just the way things are, we are not a high volume store nor a low volume store, we are some where in the middle. Last year at this time we were expected to hit 250 ads a month, and had no problem doing that, also we were getting $10 for every upgrade/contract renewel. That was great, with those kinds of numbers we all were easily doing 40k, and some of the reps, like the leads were doing 60k, and no one had to struggle and fight or bicker and argue about ads. Now things have changed, our store lately, the past three months, has been lucky to see 150 ads a month, there is a lot of bickering and fighting about ad stealing and customers, everyone tries to do what they can, going out to businesses and calling exsisting customers and such, but nothing can be done. Its not the reps fault we all are trying our best, business is just down. Corporate things this is crap, and of course commissions are being cut, former blue is going to lose True-Up at the end of the year, and quotas are going up. It feels from my end like the company wants to drive out all its good employees and bring in crappy part time people like your major electronis retailers do. Which in my opinion would just kill the company. Think about it, you go to buy a TV and you are lucky if you find someone who knows what HDTV is anymore, or you ask someone in the TV's a question about a car CD player and they look at you like you got seven heads! Now I don't need a flame on that last statement I know the idea is that they are supposed to be specialized but like I said if I ask and HDTV question of a person in TV's and they don't even know what that is! Thats not right and thats what is going to happen to wireless carriers, customers that are used to dealing with someone that knows whats going on will go in and ask these partimers making $7.50 and hour with no commission for help and they will just get stared at like they are stupid! Wow, I really got carried away with this. I guess my whole point back someplace where I started was yes, all carriers are the same, but Cingular for some reason has made things progresively worse, while Stan the Man gets a raise his good quality employees get the shaft. I will stop now that got way outta hand

Posted by: A.H.E.

just work for an agent, you'll make more, and less stress.

Posted by: BellaDea

Quote:

Originally Posted by A.H.E.

just work for an agent, you'll make more, and less stress.

depending on the agent.

Posted by: noodles5666

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivwshane

Cingular's union, which by the way, cingular is the only major carrier to have one, is pretty useless. The only thing the union does for cingular is collect dues and make sure pay is the same across the board.

Talking about unions is a touchy shubject here so maybe we should leave that out.

$35k should be resonable with anything higher requiring a little more work.

Well as a former Cingular CWA union member, I can say it has its plus and its negatives. But mostly the just collect dues.

Posted by: suicidal2af

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepacell

I've been lurking on here for a while and have a pretty good idea for how most of the Cingular employees on here feel about their employer:

and the occasional

The quotas are only bad because of the way they do it.

With vzdub's total value performance or whatever, you can miss in one area but kick *** in another and still come out on top.

With cingular's system, you can quadruple your activation quota, but miss features and accessories by 10 cents...but you're written up anyway.

That, and our feature quota is against opportunities -- which include upgrades in Jack's world. I do an upgrade for a customer who already has every feature? Oh well, sucks to be you Mr. Cingular Rep.

Posted by: theclarks1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfred_Neuman

in terms of pay? yes.

there way way way too many cingular agents and corp store.

****, if you combined dc/md/va tmobile stores and verizon stores THEN you'd have the same # of store as us.

the problem isnt so much sellin at 59.99+. the problem is oversaturated industry with around 80 corporate stores in nova/dc/md (just an example) and commission cut.

cingulars the only company who cut payout in every angle in terms of commission. both in acts,upgrades and features.

now thats what i call lowering the bar.

The reason that there are too many agents are that even when AT&T was still running things, the reps would put stores anywhere they could. Even if it was down the street from you. I even heard one rep say that it would be better for me to have 100 agents selling 10 a month. I think that agents that have been in this for a while, should be able to have a certian territory, instead of waking up one morning and hey theres another agent 100 yards from my location...