Alorica, aka Samsung (Greenville, Anderson: find a job, wages, living in)

[ericsinphilly]

Is anyone here working for Alorica, aka Samsung and willing to provide an opinion of their experiences with the company? My opinions and impressions are regarding the Laptop Support position that has been advertised on various job boards. I am currently employed with Alorica and while I am grateful to have a job, it is a very interesting place to work. This is my second job in Greenville and I feel strongly that the recruiter misrepresented the job in a big way. Her name is Felia Anderson. I'm hoping that this post will be read by those who are looking for technical jobs in Greenville and are researching Alorica, or that have experience with Alorica and wish to share. The first thing you should know is that you will very rarely provide actual technical support to your callers. Your number one goal is to get rid of the caller within ten minutes. If you can manage to impart some knowledge to your customer in that time, you will be golden. You should know that they require an identification process that will take about four minutes before you even begin to ask what the problem is. If you make it in four minutes, you have six minutes left to identify and resolve the problem before you are docked and tagged as a slow employee. If you are slow, you will be fired. There are many rules which you must obey on this job, one of which is that you must never show your cell phone while at work: It must always be in your pocket or in your desk drawer. If you are caught with your cell phone out, you may be terminated on the spot. This includes having your cell phone on your waist. If your cell phone goes off while you are at work, you can be terminated, regardless of it is an emergency call. Understandably, you are not allowed to peruse certain sites on the Internet while on the job, such as Facebook, Myspace, eBay, and Amazon... Such sites, and competitor sites are of course off limits, and that is perfectly understandable. However, you can be fired immediately for viewing CNN or other sites. My first day on the floor I was warned sternly for checking to see if the Yankees or the Phillies were winning. The job offer that was presented to me was for a technical call center position which required at least an A+ certification, with network experience, and printer troubleshooting experience. There was to be extensive troubleshooting and customer satisfaction involved in this job. To date my experience has been there is little customer satisfaction and limited troubleshooting. The onus is to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible. It's great that we have jobs, but the jobs aren't always that great. Edit: Can't seem to edit the post for grammar and layout.

[Skyliner]

Well written post, ericsinphilly. That is disappointing, although equally sad is the fact that it is not uncommon these days. What I don't understand is the notion that such poor customer service will actually strengthen business relations with customers. On the contrary, it seems that such pressure to abruptly "satisfy" each customer would ultimately lead to relational tension and dissatisfaction on both ends of the line.

[NewYorkBorn]

Before giving up on months and months of wasted time looking for work in Greenville and heading back to NYC I had the chance to speak with Ms. Anderson about jobs that are available at Alorica working as a customer service rep. After I was told that they only pay $9.34 an hour, once I got over my shock I thanked Felia but told her no thanks. After speaking with her I decided to get on the Internet to see what type of reputation Alorica has. Well I was not surprised to see that on I Love My Job - I Hate My Job - Reviews by Employees when I did a search for Alorica there were literally 10 pages of complaints from both current and former employees from all of their locations around the US including Greenville. The complaints ranged from them not paying people to horrible working schedules.

I am very suspicious of any company that has a high turn over of employees who are either fired or quit. During my conversation with Felia she mentioned that they have training classes for new employees quite often, that again was no surprise to me.
Quite honestly I am shocked that they are even connected with Samsung, that connection reflects quite poorly on the company. You would be surprised how many of these bad companies are in existence in Greenville preying on peoples desperation to find work during this recession.

[Beau1124]

I'd put my cell phone on my desk and wait for them to fire me so I could file for unemployment! That place sounds truly atrocious. Makes me grateful for my job - as much as I complain about it - it is nowhere near as bad as that...

[gvsteve]

They probably share workers with Charter.

[NewYorkBorn]

Originally Posted by UpstateBooster

This is by no means just a Greenville thing. Getting the most from people while spending the least to get it is one of the less desirable aspects of capitalism. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for a business-friendly environment, but it can't be all about the "numbers" and not at all about the people doing the work.

Pump your breaks! We are discussing a company that has located in Greenville so for once let's stay on the topic. Nowhere in my post did I say that this is just a Greenville thing. The funny thing about it is that because of the cost of living there, the low wages are the rule and not the exception. There is no reason that a call center (Alorica) that is providing a service for a well known company like Samsung should be paying grown men and women who have families and mouths to feed $9.34 an hour....even with the cheap cost of living in SC people will find it hard as he-- to make ends meet on that kind of money. Then to add to what is already an insult with the low pay wages they have the audacity to mistreat their workers!

[Rapunzll]

Boy, isn't that the truth. There are very, very, few truly poor people in this country. Most of the people considered poor here would be thought of as wealthy in many third world countries.

[ericsinphilly]

Wah, wah, wah. People want jobs then complain when they get them. If you want to see it bad, I suggest moving to a third world country.

I am grateful that I managed to find a job after the contract I was working when I moved here ended. Very grateful.

Please don't take my post to be a wah wah session.

I've been employed in four call center jobs in twenty years of work history, and this is the first call center job where I've felt like I'm not so much an employee as a member of a chain-gang.

I'm not sure where you're working now, or how great the job is for you to buzz in and criticize my post, and that is not my concern. I raised this topic in hopes that anyone else who may have been or is currently employed by Alorica for Samsung might share their experiences and opinions. Please read my original post.

As far as how bad it is in third world countries, or any country other than these United States, I have no idea. I live in this country, work in this country, and expect a decent wage and fair treatment in this country.

I do apologize if I sound a bit put off in my response. My post was intended to ask if anyone else who was in the past or who is currently employed by Alorica for Samsung had opinions to share about the company and their feelings concerning their employment, especially those who had been employeed for a technical support position, and had felt let down by the actual expectations.

This is a call center employing upwards of 1000 people. That's a lot of jobs. It's absolutely great for the area. My post concerns the level of quality given to a customer when they ask for technical support (my department). I am absolutely not complaining about having a job. Scroll up and read that I am asking for opinions from those who are employeed with this company.

Thank you.

[Vibes1911]

What's up Ericsnphilly. I'm alos employed at Samsung/Alorica working with DTV/HA and I share your same sentaments. For the guy that posted the wah wah wah, how about you call 1800SAMSUG so we can provide you with that so call Quality of Service that we are SUPPOSE to provide but due to the fact that we have a TIME LIMIT on being on the phone, we're not able provide. True, a job is a job, but what's a job when you're not able to provide QUALITY Customer Service. And most people that work there are former Charter employees, Verizon, etc. Yes, we're happy to have a job but the company's goal is all messed up. It's mainly the people they put in Leadership position. Hell, I can honestly say this place is worse than the Army and I'm in the Army Reserves. Better yet, this place is like jail. They tell you when to take your 15 min breaks and your 45 minute lunch and don't be late coming back from break or lunch because it messes up your time on call stats. Everything there is based on NUMBERS not QUALITY. Also, the supervisors never want to take calls when a customer specifically asks to speak to a supervisor. What's the purpose of being a supervisor if you dont want to help out your employees. And then the customers call in and let you have it, which is understandable because of their frustration but for $9.34, not really worth it. Hell Teletech is a call center here with the same type issues but atleast they pay more. Anyways, I'm with you Ericsinphilly.