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Comcast Cable Companies Knoxville Tennessee Call Center Abuse of employees Knoxville Tennessee
Comcast Cable Company has been abusing their employees in their Knoxville Call center. They begin by giving you a big speel about all the benefits that come with working at the company. They tell you about their free cable, that can get cut off if you watch a movie and do not pay them their 1.99 for it. They then tell you about their insurance which costs the average employee a good chunk of their bi-weekly pay checks, to do very little. Their prescription coverage is laughable at best.
They proceed to tell you about paid time off. This is where they are most damaging. They tell you that you get a certain amount of "flex" hours along with "holiday pay" and "Floating Holidays" this "Flex" time is used when you are late, or when you have to be out for any reason. It is explained in orientation that this is used for any un scheduled absence.
What they do not tell you in orientation is that if you use all your flex time you can be written up, and have what they call a "corrective action" Two of these will get you fired. Recently, they have instituted a very funny system where they use what is called "events" to figure up employee flex time. As it was hesitantly explained to me by my wife whom is an employee of Comcast Cable they require you to schedule your sick days. As in literally they expect you to say " I will be sick next Thursday" if you do not schedule sickness or anything that makes you late ( say a traffic accident on the way to work) then you are given an "event" once an event has been issued you have a certain time span where you can recieve a certain number of events before they do what is called a " request for termination" Which means yes folks.. If you are late for any reason you can be terminated because that is half an event.
Once a request for termination, what I understand to be a cursory action in and of itself, has been turned in. The company "reviews" it and hands down their verdict. During this time the employee in question is expected to be at work, smile, be polite to customers, and ultimately do the job they are already fired for....
They also have to contend with people telling them it would be better if they just quit. This in fact was told to my wife last night by the Call center manager. Which means that he was informing her that she -had- already been fired and the wait from corporate was just cursory, and that she should just quit and be done with it.. ( GUESS WHAT THAT DOES FOLKS? THAT GETS THEM OUT OF HAVING TO PAY UNEMPLOYMENT... OF COURSE THEY WANT FOLKS TO QUIT)
Furthermore, I firmly believe that this company is following suit with a very old fashioned way of doing business. Something that call centers are notorious for. My wife has been with the company for 2 years ( well she will have been with them if she makes it three more months for 2 years) they give raises on a pretty set budget.
Meanwhile they hire in a new class of employees nearly every month. These employees already have a hard time finding a seat because the place is not big enough for them all but Comcast keeps on hiring new people.. Hired in, of course, at the base starting wage.. Trained quickly they are put out on the phones and the people who have been there long enough to start reaping the rewards of being there for a long period of time... Start going out the door with ludicrous accusations about this and that.. Mostly though, their fall back is their brand new, and always changing way of dealing with unscheduled time off (flex time) which now has to be scheduled.
They are a horrible company, they mistreat their employees, push older employees out the door so that they do not have to pay more than they feel their employees are worth.. The base minimum they pay.
At the very least they are guilty of bad business practices in the manner of the way they deal with their always sketchy " flex" time.
Storm
Knoxville, Tennessee
U.S.A.
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3 Updates & Rebuttals
Travis
Oak Ridge,Tennessee,
United States of America
Former Call Center Employee
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, April 14, 2011
I worked for a outsourcing company that handled some of the calls for Comcast and have to say that the Knoxville Call Center was the biggest complaint. We had to deal with the IRATE customers that Knoxville Call Center ticked off by talking down to them, cussing them out, hanging up on them. We had to clean up the mess. We made a fraction of the pay of a Knoxville Call Center Employee and received NO benefits from Comcast. I feel no sympathy towards those call center employees. After having dealt with them while I had Comcast and satisfying the customers they angered, I feel that they are OVER PAID. The people in Sitel's Call Center dealt with all the unruly customers problems and received minimum wage with NO benefits from Comcast.
The Knoxville Call Center has earned the reputation of worst in customer service. If you feel that you dont get enough pay or benefits you really should look for another job. The attitude you conveyed in your report is similar to the attitude the customers had to deal with when calling in.
Anthony
Rossville,Georgia,
U.S.A.
Don't You Just Love Third Party Complaints?
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, February 20, 2009
Mine will be also, but from a different perspective.
My wife works for a call center, one of many here in the south. Those that do their jobs as expected do well. Those that lack ethical standards don't do so well.
The fact of the matter is that customer service makes or breaks a company. Call center work is tedious and demanding. It dictates hiring only the most reliable people to keep the system chugging along, thus hopefully keeping customers happy. Customers fled in drives when call centers were moved overseas, so a return should be most welcome, but you'd be surprised at the quality of workers these days. Some Americans need to wake the heck up.
Let's address "Storm's" list of complaints.
1.) Free cable offered to employees by Comcast does not include free pay-per-view movies, and if you fail to pay for one after watching it, then you are subject to disconnect like any other customer.
2.) Benefits paid to most all workers these days are not what they were in the past. A movement to have employees pay more of their health care costs has been the trend for at least five years now.
3.) Using "flex time" or "paid time off" as it is coined can be used for unforeseen circumstances where one has to be out, but it also has to be approved by supervisors. It is not something you demand. It can be requested, and either approved or not approved. People that abuse the policy, and routinely use it as a means to cover up for being tardy or for simply calling in sick at the last minute, will eventually run into problems. An undependable employee is no good to a company when the goal is to have people on hand to handle the calls that come in efficiently.
4.) No one is expecting people to "schedule sick days." They do expect requests in advance if one desires a day off with pay, if they desire to use the "flex time" pay to make up for the day off. People abuse or misunderstand the policy and assume that just because they have accrued flex time pay, that they can call in sick and use flex time to make up for the loss in pay. They look at patterns. They know who is abusing the policy.
5.) It's no secret that when people have overstayed their welcome with a company, that every effort will be made to have them voluntarily quit. If someone would rather be fired, then tough it out. Make them let you go. You might get unemployment, but there is a double edge to that sword. Prospective employers who discover that a candidate was fired from a job, will often find that their application will be filed away rather quickly, rather than considered.
6.) The perception that higher paid employees are pushed aside to hire new people is complete bunk. The reality of the situation is that many people who spend a few years with a company start getting lax in doing their jobs. People paid more should earn it. It makes no sense whatsoever to have a staff on hand of people who are not experienced to handle customer service issues. The goal is to have fully qualified people on staff at all times. They're willing to pay for it, but they expect to get what they pay for.
It's fine if you want to blame Comcast for your wife's circumstance at the moment, but I see it quite the opposite. Your list of complaints outline the actions of an employee that became too uncomfortable with her job, and failed to maintain standards expected of her.
Andy
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
Flex time can be applied for latenesses?
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, February 19, 2009
Are you sure that's accurate? In other words what your saying is if your supervisor is expecting you to arrive at work at 9AM, you can show up 9:30 or 10AM, say "flex time", and all is forgiven? I've never heard of such a thing.
I would think a responsible employee would speak to their supervisor in advance of using flex time to ensure that there are no issues with management, or at least do so as a courtesy to your employer.
To be honest, the other benefits they offer call center employees in this job market seem pretty reasonable. I think it's commendable that they didn't ship the whole call center operation to India, like many other corporations are doing.
Bottom line, if you feel working at Comcast is a rip-off, go find a better job.