Talk Talk at "Talk Talk"

krissovo

jonnyfingers wrote: »

From Talk Talk's statement they seem to be blaming the Euro currency for helping them make the decision to close down the office.

Yet more evidence that being in the Euro is not doing Ireland any good.

I know of thousands of call center seats in the country that benefit from the Euro. Unfortunately the majority of them are filled by foreign nationals:mad:

Roomic Cube

Sorry to all the heads who are losing their jobs, I think everyone here knows more then a few people who worked there, including many boardsies too.

Partizan

My sympathy to those who have lost their jobs today. Anybody who is unattached should use their redundancy money and get the hell out of Dodge. Workers there will get redundancy. Statatory Redundancy is 2 weeks for every year worked plus a bonus week. See here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/redundancy/redundancy_payments.html

This is a big blow to Waterford and will have a knock on effect on other businesses. I also heard that 150 jobs are in danger in Rigney Dolphin so it will be a bleak Christmas for many families. Waterford is an unemployment blackspot and a task force needs to be set up. Nearly half of the City's population is dependent on the State for some or all of their income. Batten down the hatches. Those who can get out, should do so. There is nothing for them in Waterford.

Partizan

krissovo wrote: »

I know of thousands of call center seats in the country that benefit from the Euro. Unfortunately the majority of them are filled by foreign nationals:mad:

Because many of these foreign nationals have language skills that the ordinary Joe Soap does not. Have you been using your spare time to brush up on your French/German/Spanish etc.?

krissovo

Partizan wrote: »

Because many of these foreign nationals have language skills that the ordinary Joe Soap does not. Have you been using your spare time to brush up on your French/German/Spanish etc.?

No, its because the majority of contracts have native speaker clauses with a minimum % of native speakers to service the calls.

FetchTheGin

Perfect time for the three network to close that crappy Indian call centre and set up shop in Waterford.

batm!ke

Sympathies to those who have lost their jobs. I know a lot of people who work or have worked in AOL/TalkTalk.

I dread to think what this will do to town now. Parts of the City Centre have been looking bad enough as it is lately due to shops closing down. I really hope Waterford doesn't become a textbook example of urban decay, or am I over-reacting?

Partizan

krissovo wrote: »

No, its because the majority of contracts have native speaker clauses with a minimum % of native speakers to service the calls.

Its normal practice.

rayobrien08

So sorry to hear about the job losses

jimbojazz

batm!ke wrote: »

Sympathies to those who have lost their jobs. I know a lot of people who work or have worked in AOL/TalkTalk.

I dread to think what this will do to town now. Parts of the City Centre have been looking bad enough as it is lately due to shops closing down. I really hope Waterford doesn't become a textbook example of urban decay, or am I over-reacting?

Well if you take that the average take home from there is probably in the region of €400/ week and multiply that by 575 = €230,000/week or €12 million/year - that wil give you a fair indication of what will be taken out of the local economy. Also factor in the Welfare payments for these people and you see the real effect.

I'm also sure there were some local businesses who depended on this company

jo06555

Bad day for waterford i put on today fm and the last word thinking it would be main story but matt decides waste tanks are more important :mad: typical as its only waterford jobs lost .

batm!ke

jo06555 wrote: »

Bad day for waterford i put on today fm and the last word thinking it would be main story but matt decides waste tanks are more important :mad: typical as its only waterford jobs lost .

He just said they'll get to it during the show. Probably hadn't enough time to put together a full feature on it to open the show.

dark_shadow

Really sorry to hear such sad news!!:(

jo06555

batm!ke wrote: »

He just said they'll get to it during the show. Probably hadn't enough time to put together a full feature on it to open the show.

Ye that was my text he read out , fair enough if didnt have time but he didnt even mention it in his outlay of the show . im pretty sure if it was dublin it would be headlined

MitchKoobski

Message sent out to the rest of the TalkTalk workforce in the UK

I wanted to share with you the sad news that today we told our people in Waterford about proposals to close the site.
Most of you will be aware of our history. Our rapid growth has given us hugely complex systems and processes that have got in the way of providing the service our customers expect. This has in turn led to high call volumes and churn. In the last year we have made enormous progress simplifying our business, integrating our billing systems, making our processes and systems more efficient and giving our people better tools to do the job. This has resulted in a big improvement in how our customers see us, lower levels of complaint to OfCom, call volumes down by 40% and customer satisfaction and churn metrics all moving in the right direction.
This is a major change in how our customers choose to deal with us, with far fewer calls and more and more choosing to go online. As a result we have been looking at how to simplify our contact centre operations, make our call centres easier to manage and allow us to be more flexible in responding to our customers. We announced in July that we are reducing the number of outsource partners we have, and as a result we are winding down our work in Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai and Cape Town over the coming months. We also need to consolidate our own call centre operations in the UK. This has led to today’s announcement about Waterford.
As our largest in-house site, the proposed closure would allow us to quickly reduce complexity, simplify operations and realise the benefits for our customers. This would also limit our exposure to fluctuations in the Euro. The majority of work currently undertaken at Waterford would be transferred to Wipro, CCI and Transcom. This reflects the fact that the vast majority of our calls (around 80%) are already handled offshore. Some of the more highly skilled work will be managed at our existing sites in the UK, creating up to 80 jobs. Waterford employees will have the opportunity to transfer to these new roles in the UK.
I must emphasise that this proposal in no way reflects on the Waterford team’s performance and commitment. They have shown huge dedication and care in serving our customers over many years. Our people at Waterford will now enter a 30 day consultation period, after which a final decision will be made. We will be making every effort over the coming weeks to give those affected all the support and help they may need to consider their options for the future, including in some instances the option of relocating to another TalkTalk site.
Whilst this is disappointing news for those members of our TalkTalk team employed at Waterford, at the same time it does reflect the significant progress we have made in simplifying our business, improving our customer experience and reducing need for our customers to call us.
We will keep you updated as the consultation progresses.

michellie

Devestated for all my AOL friends. Worked there for 4 years. Awful for some of them to find out through the media!

kavsmdf

hardybuck wrote: »

While I respect the fact that you will be upset, calling our country a dump is unacceptable.

What are you on about? The country IS a dump. It's a fucking waste of space at this stage. People think they can fuck around good people like this, just decide that they're going to cut 575 jobs.

It's absolute horse shit and anyone who denies that, or says this country and its "leaders" aren't all full of shit needs to get their head checked.

Talk Talk is a very healthy company, with their profits only going up every year. They had no reason to do this only gluttony on their part. Compared to the money they're making, Waterford was costing them nothing to run. I worked there for over 2 and a half years, left last year, and when I left it was the best call center they had. People would ring and hang up until they got somebody in Waterford because of the service they would provide.

I've been saying it for years that the country is fucked, and I'm glad I got out when I did. There's nothing here for anyone, get out while ye can lads, and see how long all the big pay checks our ministers get last when 90% of people here are on the dole.

batm!ke

jo06555 wrote: »

Ye that was my text he read out , fair enough if didnt have time but he didnt even mention it in his outlay of the show . im pretty sure if it was dublin it would be headlined

True. Probably right.

So what happens now? When are 575 officially unemployed? Is there a glimmer of anything good on the horizon for them and Waterford?

hardybuck

kavsmdf wrote: »

What are you on about? The country IS a dump. It's a fucking waste of space at this stage. People think they can fuck around good people like this, just decide that they're going to cut 575 jobs.

It's absolute horse shit and anyone who denies that, or says this country and its "leaders" aren't all full of shit needs to get their head checked.

Talk Talk is a very healthy company, with their profits only going up every year. They had no reason to do this only gluttony on their part. Compared to the money they're making, Waterford was costing them nothing to run. I worked there for over 2 and a half years, left last year, and when I left it was the best call center they had. People would ring and hang up until they got somebody in Waterford because of the service they would provide.

I've been saying it for years that the country is fucked, and I'm glad I got out when I did. There's nothing here for anyone, get out while ye can lads, and see how long all the big pay checks our ministers get last when 90% of people here are on the dole.

Best of luck to you, wherever you are. I'll remain here working while I can anyway. I don't plan on becoming a foreigner unless I have to.

ToxicPaddy

Just read this now.. a huge blow to the city and surrounding area

Feel very sorry for all of those losing their jobs..

jimbojazz

kavsmdf wrote: »

What are you on about? The country IS a dump. It's a fucking waste of space at this stage. People think they can fuck around good people like this, just decide that they're going to cut 575 jobs.

It's absolute horse shit and anyone who denies that, or says this country and its "leaders" aren't all full of shit needs to get their head checked.

Talk Talk is a very healthy company, with their profits only going up every year. They had no reason to do this only gluttony on their part. Compared to the money they're making, Waterford was costing them nothing to run. I worked there for over 2 and a half years, left last year, and when I left it was the best call center they had. People would ring and hang up until they got somebody in Waterford because of the service they would provide.

I've been saying it for years that the country is fucked, and I'm glad I got out when I did. There's nothing here for anyone, get out while ye can lads, and see how long all the big pay checks our ministers get last when 90% of people here are on the dole.

Well said and very well put, it sums up exactly what those of us who are on the scrapheap through no fault of our own are going through.

It's alright for people coming on here and trying to put an optimistic viewpoint across and while I accept that you have to offer people hope it's only when you are faced with the prospect of having no job that it really hits home.

You lose all sense of hope, you try to pass your day by applying for work just to make yourself feel good. You go through each day worrying where the money is going to come from to pay for your basic living needs. You dread the phone ringing or the postman dropping letters through your door for fear of what will be in it. You do your best for your kids but they soon get realise that things are tough and that they cant have the nice things they were once used to.

That's the reality for 450,000 people in Ireland today.

I'm now faced with the prospect of having to leave the country that I have lived in all my life and try find work in another country away from my family, friends and more mportantly my kids who will now spend a great part of their life growing up with their dad away from home

That's the real Ireland in 2011.

madforit88

And with also the possibility of another 150 jobs going from Rigney Dolphin a call center based just up the road form AOL what is this government going to do. They where very quick to announce that the Solas is talking over from the Corrupt FAS i haven't seen or heard of anything from them in the first 6 weeks since they launched. We need answer's and the government are not giving any. They where very quick to state that they where going to bring jobs to this country but all that is heard is job losses and the Odd 20 jobs hear or there 20 jobs isnt going to get us out of the hole that were in.

madness11

its more like to 220 jobs in rigneydolphin.And they are gone by the end of the year

mike65

Just talking about the state of the Waterford economy in general terms on Matt Coopers show.

MitchKoobski

That was me on WLR there if anyone was listening.....

decies

http://t.co/iDN3dng

kingcurls

I used to work there since 2005 when it was AOL and looking back you would think this is what the Carphone warehouse group had planned from the get go for the Waterford call centre when they bought AOL's business in the UK.

The american owners were happy to pay the bills to have a call centre in an inflation riddled economy because they valued customer service (which Waterford did so well) and had a huge customer base in the US to prop up the UK business.

When AOL decided they were selling up that was the real start of the process that has led to today. I would imagine the Waterford call centre was never in CPW's plans as they have little value placed on customer service and as such weren't willing to pay the high price (compared to outsourcing) for the luxury.

They have been winding down the Waterford operation from day one.
re branding the company, changing the tools and processes, freezing pay rises and laying off departments. I was there for all of it but thankfully not for the disappointing end

They are a low cost company and Waterford was a high cost (high quality) operation. They never wanted it from day one. They will save a few million a year by dropping Waterford but if this news broke in the UK you can bet your arse lots of customers wouldn't be so happy to have Talk Talk knowing there wasn't a few hundred people in Waterford looking after them.

The real shame of it is that the people who are being hit by this are being given their marching orders from RTE.ie and WLR instead of being told months or years ago that this was in the pipeline.

No amount of rallying with all the politicians in Ireland is going to change this, its the nature of business and as always the little guy gets screwed.

Best of luck to everyone in the call centre I know a lot down there and don't know half of the people who will really be hit hard by this.

I wish you all well but I hope you can think of it as the chance for some of you to finally get on with your lives and get this place off your back.

Max Powers

At the end of the day the IDA has done sweet F-all for Waterford in about 20 years and we are seeing more effects of that today. Just watched TV3 news and they done a good bit on it. They highlighted how Waterford has had been particularly hard hit in this recession: Waterford Crystal, Teva, ABB, B&L, Talk Talk etc. They summed it up by saying that unemployment is about 28,000 in Waterford. We only have a population of 110,000 in total so about 1 quarter of our population, not our labour force is unemployed.

Its unbelievable, shame on those who are meant to be running and were meant to be running this country.

To all those being let go, all you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try get another job, easier said than done I know but keep your head up.

abouttobebanned

RTE reporting live

Cicero

Just came into this forum to say thinking of all of you in Waterford right affected by this tough news today- hope you can find alternative employment soon

Take Care.:)