Place in London advertising Sales Job as 'Customer Service.'

User1000

Recently moved to London. Have struggled for work and financially over the years so as you can imagine, was absolutely overjoyed to get a job offer from a mobile phones company in The City last friday to start this tuesday. i told everyone back home with great pride and excitement, as it was basically the most impressive thing i'd ever managed. in order to make a good impression (i have no decent work clothes) i quickly went out last weekend and spent £250 of money i couldn't afford to waste on work clothes, and was eager to start. Role on their website is advertised as Customer Services and details that of a typical incoming customer services clerk, the interview was a group affair and i was so happy to pass it and the interview and in the interview all the talk was that of a CSA. On the contracts I was emailed it was called Customer Services Advisor.

Anyway, I was to say the least dismayed when I got there on tuesday and as the day went on, it was clear that I was put into training for an Outbound Retentions and sales Agent, basically a dressed up telesales role. with targets all geared towards sales, despite how they tried and tried to dress it up as a customer services role.

All my previous experience is in CSA and i am against any kind of ringing up and pestering people (normally poor people) for money. out of principle as well as the fact i would fail at the job and get fired i emailed them politely declining the job off and asking if i could be transferred to the CS dept, you know, THE JOB I APPLIED FOR ON THEIR WEBSITE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

have heard nothing back and i'm feeling pretty low now. won't say what company it is as unsure if that's a good idea, but it's taught me a valuable lesson here. at the end of interviews or even on the phone first off, i'm now going to always ask at least twice "this is an inbound customer services role, yes?" any failure to give me a decent response will see me end my interest in that company. i simply can't stand liars. this completely ruined my month and mindset the last few days the due to the dissapointment and now worries of my rent excess and bills and tube fares continue. really hope something suitable comes up soon.

gothic_girl

Hi There

Didn't want to leave you unanswered. This has happened to me twice in the last few months, luckily I managed to catch them out before this stage (agencies) It seems to me that they are fluffing the role to make it look more appealing.

One was by the jobcentre on the future job fund as a customer service advisor ( perfect as my background too) description all great until 1 line made me look twice, I questioned it with the advisor who then told me it was calling charity subscribers to up their donations. No complaints, no enquiries, no emails nothing I had experience with. Im sorry but I lump that with coldcalling which I refuse to do for the same reason as you.

Anyhoo Is there any way you could return some of the clothes to recoup some money? ( maybe keep an outfit just so you have one in case of another immediate start) just as a short term measure

Can you report them to anyone e.g the job centre if advertised through them or chase them one more time maybe wording it how it would be more business wise to put you in x dept due to prior experience blah blah blah and as shown by excelling at the interview for the particular role.

Did the manager of the team you started with say anything that my point to this is how they do things ( advert 1 role actually want 10 and pick out of the interview 'pool') or were they surprised/ upset/ try to enquire on your behalf.

Hope I helped and not rambled too much!

Good Luck !

User1000

yeah basically the trainer and 2 managers there were all in on the ruse. i started about 10am and by about midday the word sales and outbound had been using a couple of times, because 8 out of the ten or 11 of us there were agency temps i simply assumed at first (rather hoped, clutched at straws etc) that i was there to do CS but they would be going into sales. i figured maybe they were just doing a group induction to save time and that when we actually went off to work we'd be in different depts. but clearly as the day went on they kept saying outbound, and sales targets. one guy kept telling different stories of what team i'd be in, lots of contradictions etc. and then obviously in a mix of panic/extreme anger i kept my cool and asked them about it, que the rest of the day them all backtracking about how it 'wasn't a sales drives', and them carting some young team leader lad in to say 'how much better he finds doing outgoing calls is!' yeah, nice one mate. that's great. good for you, but i applied for an inbound job and have been sold an inbound job. this is sales, further backed up by an example script which got passed round near end of the day which basically gave pointers on how to push the customer into signing up for deals, and how not to offer the best deal first, to leave it til they've said no a few more times then to offer the good deal etc. all totally disgusting and the kind of job I could just waltz into in any city in england. saw the script at about 5pm and knew i was walking, but had to just sit about for the final hour and stay professional. didn't have a keycard, so too embarrassing to have to be escorted out. i moved here to try and get something proper and sort my life out as I have struggled for work and direction the last 3 or 4 years, not a f'n unstable target based telesales job that a 15 year old can just walk in with no morals and do.

since they havent replied in 3 days i'm not going to chase it up again, quite frankly the job's gone. i was willing to be an awesome employee for them and judging by the rest of the intake i was by far the best worker and most professional there. all they did was spend time talking about how fit the office girls were and that, and ask me what the best clubs in shoreditch were.

the clothes i bought i either wore or untagged all of them, and the shoes are worn and untagged. so really all i can do is send back 1 pair of work trousers to asos for £28 when they arrive, which i will do.

definitely sounds like a con trick that goes on in London more than other places, so that's why ive posted this to help others. i've learned to be far more thorough now in the early stages, im going to ask alot more questions and also make sure they stipulate it's an incoming call job and stress that i'm not interested in any sort of sales.

joshken

I really appreciate the OP's steps taken against such unscrupulous companies. I too have been a victim of such but just took no action as result had to bear the worst time of my life working for such.

shikoku

Having been employed taking inbound calls (I thought it would be a lot more pleasant than my previous outbound experience) I can tell you this type of work is no less target driven and horrendous than outbound; you are expected to take every opportunity to 'up sell' and to also get through a ridiculous number of calls per hour with total efficiency.

In the case of the job I was doing you had to take down messages at breakneck speed without one single grammar or spelling mistake. The slightest error led to threats of a disciplinary etc.. I think it speaks volumes about the company I worked for that one of their major clients was recently shut down by the Ministry of Justice!

I would not wish to work in a call centre of any description ever again. I was made very ill with stress by it and it took me a good 18 months before I felt entirely well again.

Even now just thinking about it makes me feel twitchy.

I'm job seeking at the moment and I scour the job descriptions very carefully to make sure I don't apply for these types of jobs, it is amazing the number of ways they are dressed up to look like something else - honest decent admin. of some description usually.

The very best way to spot them is the speed with which they get back to you if your radar has failed and you have mistakenly applied. A few pertinent questions about targets followed by a frank confession that I simply cannot cope with that sort of working atmosphere (the truth, and I have the medical records to prove it) sends them on their way.

You are certainly not alone in this experience - just look at the essays you are getting in response

User1000

i know what you mean. thing is, nobody would choose to do a call centre job if you had the choice. i choose to apply for these jobs for 2 reasons, that being it's what i'm experienced in so i stand the best chance of getting a job, and secondly for all the !!!!! jobs out there, call centres pay that little bit more. not much more, but instead of £6 an hour doing a !!!! job in a pub or some terrible high street shop, you can earn 7-£8 working a !!!! job in a call centre. no brainer for me.

incoming while not being the best job in the world is still a world away from sales. at least then the person is ringing you, upselling the odd product to a customer ringing in wanting to buy something in the 1st place isn't the same thing as running down a list of numbers and ringing them up one by one, asking if they've had a nice day then slyly pushing services and offers onto them.

if i could have done the job i would . 18k would have done nicely. to be honest i really, really needed the job and i'm gutted. but i simply cannot do sales at the end of the day. if i want a sales job i can go out and get one tomorrow and be working it by monday morning, i need a suitable job and when i get it i will be happy to stay for years.

LisaPapakis

It's a rotten trick, I'm sorry they got you with it. Good luck finding something better.

miss_duke

How disapointing for you. Hope you get something better asap xx