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

whatsup28

Anyone know anything about working for Abtran or SKY in Cork?
Is it good or bad? I am thinking more about Support Roles (eg Training, Manager) rather than Customer Service ?

Thanks if you know anything

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hufpc8w3adnk65

Lamposts wrote: »

Interview tmrw with them... sounds awful but I need the cash..

Did you apply directly or threw agency?

Lamposts

Interview tmrw with them... sounds awful but I need the cash..

emeo

gem898 wrote: »

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.

Your forgetting we had to pay for our own pizza parties:pac:WORST JOB EVER

Tonyyoyo

Theyll hire yee lads, used to work there. they hire EVERYBODY. You might be let go after a week or two though or just not be able to stick it. Honestly ive seen lads get hired coming to interviews wearing tracksuits

Hogzy

I have the same interview, but tomorrow.

gimmick

Gladly I have the rest of it forgotten. But I couldn't make a phone call outside the place without being conscious of not going into the spiel.

Spindle

gimmick wrote: »

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.

Ahhh, I still can real that off, it is buried so deep.

gimmick

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.

Spindle

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

lilmissprincess

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

lisao80

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.

regress

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.

gimmick

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.

Chazz Michael Michaels

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

hufpc8w3adnk65

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

evilivor

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

goldie fish wrote: »

They lost the Sky contract I understand.

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

goldie fish

They lost the Sky contract I understand.

Cork24

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

Flesh Gorden

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

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.

goldie fish

You don't get paid weekly.

Under 20k a year.

8.89 an hour.

And your toilet breaks are timed.

Cork24

goldie fish wrote: »

Considerably under.

Really ? So what u talking about 350 320

goldie fish

Considerably under.

Cork24

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

gem898

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.

Spindle

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.

kw3

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

MrFrisp

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

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?