vB Easy Archive - Sales Pay cuts, especially Blue

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Sales Pay cuts, especially Blue
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Posted by: BluetoOrange22

Is this company ever going to stop finding slick little ways of cutting our pay???? (Upcoming December commission cuts, plus raised quota). I'm a retail sales rep on the blue side, and have gone from $2,000 monthly commission checks to $800, and yet we've been put through the ringer this year after the merger!!! And I hear its not just us Blues, but the Orange reps are pissed off too!

How can this company do this? How can they keep taking away from us, and expect so much in return, without the entire sales force just simply walking out. I see and hear about more and more reps leaving the company, many/most of them that have been with either side for years and years, just to be replaced by some inexperienced ******* off the street. I mean, these are high-end performers that this company is losing, some of them to our competition companies!

How can this company expect such high standards and performance from long-term reps that will sell the house all day long, but are now so bitter and angry to the point they leave just bc the company is getting greedier and greedier????

It all rolls down hill: They continue to piss us off and STEAL from us, that we dont even want to work with upgrades and existing customers at all, thus making them leave to another company!

What will be the outcome?

Posted by: CyberMoto

It's called raising the bar. To bad you guys are getting shafted. I stopped by the local cingular store yesterday. They had all new people working. Next time I go in I'll check to see if the store manager is still working there. Who knows he may have left too. Since he's been there plus other stores for 5 years.

Posted by: ivwshane

I've trying to get you guys to go on strike.

It's the only option I see available.

It's also one of the main reasons I left the company and believe me when reps like me start leaving by the hundreds, the company as a whole will suffer.

Posted by: gregsmith59

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberMoto

It's called raising the bar. To bad you guys are getting shafted. I stopped by the local cingular store yesterday. They had all new people working. Next time I go in I'll check to see if the store manager is still working there. Who knows he may have left too. Since he's been there plus other stores for 5 years.

I think it is called raising the finger! Sure they need to save some money, but why piss off your dedicated staff? It would probably have been much wiser to chisel 10% off a quarter for a few years, and as the product offerings improved or incentives were added for selling certain products then maybe the pain would have been small for most staff.

I think they are going to suffer some lost sales due to having so much inexperienced staff. It's not much fun going into a store where the staff doesn't have a clue.

Posted by: pcardoza

This is just one of many risky strategies that Cingular has chosen. Sooner or later they had better take a good look in their rear-view mirror, because the VZW Express is about to run them down. Unfortunately, I think it's too late for them to avoid dropping to #2, before spring of 2006. Maybe some very agressive pricing moves will help a bit. They are close to failing miserably in this whole merger deal.

Posted by: lostpairofsocks

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluetoOrange22

Is this company ever going to stop finding slick little ways of cutting our pay???? (Upcoming December commission cuts, plus raised quota). I'm a retail sales rep on the blue side, and have gone from $2,000 monthly commission checks to $800, and yet we've been put through the ringer this year after the merger!!! And I hear its not just us Blues, but the Orange reps are pissed off too!

How can this company do this? How can they keep taking away from us, and expect so much in return, without the entire sales force just simply walking out. I see and hear about more and more reps leaving the company, many/most of them that have been with either side for years and years, just to be replaced by some inexperienced ******* off the street. I mean, these are high-end performers that this company is losing, some of them to our competition companies!

How can this company expect such high standards and performance from long-term reps that will sell the house all day long, but are now so bitter and angry to the point they leave just bc the company is getting greedier and greedier????

It all rolls down hill: They continue to piss us off and STEAL from us, that we dont even want to work with upgrades and existing customers at all, thus making them leave to another company!

What will be the outcome?

Capitalism....... Its only great when you're the one on top...otherwise its nothing more than modern slavery

Posted by: BluetoOrange22

Its just amazing bc there are many areas with an orange store on one side of the road, and a blue store on the other side. Both stores suffer, the employees become ultra stressed to meet all the quotas with reduced traffic, and then along with paycuts, theyre even more miserable, to the point they cant take it anymore and leave. Or they just get written up for not hitting the company's goals if they stay. Its lose-lose, and yet the company gets away with it.

If and when they do leave, they are replaced by some idiot that actually accepted the bare-bones pay, just to take another paycut. Then the company pays thousands of dollars to put them through 2 weeks of sales training, and with these people off the floor, sales opportunities are lost. This = even more lost $$$! And, like you all noticed, the entire staff becomes an entire low-class, lack of knowledge staff of dummies that piss the customers off even more.

They should really focus on the issue: Shut down more stores!

Posted by: todd_jg2000

I know it seems couterintuitive to raise quota's and lower commissions. I am in sales in a different industry and it is actually typical. The idea is that your OTE (on target earnings) remain constant. So, if you hit your target (a larger number) you get the same absolute dollars, thus a smaller percentage of each. It has never seemed quite fair, but that is the logic. More sales, but same overall compensation. Not a pay cut per se, but a higher performance expectation.

Think of the alternative. If they doubled your quota and doubled your percentage, your OTE would quadruple. Good for you, not so good for them.

Posted by: BluetoOrange22

Definitely understandable, but after a year of this merger, people are stressed out beyond belief, turnover of employees, and loss of quality is blinding. Everyone makes it known too, as HR visits with managers during staff meetings. You would think the company would not want to make it any worse and just allow the pay ratio to stay the same, thus allowing a bone to be thrown at the sales reps and make them happier with a bigger paycheck.

Have you ever seen a complete revolt to the point of alarming collapse in the sales channel of a company like this?

Posted by: todd_jg2000

I agree with you 100%. It sucks and commission structures should be results-oriented. If they want to keep good people, they need to incent them. Best structures I have seen are tiered and reward overachievement. Instead of across the board rate cuts, it would have been better to leave them much the same and then INCREASE percentage for 100-150% achievement. Make people WANT to sell more, not HAVE to sell more. Way better for morale and performance. IMHO

Posted by: Motoman71

remember the good old days when if you had a bad month and only sold 37-42 phones you still made around $1500? Now when i hit over 60! i Make $2000 but if i hit anything less I get $700. Grrrrrr

Posted by: ron808

^ work on your punctuation marks & capitalizations. Geez.

Other than that, I symphatize with you people.

Posted by: CyberMoto

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregsmith59

It's called cut off your nose to spite your face.

Posted by: ChocoDough

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivwshane

I've trying to get you guys to go on strike.

It's the only option I see available.

It's also one of the main reasons I left the company and believe me when reps like me start leaving by the hundreds, the company as a whole will suffer.

We can't strike. One of CWA's agreements with Cingular is that they will not go on strike, which I think is total BS.

If we could, I am sure we would have striked already.

Posted by: EyeCellPhones

I just don't get it. Yes, I understand the frustration of some former reps who took a pay cut with the merger(doesn't true-up help with that somewhat?). Yes, I understand that things aren't as good as they could be and don't necessarily agree with our commission structure. BUT, I also think that you are frustrated to the point that you would consider a strike, you need to find another place of employment. I for one think that any(and im hoping it was mainly call center employees) non-bargained for employees that voted yes for the union is a coward. For what reason is there a need for union representation in a job like this? Union or not our commission structure is the way that it is correct? Have they done anything to make it any better? Union or not if you aren't selling the way you should you get put on SAM correct? There is no union safeguarding for that is there?!? Sure, you can have a representitive present...but what does that do? WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO PAY SOMEONE FOR YOU TO DO YOUR JOB THE WAY YOU NORMALLY WOULD?!?!

OK, enough of my "you should have voted no" speach. Look, im PRETTY confident that our commission structure is going to be improved drastically this upcoming year. One HUGE concern of Cingular's is churn. They are going to do whatever they can to prevent customer churn, and paying COR reps on upgrades, migrations and anything else that keeps a customer with us, is one of those things. And yes...I also believe that the way they pay us on features is going to change as well.

I once worked for a huge company that paid the commissioned employees VERY well. Then, in one day, all commission was ended and employees that worked there for years who "made too much money," or as i like to say it; "did their job too well" got fired. At least Cingular hasn't done that.

Go out there...and have a great holiday selling season.

Posted by: xj911

Quote:

Originally Posted by EyeCellPhones

I once worked for a huge company that paid the commissioned employees VERY well. Then, in one day, all commission was ended and employees that worked there for years who "made too much money," or as i like to say it; "did their job too well" got fired. At least Cingular hasn't done that.

Go out there...and have a great holiday selling season.

They didn't have to, they all quit

Posted by: grifflax

All I know is to live for today, and I've been cranking out upgrades like a edited this month because the $8 is great, and if you've worked through the years for this company, then the key to commission success becomes quite evident: to concentrate on what pays well at any given period. Sometimes its features, other times its rate plan loading...but at NO time should we give a flying flag about accessories so the next time your manager tries to motivate you to sell more accessories just remember he's taking heat from above about accessory quotas but YOU should laugh at that pitch because they dont pay squat so dont even walk to the wall for them...

Posted by: SuxBeingU

I have suffered the same plight as all of you before. I came up with the ultimate FU to my bosses. I opened my own store and brought most of my customers with me. After 7 years of making my boss a ton of money I now make it for myself. Its a little more stressful but the rewards are great and I don't have to wear a tie. I even wear shorts when I want to.

Posted by: tendura

Good for you buddy.

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

they are keeping our payout at 40 for my market but quotas still way up there.

Posted by: BluetoOrange22

There was such a revolt about the upcoming commission cuts for the holidays, that they returned commissions right back to where they are now! Plus, with double the qualified extension pay, that should be a little bone thrown at us!

Its funny, too, bc no other major market in the U.S. had these cuts, so they must have realized they got a little too greedy this time!

And its good to see that many of you are optimistic about Feature pay being changed for the good this upcoming year, bc Im tired of seeing high quality, loyal, tenured people leave in droves.

And one of you said it just right: This company doesnt have to fire; theyre forcing people to leave.