sales account manager

customer service representative

trainer

The Bradford Group

What a toxic environment - selling cheques to American customers (the majority are senior citizens with some in their nineties and they have no money).  It's different in the US, people use cheques like we use a debit card and the older generation is resisting giving up their cheques.  Bradford Exchange Checks advertises in US newspapers and in flyers and inserts - misleading prices - $3.50 a box with free shipping - and an offer code that will lower the price - actual price will be higher with service and handling and taxes etc. added on.  Customers phone in and go ballistic when given the price that includes trackable shipping and fraud protection and identity restoration programmes that the computer defaults onto the order.  You will lose the order (considered to be a sale) if you don't remove the shipping and securities before customers hang up in shock when you tell them the price.  Imagine being yelled at and accused of being a fraud.  So you kept the sale but you lose the securities so now you have also gone in the red for your daily statistics (called Metrics).
You will be harassed with coaching sessions if you don't meet your Metrics or "goals".  It isn't your fault when people call in and hang up on you or they have the wrong department or they want Customer Service but they call in on the Order line.  These calls go against your "orders per call" Metrics.  Every employee has bad days when they lose a couple of calls (that's all it takes to put your Metrics in the red).  Then there will be good days where the customer will accept the ridiculous price of $115 for four boxes of cheques without batting an eye. Every two hours your Metrics are sent out in an e-mail to the employees who are working that day. You get to see if your fellow co-workers are having a bad day or a lucky day as well as seeing your own stats against everyone else.
You also have to worry about keeping your call below a certain number of minutes as well as building rapport with the customer.  This is not easy when the caller isn't prepared and they have to find pertinent banking information that is needed to complete the order as well as having credit or debit card numbers ready to pay for the order. Call takes too long - ding!  Another low Metric.  There are a few employees who have worked there for many years and they get away with having bad days.  The rest of the employees are part of the revolving door phenomenon - one goes out and another one comes in.  The company has no respect for anyone because there are new staff in the training classrooms on a regular basis. 
There are some wonderful Supervisors but also a couple of phony, sadistic ones. There are some great co-workers but some who are back-stabbing rats.  You will find this in every company but it's worse at Bradford Exchange.    
I had struggled for a long time with a decision to leave due to the health problems I'm experiencing that my doctor says are related to the stress of the nightmare job.  Hurrah, I recently quit and it's been like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  I've already found another job at a wonderful call centre at a much better wage.  Good riddance loser company.

If you enjoy being treated like a child in grade 1 again, needing to raise your hand to go to the washroom than this is the place for you!  the training was in a room with 20 other people, with a trainer that had no patience or even a personality.  Than you were lucky enough to have lunch in the lunchroom with a bunch of current staff who did not say hello, smile or even acknowledge each other which added to the wonderful atmosphere. The only pleasant part of my job was talking to customers on the phone, which I thoroughly enjoyed until I would constantly get reminded that I wasn't selling fast enough, or getting off the phone fast enough etc.  Add to that, the pay is so low that it quickly makes you realize that working at a fast food restaurant would probably be more enjoyable.  All in all, I have worked in many different fields over the years and I have to say, this was the most unpleasant working experience I have ever had.

When they hired me, I fully explained that I didn't want to do any type of sales, and they said there were NO sales. They also said that we didn't work past 8 pm. The first week on the floor I was reprimanded because I wasn't up to my quota with shipping and extra security (sales) that they required to be on each order.(Customers didn't like paying extra security and shipping, so they would ask for it to be removed). It was unacceptable that I hadn't reached my monthly quota by the first week of the month. Then when my next schedule came up I would be working 3-11 pm. When I went to my manager , she was more interested in talking to another employee about her weekend adventures. 75% of the team I was hired with have also left. I feel they wasted my time and theirs by training me for 3 weeks, only to have me leave 2 weeks after that, knowing what I was told before I was hired. Be honest when your hiring about what is expected and offered!!!

I saw the reviews on here and was hesitant to even apply for the account manager position, but I wanted to try something new so I went in for an interview.
The job sounded interesting so after I was hired I accepted - thought I would give it a shot until something else came along. 
That was 2 years ago and I am still here. I have seen people come and go, but they typically couldn't get to work and thought they were too good to work so they didn't have a chance at hitting their numbers. 
I always thought that coins were for grandfathers but I am really interested in history and that is the best part of this job. 
I also like the hours, and the perks- food, cash, and the people that work here are generally cool - I have made some good friends here and management is fair and accommodated me when I needed extended time off.

Started here in early September with a great mindset. Training was good and people were friendly. 
I hit all my sales targets 3x higher than anyone else. I had good attendance, good call evaluations and a good sales reputation. I was told I would be hired on permanently in a few weeks. 
I got a call tonight at about 8:45pm staying that my placement was terminated due to a lack a work required for the Bradford Group and that I couldn’t work anymore of my shifts. This place is absolutely despicable and ridiculous. Meanwhile they keep hiring people on! People have bills to pay and mouths to feed and they lay me off with 0 NOTICE....  3 weeks before Christmas after approving me for 60+ hours of overtime.

The Bradford Exchange is a good place to work if you enjoy call centers, but it isn't my favourite type of work.  You're always on the phone, and don't really have time to regroup after a call.  I didn't get much assistance in how to better my calls, and I hated what I was trying to sell, which didn't make my job any easier.  I even took part time hours in order to avoid having to be there for extended periods of time.  The pay also isn't anything special, just slightly above minimum wage, and there are no benefits to make the job worthwhile.  

Worst place I have ever worked - Run Away

Unreal weekly quotas and lots of pressure/stress placed on employees. Very old fashioned in the way they do things. Sounds like a good place at first but once in the door you get to see how they operate and that should be your first warning sign. Alarm bells go off when you see how large their HR/Training department is, high turnover is an understatement! I don't know how you run and company like that with an "everybody is replaceable" culture. Best decision I ever made was to leave this job.

Avoid this place, save yourself 1-2 months of stress and wasted time.

I work in the checks department and all of the advertisements sent out to customers are purposefully misleading. When the customer calls to place an order, it's usually 3-4x higher than the price on the advertisement because of all the fees. And of course, the agents on the phones have to deal with the yelling and screaming from customers about this while I'm sure the higher ups are rolling in money and laughing at us. Not a good place to work, advertisements are deceptive, no job security if you're a temp.

When I started working here I thought it would be great, 9-5 mon- fri with a good salary?! Who wouldn't like it? That was until they decided to make it 100% commission to get the salespeople to become "sharks". You need to have a switch to turn off your morals when you're calling 90 people (most of them over the age of 75) trying to sell coins marked up by (literally) 200-500%  to people that won't try to find the real prices online or know anything about true value of coins. But hey to work 9-5 mon-fri sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

I had some doubts from the reviews on here but I decided to try it out because I was looking for something new. 
I started working as an Account manager selling coins - it wasn't easy at the beginning but I like a challenge. The training was good and the supervisor was always willing to help me which I liked. 
The people that wok here are really friendly and there are fun incentives and the hours are awesome- which I wasn't finding at other jobs.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales account manager 7 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Trainer 1 salary reported	$39,500 per year

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