Money is More Important than Morals
Pros
This company, especially during the fall season during open enrollment for healthcare will pretty much hire anyone, so if you're in desperate need of a job, and particularly the ability to work from home, then you will most likely be able to get hired by TeleDirect. For remote workers, they pay $9 per hour and $10 per hour on the mandatory 1 weekend day you will be scheduled. In my experience, although many reviews for this company here on Glassdoor indicate otherwise, my training period lasted 4 1/2 days, and the actual training itself was very well presented, although the training class was far too large and very chaotic at times. The trainer was very experienced and knowledgeable, but it seemed as though although TeleDirect stated 100% attendance during training was required, that numerous times individuals would fail to follow basic instructions or even show up on time, with seemingly no repercussion, since TeleDirect is desperate for new hires. Prior to training, the company will send you all the equipment you will need for your job, including a Google ChromeBox, and all necessary peripherals, that if and when you end employment with them, they will arrange for return of the equipment. The actual online interface that you use for training and your job is pretty decent and seems to function fairly well. It's a very basic interface and system, but is sufficient for the tasks you will be expected to complete. They do allow some flexibility for your preferred scheduling. Typically speaking, they prefer your proposed availability to begin no earlier than 4pm PST, and no later than 8pm PST, but within that window of time, you will be asked to provide a 12 hour window for them to schedule you within. Your schedule has the ability to change week to week, and you will be notified on Wednesday for your schedule for the following week. The work week for TeleDirect runs Sunday through Saturday and you will be required to work 1 weekend day. You will have the other weekend day off, as well as one random week day off also. During times where the volume of inbound calls is slower, you will sometimes be provided the option to request E-Time, where you are able to submit to leave your shift early unpaid, and they do accommodate requests when possible. If you do need to take time off during your regular shift outside of when E-Time is available, you do always have the option to post a shift or hours during a shift on the email board, which is quite effective, and allow other employees at your training level the ability to volunteer to cover your shift. TeleDirect utilizes a no-excused-absences policy, meaning that a consistent standard of penalties via a point system is used for any scheduled absence, which ensures favoritism is a non-issue, unlike companies that approve or penalize an unexcused absence on a case-by-case basis. There are opportunities each month for three $55 bonuses, for a total of $165 max bonus, providing you have worked at least 120 hours that month. These included bonuses for perfect attendance, as well as stat-based performance standard bonuses.
Cons
TeleDirect does not hire you to provide support for them directly, but rather, they are a 3rd-party answering service for clients of all types. While in theory, this isn't a problem, my issue with TeleDirect (and the reason why I left the company within the first week of employment), is the nature of some of the clients they provide answering and customer service support for. While in the remote position, you will spend a lot of time taking seminar and dinner reservations for direct response mailings, which is a very straight-forward and relatively simple process. However, my issue with TeleDirect came in the form of providing support for some extremely unethical and morally bankrupt companies. The sleazy nature of this company comes in the form of very misleading advertising, geared towards preying on unsuspecting individuals and their propensity for fear and their existing financial crises. Since these companies are a clients of TeleDirect and in this position you will be the one fielding the calls for this company, be prepared to be directly involved in their predatory, disgusting behavior. Once in a while when someone calls in as a result of receiving mailers from these companies they do understand that it is a scam. However, more often than not, the people that respond to these notices call in completely worried and terrified that they have done something wrong and fall prey to this blatant scam. At TeleDirect, one of the benefits of the job is the simplicity, since you follow a pre-written script. However, regarding fielding calls for these companies, sometimes the script you are forced to recite is downright disgusting. Naturally, when people call after receiving notices from these companies, they are often confused and extremely worried. The script you will read is absolutely manipulative, and just shy of completely a lie. You will, however, read the script and as such, you will be complicit to this predatory, unethical business model and their scams. It is for this reason that I left TeleDirect after only 2 full days of work following my training week. If you are in desperate need of a job, and the ability to work remotely from home, then it is easy to find employment at TeleDirect. If you have any morals or ethics as a person though, you will find being the voice of some of these companies disgusting.
