Affiliated Computer Services Reviews

Pros

Salaries seem to be reasonable if you negotiate well coming in, but don't look for any increases for cost of living OR merit. There is a good PTO program, but you have to force yourself to take it or they will allow you to work yourself to death. They pile on the workload so it is very hard to get time off unless you just take it.

Cons

They have been making very bad decisions regarding the resources supporting the clients, which gets them into a cycle of inadequate support, dissatisfied customers, RIFs, inadequate support...
The bad part about it is that they retain lots of levels of management that don't seem to do anything except complain about bad customer support and planning for the next layoffs. They have also off-shored most of the work to India and Mexico, which further leads to customer support issues due to time zone differences and language barriers. Those of us left in the US have to clean up after these folks and we are losing more and more people. The future looks very bleak for ACS ITO and I think it is pretty much across the board in all ACS divisions. Professional advancement is a total joke unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time and jump into someone else's grave when they leave. Training/education opportunities are a joke. Many talented people are leaving in droves or have already left.

Advice to Senior Management

Duh! Senior management needs to realize that their plan (giving them the benefit of the doubt that they actually have a plan) has many serious flaws. They can't retain all the chiefs and cut the Indians to the bone without suffering serious impacts to customer/client satisfaction. This is only going to lead to more lost customers, more layoffs, and more poor customer service (rinse and repeat). Management needs to realize that they need to retain good staff to achieve good customer support and then maybe the company will grow due to actually making customers happy.

Pros

Flexible in terms of working from home

Cons

Tough culture no teamwork, businesses work independently and are pitted against each other in some cases. Commitments are made to clients that can't be kept. Employees are lowest priority of senior management

Advice to Senior Management

I am doubtful that a business model that does not consider the value of the firms most valuable asset (it's people) will thrive.

Pros

The paycheck.
Decent vacation package
ability to work from home
travel when there isn't a freeze on travel
not much else

Cons

good starting pay and that's the end of it
no raises for 4+ years now
you never know if a bonus will be paid even when the company is profitable
lack of promotions

Advice to Senior Management

even if profits aren't as high as expected, give inflation raises as much as possible
when no raises or bonuses not paid, don't allow the execs to have their yearly kickoff's

Pros

Easy job to do as long as you have a pair of head phones and a great music or audio book collection.

Cons

It is a piece rate company, so if you have a bad day your pay check has the potential to suffer horribly.

Advice to Senior Management

Take more steps to interact with the employees. Most feel cut off and slighted when contracts drop and they only have a matter of time to adjust to the new contract and make the pay they were previously making.

Pros

- lots of work hours and overtime opportunity when you're in training (first 3 months).
- benefits and discounts on client products/services (like Sprint).

Cons

- They don't honor the schedule you agreed on when initially get hired; they make it mandatory that you work a sixth day (even though you're supposed to have 2 days off in a week).
- They don't explain the pay structure to you. When they hired us (the group I was in), they informed us we'd be getting paid $9.50/hr. They also told us we get sales bonuses/commission for offering services, etc, while meeting the sales quota, along with a whole list of other requirements (Issue Resolution via customer surveys, Attendance, Avg Call Handle Time, Call Transfer Rate, etc). But you don't get your bonuses/commission until the next month's paycheck (according to my trainer, you would lose out on the current month's bonus if you quit before the next pay cycle... wonder if that's even legal?).
- They didn't tell us what the ABC pay was until a week or two before we were being transitioned to the main floor; and even when they did, they didnt give us any specifics about rate per call (we just figured we'd be making over $9.50/hr since that was what were making in training). When we got onto the floor that was when we found out how much we'd be making. Basically, the highest you can make (all your stats/quotas met) is $2.11 a call, and ONLY if your supervisor/team was assigned to take calls for the Business Dept. All other departments make less; $1.88/call at the highest if you're in the regular consumer dept; $1.55/call (highest) if you handled employee accounts. Basically, to make any money you have to the customer off your line; forget about providing customer care and keep your calls under 8mins (transfer them to another department or to your supervisor).
- You also have to watch out for surveys. These surveys are randomly sent out to the customers 1-3 days after they've spoken to you. These surveys make or break your income. Basically, if IR Surveys fall below 91% (basically 1 bad survey out of 10) you're already docked $150 that pay cycle (u lose money bcuz even the calls you took before the bad survey get dropped down a tier). And the worst part is that you may have done all that you could do for the customer, but the customer was still unsatisfied and said you didn't resolve their issue in that call (even if the cust knows u couldnt do anything for them). You can dispute the negative surveys but it means ACS will look/listen at your past call and make sure you noted the account the way they want you to (in their order) and make sure that you read all the unnecessary scripts Sprint wants you to read to their customers (scripts take like 4mins on their own and the customers don't want to hear them). If those aren't performed "properly , the bad survey falls on you.
- Some people make 60-80 calls a shift but only because they come in to work even when they aren't scheduled. I'm not that kind of person; I have an hourly rate set in my head. My time (the little they give you) is precious and I'm not going to come in unscheduled, lol. Working 11hrs a day so you can reach 65 calls isn't really worth is unless you're in a tight situation and very desperate for cash, not in school and have nothing else to do with your time or live alone and don't have a family.
- You also aren't allowed any paper/pen/pencil on the floor, nor can you use your phone or have it out (even if its on silent and you're expecting an emergency call or something), unless you want to be fired right there on the spot. They're computers/hardware/equipment is always broken; your system will shut off on its own, stop responding, freeze, etc when you're in the middle of a call, causing a problem for you and a potential bad survey. The A/C in the building is always out too, so most employees purchase their own personal fans (because ACS/Sprint doesn't care much about employee work conditions).

Advice to Senior Management

Increase the pay per call or do a tiered hourly pay based the employee's call rate. Stop treating your employees like outsourced workers from India/Asia/etc.

Pros

Two of the three leaders in that department have been let go. Trust me that was a huge step in the right direction. Xerox has taken the lead. Learned a great deal on my own, plenty of opportunity for that.

Cons

In our department, the team lead, supervisor, and director was the worst trio to have starting a new position. None of what I've said is personal because if you see other comments about this company you will understand. Never a kind word for doing a good job and it was the end of the world for the smallest mistake. Just to get an idea, the director at the time, had to take anger management classes.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and recognize the effort they put in. Understand why there has been so much turnover in the company.

Pros

Good people to work with in my area, flexibility and ability to work from home a major plus, a good variety of fun and challenging projects.

Cons

ACS makes very little (in fact 0 dollars are spent) to invest in their employees. Don't expect training or other perks (e.g. promotions, bonuses, etc...).

Pros

good pay and benefits, good professional development, lots of talented people doing good work

Cons

management make unexpected, unexplained, and unneeded changes that are bad for business and morale, very risk adverse, blindly layoff big groups including talented people, multiple management changes and constant reshuffling - not a stable environment

Advice to Senior Management

upper management make global decisions without understanding impact on clients and relationships -

Pros

There is a good amount of flexibility with work schedule

Cons

Compensation remains the same for years no matter how hard you work.

Advice to Senior Management

Acknowledge the efforts of good employees and do a better job in retaining staff.

Pros

Management has been receptive to me continuing my educaiton, have had a good experience with my managers

Cons

pay freeze for the past 3 years