customer service representative

sales advisor

retentions advisor

inbound sales representative

client advisor

Firstsource Solutions

well I started first source 18months ago on the sky contract, I will say my Team and Team Leader were absolutely amazing couldn't have done more for me. considering this was my first ever job on the phone I knew nothing about this type of job. I had an amazing bond with my team and team leader. so I will say the sky contract was really good and excitable. 

Then.... the Eon contract came along, where a member of First source HR and Recruitment took a meeting where we were promised that Eon would be this amazing contract with the possibilities of earning on average £400 per week in just bonus and no Sundays anymore and only working 1 Saturdays in 3.  

This sounded really promising and with them looking to take 75 people over initially then growing up to over 300 head count by September. making this contract sound like it was planning to become bigger and better than the sky contract. 

so I put my name forward at this point to want to part of the Eon contract. 

And from this point it has only gone downhill....

so I came over to eon on the first ever teams on eon. in my head I knew that its a new contract so some trial and errors would be needed to get it to run as a smooth operation but anyway so here we go....

1st week of training the trainers told us on the Monday that on day 3 being the Wednesday that the Eon Trainer would be coming down to do 2 weeks of training to get us ready to become outbound sales advisors. on day 3 no sign of the Eon trainer anywhere. at this point the trainers didn't have a clue in what was going on when the Eon trainer was ever going to turn up. they just said if not here today maybe tomorrow anyway it wasn't until week 2 on the Monday that the Eon trainer turned up. Week 2 and 3 of training was very draining no engaging just kept getting told all you need to remember is "say what you see". we got that drilled into us at least 20/30 times per day. The Eon trainer wasn't very enthusiastic about training us in fact I didn't really feel engaged during training purely down to the way we were trained. 

At this point our schedules got released to us, now we were under the impression that we were going to be in for 1 Saturday and off the other 2 in a 3 week period. When they got released to us they were actually work 2 and have 1 off in the 3 week period. We all noticed this straight away and questioned it. No one could give us an answer in regards to why it had been told to us differently. so a lot of annoyed people on the floor asking if we could go back to the sky contract as they had lied to us about the shifts. First source basically said no either do the shifts or hand your notice in. so the first handful of people were very annoyed and wanting to already hand their notice in. At this point it was made clear they didn't care on what they told you in any meeting it was either do it their way or no way. 

Week 4 Supposed to be going on the phones. well that was a joke. nothing was organised we came up to the phones dialler not working as supposed to be. But anyway we are just a number to first source. they don't care about you or the way your treated they only care about hitting targets. so that the higher up people still get there bonus in there payslips. 

since being up on the sales floor the SM's have been asking us for ways to improve the floor any ideas. so as requested we all shared some ideas and certain people were appointed to go into a meeting to explain these. nothing got taken into consideration it was like things were written down and then put into the bin. 

After two weeks on the phones the new teams arrived up on the floor making it a bit more lively up here. but then the SM has appointed a couple of "Team Leaders" to be part of some form of "Engagement" team. who came up with several ideas of how to "engage" us all. they had printed out pieces of paper with dates  of "fun" things happening on the floor and the best one was at the end of the month best performing team lunch. When it came down to it there was no sign of this lunch... supposedly the "engagement team" had approval to for this but then when it came down to it they couldn't get it signed off so just more false hopes. So instead of "engaging us" it has started to disengage a lot of us. at this point a few people had already started to say that they were going to leave. All the SM and Team leaders must have thought people were bluffing about leaving but they really weren't they handed in their notices and left as quick as they can over the next couple of months. 

My Team leader also leaving due to poor management skills from the other Team leaders who would prefer to just sit at each others desks and talk all day looking at holidays and clothing.  Not actually doing their job. 

Not long after my Team leader leaving (by far the best Team leader the First source have every had) they advertised internal only positions for Team leaders. I was more than happy to go ahead with this position so I applied. I wasn't successful due to the fact that I didn't have any team leader experience... well how on earth am I meant to become a team leader without being able to take a team. 

Saying that upon my feedback we got disbanded into another team. 
within a week of being with that team Eon clients came up  to my self and making me aware that I knew more about the daily reports than my new Team leader. I just feel that if Eon were running this contract and not First source that things would be a lot different we would actually be taken as humans not just numbers. 

I then went off sick for a pre arranged operation where I was meant to get ssp in my pay this was over 4 months ago and still to this date I haven't received my SSP pay. I am still trying to fight for this pay. 

If you cant be bothered to read all of the above then basically I would avoid this place and this company they will feed you lies to get you lured in then once they feel like your in their trap they will start to show you all their lies. its not a good company to work for and in fact i'm embarrassed to put them on my CV to be honest.

I found this an absolutely terrible place to work. The interview was just over the phone and they offered me the position immediately with a start date of the following Monday. I got there and completed around 3 weeks of training. The training was broadly based around the companies history etc rather than actual practical work. The trainers tried their best to entertain us but were tied to delivering very boring PowerPoints. There were extremely strict rules on timings, phones etc and they made someone stop their training and wait until the next set of sessions were starting a few weeks later just because they had to take a couple of days off for their child. Starting on the actual floor in 'grad bay' was terrible. The equipment didn't work well and it always seemed to be the employees fault. The team leaders spoke to you like absolute garbage. The team leaders were not those who had proved themselves to be the best for the job, but more those who were very close to the operations managers etc. The days were hard and you got one 10 minute break and a 45 minute lunch. If you needed to got to the toilet more than this it would be unpaid. The actual job is difficult as you are discussing peoples accounts, you are often faced with angry customers who want something resolving instantly. The systems seem a bit old fashioned as there are many things you have to do before you can even attempt to resolve the problem. The targets for the calls are very high and sometimes its impossible to talk to customers about a survey when they are so angry but you get penalised. It is sometimes impossible to get through a call which isn't long due to the nature of the issue. Yet you are told that you must be quick. The call agents care about the customer but the Team Leaders care about them keeping their competitive position rank! A customer service agent once told a team leader that the person on the phone had an issue that could have been resolved in a nice way. The Team Leader said "Not my problem they are stupid, I don't care". That has stuck with me as I was appalled to hear that from a TL in a customer service role, she also treat her team no better. Its a very playground type environment where people are in little groups and those who are in with certain others get the jobs or get to stand about not doing much where as if you don't fit that mould you are ignored, spoken to terribly or bullied. Its a disgrace that grown adults bully others at a work place. It is very much popularity over anything else at that place. Their terrible ideas of giving people rubbish gifts, a bottle of alcohol or a bath bomb if they have been picked as a star of the week is awful. They should stop spending this money or wasteful tat and give people time off or less hours, higher wages etc. I am sure that these would be much more appreciated than a box of biscuits! Wellbeing is a cereal bar or a free Christmas dinner despite having atrocious shifts or being complained at by team leaders. There is honestly not one professional person within their management teams. There are many educated and professional people on the call centre floor who have found their selves at that job for whatever reason but then they are treat like 5 year olds. The lack of support for mental health is shocking. Some people have gone through family grievances etc and they have been urged to be at work right away or be unpaid or risk their job. I would strongly urge people not to work for this company as you are literally treat like a number not a person. If you are professional, dynamic, creative and empathetic then this definitely is not the place for you. Additionally, if you have any sort of needs or a disability that you need to have your working environment adapted for then avoid the company at all costs. If you are just looking for an immediate job on minimum wage then this job will do that but you will have to mentally prepare yourself for the work place culture. 

I worked on the eonnext campaign which was very much a call centre environment.
In all the time I worked here, I never met the CEO of the company or their direct members of staff.
I worked here for just over 2 years and felt my mental health decline progressively whilst on the phones.
The micro-management meant that I was unable to so much as go to the toilet without explaining why I was offline and not taking calls.
You never knew what kind of call you would receive next and due to employees not taking responsibility for the previous calls it meant picking up the pieces and dealing with highly distressed customers.
There was no sense of security in this role which was proven when my TL had been made redundant with a few days notice.
I made the decision to leave this position with no other position to go to as I felt this was essentially the 'straw that broke the camels back'.
If you have annual leave hours available, you can only take these if the hours are available from the company. For example, if phone lines were busy, there's no chance you could take any AL even if you have the hours to take.
Members of my team were highly inadequate for the role whereby they would need other team members like myself to help them to speak with customers or explain a process to them a number of times a day.
I did not feel valued as a staff member from the higher management as to them I was just a number who would answer calls to keep the client (eonnext) off their backs.
I would not recommend this company as there is no specific skill required from higher management and as long as phonelines are being answered, nothing else seems to matter.
The training, although somewhat in depth, felt like a college or school environment. 
This was not a sales role, however if you did not try to sell smart meters you would have a 'Recorded Discussion' which would be held on your file giving you a blackmark against your name.

I asked for my contract of employment and job description as a standard practice, however this was not provided due to, and I quote "we do not hold records of the employees contracts on the system". Which caused confusion to myself as this is a law abiding contract and they employ over 28,000 currently. How can you employ this many people without any legal documentation of their role to hand? This goes to show they don't care about their employees as long as they do the job and potentially no legal rights whereby employment law is concerned.
Although my direct Team Leader was helpful prior them and myself leaving, in 2 years I had been managed by around 4 different people which can cause disruption and lack of motivation/team rapport.
The system used to do the role was unfit for purpose as this would go down on a regular basis making the job harder as customers were waiting for the phone to be answered causing more distress to the customers and stress for the staff.
If you respect your mental health and have other responsibilities outside work, don't apply for this role as you could be penalised for it.



You will burnout and snap. Everyone who works there does after a few months, and to be honest you begin to question the mental health of anyone who has worked there longer than this.   There are never enough advisors on the telephone in busy seasons and you can work an 11 hour shift, and leave the building with the feeling you get after leaving a dark cinema.  
I consider myself a happy, hard working person, who has had a variety of jobs and is certainly not work shy.   This job was just beyond, the worst I have ever worked by a mile.    

The bonus scheme is also a con -  they make it so unachieveable by setting an average quality score of 80 percent, and in my opinion you can give a customer world class customer service, and meet all their needs and still achieve less than 80 percent because of the call scheme rigidity. 

The place is dirty, the keyboard and computer equipment have months and months of dirt built up inside them. The aircon is forever too cold, and sickness seems to be common within the workplace - viral, flu, bugs, sick like symptoms are extremely common.  Also very arguable that a large cause of this is the how the temperature of the air con is always incorrect, and all the equipment is filthy - it is wiped every night by a cleaner who uses the same cloth on every pice of equipment with no cleaning product   - thereby in my opinion spreading the germs rather than eliminating them.  It also doesn't help that many of the people working in the building have noticeably bad personal hygiene. However company policy is 2 sickness in 6 months - regardless of circumstance and the fact we spend 40 hours a week in a cesspit.

Another really negative element of the job is of course every job has to deal with bad customers who aren't considerate of the fact you are a human not the corporation, - this is art of the job - however as first source is outsource from sky, you are working on behalf of sky and often have to conference to different departments within sky. Now Cardiff firstsource pay 6.55 an hour, another in derby pays 6.77 and then in house sky centres are around 7.50-- 8 pounds an hour.  Many of the cancellations department are just downright rude from the onset, and refuse to take calls, and there is a major issue within the call centre of people cold transferring dissatisfied customers through to you. Then you get the negative rating when the customer is unhappy and this is not taken into consideration by firstsource. 

When i took this job it was advertised on Indeed as up to 20000 inbound an up to 25000 outbound-  this is just a lie the basic wage is 13500 per annum and the bonus- a potential 160 a month is achieved by about 5 percent of the call centre and that is not an exaggeration.  The score needed across 2 random calls to achieve this is unrealistic to say the least ,especially on a day when calls are back to back.   

For minimum wage - Avoid - i've worked a lot better jobs for the same money or slightly more.

I guess I'll start with the management team, the long and short of this is that they are incompetent bullies. Basically you are doing well you have get away with breaking every rule imaginable. On my last team there we had what were referred to as the "golden boys". One of the things that some of them did was turn up late and then have our team leader put it in as down time so they would still get paid. Or some times they would log each other in so that it would look like they were on time or to save a desk for them (major breach of GDPR which states that only you should have your password). I have seen other people end up in hearings or even getting dismissed for this type of thing. Another worrying thing is that most of the management team were painfully ignorant of the companies policies. They will put you on an improvement plan and not help you to improve. My manager had arranged a meeting with me for this but instead spent the whole meeting playing table tennis! They literally don't care what is going on it your life and how it may be affecting your work and any conversation you have about it is met with the standard going through the motions.They will openly talk trash about people with other managers hence why nothing ever stayed quiet in that place and your personal issues ended up in the public forum. I recall a couple of managers full on witch hunting people to remove them from the company as they had issues with them. They would literally dig through every bit of information and actively search out minor things to build a case to dismiss agents. I was happy when the great management purge of 2018 gave them a taste of their own medicine as a few of them were dismiss as they had too many managers. On the subject on other thing they did during that period was offer managers to stay with the company but go back on the phones. They then realised that had gotten rid of too many managers and basically got those people doing managers work for agents pay!

The building itself is vile! I honestly wonder how more people aren't off sick. There are rats running around all the time. God help you if you ever want to use the toilets! I have seen dive bar toilets better than that place! The canteen in there was pretty much diarrhoea incarnate with most of the food being under cooked. I remember a fair few people who spent the day at work ill because they didn't want to risk going home and ending up in a hearing.  

For me, it was never an issue with the work itself but more with the people in charge there.
I think the CEO of Firstsource should really look at what is going on at his sites and get it sorted out. 

If you want my advice about working there, It's this, don't. You'll be promise all kinds of advancement opportunity's but unless you are sleeping with someone higher up it won't happen. They'll just bleed you dry until you honestly dread the prospect of going to work  in the morning.

I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with my previous employment experience. During my tenure, it became evident that employees are perceived as expendable, with an expectation to consistently go above and beyond without any form of recognition or appreciation. Despite diligently managing the rota for my team over several months and directly assisting with training, my efforts were met with no acknowledgment or opportunities for advancement.

Additionally, I encountered significant issues with my pay rate, which was incorrect for eight months. Despite continuously following up on this matter, it remained unresolved for an extended period. The bonus structures were also frequently altered at the last minute, seemingly to avoid compensating employees for their hard work. On several occasions, bonuses were delayed by three to four months beyond the promised date. The organization's disorganization was further highlighted by the inaccessibility of the payroll department, which was outsourced and difficult to contact.

The management exhibited a tendency to complicate basic tasks unnecessarily and displayed a lack of receptiveness to employee feedback. This resulted in a high turnover rate, as many colleagues left after being repeatedly misled about bonuses. The workplace environment was also marred by individuals who contributed minimally and faced no consequences, creating a juvenile atmosphere akin to a "catch me if you can" scenario. This is not conducive to the growth of a young professional.

I would advise against working here, especially for recent graduates or aspiring young professionals, as there are limited opportunities for career progression. Talented employees often leave for better prospects elsewhere.

One notable aspect of the job was the frequent incompetence of management, which led to periods of idle time where employees were paid despite being unproductive. Conversely, the most challenging part of the job was the inaccurate KPI data, which relied on self-reporting and allowed individuals to manipulate their performance metrics until management eventually intervened.

The overall workplace culture was toxic and unprofessional, with a pervasive lack of respect and rampant gossip. Promotions appeared to be based more on personal relationships with management rather than merit.

In summary, my experience at this organization was overwhelmingly negative, characterized by disorganization, lack of appreciation, and a toxic work environment.

Off the bat I was lied to by their job advert and employment rep who I spoke to on the phone prior to the interview when applying as I was told that FirstSource was a really flexible place to work and I could choose the days and hours I'd be in which I thought was great.  This turned out not to be true and once we finished training I was thrown into Mon-Fri 8am-6pm with no room for debate and that they would potetnailly re access my days/hours once I pass my probation in X months time. 

We were given 2 weeks of "training" which was esentially us making posters on what we think makes "good customer service" and watched videos/recordings of calls together where we had to debate on what the agent said rightly/wrongly etc. Many of these "Training" days were also taken up by multiple guest speakers who were higher ups in the company that came to tell us how great of a place this is to work and how lucky we are to have been "chosen" for this role. On the final day of "Training" we all went up to the call centre and each buddied up with an active agent so we could listen in on the calls they were having. I learnt more about the role on this very last day than I did for the entire last 2 weeks of garbage that we had to sit through so I simply couldn't fathom why we didn't spend more time doing that as opposed to listening to a directore giving us a powerpoint on how great they are.

After this 2 weeks we were thrown straight onto live calls with almost zero knowledge on how to operate the software that pulls up the customers information and allows you to make changes to their accounts/payments/packages etc and no idea on how to use their telephony system to transfer calls to other departments and other stuff like booking in call backs. Almost every one of my calls resulted in me telling the customer that I'd have to put them on hold while I checked with my supervisor on how to do what they were asking. This normally wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the fact that every single other member of the team were also doing the same thing which increased the wait times tenfold. 

I ended up walking out on my 3rd day as I couldn't deal with embarrasment and anxiety of being stuck on the phone with someone who I'm supposed to be helping for over 30 minutes which normally resulted in them just hanging up after being put on hold for so long. I kept in touch with one of the guys who was on my team and he said that over half of our team had quit after the first week which shows you just how bad it really was.

Ignorant management who make the job ten times worse than it needs to be. There are a few who will try to help you, but most of the time they view staff as a barrier to them getting paid higher bonuses. If your stats are not on target, you will never hear the end of it. The expectations that management have agreed with the client are virtually impossible to maintain.

You are told DO NOT go to the bathroom until your lunch or break. If you do, you are expected to subtract this time from your next break.
If you're sick, you are told to come in on your next day off to work back the hours. They say it's for your benefit "to make sure you get paid right" but it's not framed as an option, they will just ask you when you're planning to make up the hours. Even when you agree to this, you will still be called to a HR meeting about your job performance.

Managers send out threatening emails on a near daily basis. We were constantly told our pay would be affected because of our targets not being met. There was a new problem every day, and a new lecture to go along with it. Goals were repeatedly shifted. One day you were told that the hold time on the callfloor needed to improve so don't worry so much about your transfer rate, just transfer if you need to do so, the hold needs to improve OR ELSE.
A few days later your manager is having another team meeting where they're roaring at everyone for the transfer rate being so bad and that things needed to improve OR ELSE.

By the way, if you are calling another department for assistance (to prevent your transfer rate becoming too high), this is counted as part of your hold time, which had to be under 20 seconds. Your wrap target was also 20 seconds but I was told by managers that it should be much lower because as soon as a call ends you shouldn't need any time before taking the next one.

The only way to do the job to the expected standards is to lie to the customers and cut corners. Managers lowkey encourage this behaviour, you will be advised to tell a customer to call back later as "it takes 5-7 days to process" even if it's not true just to end a call.

The hours are long, the customers are brutal, the managers will give you little to no help, and the stat game will drive you crazy.
Even at my new job I sometimes have anxiety attacks, feeling like someone is watching over every move I make waiting to send me an email that I've been in Wrap for more than a minute.

Possibly one of the worst places I have ever worked, if you value your sanity and mental health avoid this place like the plague. During training they make it seem like such a lovely fun place to work and a happy work environment, as soon as you get up on the call floor you soon realise the reality. During my first week on the call floor there was flooding through the whole country and people who had children or problems getting home from work were told they had to stay in work, trains were confirmed cancelled and schools were confirmed evacuated, but because the section manager saw on one website that this wasn’t the case no one was permitted to leave. Also during my first week a colleague of mine missed a few days due to mental health reasons and was told mental health was no excuse. A colleague who's father recently passed away began crying on the floor and as she went to leave to get a tissue the manager started screaming at her telling her to get back to her seat. They do not care about their staff, you are just a number to them and are easily replaceable. Managers spend most of their time gossiping about agents and if you're not one of the team leader's favourites your job isn't going to be easy. Management are clueless and have no idea what they are doing. The workload is outrageous for the fact you're on minimum wage, there's so much pressure put onto you by managers to hit certain targets which causes unnecessary stress. Stress is worse now during the coronavirus pandemic because most of the departments in EON are closed so we can't help customers with everything, yet we get told off for telling customers we can't help them and the other departments won't be open for the foreseeable future. It's very rare you'll get praised in this job, but as soon as you do something management doesn't like you'll know about it. They harass you outside of work hours with constant phone calls if you have done something wrong rather than dealing with it during work hours. I have started taking antidepressants since starting at Firstsource, yet management couldn't care less about my mental health and how the stress from them is affecting it. They have such a high staff turnover and it's clear why, I can only describe the environment there as something more than toxic and I wouldn't wish this awful job on my worst enemy.

Started off as a fantastic role given six-Eight weeks rushed through academy as they call it and training on non live account roles  promised free sky tv and training to degree level which never materialised Without putting up a very long fight for and just flase promises its on its way training consisted after that managers having a one to one which always got put off until final moment as other ops managers moaned about it!! Seen new starters with company get discipinary sacked due to lack of training from managers overriding decosions which was unfair as systems pick up on voice reconisation which marks calls usually incorrect during reading contract renewal to customers. 

Very bad management ops and unrealistic targets on Behalf of Sky tv.example customer gets 60÷ off bill one year them expects more but systems set discounts at 20÷ year after makes the job tough plus with dreaded new offers creates a tyrekicker attitude to customers why sky has such a bad press at times...mamagers tell you off if you give high discounts thus causing cancellations. 

Your scored yet on quality of calls but if  customer wants to cancel you have a very bad ops management giving you a very bad day and possible discipinary for not retaining or hitting your targets effecting bonus which get Every 2-4 months!!  

The whole system WIth sky's Ivr is annoyance and wrongly set up for customets even for workers and customers with other departments such as concigre in india pushing it to retension or cancellation team When usually wants to enquire about broadband  or other issues annoyed customer then just gets fed up of being on the phone for over 50 mins speaking to department after department then when through to you your manager wants to know why your usually on that call missing cruical breaks and hide behind reports to make you look bad every chance they get 

Miss working here just a shame its badly run by a bunch of bad ops and managers who power trip/conflict over each other business decisons and undermine the direction of the business for sky contract  thus blaming employees for faults to save their own career in process.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Customer service representative 53 salaries reported	£25,423 per year
Sales advisor 18 salaries reported	£12.33 per hour
Retentions advisor 15 salaries reported	£12.40 per hour
Inbound sales representative 2 salaries reported	£12.33 per hour
Client advisor 7 salaries reported	£12.40 per hour

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