Pluspunten
The money is ok. I worked for EDF Energy as a customer adviser for B2B. I was initially paid £8.50 for the first 3 months (training) and then £9.20 on wards. The building (Exeter) was clean and contained a free gym and restaurant. To be honest, earning £9.20 an hour is ok (2015) as it means bills can be paid and a person can save properly - not the usual scrimping from month to month until death.
Minpunten
EDF Energy at Exeter have a huge staff turn-over. The initial training is for 1 week and after that you are offered help that is hard to obtain. They also have a data base (SAP) that is extremely complicated and hard to learn. There are people at EDF that have been employed for 11 years and still have no idea how to do basic things. It's a nightmare. Staff work-load is excessive. Staff also avoid taking their regular breaks due to fear of falling behind. Added to this you don't get paid for over-time unless you have worked more than 20 minutes each day. This means that if you shift stops at 5pm, but you have a customer enquiry until 5.10pm and take another 5mins to note the records you don't get paid because that only takes you up to 5.15pm and not past the 5.20pm. Staff are aggressive. I was treated aggressively on many occasions and Managers seemed to think this was an acceptable thing. Asking for clarification when using initiative is seen as unwelcome. In fact, it is treated as a threat to Management authority. If you want to succeed then be a robot with a sealed mouth. Customer accounts are not recorded properly. Due to the unreasonable call handling times, high staff turn-over and aggression if suggestions are made customer accounts lack proper data entries, missing documentation attachments and lack of thorough investigation even when the customer is in the right. I came across several accounts where the customer was telling the truth. On one case the alleged debtor that EDF were pursuing was a customer that had been dead for over 2 years. EDF was informed that the customer was deceased and even knew that a new customer was liable during those 2 years. The new customer even called EDF and informed them personally he was liable. Instead EDF continued to pursue the deceased customer - the executor of the will was not best pleased as she had sent in all executor documentation 2 years ago! Talk about inadequate. Bullying customers is rife when it comes too setting up installment plans. Many IPs are not achievable or proper asset checks are not done. It's a recipe for disaster. In fact, many high class debts could have been avoided if EDF took more notice of accounts at earlier stages and allowed staff to work on accounts properly. In the end I was asked to leave EDF despite not having any disciplinarians, customer or staff complaints made against me. I was given 100% in my last audit 3 weeks before being asked to leave. In fact, EDF said that if I didn't go peacefully - and they would give me good references - they would find tiny mistakes and focus on those to discipline me thus destroying my references. In short, I was black-mailed.