Pros
College student looking to get by great place to work
Cons
I have been with the company for 4 years and the company has seen a lot of change. The leadership blame being not accepting to change on the "negative" attitudes of older associates. Change is how the industry works no doubt. Fast pace technology and change is why I started there! Bottom line. They are a small company trying to fight with larger companies and are always trying to keep there head above water. So consolidation is done. They eliminated a department of business reps leaving business sales calls and business customers to Retail Wireless consultants. Mind you this is a great "opportunity" to make lots of money!"money in your pocket " is a coin phrase they use very liberally and inaccurately.Mind you those business take LOTS of time and are very needy. So hours invested in to cold calls, setting up plans following up and setting up and for the next few months being their "contact". Just sales right? Don't forget you have 60 "SMB" calls you have to make a month, plus a separate call list for existing customers which is only about 15-30 calls a month not too bad but in your 8 hour shift you must also complete you 4-6 trainings a month. Oh yea.. don't forget about the 14 customers waiting on a list yelling on the phone to customer service as they wait due to them being upset. On top of that you are not JUST a sales person due to consolidation you also are a technician, greeter, and sales manager. Mind you as well due to smart phone and market saturation they are continually trying to re invent the wheel and are in the process of doing something a different way each month sometimes each week. AND sale to tech ratio is about 1 sale : 10 tech issues. Us cellular has a HUGE loyal customer base but has tanked and unable to keep more customers than gained in the last 7 quarters. It used to be a diverse unique company to work for now it is strictly big business. There are lots of articles about the company such as in Bloomingburg from July 2012. They don't value their associate like they used to, they will hire someone who doesn't know any different for less, until they have been there for 2 years and pay is decrease by thousands! By what they call, "Commission structure" they changes with the needs of the business. If you're making less it's simply because "you are not doing all you can !" I will give them props for still having our annual culture survey to share associate opinions about the company ect. but they did change the questions so that they are no longer asking the "tough" questions. I will bet that will also disappear in the next few years to due to cost. Try explaining to a customer who has a broken warranty phone that has been with the company from 1994 that they have to pay $35 to have a replacement shipped, or they have the option to upgrade but have to also pay $30 to do that plus cost of phone, mail in a rebate that is only there because they hope you forget about it to make more money off of you, and then reduced you trial period from 30 days to 15. Limit you battery swaps 4 times a month to 4 times a year. If you ask your manager a question good luck getting a strait answer it is just as bad a politics. You will get a run a round and leave the conversation not even remembering what you asked in the first place. Oh by the way we call that "giving the D.O" which the D.O stood for Dynamic Organization which USED to mean something, but now does not by any means. Once that left the company tanked! WORK life balance DOES NOT EXIST!!! Always short staffed. NO vacation after November 15th. They do tell you they schedule for the needs of the business, rightfully so but when you close at night (at 9:00 pm) you usually won't leave until 10:00 I have even had to stay till 11:00- 11:30 HELPING CUSTOMERS!!! Mind you I have been with the company for 4 years and am making 11.87/ hr plus commission my commission check was a whole $787.00 before taxes and I had averaged 35/38 hrs a week and I AM PART TIME!!! Think about this job carefully if you are looking for a career here or have a family!