Call Center Review - Sales Support Representative Nu Skin Employee Review

I am not a disgruntled employee, I left on good terms, and am eligible for rehire. So this review isn't coming from someone who was forced out or fired. However, working at this company was one of the worst, darkest times of my life. First of all, it is a "Direct Selling" company, also known as a Multi-Level Marketer (MLM). While the company professes to abide by the law, the distributors would do some extremely shady things, and the company would not do anything about it. We would often report distributors for setting up completely fake accounts (they would actually add numbers to the end of new customers' names), and then buy and return products rapidly in order to grow an upline's volume and increase their commissions. However, the company would never do anything to these distributors. I reported accounts at least a couple times a week, and nothing was ever done. We would also hear distributors lie to new customers/distributors on the phone, and were only told to correct them if the new customer asked us if that was true. I would also get customers who were told by their uplines not to return anything for over a year, by which time their return policy had expired. Very shady stuff going on. We would also hear distributors give claims on the phone about what a product could do, and they were often completely untrue, and bordering on illegal (as in, distributors claimed they could prevent and treat medical conditions). The work itself is very tedious and monotonous. You talk to distributors and customers all day, every day, with hardly any time between calls (especially if you speak a language, like Mandarin or Korean). You place orders, set up returns, try to help people navigate the horribly buggy website, and fix problems other people made. You would also get yelled at by callers all the time. You had hardly any time between calls, and were pushed to take more calls constantly. Also, they wanted you to upsell on every call. It didn't matter what they were calling for, you were expected to upsell. They could be quitting the business, and you would be expected to try to sell them something more. Upselling was king. Even when it would be completely awkward, or wrong, to upsell, it was expected. The company invested millions of dollars in a CRM system that was constantly broken. There were so many bugs that would never get fixed. And instead of getting a better one, they just keep throwing money at it, and it doesn't get fixed. This web-based CRM system also backed up to an on-prem, older CRM, which would in turn back up to a DOS-based CRM system. Yes, they still used DOS-based programs. Even for calculating commissions. As for the website, it is always having problems. There were always bugs, and people had a hard time even placing orders. But they wanted to fix it cheaply, so they never brought in outside help to fix things. The CRM problems would also bleed onto the website, preventing people from placing orders or using normal coupons codes. The culture at Nu Skin was toxic. They tell you that their employees are very important, but they do not show that. In the call center, employees are not viewed as people, they are looked at in terms of coverage. What hours can they work, what languages and skills do they have, and what hours do we need? Need to change your schedule? Good luck. Even when given one of the coveted spots of being one of the top employees in a certain skill set and being told you could pick your schedule, getting that schedule was often difficult. Workforce Management could approve or deny them based on coverage needs, even when you were told you could pick your schedule. If you didn't get one of the top spots, you had to put in for a shift bid and hope a spot opened up in the time slot you need, otherwise you have to convince someone on that shift to switch with you. Management did not want to hear about problems at the call center. They would often say if someone didn't want to work there, they could leave, because it was a privilege to work at Nu Skin. They got stuck in the thinking of 2008/2009, when jobs were hard to get. Now that unemployment is low, people can go almost anywhere else and be treated better. But call center management still treats the employees like garbage. I was also told by management that working at Nu Skin is like being part of the LDS church (LDS culture is very big at Nu Skin). They said you represented Nu Skin at all times and in all places, just like the LDS church. Stop making Nu Skin seem like a religion, because it's not. Additionally, the only way to do well there was to join the buddy club, which brings up the next point. Call center management would constantly talk about moving up in the company. Forget it, it hardly ever happens. It is extremely rare to move up at Nu Skin. And to move up at all in the call center, you have to become buddies with management. That means playing X-box and going paint balling with the director and manager. If you don't, you will not move up, and will get written up for the smallest things. I saw it happen to many people. However, if you were part of the club, you could do almost anything you wanted. All the talk at the company about positions that would be created as the company grew, that was all just smoke and mirrors to get people to stay. They don't actually get created. And the jobs that do open up are filled by friends of upper level management and directors. As I mentioned earlier, working here was one of the darkest times of my life. The time spent at work drained my soul, and it died a little more, every day. The business model is sketchy, hardly any distributors make money, and the ones that do aren't honest. You will constantly hear stories from customers on the phone about how much money they lost on Nu Skin products, and the lies they were told to get them to join. It's the same lies the company tells potential employees. Unlimited growth, can move up quickly, make a career out of it, get paid a lot of money. Unless you are exceptionally lucky (like 1 in 1,000), you won't go anywhere with this company, even if you have the skills to exceed. Do your life a big favor, and avoid working for this company.