It's true that we've had our fair share of frustrations since training and now production. I think we've all had moments when we were centimeters away from throwing in the towel. As with all things, though, everything has a silver lining... if we just look for it.
I'm of the mind that there's nothing that can't be resolved peacefully if we are committed to resolution and not escalation. Amazing things can happen when we are open to dialogue and not so attached to our emotional mind/thinking. We must make space to feel what we do and then find the wisdom to step over emotional thinking so that we can become part of the solution instead of escalating the problem. We've seen the amazing results possible by simply standing up in integrity and being open to dialogue instead of quitting. And, it's okay to quit if the time has come. Honor self and in turn we honor all involved. I call it living an honest life.
Today, I'm grateful for one man who was willing to not only listen, but to really hear what was being said. Today, I'm reminded of how amazing and wonderful our ACPs are. They are dedicated and caring people who choose peaceful resolution over bitterness and who's hearts and minds are open to working it out and talking it through. Kudos to Juan at Arise for his wisdom and grace. Kudos to me for finding mine! ;)
Arise is new to Canada since November of 2010. There will be inevitable growing pains for "us" and "them" as we continue on the journey. "They" are learning about the spirits of ACPs in Canada and the U.S., who through peaceful and empowering means demand a voice. Today, we were given our voice. That's not to say that we and Arise aren't going to still butt heads from time to time, but today there is hope where there wasn't yesterday.
If you are considering the Arise opportunity, please know that it's every bit as hard as everyone says it is, and also know that you CAN do it. Know that you have the support of VSCs and ACPs that come before you. Know that you don't have to walk alone in the journey and that support for your efforts are here.
The silver-lining I was referring to are the many wonderful, incredible, patient, strong, determined people that I could not have come to know without this entire journey. I hold them gently in my heart and mind. You guys ROCK!
Who knows what tomorrow may bring... but today there was victory on all sides.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Arise Training and Treatment :: Rogers Communication Opportunity
So, you're thinking of working at home and heard about the Arise opportunity from a friend or maybe an online forum. It sounds good so far, but you may have happened across a few not-so-good things about the Arise and some of its practices. Voices of Arise is made up of CURRENT Arise contractors. We are not disgruntled former employees, but instead, current contractors joining forces to demand that we get what we were promised when we made the investment in Arise. Be sure to check out the comments section below to hear from some of the VSC's and ACP's who work for Arise. We hope this information helps you make a more informed decision before you invest in this company.
Once upon a time there was a large group of people from all over the North American continent who decided to take a chance and start their own business based on the promise of "Work, Freedom, Trust, and Results" made by Arise. This group of people expressed interest in working for Rogers Communications, an Arise client based out of Canada.
It sounded wonderful! Pick your own hours, roll out of bed into work, make new friends, provide exceptional customer service and start to enjoy life. Training began and we soon found out that along with the 4 hours of online classes, we were required to commit 3-6 hours of self-study time EVERY day in order to be certified to service Rogers. For 6 weeks we crammed for weekly assessments and a final exam, we were given little or no time to put to practice the things we were learning because the technical issues in class were many. Days after class began some of us were told there weren't enough training ID's to go around, we'd have to share, night after night it was hit or miss if the training environment would be working so we could practice, but we still moved forward and we all did what we had to do, excited to FINALLY start working. The small voice nagging at many of us that things weren't as they were supposed to be were silenced by assurances that we would have 30-days to "nest" and wouldn't be responsible for metrics or Average handle Time on calls. We were promised we'd have PLENTY of help in virtual "Nesting Chats" with Performance Facilitators (PF's) who were pro's and eager to help us get where we needed to be to reach final certification.
Upon "graduating" from the certification course over half of us did not have working ID numbers to begin servicing the client. We were told this down time would not effect SOW's (Statements of Work we signed with the client committing ourselves IN WRITING to honor the 20 hour minimum commitment). We were all excited to receive an email from Arise telling us there would be more training and we'd even be paid for it! Six days of training with two teachers who truly had our best interest at heart.
Many of us took full advantage of the extra training and were present the entire 9-hours each day all six days. We were relieved to be able to tell the teacher what we didn't know and have him show us individually how to perform tasks we were unable to do, we were even more excited to learn we were going to be paid for the time we were spending in these classes and many of us began to wonder if maybe we were just overreacting a bit. After all, our group was considered a "Super class" and over 700 people were coming out of training at the same time, Arise probably just needed extra time to get all the ID's issued. We'd go to class while we waited. Arise knew we didn't all have ID's, they wouldn't hold us to our SOW's when it was impossible for us to work without ID's they had yet to issue. WRONG! We finished certification on the 9th of the month, there were still people waiting for ID's on the 23rd. Several of these people had their SOW's terminated because they weren't meeting the SOW commitment. Numerous emails to their QAPF's were met with silence.
We heard rumors about hours and hours spent in technical support addressing system issues and it wasn't until some of our own where there for hours and hours that we realized these weren't rumors. Little did we know that in the upcoming days many of us would spend more time in support then we would actually servicing the client. Arise has stringent AHT's for VSC's and ACP's but their own hold times can average FIVE HOURS!
We still had hope that is was all going to be good and we were just going through the normal growing pains all new VSC's and ACP's went through when starting service on a new client. We were told that anytime spent in class before the 15th of the month would be paid to us on the 22nd and that was good. This down time was at least productive, or so we thought. The classes ended and some of us got working ID's and some of us were still waiting. All of us were looking forward to the 22nd when we'd receive our first check, the long wait was going to pay off.
Well, that's what we thought.
The 22nd came and went and none of us were paid. Instead we received an email from Arise apologizing for the delay but promising that all of our fees for class would be paid with our regular service fees on the 7th of the next month. We had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Day after day after day many of us experienced crippling problems with the Citrix/ICM/V21/ and Avaya system which prevented us from working and left us with no choice but to sit in Arise technical support for hours on end. Our complaints and concerns to our QAPF's (Quality Assurance Performance Facilitators) have in many cases, gone unanswered or simply dismissed with company line answers like "It isn't global so it must be your system". Almost every day you can see ACP's in the PF Chats asking if there are system issues because the system logs us out in the middle of customer transactions REGULARLY.
Some Arise employees assured us that all of this was normal and that we we're still in nesting and nesting is a time to work the bugs out. One week after we began nesting, an announcement was made that nesting was closed. We were directed to regular Pf Chats with PF's who were rude and impatient.
We were told that no calls could be transferred to any department without permission from PF Chat which results in MANY customers being left on hold for 6,7, even 10 minutes to simply be transferred to other departments. The requirement to wait for approval GREATLY effects AHT as well. Most days there are 48-71 ACP's in a chat with only 3 PF's on hand to assist resulting in tremendous hold times for customers and more bad AHT's. Numerous complains to Arise QAPF's regarding these concerns have gone unanswered.
There's more...
In certification we were never told that:
-Issuing non-discretionary adjustments would be held against us.
- Transferring calls counts against us
-After Call work would be done with no pay (We were told we'd be paid)
-We would not be compensated for many hours of down time due to inadequate systems. (Some ACP's and -VSC's were shorted almost HALF the hours they worked).
- No compensation for system reboots which can sometimes reach half a dozen during a 4-hour shift.
- Nesting would only be one week and performance would be measured from that point on. (We were told we had 30 days of nesting)
- Arise would not return the level of service and support they demand from us.
See comments below from actual Arise VSC's and ACP's for more broken promises.
In a nutshell, the training that Arise provides for the Rogers Communications client is inadequate, the systems are unreliable at best and the "partner support" is NON existent. If you are considering joining Arise do yourself a favor and STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS opportunity as you can. It's a nightmare and there is little or NO support. Other opportunities may be better, but this one is horrible.
Arise has not lived up to its promises with regards to technical or partner support. They treat us like an assembly line. Once the fee is paid your required to meet or exceed their standards, but do NOT expect the same in return from Arise.
Stay tuned for our next article which will cover the topic of fees. If no support isn't enough to convince you to stay away from Arise, not being paid all the hours you work, might be.
Signed,
Frustrated Arise VSC's and ACP's
P.S. Feel free to leave a comment, our VSC's and ACP's will be glad to answer any questions you might have.
Once upon a time there was a large group of people from all over the North American continent who decided to take a chance and start their own business based on the promise of "Work, Freedom, Trust, and Results" made by Arise. This group of people expressed interest in working for Rogers Communications, an Arise client based out of Canada.
It sounded wonderful! Pick your own hours, roll out of bed into work, make new friends, provide exceptional customer service and start to enjoy life. Training began and we soon found out that along with the 4 hours of online classes, we were required to commit 3-6 hours of self-study time EVERY day in order to be certified to service Rogers. For 6 weeks we crammed for weekly assessments and a final exam, we were given little or no time to put to practice the things we were learning because the technical issues in class were many. Days after class began some of us were told there weren't enough training ID's to go around, we'd have to share, night after night it was hit or miss if the training environment would be working so we could practice, but we still moved forward and we all did what we had to do, excited to FINALLY start working. The small voice nagging at many of us that things weren't as they were supposed to be were silenced by assurances that we would have 30-days to "nest" and wouldn't be responsible for metrics or Average handle Time on calls. We were promised we'd have PLENTY of help in virtual "Nesting Chats" with Performance Facilitators (PF's) who were pro's and eager to help us get where we needed to be to reach final certification.
Upon "graduating" from the certification course over half of us did not have working ID numbers to begin servicing the client. We were told this down time would not effect SOW's (Statements of Work we signed with the client committing ourselves IN WRITING to honor the 20 hour minimum commitment). We were all excited to receive an email from Arise telling us there would be more training and we'd even be paid for it! Six days of training with two teachers who truly had our best interest at heart.
Many of us took full advantage of the extra training and were present the entire 9-hours each day all six days. We were relieved to be able to tell the teacher what we didn't know and have him show us individually how to perform tasks we were unable to do, we were even more excited to learn we were going to be paid for the time we were spending in these classes and many of us began to wonder if maybe we were just overreacting a bit. After all, our group was considered a "Super class" and over 700 people were coming out of training at the same time, Arise probably just needed extra time to get all the ID's issued. We'd go to class while we waited. Arise knew we didn't all have ID's, they wouldn't hold us to our SOW's when it was impossible for us to work without ID's they had yet to issue. WRONG! We finished certification on the 9th of the month, there were still people waiting for ID's on the 23rd. Several of these people had their SOW's terminated because they weren't meeting the SOW commitment. Numerous emails to their QAPF's were met with silence.
We still had hope that is was all going to be good and we were just going through the normal growing pains all new VSC's and ACP's went through when starting service on a new client. We were told that anytime spent in class before the 15th of the month would be paid to us on the 22nd and that was good. This down time was at least productive, or so we thought. The classes ended and some of us got working ID's and some of us were still waiting. All of us were looking forward to the 22nd when we'd receive our first check, the long wait was going to pay off.
Well, that's what we thought.
The 22nd came and went and none of us were paid. Instead we received an email from Arise apologizing for the delay but promising that all of our fees for class would be paid with our regular service fees on the 7th of the next month. We had no choice but to keep moving forward.
 |
| Actual screen shot from Citrix |
Some Arise employees assured us that all of this was normal and that we we're still in nesting and nesting is a time to work the bugs out. One week after we began nesting, an announcement was made that nesting was closed. We were directed to regular Pf Chats with PF's who were rude and impatient.
We were told that no calls could be transferred to any department without permission from PF Chat which results in MANY customers being left on hold for 6,7, even 10 minutes to simply be transferred to other departments. The requirement to wait for approval GREATLY effects AHT as well. Most days there are 48-71 ACP's in a chat with only 3 PF's on hand to assist resulting in tremendous hold times for customers and more bad AHT's. Numerous complains to Arise QAPF's regarding these concerns have gone unanswered.
There's more...
In certification we were never told that:
-Issuing non-discretionary adjustments would be held against us.
- Transferring calls counts against us
-After Call work would be done with no pay (We were told we'd be paid)
-We would not be compensated for many hours of down time due to inadequate systems. (Some ACP's and -VSC's were shorted almost HALF the hours they worked).
- No compensation for system reboots which can sometimes reach half a dozen during a 4-hour shift.
- Nesting would only be one week and performance would be measured from that point on. (We were told we had 30 days of nesting)
- Arise would not return the level of service and support they demand from us.
See comments below from actual Arise VSC's and ACP's for more broken promises.
 |
| Access Restricted message a VSC received minutes before servicing. She lost an entire days pay as a result. |
Arise has not lived up to its promises with regards to technical or partner support. They treat us like an assembly line. Once the fee is paid your required to meet or exceed their standards, but do NOT expect the same in return from Arise.
Stay tuned for our next article which will cover the topic of fees. If no support isn't enough to convince you to stay away from Arise, not being paid all the hours you work, might be.
Signed,
Frustrated Arise VSC's and ACP's
P.S. Feel free to leave a comment, our VSC's and ACP's will be glad to answer any questions you might have.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Welcome to Voices of Arise!
We're glad you're here! This blog is another tool used in our quest for freedom and fair treatment in the Work at Home arena that is known as Arise. We're hoping that what we have to say about our experience with Arise will accomplish a couple of things.
First, we feel that Arise needs to improve its "Partner Support" in several areas.
Second, we feel that if we are going to be required to provide excellent customer service to Arise clients, and are expected to pay Arise for said support each month, we should receive EXCELLENT, EFFICIENT, support in return. What's fair is fair. In turn this keeps us happy and working efficiently, which ultimately results in EXCELLENT customer service for Arise clients. Anything less than that is unacceptable.
One of the most attractive things about Arise, and one of the things that many of us who are contracted with Arise were drawn to was the fact that as a VSC (Virtual Service Corporation) you are basically your own business independently contracting to Arise. As with any business relationship or partnership, there is a give and take involved. It can often feel like the contractors are the ones always giving, while Arise benefits from that and gives little in return. This blog aims to let anyone who is considering working with/for Arise or any of their VSC's know the REAL stories and not the PR version that some employees may be posting to work-at-home forums around the Internet.
If you are an employee of Arise, please don't come here to attack us. This blog was created because we feel that lack of attention to our concerns AFTER we paid our fees was unfair and unacceptable and we hope you'll take this opportunity to help make improvements to a broken system. The Internet is a powerful tool that reaches far and wide. We hope to use this tool to make positive changes.
Signed,
Frustrated Arise VSC's and ACP's
First, we feel that Arise needs to improve its "Partner Support" in several areas.
Second, we feel that if we are going to be required to provide excellent customer service to Arise clients, and are expected to pay Arise for said support each month, we should receive EXCELLENT, EFFICIENT, support in return. What's fair is fair. In turn this keeps us happy and working efficiently, which ultimately results in EXCELLENT customer service for Arise clients. Anything less than that is unacceptable.
One of the most attractive things about Arise, and one of the things that many of us who are contracted with Arise were drawn to was the fact that as a VSC (Virtual Service Corporation) you are basically your own business independently contracting to Arise. As with any business relationship or partnership, there is a give and take involved. It can often feel like the contractors are the ones always giving, while Arise benefits from that and gives little in return. This blog aims to let anyone who is considering working with/for Arise or any of their VSC's know the REAL stories and not the PR version that some employees may be posting to work-at-home forums around the Internet.
If you are an employee of Arise, please don't come here to attack us. This blog was created because we feel that lack of attention to our concerns AFTER we paid our fees was unfair and unacceptable and we hope you'll take this opportunity to help make improvements to a broken system. The Internet is a powerful tool that reaches far and wide. We hope to use this tool to make positive changes.
Signed,
Frustrated Arise VSC's and ACP's
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