call center representative

customer service representative

customer consultant

team leader

collection agent

Wescot-Credit-Services

Having left over 1 month ago I did a leavers survey which asked if i wanted HR to contact me regarding the issues I brought up. I said yes, needless to say I've heard nothing. Hence why after 5 weeks im writing this review. If they had contacted me I wouldn't have felt the need to post this

From the offset this company promise you everything but deliver nothing. Training was ok, trainers were good but what let them down was the material, as at the time I went through training they had no live systems. So for lots of questions they had no answers. You were told wait and see, that really is very poor in a professional financial environment

You're told don't worry about call length, we want quality not quantity. Not the case, getting shouted at by senior management There's calls queuing, get a move on. Personally I just ignored them but other younger members took it badly being shouted at. 
They say they are all about the staff, eh no they're not. All Wescot worries about his keeping their lucrative financial contracts and not the staff. You're a number and nothing else. You will fail a call if the person marking it doesn't agree with what you said or how you said it. They do also tell you if you do not agree on your call mark then you can appeal it. Well good luck with that. Depending on who marked the call then you have no hope  of them even listening to it let alone remarking it.

Admittedly the management have a hard job as they report to senior management however they do not recognise when a good job is done. It's just wiped under the carpet.

The salary is actually not bad but when you have to jump through hoops for it then you sure work hard for it.

The shift patterns are doable however you just feel you are always in work and never at home. They will pick up on the fact you signed on seconds/minutes late but say nothing when you get held back on a call. Also to highlight if your shift is due to finish at 8pm and there are calls queuing you are not allowed to sign out. You are expected to sit there if calls are queuing. The lines are not closed till 8pm on the dot. If you do leave when calls are queuing you are spoken to by management the next day.

Unfortunately it is also if your face fits environment. Needless to say even tho I had over 20 years experience in the industry my face well and truly did not fit. 

If you're off sick you only get paid 5 days sick in the 1st year, youre totally gubbed if your really ill. No sick pay after that tho you do get SSP but only after day 3 of being sick

I understand that Wescot is in it to make money but at the end of the day staff are human and should be treated as such. Respect is expected by management but they do not show it to staff. It works both ways, maybe this is why so many of the good/talented and devoted staff have now left and many many others are also looking to leave. 

I know HR do read these reviews and reply to them asking the employee to contact them to discuss the points raised. If Wescot is in any way interested in discussing with me the points I've highlighted then please leave your contact details in your reply. it is Wescot after all.

I worked for Wescot for almost a year and a half. This was my first call centre job and although I had heard some horror stories about other call centres I have to admit that the most inviting aspects I would say (if you are planning on applying to Wescot) is that the majority of the Glasgow staff are extremely friendly and most of the time it is easy to get days off when you need them. They apparently offer a good pay in comparison to other call centres. It definitely is not the worst job but due to the conversations you may have over the phone it is NOT for the faint hearted. 

But there are more NEGATIVE aspects to positive unfortunately..Training began on a 9-5 basis for a few weeks and once completed our team went on to a set rotation of shifts between 8am to 8pm at night. To begin with this was fine but when you end up getting stuck on a call over your shift it can be difficult to get the time back and then if you were late by 5 or 10 mins you always had to work the exact time back to the minute.

On a daily basis, agents will take inbound & outbound calls to set up affordable and sustainable arrangements on behalf of the client. Their is a complete lack of communication in the business with multiple changes being made to client processes on a weekly basis meaning you think you're giving the customer the correct information and best customer service then the next week if the same call gets graded you get marked down or fail. Wescot have their own marking systems which contradict the clients marking system and are completely down to opinion, meaning one person could fail a call for one thing and another could pass for the same thing. There is no consistency and due to lack of communication from the client I remember this causing confusion and stress between staff members when trying to understand the status of some accounts, especially if a customer was questioning you.  I remember thinking at the time that it wasn't giving the customer the best service and if this brought up in meetings to put forward to the client, I reckon it didn't even get to their ears in fear of losing the contract. Too much money to be made in my opinion. At the end of the day you are just another number to them and in their eyes they could get someone off the street to do the same job so I remember a lot of people feeling under appreciated due to this.  

It isn't a job you can progress in and the people that do progress are usually the favourites or those who have been there for some time. I remember a lot progressing who didn't always have the best grades which was odd considering they expect your to meet the marking targets otherwise you get the boot. It didn't make much sense to me at the time how some agents could be illiterate and can hardly talk but somehow get promotions with a wage increase.

The job itself is ok the calls can vary from call to call keeping things interesting  and believe me this customers are not the issue in this place.the people who you work with are friendly and supportive in terms of your collegues the pay is ok for a job in a call centre but believe me it is not worth the stress.

I worked there two and a half years within that time they changed the bonus structure to make it unobtainable unless you was a management favourite and even if you do qualify for this they can take it away at any point.  You could be the best collector in the buisiness but if you go to toilet for two minutes longer then your allotted break time goodbye bonus. The company is structed so directors and higher management who you never see and usually have never done the Job make the decisions and move the goal posts as they see fit.

Wescot do not have full control over there own policies as they work on behalf of banks who also like to change their mind on expectations from month to month . In my time at the buisiness they changed what they wanted us to do on calls 3 times and expect you to put the changes into place straight away or its a failed call and fails mean missing targets and ultimately you'll get the sack of you do not pass. And in terms of passing calls there is only one opinion that counts and it is never yours you cannot win.

In terms of job progression it usually goes to management favourites then the best person for the job I saw this many times.

In terms of the management there not all bad but many would stab you in the back of it helps themselves and will not back you up but as I say it depends if your a favourite the structure of the company means managers on the floor do not make decisions they put what they are told into place which and such orders have come from the top of the food chain who have no idea what it's like to do the Job.

All in all this place will drive you mad I saw more people on sick with depression or stress then I ever have working for other companies and wescor justify this by saying it was pre existing issues before they got the job and do not deal with this . 

I left the company a year ago and have not had any regrets about leaving the only thing I miss is the people but saying this I saw 50% of the staff leave who was there in my time before I did God knows that it is like now. If your good at beeing a robot and having no opinions of your own  then go ahead if not save yourself

This applies to the Sainsbury’s Campaign only, I cant speak on behalf of the other departments. 

Having been at Wescot for two years I have been declined for a promotion twice as my personality traits do not match their expectations, as per the feedback I’ve been given. The only way to advance within the company is to rule with an iron fist. The upper management team have no people skills or any product knowledge, team leaders are overworked and have very little time for coaching support. 

Management will scrutinise you for being 1 minute late but sometimes show up 10 minutes late themselves and laugh it off. You can get better benefits elsewhere, and definitely a better wage for the amount of work that will be expected of you. 

They try to entice you with a bonus incentive that’ll give you a whopping £150 extra per month, which only 5% of people are given (myself being one of them, at least it covers your travel) but you then need to work harder and harder to maintain it or they’ll take your bonus away as punishment. 

The management team (excluding TL’s) are dreadful. One of them will victimise you, bully you and treat you like dirt under their shoe until you break. Another will lie and pretend to know everything, when in fact they know nothing. While the third might as well decline to answer any questions as they have no product knowledge. 

No matter how many times you raise a concern, nothing will ever be done. They will promise you better communication but it will never come. You will be pressured into overtime with no appreciation. 

The only good thing about the place is that you will get experience of the job role to go somewhere else & meet some great people along the way — just nobody in upper management.

Having taken months to introduce working from home due to COVID-19, their systems rarely work with the cheapest equipment money can buy. At least when you’re at home they don’t micromanage you quite so much.

If you want a job with limited to no progression opportunities unless you cuddle up to your manager, a job with ever changing staff where the experienced colleagues are burned out and depressed, a job that makes you want to slam your head against a wall — then this job is for you! 

Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere, unless you’re into that stuff...

I had worked at Wescot for around a year and it was honestly one of the worst jobs I have ever worked in. The training portion of the job was absolutely fine, everyone seemed friendly enough until you actually were put out onto the call floor. Management within the first part of your experience on the job was horrendous. You were constantly messed about, not made aware of things like booking off Christmas holidays, rota changes and things/events that were happening in the workplace. Management are very dry with you and when you have an issue with someone and then you feel you are shamed for speaking out about it and then get a reputation for it. There were a lot of stories circulating about how you had to be well liked to proceed and advance within the actual role and it showed through management as people who were more liked were getting things more their own way. I would not work here again or recommend anyone to do so as it is a very cut-throat environment. Do not get me wrong, I met some lovely people within the actual job but you need to watch your back with management as you will get a knife put in at some point. The paycheque was great, the hours were absolutely horrendous. I would recommend starting up with the lowest hours possible as being in there for too long would drive you insane. There was no support system for if you had came off of a bad call that had affected you. The actual job is quite hard going sometimes depending which campaign you're on (they don't mention this within the job advert) so you need to have semi-thick skin to last a while in here. This was never a place I would have thought I would have a career in, I would strongly not recommend staying in here for a long time as eventually you will just be bullied into doing things you're not wanting to do or not getting where you are wanting to go within the role.

Reviewing this on a point by point of what it is to be rated on:
Work/Life balance: At the time of my starting there, the shifts were not too bad, in that you would work one Saturday of every four, in return for a day off during that same week. However, this changed to "voluntary" overtime, and opening on Sundays, despite promises to the contrary.
Salary/Benefits: The actual wage itself is more than adequate, but the "incentives" that they offer are unobtainable. The bar is set far, far above what is realistically attainable over the period they ask, and I have known individuals finally attain this, and be denied any kind of monetary incentive as the rest of their team has been unable to meet it.
Job Security/Advancement: Atrocious. The company takes on staff in huge swathes every month or so, and as they basically stop the support that is promised you as a new starter overnight, drop everyone who is unable to cope. I believe something like 75% of the group of 20 that I started with had been dropped within 2 months.
Management: Appalling. Unobtainable targets and expecting unrealistic results notwithstanding, they promote a culture of "if you can rationalise how the calls turn out, we will take it on", but in truth this actually works out as, "we're right, and that's the end of it". Double standards, playing favourites, and an "old boys club" atmosphere of back slapping and turning a blind eye, turn this from being just frustrating, to plain unbearable.
Job culture: I believe you can form your own opinion from everything else I have written.

This is hands down the _worst_, most stressful, awful job I have ever had, and it is entirely down to the culture of the place. The actual work itself of debt recovery, might make some people raise an eyebrow, and think that it is an awful, thankless task, but far from it, it is genuinely not bad at all.

Wescot is broken down into four residences each with its own list of clients that they are hired to work on behalf of. Disclaimer: speaking only for my campaign and my colleagues within my department as no knowledge or interaction with others in different campaigns.

I have loved working for Wescot. I have joined at the beginning of a new campaign so I have had the pleasure of watching it grow and being a part of the systems development. That's not to say it was all sunshine and roses. As it was a new campaign it was also new systems being used as such bugs and glitches are inevitable followed by complaints from customers enough to make you want to pull your hair out.

Managers are approachable and understanding in my experience, willing to go the extra mile to help me when I had personal circumstances that required attention.

Colleagues are always up for a laugh, willing to help and there when you need a good moan. Work nights out are rare but do happen. I believe its more of a individual teams going out rather than the department as a whole.

Incentives are provided such as additional pay during Christmas for overtime. Department is also always having some sort of event to encourage production e.g. mini games, sweets and treats etc.

Its not perfect and still needs drastic improvement on its communication. Process updates are rarely received promptly (is currently being reviewed to be improved) and can be a bit like Chinese whispers to the point different team leaders can provide different courses of action for the same incident.

Overall a great company to work for.

I would not recommend taking a job with Wescot. Your probation is 6 months long, they advertise working from home after this point but that is not the reality of the situation and many people have probation extended so that the managers can let you go at any time. The managers are confrontational and actively try to push you out the door if you don't work exactly to standard. The managers ask extremely personal questions and gossip about your private information. There are very minimal opportunities for progression after passing probation. They will push you to take calls with extremely vulnerable people when you are not ready. The call scoring is harsh and critical and your bonus relies on this, it is nearly impossible to take a call marked "excellent". There are no fixed hours and you are expected to work past your finish time if you receive a call. The calls can be upwards of 2 hours long. Since I had started, we were lied to about what was expected of us and it felt like the wool was being pulled over our eyes. They do not pay you enough to live on. The pay for people taking vulnerable calls is higher, but you're expected to work those call queues without the job title of being a vulnerable agent, so you don't get the pay benefit. They micromanage every aspect of what you do and check your log in/log out times to the second, and they have recently announced that you will be questioned on any time taken off the phone to go to the bathroom. They are consistently hiring to fill gaps due to people leaving, and it is very clear why. 

I joined Wescot over 5 years ago and have been promoted several times during this time. The best thing about Wescot is that they do really strive to bring their core values to life. While outsourcing businesses are in a very challenging position and have to balance the relationships with clients with the needs and wants of their staff, I feel Wescot do a good job of trying to maintain a this balance. Sometimes client demands do lead us down some challenging roads but the management team are open to honest feedback and it’s clear steps are being taken to show care for their staff with regular well-being check ins and support always on hand. Working in a highly regulated industry means there is a need for detailed quality checking but the induction training and ongoing coaching helps you to achieve your own personal objectives. Praise is given regularly from managers, customers and peers and successes are celebrated. 
The only reason I have not scored 5* overall is that the business has grown a lot and with emphasis currently on improving the consultant experience which I agree is very much needed, this needs to be seen across the business as many other roles are no longer paid at rate reflective of the demands of the role and we know competitors are offering a more attractive salary. I stay because the people I interact with throughout the business make me feel valued - it would be nice to see more communication from more senior management. 

No matter how good they make it sound in the interview, do not believe a word that they say. The job itself is awful. Management are completely unhelpful, and only talk to you to tell you exactly what you are doing wrong, and insist on being really smug about it, but refuse to help you when you ask for it and instead have you phone a support number that is no use as they can't even see your screen. Customers are always rude, and you will get less than no sympathy from anyone when you have a difficult time with a customer. You will spend a disproportionate amount of time on the dialling out system, which mostly didn't work properly. You will essentially never get away on time as you will typically always get a call right before you finish, and calls are usually a minimum of 45 minutes. You will rarely get your time back as they have to approve it and that rarely ever happens. It is usually really quiet and boring as there is often a long wait time between calls. You will not be made aware of changing policy and procedure but will be penalised for this in your call scores. The people grading calls half the time cannot agree on what is actually a reason to mark you down, and this is wholly inconsistent. You are encouraged to essentially harrass customers to pay more - if they are showing to be able to afford one penny more you are meant to fight for that. Run far and fast 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Call center representative 15 salaries reported	£26,492 per year
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Team leader 7 salaries reported	£28,887 per year
Collection agent 1 salary reported	£31,865 per year

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