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  • Report:  #465257

Complaint Review: Xentel Inc. - North Huntingdon Pennsylvania

Reported By:
- Westmoreland, Pennsylvania,
Submitted:
Updated:

Xentel Inc.
1061 Main St. Suite 2D31 (Banco Industrial Park) North Huntingdon, 15642 Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Phone:
724-515-3108
Web:
N/A
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
Xentel is a place where the employees make calls requesting over-the-phone contributions. It sounds like a good deal. The want-ad procalims: flexible schedules, comfortable work environment, $8.00/hr. + commision and raise after just 2 weeks! Don't fall for this unless you only want to work 2 weeks or get sent home early every day.

When I worked at Xentel in December 2008, I thought I was lucky. I was promised a raise after just two weeks to $9.00/hrs. Little did I know I was going to be fired just as almost everyone else who started with me before I could even earn my raise. They are constantly hiring and firing.

Another lie: that they offer flexible schedules. False. First they ask you if you are going to be full or part-time. Then they tell you your schedule and you have to work it. They say you can change after 2 weeks, which as I already stated, almost no one outlasts that time period. The schedule is, with no flexibility, full-time: 3 - 9 p.m. M-F and Saturday or Sunday from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. Part time, same weekends but 5-9 p.m. weekdays. Ask to change your schedule? "Chad" tells you... "We'll talk about that later."

The worst part is the illegal drug activity that goes on. Heroin and cocaine are known even by one of the "managers" "Chad" to be sold and bought right out of the workplace. Everyone in the place also smokes like fiends.

Recently, 2 friends of mine started working there. They quit after they were told they had to go to mandatory un-paid "training." One tactic is not allowing employees to sit until they make a "sale." Another tactic of Xentel management is to put your computer on "pause" and either BS with you or give you "training." Anytime spent at the workplace when the computer is on pause, you don't get paid for.

How about the comfort factor? The work environment is hardly comfortable. First, it reeks of smoke. The lighting is dingy and the carpet has a lot of duct tape on it. Move anything and you will see the desk is covered with dust. Many of the chairs are wobbly and have holes and some have wire tape on the arm rests. If you don't come early, good luck finding a headset. Once, I had to roam around looking for one and the only one I could find was horribly static. Made any slight movement and the person on the other line couldn't hear anything I said.

You have the opportunity to earn commision! Yeah, right. Six weeks is the end of the road for anyone who doesn't get fired before 2 weeks. Because 6 weeks is when they promise you commision from your earlier sales. It's another lie on the long list.

Fundamentally, the whole thing is a scam. They may follow procedures, technically, but the fact that they don't reveal that only a tiny percentage of collected contributions go to the implied causes while about 80% goes to Xentel.

In conclusion, this is NOT a good place to work. The pay may be pretty good, but it isn't that great since you are very likely to get sent home and not even finish your shift. Also, it is an extremely temporary position -- only 2 weeks for most. It's not comfortable, and the schedules are by no means flexible.

the tank

Westmoreland, Pennsylvania

U.S.A.


4 Updates & Rebuttals

DavidB1959

Burnsville,
Minnesota,
You couldn't cut it

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Fri, August 15, 2014

First off it's a wide brush you're trying to paint with calling people drug dealers and convicts. It's real simple why you were released after two weeks. Your were UNDERPERFORMING period. AS a former caller, assistant manager, and Manager for several of this comnpany's national lopcations I can say it takes a certain caliber individual to be successful. Like any job you have to produce or you have to go. All jobs are like this freid and I suggest you get this into your head sooner rather than later. You were let go because even with one on one training you were either failing to learn to make the calls properly and not producing enough sales to keep the job let alone get a raise. The raise is actually a commission based on the money collected from ticket event sales. AS far back as the 1990's I had callers making as much as $15 -$17.00 an hour after they were properly trained and were capable of the taking the rejection that comes with cold canvassing sales. So slander all you want but the reality is you were no good at the work and if you were you would have a job today and be making good money sitting on your can calling people on the phone. You couldn't cut it so you attack the employer instead of accepting you FAILED at the job at hand. 

The biggest lie is that 80% goes to Xentel. THe contracts are drawn up so that after all costs to stage the event are met the contractor and client split the profit 50/50 with a minimum guarantee to the client even if Xentel fails at it's task.

AS far as your claims of the office environment that's also a stretch. While it may not be a Banker's office there is a cleaning crew who cleans the facility every night, dusts, dumps trash etc. Also if your equipment was faulty I know you never told a manager because the last thing they want is for you to fail. They can't acheive their fuduciary responsibility with broken equipment and people unable to make calls.

In a nutshell you're a bad case of sour grapes, period.


Canadian journalist

Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada
Journalist seeks info

#3General Comment

Thu, March 01, 2012

I am a Canadian journalist seeking information on any Xentel call centres that made calls into Canada in the last federal election, April and May of 2011. Confidentiality assured. smaher (at) postmedia.com


Sleepy0977

Orlando,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Company gives those who have made mistakes in life a second chance...

#4UPDATE EX-employee responds

Tue, August 04, 2009

I was employed by Xentel for 2 years, and yes, the work environment is not necessarily the greatest. Telemarketing is truly a strenuous job, involving a, great amount of stress. As a caller, you deal with many different type of people, and attitudes. It's a demanding job, but even more so demanding on the management. Management has quotas that they have to meet, and those quotas are passed down to the callers. Keep in mind, everybody isn't suited for this type of work, so yes, if your not maintaining your line hour ($50.00 hr as a "cold caller"), you will be terminated after 2 weeks. Its been my experience with the company though, that those who complain the most, are the ones who can't sale in the first place...During my employment with Xentel, I developed a personal friendship with my manager Paul Cheeseman, and the Regional Manager Jose "Pepe" Quoines, and can assure you that though drugs were rampant throughout the Miami, FL office, it was not ignored by management. Yes, convicted felons do routinely work for Xentel, making up over 50% of the Miami offices employees, but that is because Xentel Inc. works with various State and Federal agencies to help provide jobs for those that have been in trouble. Often partnering with the Department of Corrections, assisting in convicts re-entry into society. Giving those who have made mistakes a second chance at being productive members of society. As a Class 1 caller, I often assisted with the training of these individuals, and truthfully, many went on to become great salesmen.


Jacq

Calgary,
Alberta,
Canada
Not THAT bad...

#5UPDATE EX-employee responds

Mon, June 29, 2009

I worked for Xentel DM from Jan through May, 2008. It is not the best company, but most of the reasons they are bad have nothing to do with your report. Flexible hours... I found this to be true. I started working full-time from 10am-6pm, and then later from 2pm-10pm. When I received another job, I worked 6pm-10pm. The staff and management were very accommodating for me. Perhaps the most amazing accommodation I received from Xentel DM was the following: I was a little sick when I got hired and did my training. One my 3rd or 4th day I got sent home because I was having uncontrollable fits of coughing while on the phone with customers. I was told to take the next day off and visit the doctor. I had bronchial pneumonia and infections in both ears and was in the hospital overnight. When I called and told them, I was fully expecting to be told to buzz off (Who would keep an employee that needs two weeks off after FOUR days of work?) Surprisingly, my boss just told me to take my time to recover, and somebody (I don't know who) covered the cost of my dr's note for HQ. Can you imagine? Another thing about their flexibility... Telemarketing is mentally exhausting. Almost everybody I worked with skipped a shift or two in those five months. All you had to do was call the boss, and tell him you needed a break for the night, and that was that. It can be crushing getting harassed on the phone for 8 hours straight, and any manager worth his walt knows it's better to let someone have a short break than force them to work UNTIL they break. (I'm not saying the harassment isn't deserved, btw. If a telemarketer calls you during dinner, you have a rigt to shout at them: just remember that they have been shouted at for the last 6 hours straight.) I was fully paid during my 2-day training (which is actually just sitting behind somebody else and 'listening in'.) My starting wage was $10 and did indeed go up to $11, though after about two months, not 2 weeks. I had my share of commissions and they were usually correct. Commissions from credit cards were ALWAYS processed on the next paycheque. If there were any errors it was usually small ($1-$2) and corrected fairly quickly. The company was also good about paying your commission on donations that were mailed in a few weeks late. The building I worked in was clean and fairly comfortable (though I admit the chairs were pretty dirty.) Yes, there were some bad staff, and there were always rumours about the boss having sex in the office, but I contribute that more to the personality of people that are suited to work there. That being said, I agree with OP that it's a pretty terrible place to work. There are petty squabbles among staff, and the corporation itself breeds dissent and backstabbing by having competitions every night. The person with the most sales, credit cards, etc every night gets a $1-$2 bonus, and people that do not make many sales are berated and harassed until they quit. I personally saw one guy get bodily thrown OUT of the building by the night manager for smoking pot on his break, so there you go. The other thing to remember is that SALES is the most important thing to Xentel DM. f you're not making money, they will make your life hell any way they can get away with. Maybe I had a better experience working there because I made them money? There is definite favourtism among bosses and staff: I watched people get yelled at for having a "no sale day" but when I would have one they were all smiles and friendly, because most of the time I was making them $100s of dollars a day. Also, as a company, it is less then steller. They call for donations to things like the Shrine Circus, Old Timer's Hockey, etc. What the reps on the phone won't tell you is that the cut is usually around 60-40, in favour of Xentel. Sometimes it is much more. So if you give $100 thinking you're helping out kids with Cerebral Palsy when they call, remember that those 'kids' get LESS THAN HALF of that donation usually. I stopped working at Xentel SM because I was tired of fleecing old ladies out of heir pension money and getting sexually harassed by dirty old men. Obviously my experiences and issues with the company differ from OP's, as there are two sides to every story. Thanks for reading my side.

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