How Much Do Canadian Telephone Support Techs Who Support Apple Products Make? Apparently $12/hr CDN
I spotted this posting on Craigslist last week looking for “Technical Support Agents to Support Apple Products.” So just for giggles, I decided to respond to it. The posting was made by Volt Technical Resources who does tech support outsourcing among other things. In any case, I got this reply back within 24 hours:
Hello,
This position is paying $12/hr. Will this been within your price range?
Thanks!
<NAME REDACTED>
Technical Recruiter
Volt Technical Resources | <ADDRESS REDACTED> | <CITY REDACTED>
<EMAIL REDACTED> | t: <REDACTED> | f: <REDACTED>
“Recognized by FORTUNE Magazine as One of America’s Most Admired Companies”
$12 an hour????
If that’s what their phone support techs make, then that’s insane. The problem with what they are paying is that they seriously can’t expect to get anybody good for that price. All you’re going to get is some droid who will read from a script to try and solve your problem. One would think that they’d pay more to find more skilled techs so that they can get the best customer experiences possible.
I’m assuming that this is for Apple as they likely want to keep their costs down by outsourcing their tech support. That’s just a guess on my part, but I’m likely right. At the moment Apple is at the top of the food chain in terms of customer satisfaction. So perhaps the plan is that they hire staff at low prices, train them so that they all sing from the same song sheet, and hope the good ones stick around while culling the weak ones. That of course assumes that this ad was placed for them (even if it’s not, the same logic applies).
Great plan if that’s the case, but here’s where it falls apart:
- The good people at tech support call centers like this one are the sort of targets that get stolen to staff call centers that pay better than what these guys do. After all, if you only pay somebody $25K a year, it makes them really easy to steal without breaking the bank.
- Assuming they don’t get stolen, the good people at tech support call centers like this one often figure out how good they are and go hunting for better paying gigs a few months in.
- The ones who are left are pretty useless and will drive you insane. That’s not a surprise because when you pay people peanuts, you get monkeys.
Here’s a hint to anybody who runs a tech support call center: Find the best people possible and pay them a decent wage (hint: $12/hr isn’t a decent wage). That way you get great customer service and employee loyalty. A classic “win-win.”
Otherwise, you deserve whatever you get.
August 25, 2008 at 3:34 pm
The vast majority of Applecare calls are handled by Apple Employees and they are adding many, as Mac sales are skyrocketing.
Volt employees are temps, are paid poorly, and have no benefits. Temps unfortunately are necessary as it takes a while to hire and train regular employees.
Beats the heck out of outsourcing all your support to India like Microsoft, Dell, HP and all the rest!
August 25, 2008 at 4:46 pm
the clincher is the schedule:
12 hours/day 7days/week
Weekends & Holidays
Plus an extra 2 hours/day comutting time to a suburban wasteland! (Toronto is famous for the quality of it’s ttc metro service in the downtown core – but it is almost impossible to access the hinterlands via the ttc without enduring bone-crushingly cold wait times in the winter … But that is the legacy of the previous Neanderthal conservative government of mike Harris & his plan to destroy the financial integrity of every public institution in the province of Ontario in order to soften up the public mood for privitization of vital public services like health, education, and yes transportation – not to mention the many people who died of water pollution when he axed saftey inspections in the environment felt — but that is all way off-topic!)
and top off the ridiculous schedule at volt, thete us also apparently a bizarre scheme to perform a “background check”!
WTF has that got to do with a call centre?
All in all, not a very enticing way to attract anyone who wants to do mac crm – instead it sounds like a formula to attract drones for the likes of dell!
Good luck with that!
August 25, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Apple does hire some of the good temps! (the purpose for the background check).
August 25, 2008 at 6:46 pm
This is an Entry Level position – that is why it only pays 12.00 an hour. I have talked with the person who posted this. Volt highly regards their consultants and potential candidates. We are here to help you get your foot in the door of many companies around. We have a great team of compassionate Recruiters who truly care about people. For this position, you only need a high school diploma and should have great people skills and be technically saavy, it suggests this in the craigslist posting. Besides, many high school grads are very much in to technical awareness and are extremely knowledgeable about technology. This job is a great jump start for them on their resumes, so thanks for the plug for Volt!
August 25, 2008 at 7:32 pm
To comment on your statement “You can’t get anyone good for that price” I bet if you met the candidates working for this project, most of them students working on Bachelor degrees at local universities you would retract your statement. Most of these candidates are hard working students hoping to graduate with IT degrees in the future and took entry-level positions to get their foot in the door and build up their resumes before graduation. Volt provides flexible hours for them to balance work and school schedules. For those who are not students most are trying to break into a new career field. This position allows entry (little technical experience) candidates to start at the beginning and build up their skills. There are demanding amounts of training hours so I assure you these candidates are not droids reading from a script. They take their jobs seriously and Volt takes their placements seriously. This being said $12/hr might be low pay for you but for others this job is a wonderful opportunity to gain a new skill set.
January 21, 2009 at 11:27 pm
They also discriminated in the hiring process failing anyone who had a indian accent even if they passed all technical and customer service testing.
October 30, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hello,
I can tell you allot about volt technical resources I work for them and this has been one of the worst years of my life…. This company is unprofessional and the face that apple has anything to do with them is a complete joke. Please respond to me if you would like me to tell you all of the details .
I am concidering a lawsuit .
Daphne