Abtran (Sky) Cork - what is it like to work there?

hoodwinked · 01-02-2012 11:11AM

H8GHOTI wrote: »

I wonder.
I was watching The Daily Show & they were talking about it. They mentioned a couple of times, that at the moment all call centre jobs (for Sky) were based in Scotland and that any Irish customer had to ring Scotland with any problems. I was thinking to myself, did they not know about Abtran?

correct me if i am wrong, but im thinking abtran are sales/upgrades only, whenever we have had any issues with our box we have been put through to the Scottish call centres and they have dealt with them, once when my mum was looking to add another box to her multiroom she rang and Scotland transferred her to Abtran (she ended up recognizing the guy as one of her neighbours) im assuming now Dublin will transfer these calls to Cork.

gimmick · 01-02-2012 11:59AM

regress wrote: »

That makes no sense. Announcement said new Dublin jobs would be dealing with Irish customers. Abtran currently deals with Irish Sky customers and it is being said that they have lost the contract. Although if it is phased in natural burnout and attrition from Abtran sweatshop and transfer of jobs to other contracts there will mean no redundancies required. Still just a transfer of jobs from Cork to Dublin rather than the creation of new jobs.

Why start a thread asking a question if you already know the answer to it?

regress · 01-02-2012 02:43PM

gimmick wrote: »

Why start a thread asking a question if you already know the answer to it?

I don't. Just guessing. Maybe someone with more inside info will confirm whether or not Abtran have had any changes to Sky contract. Sky spokesman on Newstalk refused to say.

H8GHOTI · 01-02-2012 04:19PM

hoodwinked wrote: »

correct me if i am wrong, but im thinking abtran are sales/upgrades only, whenever we have had any issues with our box we have been put through to the Scottish call centres and they have dealt with them, once when my mum was looking to add another box to her multiroom she rang and Scotland transferred her to Abtran (she ended up recognizing the guy as one of her neighbours) im assuming now Dublin will transfer these calls to Cork.

Ya I think you could well be right there. They did mention that the Dublin jobs were going to be technical.

Shellygoose · 01-02-2012 11:59PM

Abtran jobs are safe. Dublin will be Customer Service and Tech Support, currently Scotland are dealing with those calls.

(If Abtran lost the Sky contract then they'd be f*cked!)

gbee · 02-02-2012 01:07AM

regress wrote: »

But should the media be called to task for trumpeting new jobs for Ireland .

Especially as SKY has to be going into decline, FreeSat, Free To Air, and the free Irish stuff. €80 plus a month in this economy which is on at least a 25 year sentence, and SKY are opening .....

I don't think so. Just that, it'll never happen, my opinion, it's simply a publicity stunt as SKY loses customers in one of it's more lucrative markets.

SKY was grand, service excellent, I paid full price and enjoyed it, but it's over, this is irreversible, and a thousand call centre jobs will be filled by ..... fill in the blanks, anyway.

It'll be closed in three months after opening at any rate, SKY is dying, I loved SKY, but it's only worth €2 a month now, let alone it's insidious SKY Sports fees for pubs and restaurants.

Moving to Dublin wont's change a thing. I remember Dell.

oppiuy · 10-05-2012 11:04AM

Hi,

I interviewed for a TL position here and was told that sjy would be looking to move its all of its sale's centre to Dublin and outsourceing would be gone

kw3 · 19-10-2012 08:18PM

Hi I've been offered a position at Abtran as part of the Job Bridge scheme. I'm pretty desperate to move out of home but it seems that working in Abtran for 50euros a week seem like it wouldn't be the best idea. What do people think?

MrFrisp · 19-10-2012 09:19PM

kw3 wrote: »

Hi I've been offered a position at Abtran as part of the Job Bridge scheme. I'm pretty desperate to move out of home but it seems that working in Abtran for 50euros a week seem like it wouldn't be the best idea. What do people think?

From what most people are saying about it..And then put up with all that for €50 a week? :eek:

You'd be nuts.

.

kw3 · 19-10-2012 10:10PM

Indeed indeed. Thanks I just needed a 57th opinion!

Spindle · 20-10-2012 12:47PM

kw3 wrote: »

Hi I've been offered a position at Abtran as part of the Job Bridge scheme. I'm pretty desperate to move out of home but it seems that working in Abtran for 50euros a week seem like it wouldn't be the best idea. What do people think?

Abtran is like purgatory for people with degrees waiting for proper jobs to come up, if you are not careful you may be pulled into hell for ever, if you are lucky you may get out.

gem898 · 27-10-2012 02:36PM

I worked in abtran for just over a year until december last. I enjoyed the work. Worked on the Sky account in CRT and Retention. There were some ups and downs such as being told that CRT was gone, transferred to Retention then a week later being told I had to go back to CRT. It actually wasnt as bad as some people are saying on here. I guess it depends on what you put into it. For the first 5 or 6 months, I looked at the job as just a job. After transferring back to CRT I took it as a way of gaining as much experience as possible from the job before moving onto something new. I built good relationships with team leaders and ops managers and product specialists. I volunteered for extra responsibilities and essentially was treated with respect and my opinions were welcomed. With those relationships built, I felt comfortable speaking to managers about things such as low morale on the floor and we came up with suggestions to improve it. Again there were problems but we spoke up about them instead of letting things lie or boiling up inside.

On the fun side, we also got pizza parties, an hour off the phones here and there for team building games and cakes, and nights out partially comped by sky. In general I found that its the people you work with that make the work better in there. Again, not every job is suitable for everyone. Its a personal preference and depends on essentially what you want to get out of it. If you want to earn money, are happy to work on shift, make some good friends and gain some customer service training and experience then there is no harm in giving it a go and seeing how it works out for you. You never know you might actually enjoy it... I know I was surprised when I did.

Cork24 · 30-12-2012 01:06PM

What kind is the pay in abtran would you be coming out wit 400 plus or under 400

goldie fish · 30-12-2012 11:46PM

Considerably under.

Cork24 · 31-12-2012 12:30AM

goldie fish wrote: »

Considerably under.

Really ? So what u talking about 350 320

goldie fish · 31-12-2012 11:15AM

You don't get paid weekly.

Under 20k a year.

8.89 an hour.

And your toilet breaks are timed.

Cork24 · 31-12-2012 07:44PM

Thats really low isn't it,,

so what the hell is all the fuss about them if they only pay .5% over the Min Wage.

Flesh Gorden · 31-12-2012 08:22PM

Cork24 wrote: »

Thats really low isn't it,,

so what the hell is all the fuss about them if they only pay .5% over the Min Wage.

They're always hiring, full time contracts, and at the very least your guaranteed an interview

A relative and two friends worked there for a while until they sorted a few loose ends (loans etc...)
I don't think they liked the place or would go back, but it got them through a rough patch and paid the bills.

Plus they're handling the SUSI Grant processing before it heads to the Dublin VEC.
Meaning they'll probably be looking to hire even more people to deal with the massive backlog

Cork24 · 31-12-2012 08:55PM

@under 20k a year, they can have it.

goldie fish · 31-12-2012 09:52PM

They lost the Sky contract I understand.

hufpc8w3adnk65 · 04-01-2013 08:07PM

goldie fish wrote: »

They lost the Sky contract I understand.

Really?Therell be big lay off's so most likely

evilivor · 04-01-2013 08:28PM

Donovan Mealy Traction wrote: »

Really?Therell be big lay off's so most likely

Sky are in the process of opening their own customer contact centre in Dublin. It was announced around this time last year.

hufpc8w3adnk65 · 05-01-2013 10:47AM

evilivor wrote: »

Sky are in the process of opening their own customer contact centre in Dublin. It was announced around this time last year.

Well unless Abtran get another contract in its place alota people will be without jobs id guess

Chazz Michael Michaels · 05-01-2013 05:05PM

I worked there about five years ago. I thought it was grand.

gimmick · 07-01-2013 03:02PM

Cork24 wrote: »

@under 20k a year, they can have it.

Depends on how desperate one is really isn't it? Personally I would hate to have to be stuck to go back to a call centre but needs must and all that.

regress · 07-01-2013 09:05PM

gimmick wrote: »

It was said this morning that the Cork call centre is safe. These are additional jobs. They are not replacing the Cork jobs.

/Hysteria quashed.

Shellygoose wrote: »

Abtran jobs are safe.

(If Abtran lost the Sky contract then they'd be f*cked!)

Ye may well be right but I can't help feeling that this may well be a massive con job. That the new jobs announced are merely being transferred from Cork to Dublin. Only time will tell who is right I suppose.

lisao80 · 07-01-2013 11:55PM

regress wrote: »

Ye may well be right but I can't help feeling that this may well be a massive con job. That the new jobs announced are merely being transferred from Cork to Dublin. Only time will tell who is right I suppose.

Iv heard sky is going by May but Abtran have gotten a contract with the RSA and will be transferring staff to that contract.

lilmissprincess · 08-01-2013 12:07AM

I've got an interview for these on Thursday. Having heard the nightmare stories of Abtran, has anyone experience of Aviva in particular?

Spindle · 08-01-2013 02:47PM

Looks like Abtran is the new revolving door employer in Cork replacing the no closed Merchants and RCI.

Call centers are all the same, micro-managed within an inch of your life, loads of pointless stats and graphs (which are invented by Team Leads/Management to justify their existence), weird/forced "team building" events which are your "time off" the phone. Bribes of pizza, forced decoration of your office, even to the point that you have to dress up in fancy dress.

All of the above you can ignore, the hardest though for most is the customers who are roaring down the phone at you, mostly due to the fact that you are not allowed to solve or help them in anyway, as you are a robot who is not allowed escalate the call and must close it out within 2/3 mins. One day one of these customers will push you over the edge, either that or having to listen back to calls to get your quality up!

The plus points to working in a call center, is that when you move onto another office/desk job, you will never encounter as much stats and micro-management as you did in a call center.

If you can switch off easily, and don't take anything that people say to you seriously, then working in a call center is grand for a while until you find something better. If you really like it, you can work to becoming a team lead, but just remember that if you become a team lead you could be sucked into it for life, and might just go from call center to call center, producing needless stats and excel spreadsheets, instead of doing the one thing that you should be doing, helping customers!

PS. I went through the revolving doors of both Abtran and Merchants and survived, I might be a bit bitter about it though

gimmick · 08-01-2013 03:04PM

Merchants? Ugh. My god how I hated that place

Hi, I am calling you on behalf of Barclay card to announce a special offer.

Dark days indeed.

Abtran (Sky) Cork - what is it like to work there?

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