TracFone Wireless review: Exploiting people, unfair business! 24

If you don't like the job - quit!

Get over it. Better that they get $3/hour than the rocks and dirt they are used to.

We call this "globalization," and the countries you mentioned LOVE it, DEMANDED it, in fact.

As for taking "unfair advantage," exactly what do you mean? Workers are free to take another job, right? So, there must be something ATTRACTIVE to those workers.

I suspect that they are grateful for the work and the pay.

Hi i'm a teamlead agent at tracfone customers service center, want to know what a teamlead agent is?... quite simple, we are nothing but regular agents that will take all the customers complaints, curses... anyhow, we pretend to be supervisors to assist the upset customers, that day by day come to be more and more.

Now, there’s one thing i hate the most from this company… ignorance, and how it affects me as part of this company.

TRAINING: the company is so blind that they simply don’t seem to understand that the problem starts from the very beginning, figure, the training is 6 days long, in which 10-15 agents will do nothing at all, since the guy giving training (in Guatemala that guys name in Anthony Lay… close friend to the manager by the way) is one amongst the dumbest that the company has, I have even heard of full generations of agents that have had the training without system… someone tell me how is that possible, only in dreams tracfone can imagine customers will not be irritated when a representative has a broken English, and does not even know how to access the system, or make it work for that matter. You would come to think that these agents are the ones doing the simplest things that can be done…. WRONG, since the company cares about numbers only, some of these fresh guys would be handling technical issues, and since they do not even know how to do the general troubleshooting procedures, they will make a mess on the account, their fault, NO, TRACFONES FAULT, how do they let such representatives work on those issues, why they don’t place parameter on what agents need to know before start assisting customers.

Well it could not get any worst… WRONG AGAIN, because its only starting…

A JOB THAT PAYS: considering the previous, I can only say that a smart guy would learn how to do a decent job in 4-5 months, not before causing a lot of damage into a hole bunch of phones (figure, per month an agent is taking from 300-500 calls), now you would think that at least tracfone takes good care of their personnel, so that they don’t have to keep bringing new people into the call center, well WRONG AGAIN, figure a representative would work a 7 hour shift, with 30 minute breaks and 10 minutes to go to the bathroom if necessary, now this would be done 6 days a week, with 15 days vacations a year, and well, you can forget about your holidays because with tracfone, you will be getting none…. Oh, and I forgot, when you start here, your day of would be Monday for around 4 months…. its not surprising that most of the agents will quit working before this time frame, just around when they were getting the hang of it, but once again, who cares, I mean, new agents are already on the way to cover up those leaving, at the end we end up being numbers (agents connected, solving issues….. hopefully).

HOME MANAGEMENT: with all of this…. You would hope that at least the local management helps you out… something i’m sure off, when tracfone decided to bring the customer service to Latin America, they did not study our culture, otherwise they would have figure that it was simply not possible to leave the local management in the hands of none-studied people, but why… guess why we have a bad trainer, or bad supervisors (the best example came a couple months ago, when an agent gave a bottle of whiskey to the manager as a birthday present… couple weeks later, A BRAND NEW SUPERVISOR ON THE FLOOR… i have to say though, it was black label, jajaja) when we have so much good agents on the floor, that would do a far better job as trainers, supervisors and a hell of a lot better manager (why do I hate so much my manager, because of his ignorance, his lack of professionalism and lack of care with representatives).

THE QA FORM: now this is great, I now for a fact that a QA form is needed, but what about solving the customers issue, shouldn’t that be the goal of the QA form, ensure that we are fixing the issue… figure, if a customer repeat the IMEI number to you, you get penalized, even if the customer has broken english, or the connection is bad, is that fair, sometimes to need to check information, and the system wont work at all, either way every 20 seconds you have to be saying to the customer “bare with me while continue to search for information” even if its going to take 5 minutes, also you cannot use different phrases to say the same thing, like “pardon me if a remain in silence while I work on my system”… how stupid is that, and no-one has the guts to say its wrong, that the QA form should be there as a guide, to ensure we are doing everything to resolve or assist the customer, that we are polite (but not in such strong way we even sound hypocrites), and that we provide accurate and complete information to our customers, that is one of the main reasons why we have so many complaints.

THE MONEY: this is a complicated part; i’m making from US $ 370.00 to US $ 445.00 a month, sure for US CITIZENS that’s a ### salary, but for some reason seems to be enough for me, i can afford college, hell, I can even go to McDonalds from time to time…jajaja, well honestly seems to be enough for me, off course I have no family and mine will even help me a bit, so I really have no complaints about it, but once again, I don’t plan to work here much longer, as none of the people that works here plan to do it for over 1 or 2 years, so maybe if the money was better, people would keep on working a little longer under this conditions.

AT THE END… WE ALL NEED THE MONEY: at the end all of this stays as complaints only, I’ll keep on hearing cursing from customers, tracfone will keep doing business they same way, since only something as big as God could change their poor minds, customers will keep on suffering for the mistakes of management, and I’ll continue to be as upset as i am, because I can not simply understand how on earth a good idea like the one this company is based on (because the concept of it is indeed great) can be ruined by lack of capacity.

ALL FOR TODAY, BUT BELIEVE ME, THERES SO MUCH MORE.

If he works there I guess that is because he really needs to have a job. It is not easy to get a Job in Central America, specially if you are going to college and paying for it, or if you have a baby... If he didn't need the job, he wouldn't be there.

I'm a costumer care service agent of tracfone & net10, in Bolivia. And YES they explote us and they don't even pay us the 3$, they pay us 1.78$ the hour, but i need the money.

Well, I would say yea its unfair, but for example my wife from Philippines, and the pay rate there is like 3 dollars per day for most workers... so 3 dollars per hour would be very good money for them considering the alternative.

The truth is Tracfone customers who get a sad time calling should know this complaint flatters Tracfone.

$3 an hour? I wish, try $1.5o per hour and 14 days paid holiday per year, one day off per week and thats working uncivil hours until 12am.

You are trained for a week and treated like ###. You are disposable work for a company that doesn't gave a monkeys left nut about you. When the customer calls often you dont have a clue what the problem is because nobody bothered to teach you, so you try figure it out and in the end you call a sup who tells you to tell the customer to call back in 48 hours.

Why do people do it? Because jobs are limited and theres plenty people to exploit in these countries. Nobody give a ### about a decent wage, fire regulations, health and safety or stress. Use em, exploit em, abuse em and toss em away. Thats Tracfone policy and also Policy of companies like Sykes who operate support for Trashfone in Latin America.

Next time you call remember the poor ### is being paid just over a dollar an hour, its badly trained, highly stressed and probably just trying to keep sane.

I purchased a Net 10 phone from Wal-Mart in January 2008. After 3 weeks of service, they disconnected my phone. I called customer service and was connected to loss prevention. The person I spoke to was very rude and accused me of making offshore roaming calls to international numbers from my Net 10 phone. I told him that was impossible. I told him I had not taken to phone out of the Athens-Atlanta, GA area since buying the phone. He asked if someone else had used my phone and I told him no, that was impossible. He agreed to turn my phone back on and said if it happened again, it would be turned off permanently. I was sent a new SIM card and assigned a new number. After three weeks of use, Net 10 turned my phone off again saying the same problem was occuring and now refuse to turn it back out. I am OUT a new phone and have 447 minutes of airtime of my phone. How is it possible that someone is using my phone number and SIM to make these kinds of calls? I am not sure if I believe the people at Net 10. They now refuse to help me. What can I do?

Let me tell you some things about tracfone that you may not know.

I'm a tracfone service customer representative, and i work in La Paz, bolivia. i earn 2$us the hour, work 8 hours every day, 6 day a week. i can only take 3 breaks of 10 minutes, and if it takes me more than 3 minutes doing what i have to do on the bathroom, they just log me out (that means they stop paying me).

The company QA polices are so stupids, we need to apologize for everything and everybody, even when it is not our fault, and some times we even need to apologize with the cust for apologizing so much, otherwise the QA assesor discounts points of your score. we cannot remain silent for more than 3 seconds, so tracfone customers, please do not complain if the person who is trying to assist you starts saying thing without sens, just is fallowing that stupid rule.

We are not treated as humans, around 300 people work from 8 AM to 10 PM and we only have 2 bathrooms (one for men and the other for women), and beleive me you dont want me to tell you about those places. they dont want us to be hungry, so they give us a cup of coffee and a peace of bread (when you are lucky enough to find one) and thats it, they are so nice!

Here in bolivia there are no vacations at all, if by any chance you want to travel or just need to take 10 days or more, you will not be paid for those days, whatsmore, you need to quit the job, then when you are ready to come back, if you are still registred on the system you can work again, but if you are not, bad luck buddy, you need to do the training again and that is 10 days assiting to classes that last from 1 to 10 PM, and if you are hired, they'll pay you 20Sus, and beleive it or not, many people in my country are more than happy to recive those Sus.

What happens if cannot work one day? no matter the reason you will not be paid for that day and you will need to hire a replacement, that means that is not enough no being paid, but also need to pay somebody, because if the representative doesnt do that, he will need to make the double of the hours he lost, and work the only day off he has, or work more hours until he pays those hours

Why i'm still working on such a terrible place knowing all these things? that's easy, because in a country that is so frightening poor as Bolivia, where the basic salary is 60Sus the month, being exploted for something more than that is a really good bussiness

People of USA, the next time you call and get upset because a poor guy with no trainning is doing his best to try to solve your issue, remember that at the same time he is trying to help you, he is trying to bring some money to his home, and he is ready to accept you to treat him like crap, only to keep his job, that might no be much, but is worse being unemployed as most of the country.

Hi everyone,

I have worked and I'm still working at Tracfone Wireless as the Trainer Manager. I was very surprise to see my name on internet, at first I was upset, but I understood that the Loser who wrote all those things about the company that gave him a plate of food not only for him, but also his family. Is the same LOSER that got fired for stealing our customer personal information and used some credit cards to purchase some stuff from ebay and finally he got cougth.

People like that, are just people that talks becuase they have mouth, but their lives are so miserable. But let him be bless and let the peace of God be with him and his family.

Thank you and God bless you.

Dr. Antonio Lay
Trainer Manager
Tracfone Wireless Inc.
Department of Private Investigations

Dear All,
I am presently a TracFone/Net10 Wireless customer care representative in the beautiful country of Belize. My job is not wonderful and it isn't horrible either. It's something constructive to do during the summer while making some extra pocket money. I make $2.006US an hour and I work 45 hours a week. Any overtime is at time and a half. For me, a college student who still lives with her parents, I enjoy indulging with the extra money. The conditions are ok also (granted not the best), and we receive two 20 minute breaks for a 7 hour shift. It doesn't bother me at all. My trainer and my supervisors are great also. As a matter of fact they are the best! Definitly not the monsters that they seem to be in these other countries! We have workers unions in Belize that prevents such madness!

I am attending summer school Monday - Friday from 8:00am -12:15pm and working six days a week from 1:00pm-8:00pm (Sundays 7:00am - 5:00pm) (the time difference isn't that bad as in other countries seeing that we are in pretty much the same time zone as America). When I first started working, I went through five days of rapid training (which we'll be paid $120 for in the next 2 months, granted that we stay here working, if we quit or we're fired-we get nothing. On the sixth day of work we started taking live calls (and thus our wage begins). I enjoy helping TracFone/Net10 customers. Many of them are a delight. They crack me up sometimes when they don't know how to do the smallest things (turn on phones, access the menu etc.) I love helping them. Most of my customers have been rather friendly Americans, but the irate ones do bother me. I stay calm and explain to them the problem and apologize for inconviniences caused (as we're supposed to do) but it hurts because it isn't our fault that something probably went wrong in the system or that something else out of the control of the rep happened. For example a customer who has been on the line with many unprofessional and disrespectful representatives and my have even been disconnected my be quite irate when calling back (understandably so!), but always remember that the person who answers the phone again is never the same person! Our calling stations are located in 10 countries across the world. It is not that person's fault that you spoke with a rude individual.

It is also not the representative's fault that (and these are some that I have gotten:

A. "Your website sucks!...my minutes aren't coming through!"

B. "Your automated system is full of crap!"

C. "I've just been on hold for over 20 minutes!"

D. "That other rep was such a b***h!"

E. "Your company sucks!"

F. "What do your mean my minutes expired 30 days (Net10)/60 days(TracFone) after deactivation!"

G. "I'm switching my phone company tomorrow!"

BELIEVE ME, THE LIST GOES ON!

Please remeber that your complaint can be presented to the rep in a respectful manner. We do appreciate your complaints, queries, concerns and we're open to change. But after being curse out by a customer, a customer care rep would most likely not bring that matter to his/her supervisor but if the customer was respectful and detailed in his/her complaint the rep may feel obliged to help out such a wonderful customer.

Oh. It is true that most of our reps can't speak very fluent english. I have been lucky in that department seeing that the first languge of Belize is english (well at least officially). But most Belizean's first language (and mine) is Creole, a form of broken english that, as I have been told, sounds rather harsh when heard by an American. I have almost mastered my fake Amercian accent (belive it or not you guys have an accent to us also! lol) A customer even recently commented that, "oh! I'm so glad I'm talking to an American!... your not American?...well your English is supurb!" (she was great, an absolute delight!)

I would like to apologize to everyone that has had a horrible experience with TracFone/Net10's customer service reps but please know at the end of the day, most people doing this job really really need the money that they are receiving. An they do try (or at least most of them) their best to troubleshoot your problem.

I'm just doing this as a part time gig. I can quit at anytime and it wouldn't deprive me at all. But I love helping customers and the pay isn't too shabby either. I don't absolutly need the money, remember I have my parents for that lol.

Respectfully,
Monique - TracFone/Net10 CCR (Belize)

Dear All:

Dont get fooled by the ### Antonio Lay that wrote above. He talks about losers and he's the main loser. His job is to kiss the managers ###, because he cant even give a decent training, if he did how come he's not the only one that gives training. Talk about miserable lives...dont be a joke lay, firts u brag about having a college degree that u dont have, secone who's the one that is swamped in debts because he thought a beautiful woman in belize, where he supposedly gave training (but again, couldnt do it on his own because he brought the floor manager and the personel manager with him) and because she told him he might have a chance he went and thought she was saying yes to marriage...jajaja dont make an ### out of yourself lay, stick to your ### kissing and [censored]ing and leave people to write what they want.

Jaajajajaja. NOw understand why this belizian person speaks that way about me. I don´t care really about your coments. I can be kissing my boss ###, but you are still a thief and a criminal, the law is looking for you and pretty soon we will get to your house.

Bye thief

Shut up you belizian MONKEY! you know what is the definition of a Belizian? a living proof that SKUNKS ### MONKEYS. you are pathetic im important in my job and what I do is fundamental what do you do? besides nothing...? eat bananas?

Hi Antonio Lay...
We ll be talking soon

net 10 is deceptive in their adds.the add says 10 cents per call and 5 cents per text.turns out to be .50 per text and 1.00 per call.i could have just kept my trac phone since they charge .30 a text and $1.00 per call.i'm switching to verizons pre paid.at least they are up front.

Hi, i'm a Rep at Tracfone/Net10
first ROROR i would like to clear something that i always hate explaining to customers because they find it so hard to understand: net10 does charge 10 cents per minute what the phone displays is 1 unit, but since for example a 300 minute card is 30 dollars, that means that 1 minute= 10 cents therefore 1 unit customer sees is 10 cents of the money they paid for, same with SMS.

the job has it's good days and some very crap days but it pays enough, you meet nice people and you get to practice English, but when you start getting customers that can only say "DO WHAT NOW?!?!", "THE WHO?!?!?!" or "HUH?" you can only breath deeply and try not to yell at them what they usually deserve. good thing i'm out of Safelink customers that have lost their phone and are not able to provide the serial number, phone number or any relevat information to open their accounts and still have the nerve to say: "DON'T YOU HAVE ON YOUR COMPUTER?!?!?!" but anyway, on average it's a good job.

thanks gambler753.i am no longer using net 10.no matter how they have their reps spin it.10 cents a minute means10 cents a minute .not one dollar or as they say one unit a minute.as far as i'm concerned you don't get paid enough.they are deceiving their reps as well as their customers.i have to say also some times reps have very strong accents and are hard to understand on the phone.they speak the language well .i commend anyone who has conquered more than one langage.don't take their "HUH's "to heart.it's frustrating on both ends .hope your day was a good one and not crappy.reps everywhere have tough jobs.its a tough job and it takes special people to be one.not everyone can bite their tongues.good luck to you and stay strong.

bought new phone speaker wont work they sent new phone and they are unable to activate sent new sim card this has been going on for over 60 days cant make calls out or receive over 20 hours with customer service so far now my days of service expired and lost 482 minutes they suck stay away

Whether one believes in the amount people are being paid or not does not provide an excuse to exploit consumers. A disabled lady I know bought a NET10 phone card and she asked me to assist her in helping add the 300 minute card to her cell phone. When I called to add the card time, the agent in BeLese indicated there was a problem with the phone activation and thus, I had to provide a long series of numbers to reactivate. Then, he told me there was a problem with the phone card. He said there was a record of the card being purchased by the lady at Pamida, but that the sales clerk did not validate the phone card. There are three numbers with two bar codes that facilitate a sell. There is the sells bar code, the validation number and the Airtime PIN Code beneath a surface that is scratched off after purchase. The clerk had not scanned the validation number.

All of that took about two hours between waiting to be transfered, inputting numbers, etc. Then, I took the card 30 miles to Pamida where it was purchased. That took another two hours of my time --with no result. They insisted they could not validate the card where it had already been scanned for purchase. We called Tracfone in BeLese and they said they could not allow the Airtime PIN Code without the serial number of the phone and validation of the card by Pamida.

Presently, I am writing the company to attempt to get a refund and/or to trade for another Tracfone card. If the company has record of the transaction, it should have immediately voided the disqualified card and issued a new one to the customer.

What is the customer supposed to do? It is not their fault customer service has lost sight of their role in the dispute resolution process. They seemed to want the customer to resolve their problem. Taking the time to encourge responsible behavior is important.

tracfone wireless inc.

I am forewarning you that I am going to start a complaint petition against your company in the state of Colorado Secretary of State, business division, BBB (better business bureau) the Colorado Attorney General, Wal Mart and anyone else who'll listen. This is get my investment $ back.

I have tried repeatedly to reactivate my LG 200C phone (ser# [protected]) ph # [protected] with a new 60 minute card purchased at Walmart on 2/06/2010 (#[protected]). I have called and/or gone on the web every day since 2/3/201 to try and activate the phone. Always an excuse (wait 24, then 48, then 72 hrs) from cust. service (ref # [protected]).

This can be resolved by reactivation and credit for the 60 minute card that I bought at Wal Mart that they tried to activate.

Wayne Williams

well, is not the rep falt, well im some cases the rep don't know what to do, but a agent who's used to the procedures and the different kind of costumer can handle the situation, this is going to be short, the agent did nto create the company, the agent did nor create the procedure, the agent, has no choise, the system does not work, we gotta work like wizards, some custs call yelling at you, as it were your fault, but tracfone has not it's own towers reason the phone does not work, if tracfone had it's own towers as verizon does, the phone will work, we got three coverage maps the one we can check were the phone will work the most, so is preferable to buy a cdma phone ( no simcard )

I think the job is under the average that people will accept. But at this time which job does not have that as the main feature. I say it is only another job under the average I would be satisfied but is acceptable (they sould pay more as they could).

Hi I used to work at Tracfone as Customer Service Representative. Many people complaint about this job and let me tell you this job is not easy it demands you a lot, but at the end of the day you get used to this job. What I don't like about this job is how unfair the QA form is, I mean this company saves a lot of money paying us USD$3 per hour and the only good thing is the bonus we get for QA Performance however Tracfone forgets that we are human and they penalized for things that are important I mean if we validate information to the customer to ensure that we are understanding the issue we get penalized, if the system shows an error we get penalized for incorrect used of tools, and if we ask the customer " Is there anything else I can do for you today?" We get penalized for unnecessary questions. Every single error makes you lose your bonus and they don't care if you resolve the issue and even if the customer is happy with your assistance tracfone does not care they just penalized you even if they get a happy customer !