Call center in Moore to close, lay off up to 375 workers to make way for Sam's Club

[Jesseda]

mentioned on here a couple months back that this was going to happen, surprised that people are shocked about this

[jn1780]

Most of us knew a Sams would eventually go on this site. Convergy's closing down completely was kind of surprising, but not really when you think about it.

[venture]

Telemarketing is a specific activity at a call center. Telemarketing can involve cold calls, but more often is calling existing customers or people that have expressed an interest and want to receive a call. It's one in the same....

As people have said, who are familiar with the operation, it is an inbound center...not outbound which you are talking about. Please stick to the facts and stop derailing threads.

[venture]

mentioned on here a couple months back that this was going to happen, surprised that people are shocked about this

Most have very short term memories. I was trying to find the original thread on this but couldn't.

[Jesseda]

Most have very short term memories. I was trying to find the original thread on this but couldn't.

http://www.okctalk.com/moore/33063-s...g-moore-2.html It looks like it was more then a couple months. I mentioned this last april 2013 lol. time flew by for me to quick in 2013

[mblues]

I drive by this site twice a day, every day and while my observation is just that an observation it really appears that over the past many months or possibly year the volume of cars parked in the Convergys's lot has decreased dramatically. I can remember when there was hardly a parking space available and now it seems as if the lot is rarely half filled. I don't know how that equates to heads but I would be amazed if there were still 375 employees there.

On a side note, I personally hate to drive to Norman or Midwest City just to spend money at Sam's.

[MustangGT]

Business comes and goes. It is the way of the world. Sams will provide steady/reliable employment for years if not decades.

[kevinpate]

...
On a side note, I personally hate to drive to Norman or Midwest City just to spend money at Sam's.

Ya know, we have a few interesting little palces around town to visit, to imbibe or to eat. You're welcome to sample and then you won't have driven just for Sam's.

[mblues]

Ya know, we have a few interesting little palces around town to visit, to imbibe or to eat. You're welcome to sample and then you won't have driven just for Sam's.

I understand that and we do actually frequent different places in Norman. My point being that Convergys is already in a state of decline and if the option is available to replace it with a more stable viable business then why not? When I go to Sam's it is usually early (business membership) and that is generally a specific errand, hence my comment about driving to Norman or MWC just to spend money at Sam's.

[decepticobra]

Used to work there for many years 1997-2001. It was originally Matrixx Marketing, a division of Cincinnati Bell. In the beginning, it was a great company to work for, DirecTv was their largest portfolio (they also acquired AT&T and another portfolio that I cant seem to recollect). The sales bonus structure was generous and lucrative (50 cents, $1.00 & $1.50 for every Silver, Gold and Platinum programming package sold-added to your check,...it wasnt uncommon for many to rake in $500 in bonuses on their checks). ...When Convergys took over Matrixx, they immediately eliminated that sales incentive and many other perks. Things became more micro-managed and as a result morale sank and turn over rose. They also began a witch hunt of firing people for acinine (sp?) reasons. I'm surprised they lasted this long. Some of the management there was unfair and militant with flagrant disregard for their employees welfare or various concerns. In short, it was akin to a sweatshop. When I first worked there, the only businesses on the west side of I-35 & 19th was WAL-MART and Burger King. Today, Moore's economy has well flourished. I dont think Moore needs Convergys.....good riddance as far as I'm concerned.

[MWCGuy]

If Convergy's wanted to stick around, Isn't the Macy's space at Crossroads still for sale? They could of moved into that space.

There you go.... Macy's is vacant, Heritage Park Mall has a Ward's store, not to mention there is a ton of call center space in business parks scattered all over this city and a few vacant big boxes still out there too.

Not to mention Call Center jobs are out there all over the metro in everything from government to the private sector.

[SoonerVIC]

Isnt the "Investment group" that owns the property actually Walmart?

From what I was told from a prominent local commercial real estate agent, yes.

[Garin]

Used to work there for many years 1997-2001. It was originally Matrixx Marketing, a division of Cincinnati Bell. In the beginning, it was a great company to work for, DirecTv was their largest portfolio (they also acquired AT&T and another portfolio that I cant seem to recollect). The sales bonus structure was generous and lucrative (50 cents, $1.00 & $1.50 for every Silver, Gold and Platinum programming package sold-added to your check,...it wasnt uncommon for many to rake in $500 in bonuses on their checks). ...When Convergys took over Matrixx, they immediately eliminated that sales incentive and many other perks. Things became more micro-managed and as a result morale sank and turn over rose. They also began a witch hunt of firing people for acinine (sp?) reasons. I'm surprised they lasted this long. Some of the management there was unfair and militant with flagrant disregard for their employees welfare or various concerns. In short, it was akin to a sweatshop. When I first worked there, the only businesses on the west side of I-35 & 19th was WAL-MART and Burger King. Today, Moore's economy has well flourished. I dont think Moore needs Convergys.....good riddance as far as I'm concerned.

So you guys made sells at this call center? Or did you only take inbound calls for tech service?

[decepticobra]

So you guys made sells at this call center? Or did you only take inbound calls for tech service?

So you guys made sells at this call center? Or did you only take inbound calls for tech service?

during the time I was there, there was 3 clients/portfolios housed inside Convergys: DirecTV, AT&T,..and I think the other was Southwestern Bell. It was considered confidential taboo for an employee working under one portfolio to speak about safeguarded information to another employee working under another portfolio...say during break, lunch, or any other time on company property. I worked under DirecTv's portfolio (which was the largest of the 3). It was all inbound calls, never any outbound. Inbound tech service was handled/outsourced by West (not sure if West on Memorial in OKC recieved these calls, or a different West). DirecTv/Convergys handled activation and billing inhouse. Tech was transferred to West, and Spanish callers were transferred to the Convergys call center in Pharr, TX. A perk of working there, was that usually every autumn, DirecTV corporate would arrange for a paid speaker to drum up employee's motivation to sell their NFL Sunday Ticket (which, honestly, sold itself by resounding customer demand) DirecTv would have former NFL stars arrive at the Moore center. I met "Too Tall Jones", Darrell Johnston, and Tony Dorsett.

[venture]

From what I know, the DirecTV tech is handled mostly by West at home agents and not their facility on Memorial.

[soonermike]

Glad to see the city is taking some steps to try and alleviate the added traffic this Sam's will bring to 19th Street. Undoubtedly it won't fix all of the problems of 19th, but at least we know they are trying to make some improvements.
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[Plutonic Panda]

That will be nice. Hopefully they will widen it to 6 lanes with a landscaped median of some kind.

[catch22]

not to be that guy, but how has the widening and added turn lanes helped alleviate traffic at Telephone Rd and 19th?

Traffic has gotten worse over there since they added wider streets.

[Plutonic Panda]

not to be that guy, but how has the widening and added turn lanes helped alleviate traffic at Telephone Rd and 19th?

Traffic has gotten worse over there since they added wider streets.

It all has to work together. When all the streets are updated(not saying every one widened to six lanes or widened at all), it will be much better than what it was before. It also likely spur new development that will yet again, bring more traffic, but that is ok. Any city road should not be wider than six lanes and even at that, you will still experience high traffic at times in popular areas such as Fritts Farm.

There is also a very bad stop light that shouldn't have been built and the exits and entries to Walmart and the development across from it on SW 19th ST. and Riverwalk Dr.... That was horribly located and should've been more strategically located on another street. The only thin to do now is synchronize the lights and widen the roads and that should help immensely.

[venture]

The biggest thing they need to do is fix the stupid interchange with I-35. That is a major contributor to the problems in that area. You can add 30 lanes to the area and its not going to fix crap. The layout/design is just completely inefficient to what they are trying to accomplish there.

[Plutonic Panda]

That is a huge problem to.

[MWCGuy]

I think this would be a good candidate for a SPUI or a Diamond. Moore also needs to look at reconfiguring access to Walmart and some of the other businesses through there. Sure the access worked great when only a handful of businesses were down there. If they don't do something about it, they may just starting seeing closures like many businesses along Broadway Extension in Edmond.

[Plutonic Panda]

I think this would be a good candidate for a SPUI or a Diamond. Moore also needs to look at reconfiguring access to Walmart and some of the other businesses through there. Sure the access worked great when only a handful of businesses were down there. If they don't do something about it, they may just starting seeing closures like many businesses along Broadway Extension in Edmond.

?

I agree with your first part though.

[Plutonic Panda]

Not widening to six lanes or fixing the highway interchange unfortunately. The plan is to add dual left turn lanes at all sides with dedicated right turn lanes. I'm kind of confused by this because it seems they already have these features, maybe I'm thinking of something else, not sure.





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[Zuplar]

Exactly what I figured they were going to do. This intersection doesn't have the dual lanes, maybe you are thinking on the west side of 35.