gas engineer

truck driver

customer service representative

delivery driver

sales executive

ao.com

I want to be honest and write a fair review of what its like to work here from personal day to day experiences. I will bullet point to make it an easier read in case you want to check something specific.

- A typical day at work 
Simply put it isn't great. I have worked for the company a number of years and it seems to be getting worse by the day. It was a very different place 5/6 years ago and it was a place I used to be very proud to work for whereas now it feels a little embarrassing considering how the staff are generally treated. This isn't the case for all areas but with it being a call centre a large proportion of staff are working in customer facing roles and these roles, despite being the backbone of the company, are unfortunately treated quite badly in comparison to other areas. 
The hours don't allow for a good work/life balance, with you being expected to work weekends and to a very strict schedule.  If you work past your scheduled time you will not be paid for it or get the time back unless it is over 15 mins, however if you are a single minute late to log into your scheduled time, regardless of reason, you can be penalised, be made to work the time back, and can receive a disciplinary as a result. 
It is extremely stressful as the targets asked of those in these types of roles can be very difficult to achieve, all the while micromanaging is a constant making it more difficult to work properly. This is no doubt due to the way managers are also hounded to achieve targets which is also very stressful. 

Management - 
Management at AO seem to hired purely out of how well they get on with management and not down to any particular skillset or experience. Where it is good that they do hire from within the company allowing for career progression, it is very much a who you know and not what you know that allows for these types of opportunities. This means even more qualified or experienced staff are ignored in place of managers friends.
Its problems like this that have allowed the happiness of staff to move into a decline as it feels very segregated, unfairly treated and feels as though some managers really do look down on you and are condescending if you're not within their circle.
This also means any feedback given to management is very rarely taken seriously and only goes down the direction of company guidelines as people are too scared to step on anyone's toes as to not upset these friendship circles and be pushed out of roles. 
Most forms of complaint, grievances or concerns and appeals are 'fed back' but rarely results in any change from what I have witnessed. Issues that are dealt with are only checked at a surface level rather than getting to the route of the problem, which means the issues generally repeat themselves leaving people back where they started. 

Benefits - gym membership, parking, Apprentice program, medical
There are some benefits to AO but nothing I would deem considerable considering the current standards. 
There is an offer to have discounted gym memberships. This used to be £2 per month but was raised to £10 which is still not bad but feel this change didn't really need to take place. 
The car park is not big enough for the staff in the building. Although this should just be the case anyway AO paid for multi storey spaces so staff would not need to park on the stadiums carpark at Middlebrook. The original parking could result in a lot of late staff due to not finding parking on site and as mentioned earlier they would penalise despite it being no fault of their own. The multi storey car park helps with this issue. 
There are some medical benefits such as a voucher which can be used to purchase prescription glasses as a specific retailer etc.
There is an apprentice program allowing staff to chase qualifications in a desired role. I have seen this attempted but AO seem to deny the applicants if they are not transferrable to the role they are currently undertaking or they are working full time already (which is generally why people apply for these as they would like to try something new, so it feels like this is just box ticking to make it seem as though there are more opportunities in the company from what I have seen first hand). 

Responsibilities - 
Although there are some general priorities per role, many areas over the years have been made redundant and the role of those made redundant has been passed on to other current staff members for the same pay. Its resulted in a gradual increase in work for a call centre agent for the same or little change in pay which seems quite obvious it is to reduce company costs but in a very unfair manner.
Generally the responsibilities include keeping the handling time of calls down which many areas are bonused on, targets to hit depending on the role and  call quality markings.  These all goes toward any potential bonus so are quite important and help keep up enthusiasm and a strong work ethic. 
On customer service calls they would like calls to be under 10 mins to be seen as anything good, but the reality is any calls kept under 10 mins generally do not solve customer issues and they call back in or require call backs which snowballs huge queues and creates a lot more work to do and makes it very stressful. It is simply not realistic when dealing with faulty products and complaints. 
This is because the managers focus more on call time efficiency instead of actually solving problems but as the staff are forced to work to a time in order to earn their bonus, it is generally a case of getting customers off the phone asap which has become more apparent in recent years  and seems to be completely going against the companies own values. This can just make the job very frustrating. 
Quality marking takes place to ensure everything is being done correctly on calls. Where it is understandable this needs to take place, there is rarely any communication of changes made to any requirements in order to pass quality resulting in fails which can impact things like bonus being taken off you and challenges to this are generally pointless but things that have been mistakenly marked can be overturned. 

Company direction and culture -
The majority of staff are very friendly but it feels there is a big separation between management who are all very close and everyone else. Very much feels as though all of the front line staff are not considered as people but rather as desk fillers. Any complaints or feedback or suggestions are usually met with a "if you don't like it there's the door", which results in a high turnover in staff as many people do just leave. 

Food and canteen - 
Staff in canteen are all lovely. The food quality is okay but very expensive for what it is. The Starbucks on site is probably the best part of working at AO as it is a lot cheaper than on the high street. 
There are vending machines on site which replaced free fridge cans, water and snacks which used to be in the fridges for anyone. These are now sold at corner shop prices in vending machines. 

Summary - 
To summarise it is not a place I would recommend to work currently. Unless you are willing to work toward difficult targets, deal with a lot of stress and have little to no work/life balance in order to find a way to progress. Otherwise it would be more sensible to find work somewhere else with a similar pay and a lot less stress. The only reason I've given this 2 stars instead of 1 is because it wasn't always a bad place to work and I still think it can become better again if this was to be taken onboard. 

I’m currently working here. The company is desperate to get people in therefore you’re guaranteed the job the moment you walk in. They will say there’s an “open day” and a “interview” but this is not the case. You will sit in a classroom filling in papers for 2days and 4days on the road training where you will have to learn everything including all the connections for all the appliances including light electric and plumbing connections. You will start noticing from day one that there’s so so many new people starting every few days and no one is staying. Hardly anyone lasts for a long time here due to the lack of transparency and dishonesty. The figures they tell you are not really achievable but then again you can get a little close to them figures but only if you work 6-7days a week. On average you can earn like £90-£100 a day plus tips from customers which sounds like good pay but not when you calculate the hours. 

Typical day: early starts between 5am-9am. you have to load your own van and do vehicle checks in the morning which you’re only allocated 15min for but this takes around 25/30min but that’s once you’re experienced otherwise 30-45min. They expect you to check the whole van for damages, oil and water checks, load 25-35 washing machines, fridges, American fridges, TVs a few small items like kettles and hoovers into your van- all for which you’re allocated and paid only for 15min. So you’ve already spent 15/30min minimum of your time which you’ll not be paid for. Majority of the times there will be other teams on the loading bay and as everyone is getting delayed as it’s a long process loading, you’ll have to wait your turn which means you’re eating into your 15min allocated time even before you start loading.  They will tell you that any extra hours which you do during the day for example if a customer delays you for some reason then you’ll get refunded for your time. They tell you to put this into a book at the office and the manager will decide if he’ll pay you extra or not. This isn’t true at all. You will get refunded every so often, like maybe 2/10 times you’re delayed. So if you’re delayed a total of 10 hours in a week you’ll be lucky to get paid for 2 hours. Meaning you just worked 8hours for free which will happen every week to everyone. A typical example is at the depot over the last two months twice the flat bed of the big arctic lorries got stuck. Once it was 2hours and once 1hour delay which meant that all the drivers were just standing around as they couldn’t load there vans. No one got paid for this even though it was a fault on their side... ok so, You’re given a route and fixed pay for that route for example 9.5 hours route. Your day will always be delayed every single day due to traffic, customers got narrow doors, having to take fridges washing machines up few levels in flats, having to take doors off American fridges to get them into customer houses etc. Or sometimes they’ll only allocate you 15min to do a washing machine connection, scrap the old one and get to the next drop- but the next drop might be 15min away. So you’ve done the connection and everything for free and not got paid. On average your 9.5 hour route will turn into a 11.5 route but you’ll only get paid for 9.5hours. Your route and pay ends when you do your last delivery which may be anything upto about an hour away from the depot. So you will have to drive back to the depot and offload all the scrap appliances and faulty “collections” appliances which you collected. This offloading process takes on average 15-30min depending on how many appliances you have. You also have to fuel the van using their fuel card to fill tank before you return. 
So to sum up your daily route and pay. If you’re quoted to do a 9.5 hour route for example that means you’ll get paid at a rate of £20.64 per hour which is £196.08 between two of you. But including delays, traffic, fuelling the van, driving back to the depot and offloading you will add a average of 2-3hours unpaid. So the figures they tell you seem to be very good but when your 9.5 hour route turns into 11.5-12.5 hours or more sometimes then it’s not worth it. Your “£20.64 hourly rate between two of you is honestly £15-18 max between two of you whic is £7.50-9.00 each max. On top of this you’ve got your self employed tax and national insurance to pay yourselves. 

Hidden costs are: You have to spend about £30-£50 on your own tools. £156+vat on a sack barrow from them. Deposit for the pda phone you’ll use. Safety boots. You’re liable for any damages which occur and will have to pay anything upto £3000 off your salary and anything after that the company will cover. You WILL damage peoples floors, walls, hand rails, stairs or the actual appliance itself. Customers will on many times put in a claim for damage even though it was pre existing. To be honest on the topic of damages- the company will always do what they can to cover your back and minimise the damage costs and they will try give a little refund to the customer to keep them happy at no cost to you. So on damages you’re covered unless it’s expensive or extensive damage and then you’re on your own. 

The plus sides: the supervisors are good and friendly, they will always offer you work sometimes out of kindness but mostly because they’re desperate and got so many people leaving and no one to cover the route. The other crews who work are friendly and it is a good friendly atmosphere. 

Overall: the people are nice and friendly, the supervisors are good. The two managers are ok but when they can’t be asked to help you they’ll both keep telling you to go to the other one to resolve your issue. This usually means you’ll just give up as you don’t want to keep having to beg for your money which hasn’t been paid and therefore have to take a loss. The hours they quote and pay you for are not realistic and are completely false. They will avoid paying you for any time delays and will keep saying put it in the book. Which means they can’t be asked to sit on a computer and go through whatever process they go through to add your extra time delays into your wages. You will get delayed every single day and even if you don’t then you will still do an hour unpaid driving back to the depot, fuelling the van and offloading the scrap appliances. It’s a very very hard and heavy lifting work and isn’t for everyone. You will deliver like 10 washing machines (30-70kg), 5 dishwashers and dryers (20-35kg) 3 fridges (50-80kg), 1-4 American fridges (100-190kg) and small items (kettles,hoovers,toasters) everyday. Your total weight every single day is 1,300kg as that’s the limit for the van so they’ll always make sure your van is filled to the limit. 

worked at heywood depot .depot opened with approx 100 new drivers 18 months later theres less then 20 what does that say. sounds good as job title crew leader drivers mate in reality after attending course and passing so called driving test. your were then allocated a work normally its the person you have sat next to on course then its up to the 2 of you to decide whos crew leader and whos driers mate with both wages going into crew leaders account. i was lucky the 2 lads i worked with were honest and recieved wages every week. unfortunately thats not the norm crew leaders leaving without telling his crew mate happened fairly regular when complain expert say nothing to do with them. loads of near fights loads of arguing. job security is terrible you could be the best at your job and paired with the worse you will be gone before you know. you have to pay damages to both vehicle and customers property if they say you have caused damaged. expert give you a right to appeal seldom you win always want to keep customer happy. truthfully would say 70% of claims by customer were fictious left you raging. when get van in morning you have to note down all damage to van on run sheet due to poor light all damage might not be noticed arrive back after long 12 hour shift warehouse operatives check whats coming back and then inspect van loads of crews have been charged for damage to van as unable to proof as wasnt noticed on morning check. the league table was also a joke defo lots of favouritism. we went way above what was expected of us  crew but was always mid table, worked with top of table crews refused to do akward jobs ( mainly due to time) basically done the bare minium always back early where my crews would go the extra mile we would be penalised. normally as a crew would get 2/3 days during week expert knew you would do weekend that was majority of our work  when i started you had your run sheet with the eta on each drop you would gets 7 mins for washing machine install 11mins if was disconnecting and installing 20 mins to deliver american fridge freezer thats includes removing doors putting doors back on and installing. and if unlucky remove old appliance. run sheet shown how little time to do job and get to next one, unsure of this practice was illegal or it showed the speeds you had to work to keep up with eta s . dangerous at times told expert would be in serious trouble with vosa . this practice was replaced by a drivers run book told always had to show less hours then what actually did if didnt sign there was no work  never never complain about anything average weight of goods allowedin van after including weight of tailgate is 0.8 tonnes many times wuld be overweight more in morning as loaders on night shift work non stop also weight wont be equalled out . know when complain too much when ask for work no runs if complain too much look for another job. i have been doing driving jobs for 20 years and this was by far the worse job ever wasnt just 1 thing it was everything about the company  AVOID AT ALL COSTS IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY and trust a total stranger with your wages. to be truthful need to be looked at by vosa or company who can change there way of working ... could carry on for ages whats not to like about this company if this was your 1st driving job would put you off a driving career for ever 

Where do I start! I have the misfortune of working as a gas fitter for this company. Initially they promised so much but have failed to deliver. Firstly when I started with this company, in the contract it said overtime would be paid at a rate of time and a half, they failed to honour this and said it was an admin error! To this day we haven't received a revised contract. The days are long, routed poorly, over loaded and with unrealistic expectations for remedial work. We are contracted for 12 hour shifts but regularly go over this and overtime is rarely paid correctly. We are put under undue pressure to finish all drops regardless of the time we finish, they do not adhere to the working time regulations to give you sufficient rest between shifts and are threatened with dismissal if you don't complete, all this because they are greedy and overload you with jobs and unrealistic eta times. They promised an increase in wages if we become more skilled, i.e you gain LPG qualification. This was a massive lie and they are denying it was even mentioned. Trying to get uniform if yours is damaged is like trying to get blood out of a stone as is trying to get any annual leave. There is an 'us and them' attitude in the warehouse for whatever reason and it just makes working there unduly difficult, they seem to see the worst in everyone and generally have a bad attitude. The company lied to us and made the job look attractive and something it is not. They have, at every opportunity gone back on their word and if you're considering applying for a job with these cowboys I'd urge you to reconsider. Morale is non existent, they are sucking the life out of everyone. I have never worked for such a shambles of a company before and cannot wait to hand in my notice to leave, it'll be one of the happiest moments of my life. There are many other things I could mention but that would require an afternoons reading! You have been warned.

You will start by going through academy. 1month you will be learning the basics about the company before going down to answer calls. You will receive frequent feedback with high volume calls and their favourite word being sorry as you are handling mostly complains and amendments for orders. 
You will have two 15 min breaks and dinner break being half hour.
The hours fluctuate from working 8am to 5pm and 10am to 7pm. Non negotiable. You have to do these hours regardless of your circumstances.
Hybrid work is promised but can be taken away if your not good enough.
Your progression can also be taken away if they think you're not doing a good enough job so I wouldn't bet on the amount other than your starting salary as its not definite.
If you have pre existing conditions ranging from IBS to something serious you will need proof of this as them hounding you and questioning the legitimacy of the paperwork from GPs is stressful and anxiety inducing.
If you are a carer again proper paperwork but overall if you are a carer, I wouldn't recommend working here as they're not happy if you have to care for your loved ones instead of handling some claim about a washing machine. 
With the shift patterns and you need to go into therapy, there is no guarantee that you have the time to improve yourself. 
You'll see for yourself how soulless this type of work really is if you're into golden handcuffs 

As a driver for Expert Logistics. Provided you get everything right, each day. Complete all your deliveries and installs 100% no matter what the delay. You can earn great money.

However? In a realistic world. You are constantly delayed by traffic. Difficult decisions on-site. Hard to please customers creating regular long delays that daily set you back from your schedule. Damaged goods upon delivery where upon you have to discuss with Expert Logistics customer services and the customer to discuss a solution that also causes delays.

Only one dissatisfied customer in any one week (after approx 150 jobs), instantly drops you down the weekly performance system to the bottom of the list.

This means that you are instantly the last 2 man crew to be offered work the next week. Even if you have been at the top of the performance system for weeks.

No matter how good you are, there will always be a customer that is unhappy. Even if they say they are happy before you leave.

Too much is put on your shoulders and drivers/drivers mates constantly come and go. You struggle to keep a high performance 2 man crew because one of you leaves the company.

There a very few 'veteran' drivers that constantly stay at the top of the list (because they have over a decade of experience). But even they are eventually penalised for thousands.

In my experience. I will never go back.

This is honestly one of the worst jobs I have had. The people that you work with are great. They have some very talented agents working there. The initial training is brilliant once that’s done the job is relentless, you take complaint after complaint usually because a different department have messed up or another agent hasn’t followed up. I would say it’s like every department is massively understaffed to deal with the level of sales and Customer Experience have to pick up the pieces when things fall apart on a daily basis and the customers take out their frustration on you. Agents lie to customers to get them off the phone and sales often tell customers they can have things they can’t to complete sales and we get to deal with the fallout from that. It definitely grinds you down, It’s impossible to book time off especially if you need a weekend day as the staff turnover is huge. It absolutely not worth the £18-£19k wage, the £22k carrot they dangle is never achieved as even if you are working to the level to achieve that wage you have to have been with the company a full year to get it. If you started in July as they review pay in April you would then have to wait another year to achieve this salary and no one stay’s long enough to get it. I would often hear the phase “it’s not for everyone” as an excuse for the turnover. If you treated people better, hired more staff and paid a more realistic salary maybe it would be. You can earn you same money at any minimum wage job without the stress. I really wouldn’t recommend working here if you value your mental health. 

Working at AO in the beginning is great, then you actually get on the phones, it’s customer service so obviously you’ll have to deal with rude customers that’s just part of it but the company expects you to be a robot and not have any feelings about being called every name under the sun, the company isn’t hiring anymore in the uk for its call centre and only hires in south africa now so much for being a “british company”, the canteen area is great with their own starbucks that is below actual starbucks price and a great choice of food but unfortunately that’s the only good thing about the place. At this time it’s the busiest i’ve seen it be in a long time a lot of people have left leading to it being busy, but the company still refuses to acknowledge that fact and blames it on the amount of sales coming in, not the fact a lot of people have left and the south african agents aren’t great so they can’t get calls done the first time round, management is non existent i’ve not had a catch up or coaching in months and have no idea how i’m doing stat wise, and the amount of red tape you need to go through to help a customer is ridiculous has the company messed up on an order and the customer is due compensation? oh wait you can’t give them anything without the manager authorisation but there’s no manager to be seen as they’re either outside smoking or “in a meeting”, overall if you love to be micromanaged when they are there and completely alone with no way of doing anything without someone else’s say so then this place is great.

You are paid as a crew not individually, in which you have to put your entire trust into the driver who receives the pay and hope that he pays you, Very long hours with a lot of heavy lifting for lousy pay, You can expect to have to deliver American Fridge Freezers weighing between 90-170kg sometimes having to carry them upstairs and if it is a (SCRAP) collection this can mean having to take away a customers old American Fridge Freezer as well  delivering them their new one.

One of the most disorganised companies you can ever work for, One time we had load of 25 Appliances ranging from Washing Manchines to American Fridges and within the first few  drops of the day we was expected to collect a fair bit of scrap leaving absolutely no room in the van to offload other items which resulted in me and my crew mate having to offload every item of scrap just so we could get to the items that needed to be delivered and then we would have to load the scrap back on again and repeat this process until we had made enough deliveries to create enough space in the van for the scrap.

Upon van inspection before you head out on your run if you miss any bump or scrape and don't write it down you will be billed for the damage even if it wasn't your doing. 

You are expected to provide your own tools, Sack trucks ect, £250 for the phone they provide you with. 

Honestly avoid this company at all costs, Multi Million Pound Company but can't even take care of their drivers properly and we are the beating heart of the company, its shocking and inhumane really. 




As a relatively new Class 1 driver, and older gentleman, I can only praise and thank ao.com for giving me the opportunity to prove myself and reciprocate the trust they place in me.  As a company, I find ao.com operates very professionally.  Their tractor units are well maintained and they place emphasis on keeping the interiors clean. Units are checked for any damage which may have occurred during the shift, but if you're sensible in your driving style, and look after your vehicle, then there's little to be concerned about.  This approach means that in general, you're driving a nice, clean and well-maintained vehicle, and that can't be a bad thing!
After some 8 months in the job, I have settled into a regular run, 4 on 4 off, through the night, around 200 miles each way, lasting 4 to 4 1/4 hours, solid driving to arrive at the destination. It may be repetitive, but personally, I find that beneficial for route planning, and helping to avoid/navigate the myriad of motorway closures and diversions that our wonderful UK roads throw at us.
It can be challenging at times, and sometimes you may go into that 10th hour of driving, but the company understands that, and you're paid accordingly at a decent and competitive rate. 
My only criticism would be the curtain sider trailers, which, whilst well enough maintained, can be a bit tired in appearance and operation, letting the company's public image down a little bit. Over all though, an excellent company to work for; well organised, respectful, professional, clean and tidy.  These little things do matter!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Gas engineer 54 salaries reported	£36,639 per year
Truck driver 13 salaries reported	£17.36 per hour
Customer service representative 9 salaries reported	£26,773 per year
Delivery driver 6 salaries reported	£13.91 per hour
Sales executive 3 salaries reported	£29,166 per year

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