GSI Commerce Reviews

Pros

The pay was good for the area and that it is a 24 hour call center. Few people were genuinely good people. Also, knowing the deals at your favorite stores and companies.

Cons

Working as a seasonal, there were mind games of future hiring. You wasn't sure if they would keep you. Seem like there were alot of "clicks" in the call center. The people who were very unprofessional were hired. Those with experience and professionalism, was not hired. Reason for those people who were hired and not "fit" were the ones who were friends with the supervisors or ran in that circle.

Also, was an overnight CSR, some of the policies and procedures that were taught in training did not apply and did not know till last minute. That can effect your performance. Speaking with reps who wanted to help you succeed tell you this.

However, they let me laid me off but promised to keep my resume on file. When I applied the following seasoning (knowing what is expected and times of employment are hard these days), I applied for the same position, however the supervisor on that shift told HR not to hire me for that department and go to another. Both HR and I could not understand why. While working with the Supervisor, we never bumped heads and was actually friendly and open. Additionally, helpful on how the overnight procedures worked. So not understanding why the Supervisor did not recommend me. Still baffled.

Advice to Senior Management

The same policies for temp to hire agents should apply to hire agents. Seems that temps are more professional with each other as well as with the clients than the agents. Agents get away with murder because they are not being supervised appropriately as well as the wrong people are being hired. Take a look at work history, employee history and not if they run in a certain circle. granted this is a call center, but still this is a place of business and handling with clients and their important sensitive information. Everyone should act professional.

Pros

My Supervisor was very helpful and understanding
Trainers insure you understand all material and take time to do one on one's. I have seen them do this with many of my co-workers
It is a new experience and gives you insight on another environment and in the customer service field
They encourage you to return for another season
If you need to call out you can ask for undertime for shorter hours so it does not effect your absences or need to go to appointments for yourself or family members that you have to take to appointments
Benefits and bonuses for regular/permanent employees

Cons

They send people home early occasions for what they consider undertime which usually leaves you short hours in your check and if you have a family or bills to take care of the salary may hinder your ability to cover financial responsibilities
They tell seasonal hires that there will be a chance for regular and permanent employment as long as you meet the 90 and above percentile. I know many who had great scores and still did not advance
Many coworkers said they did not get the "$1 for every hour you worked at the end of the season" bonus for one excuse or another so they only got the $0.50 for every hour worked during the season bonus.

Pros

The company deals in a bunch of different businesses. I have been fortunate enough to experience all most all of them and get a good understanding of each. I have been giving lots of opportunity to take on more work, but none of that comes with more money. GSI expects the world from people but pays them nothing. As well the don't shed the crap employees.

Cons

Bad Benefits
Poor Pay Scale
Too Top Heavy, 1 Executive for every 2-3 entry level position.
Poor long term vision

Pros

discounts to some of the clients they have

Cons

you work after hours all the time even on holidays and weekends

Pros

In my particular group we are working on a very high level with tens of thousands of moving parts and if you can fit in you get to work with the best and brightest IT people in the world. In my group we deal with incredible amounts of complexity and challenges every week and are solving V11 problems all day long. If you have a crappy position or boss, you are free to move along, we are building something great here.

Cons

I sometimes lack direction when I complete my current task early. I could use more support or documentation from peers who know the area I am trying to get results in. But on the other hand these tasks are so cutting edge I suppose not many IT experts know this latest and greatest technology and could document it.

Advice to Senior Management

The emails from the Chris S the CEO did make me feel connected to a common goal. Everyone loves to win or hear good news once in a while. I am guessing all employees like working for a good cause not some greedy CEO or faceless big company. I do love all the brands I get to work with so that is a boost for me to put in the extra effort. My boss lets me innovate freely and I will never stop adding value because he gives me freedom to think outside the box and trusts me to add value without micro-management or daily stress.

Pros

Fellow employees
Okay training for what short time you have in training
Possibilities to switch verticals
Good location
Some supervisors are very good but very few

Cons

To many supervisors have little to no leadership qualities or ambition to help those under them
No room to move up, very political on whose in and whose not due to cliques
To short of time in training, missed several key points that should have been shown in training but weren't
Grading upon calls is a farce, they demand short call times, little to no hold times... close to impossible to maintain customer service if heavy call volume. That's the main thing.........pressure to maintain good call score leads to poor customer service.

Advice to Senior Management

Restructure entire company and try to implement "We value the customer" rather than we need numbers. Promote from within, but promote people that can lead.

Pros

In my particular department, I felt there was a great deal of support but most of the time, the project plans from senior executives were out of touch with what could be accomplished in the time frame given versus what was expected to be accomplished.

Cons

There is a great deal of political favoritism and if you disagree with upper management you could see yourself escorted from the building.

Advice to Senior Management

Come down to earth in terms of the reality of the amount of hours you think it is going to take to accomplish projects versus what people can really do in that amount of time.

Pros

- Free gym with bare essentials (1 treadmill, 1 broken stair climber, 1 sometimes-functioning eliptical, free weights, benches)

- Nice enough coworkers

- Sloppy dress code in their 1075 building

- Free beer and bagels if you're a carb lover

- Close to the mall and all major highways

- Well-known ("high end" for the year 2000) clients: all league sports, Calvin Klein, Tumi, Toys R Us, Aeropostale, Christopher & Banks, Wilsons, Betsey Johnson, etc

- If you want to come in day after day doing the same work with just barely enough pay, then this place is for you.

Cons

- Mundane work
- High turnover rate (gee, wonder why)
- Top-heavy, incompetent management
- "Open door" policy is a farce
- HR is non-existent
- No upward mobility; promotions from outside
- Eliminating annual raises in order to maintain the great "atmosphere"; a "be thankful you're here" attitude (ie: they chopped the 1075 building's cafeteria to now a 2-table hallway so they can cram more desks in here!)
- Inability to work from home
- Underpaid (according to a market analysis) by over $10,000
- No accurate pay scale; employees in PA are making the exact same as those in KY (cost of living???)
- Serious symptoms of Big Corporate; Pointless "town halls" in which upper management throws around corporate verbiage (ROI, leverage, opportunity). In fact, our new CFO actually said, "this belittles our skills" (basic English what?); they provide pretzels and soda, though, so it's totally worth it when they hold the 2-hour meeting at 8am or 5pm
- False advertisement. We have a marketing intern program where college students come in on a Saturday, we interview and show a presentation on GSI Commerce. Guess what? We showed a presentation for another company!! Simply because we can't do what we pitch
- bought by eBay. Each employee received a whopping $25 gift card to use online, what a perk!
- Most of all, we routinely over-promise to clients ("partners") and fall short on delivery; we don't hold our clients to their contracts and let them demand repetitive work without payment (which is fine because managers make the decision, but aren't the ones to do the grunt work)
- Zero recognition for work

Advice to Senior Management

Bulldoze the entire company and rebuild! Now that Michael Rubin left (he made a pretty penny), let's actually create a "We care" environment. In order to be a part of eBay, you should probably begin to treat your employees as such. If I knew that someone gave a hoot about what I did, then perhaps I wouldn't be writing this review and resigning from GSI Commerce. I'd like to be a name, not just a number.

Pros

Alot of different opportunities for growth.

Cons

Sometimes feel as a sweatshop.

Pros

Great middle managers, strong teams, and a truly client focused attitude. Plus, many positive changes and moves to something resembling work/life balance.

Cons

We're not a work/life balance place - we can't be in this field.