CS No More...

[edicius]

Blech, that bites, Kara. That's Corporate America for ya. With your skill set and experience, though, I doubt you'll have much of a problem finding something even better. T-Mobile will find out what they're missing very shortly.

[alacazar]

Dang that sucks,

Good luck Kara, with finding a new job, given that working for 4+ years in a call center usualy looks realy good on a resumie, I dont think you will have any difficulties finding a new job.

Oh and if you need a good laugh, concider this. On aveage a call center employee stays for about 1 year, 6 months with an outsorced center. Given the payment differances involved, you can pay 1.5 new hires for every tenured employee you fire, ( 1.2 at my work place after 5 years of pay raises) but the new hire may not meet their goals for around 3 months, and are not generaly conciderd effective at their job till around 9 months of expeiance. Training in a call center is generaly paid, and may last as long as 2 months. Up to 25% of the training class may quit before taking their first call. As a rule, they will hire as many as 50 people to replace one tenured agent.

I admit though, I will miss the stories given that I deal with the same customers ( in some cases literaly) on a day to day basis. On that note I will laugh a great deal at the irony if you take a job with one of T-mobiles outsorced call centers that work in the same general area of the US

I am a bit surprised they let go any of their CS staff during this time of year, from my experiance with a few diffent compaies, any department that does cusomter service usualy racks up a que of 4 to 5 hundred waiting calls aroung this time of year. Possilbe so with the flex pay que's as its my understanding from friends that work with T-Mob, that a goodly portian of the Flex pay cusomters call or write in within 30 days to ask what a flex pay account is How do you sign a 2 year contract, or purchase a phone wihtout asking what you just bought

Ahh Well

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Bleh, that sucks. I've been fired abruptly after busting my ass to turn a department around, all because of one issue. What's worse is I handled it exactly the way it had been handled in the past, but just this once, it was the wrong answer.

[slavetotheman]

Yeah, sorry to hear about that, Kara. Makes me wish I had T-Mobile service so I could cancel and tell the sup why :-)

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Good luck, KaraXCS. Most employers will like that you have a long-running (ie not a jobhopper) resume. Good luck.

I've only been laid off once. My bosses were super nice & told me as soon as they knew for certain (my job had ceased to exist), about 3 months before the actual last day. It still sucked.

[ditchdj]

I think it was pretty sleazy the way they did it. If I was there I would have said, "If you were gonna fire me then why the hell did you have me come all the way into work just to walk into some bullshit ambush. You couldn't just call me on the phone???" I think that's rude to do, especially when you gotta deal with rush hour traffic to get home, which just adds to the aggravation of it all.

[Kara]

I think you've guaranteed that the hundreds of people who read your post will not be getting T-Mobile service in the future.

That's not really the point. Like I said, I'm not even mad at the company itself. I've personally met the VP of customer service, and he's a great guy. This is all my own local management's BS, don't judge the whole company based on it. This kind of thing happens. You'll hear something and be like, "OMG, SHE/HE got fired? I never thought that would happen..." My call center has always been about who you know or who you're sleeping with, and I probably lasted as long as I did by simply staying under the radar and away from all the political crap. I'll be keeping my service with them, because although I'll no longer have my employee plan, they still have the most minutes for the lowest price of anyone, and their coverage rocks where we are.

This isn't "I Hate T-Mobile." The company has like 20 something of its own call centers, and numerous outsourcers, so we're only looking at 2 managers in 1 location. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Wow, that REALLY sucks! Fucktards! EPIC FAIL on their part, EPIC, FUCKING, FAIL!!!

Can you collect unemployment?

[Polenicus]

Wow, that was pretty sleazy of them.

You already know this wasn't your fault. There's no way a company turfs an employee over a dropped call because they have no evidence it WASN'T improper. That's like throwing a random person in jail for murder because you don't have any evidence they DIDN'T do it.

A situation like this would call for MAYBE a coaching session... unless you're dealing with an employee with multiple notes in her file, which you would bring up at her termination session. This sounds more like they decided to terminate you before this whole dropped call thing, and latched onto this a cause. If they're in a state where they have to get cause, this isn't. And if they're not, they're just being spineless.

Don't take it too hard. I've been fired from plenty of jobs, and no matter the circumstances, there's always a part of me that wonders what I could have done to prevent it, and it's ALWAYS an emotional drain.

Don't worry about it. You'll find a better job. If I was an employer, I'd be thrilled to have someone as intelligent and articulate as you, and it makes me wish more of us on this board WERE employers. Unfortunately, there's no market for mass-producing ridicule of morons. Otherwise Raps could form a new company, hire us all, and be the Bill Gates of the idiot-flogging industry.

Keep us posted. I used to work in phone support... yes, even for T Mobile briefly. I know how mercurial the business can be, and how call centers can have real mayfly lives. We're looking forward to hearing about you getting your new job...

... and then complaining about it

[TWOLF]

that bites the big one and I aggree it's bs, the problem that both of us are faced with is the state we both live in is at will. If anything if you move up this way by chance drop me a line through here and I would be more then happy to give them a good word about you. Take care and and let us know how things go. By the way the company I work for had us do the same thing and the messsed up thing is people go down the road where I'm at and work in a call center for another carrier.

[Rahmota]

Wow that sucks. I'll agree it does sound like they had already made up their minds and was looking for an excuse or going to make an excuse to get rid of you. Possibly for financial reasons possibly not who knows either way it still winds up bad in the end.

[Pagan]

Oh, Kara, I know it sounds like a hollow platitude, but usually, something like this does happen for a reason. The universe is telling you that you're needed elsewhere.

I had something exactly like this happen to me at the call center for a certain woman's underwear. I was there for 3 years.

Unfortunately, there's no market for mass-producing ridicule of morons. Otherwise Raps could form a new company, hire us all, and be the Bill Gates of the idiot-flogging industry.

[hecubus]

Kara, I agree with everyone else that this whole thing completely sucks. I can empathize, though, as I left Blockbuster under similar circumstances. Not to launch into a long story, but I made one minor error in judgment, and the district manager took it as her excuse to fire me. So, keep your head up, and you'll find something as good or better very soon.

[Der Cute]

Kara -

From a woman who's been canned from about, oh, 80% of her jobs : There's a reason.

My steps:
Take one day to feel totally sorry for self. Jammies all day, slippers, on couch vegging out.

Next day: call unemployment and get ball rolling.
Work on resume.
Start calling friends/ family/ networking.

Post resume on line (dice.com, monster.com)
Look on Craigslist for jobs.
Go to the local job center. Work on resume.

Weekends are email checks and thoughts only. Worrying is only allowed Monday through Friday.

Kara- I agree with the rest of the posters that this termination is bull. Pure bull - looking to cut costs, so they cut you. I'm sorry.

You've got the right attitude: Don't let it keep you down. And if/when you start feeling Meh-ish, come here. We'll make you laugh.

Cutenoob

[Seolta]

"If you were gonna fire me then why the hell did you have me come all the way into work just to walk into some bullshit ambush. You couldn't just call me on the phone???"

Maybe they were worried the call might get dropped?