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• Please do yourself a favour. DO NOT apply. AND keep your money in your pocket. I first got a response last December when they needed a bilingual customer representative. The recruiter said that my laptop did not adhere to the specific requirements. Fine enough. I went to buy another laptop with a quad-core at 1.2 GHz (more than required honestly). That laptop passed their technological requirements test just fine with a big green check. The recruiter ended up not approving of this laptop because the processor speed was not a good fit according to her opinion (HR opinion on technology). I doubt that 0.3 GHz would have made a difference. Anyway, I went on to exchange that laptop to another one a gaming one. 2.5 GHz with more than enough memory than required. I also changed my ISP to get a faster speed. All in all she ended telling me that she would not be able to recruit me because I was still under my Canadian study permit after my recent graduation. Now, let us rectify HR ignorance on the rules of IRCC here:" You can continue to work after you finished your studies only if: you’ve already applied for a work permit." - Which ahem I'm doing right now. She also did not seem to be interested to give me a bilingual position and focused only on specific English positions (maybe perhaps to pay me less). She could have also mentioned to me that she did not want to work with me AT ALL right at the beginning. It would have prevented me to go through all of this hassle.
  
  Funny story: The recruiter made a mistake and ended up leaving a voicemail that was destined to somebody else. While speaking, she clearly mentioned to that person that she would find support for her into buying a computer and other equipments to let her start the job. I was speechless. I spent so much money into getting set up while other people clearly got the opportunity to receive help into buying a computer and equipments.
  
  General conclusion: The phone interview was pretty casual. I've SPENT A LOT of money for nothing and ended up not getting recruited. Also, if you're on Canadian territory, they will exclude you because the recruiters are from the U.S and DO NOT understand Canadian work regulations.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 18 January 2021 by Rater #31 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• This is a work-from-home position. The hiring process was so bad that I wasn't sure it was a legitimate job offer. There was no correspondence on Sitel Letterhead at any time. I tried to call for clarification, but no one would return my calls. I finally got information about the training the day before my start date.
  The training was all over the place; I had two trainers, and one was great, but the other was confused most of the time. The system we were working on was being fazed out, and a new system was being introduced which made training up until that point redundant.
  They offer benefits for full-time employees. Medical and vision in 3 months, but you have to wait 6 months for Dental. I'm not sure why they would make you wait for 6 months for Dental??
  If you are sick after training, that's fine, but be prepared to make up the hours within that week. You MUST make up the time.
  The calls come fast and are back to back, you have no time to relax for a few minutes between calls; which is needed if you have a bad call. Too bad!
  There is a 1/2 hour unpaid lunch.
  There are 4 hours forced overtime per week.
  There is testing during training, and if you fail (under 80%), you will be fired. (You have two attempts)
  Our training went through an American Site; one trainer asked us if Canada was a State in the U.S.A. Most of them have zero knowledge about Countries outside of themselves.
  The schedules are inflexible, and you have to abide by their rules at all times, even if that means that you have no existence outside of work.
  There are a lot of great work-at-home positions right now; think long and hard before you commit to Sitel. Sometimes the pay may seem great, but when you see what is expected, you realize that minimum wage with a better life balance, is preferred.
    read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 1 November 2020 by Rater #30 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Words absolutely fail me when describing the joke that is Sitel, in St. Catharines. I USED to work on their Intuit QuickBooks Online support team.
  
  For starters, Sitel displays a big yellow sign on the front of the building which is basically begging for passersby to apply there. Yes, Sitel is BEGGING for people to work for them even though the company is in a dying community with NO JOBS.
  
  I immediately knew that this company was a joke when I went through the phone screening interview. I was asked stupid questions like "how many days is it OK to be absent in a month?". This bad impression was reinforced a few days later when I received an "interview reminder" call from the recruiter, ON MY WAY TO THE FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW. This was 30 minutes prior to my scheduled interview time. What kind of deadbeats is Sitel recruiting if they have to remind people that they have an interview that day? Even Walmart doesn't do that. And what is the point anyway if the interview is in half an hour? Would a person who needed to be reminded at that point even be able to make it to the interview?
  
  Once hired, you will receive an entire month of utterly worthless in-class training that will do nothing to prepare you for the demands of the job. The classroom walls are covered in lofty-sounding motivational corporate propaganda about "powering prosperity". In training, you will be openly told to "fake it until you make it". Also, if you dare to question the nonsensical assertions that are being made by the trainer, you will be accused of "being negative".
  And during this training, you will receive in-class visits from HR staff and senior managers who will try to convince you that the St. Catharines office has tons of growth opportunities. Get ready to see the HR manager practically shower the training class with recruitment cards that she will urge you to pass on to your friends. It's all about hoping that you are gullible enough to believe that the company is not a dead-end, which it definitely is. The absolute numbers of growth opportunities there are tiny. The entire HR staff only has about 5 people.
  
  As for my training class, there were grown adults in it with childish behaviour problems and obvious addiction problems who were, shockingly, NOT fired.
  
  But this lunacy makes PERFECT sense when you realize how the company operates. The company operates on a burn and churn model. Since so many people quit, the company is forced to keep as many people as possible in the recruitment pipeline at all times.
  This is especially true if you are working for Intuit. Rather than prioritize the development of a robust knowledge base in the employees' HEADS, the company instead directs new employees to look up useless online "community articles" and "knowledge base articles" while those new employees ARE ON THE PHONE WITH IMPATIENT CUSTOMERS. Obviously, this is NOT a substitute for a REAL knowledge base that could only be developed by hiring experienced people, paying them a decent wage, and retaining and grooming them properly for job. But since this would cost money, Sitel is not interested. Managers instead will harass you about your "stats".
  
  Ultimately, Intuit is running a legal scam of sorts. Intuit bills their customers who are under the illusion that they will have access to great customer support. But what those customers get is a ton of unqualified, undertrained, and stressed out agents who have not been prepared to address the customer's questions and concerns. This is all the more troubling since Quickbooks Online customers are small business owners who depend on Quickbooks to work so the customers CAN EARN THEIR LIVING.
  
  In fairness, there are pluses of working at Sitel. There are some genuinely knowledgeable supervisors there. You will work with some nice coworkers. You will gain some exposure to Salesforce and other customer support software. But beyond that, it's just a lot of responsibility for very little money.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 22 March 2019 by Rater #28 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Worst company ever. The people in the office only care about numbers. They yell and threaten when the numbers are crap. When they're good they hide in their office. They get paid to be rude, useless, and treat the few good coaches you have like dogs! On the floor too! How about you learn how to improve your CSAT because your site director and her boss should be not be there if they can't communicate without yelling and threats. Abuse and threats are illegal.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 12 March 2015 by Rater #27 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I think Sitel gets a bad reputation unfairly. I've had an excellent journey with them, and when I reflect on situations that I feel could have been handled better there is partial ownership on my end for those. They really want to help people improve, but seem to get taken advantage of often. I have no complaints - and its been over ten years. People should give them a chance, and maybe try and make a career out of it. There is certainly opportunity there - which is more than I can say about a lot of places in the Niagara Region in the past 5 years. Give them a shot and put your best foot forward.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 3 June 2014 by Rater #26 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Contrary to alot of feedback here i enjoy working for sitel. Its easy work as long as you dont take customers feeback negatively. There have been many postings for mentors and coach trainees and lots of room for advancement. As for pay its ok...i do collect $200-$300 in bonuses extra per month for just doing my job!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 3 June 2014 by Rater #25 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Well I just started there in traing for 3 weeks now.. So maybe they paid attention to these boards in st.catharines anyways. seems like the people work there are out going for most part. training class are 7 hours long and we are training. It's get boring some of the time because we are training on the computer system some days doing it over and over again.. For most part training for this is very benificial. 4 weeks of training and they just don't throw you to the dogs like most companies do and do like 4 days or a few days of training. "YES" i agree low pay, but needed a job. Call center you must be prepared to take alot of calls and most part maybe make days long. They even tell you this job is one of the high stress jobs, we have had about 6 leave training from 30. I'm a Temp worker, I'll give my take when it's all done and if I am one of the ones staying on for longer term. During training a few times we go out and listen to calls and watch others work to get a take on it all, people who have had trouble doing something puts up hand or stands up, coaches as they call them come and try to help for most part as I can see. they have around 7 or 8 coaches. I've worked in general labourer jobs and the less you make the worst it is, they work you like a dog!!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 12 December 2012 by Rater #18 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• Have spent 25 yrs in workforce...came to Sitel as a short-term opportunity for part-time income....OMG what a mistake, Training provided as most companies, not applicable to work taks, seemed to follow a script provided by USA HR Operations, even though is in St catharines Ontario.....floor Coach was absent if not hiding from people so little support, except adherence to telephone call protocols, via 1-1 meeting, great how about help getting started....relaince too much on computer systems, and most insulting one has to raise their hands, ask for permission to go to the washroom, have not had to do that since I was in grade school, but is a true indicator of the Sitel work philosophy, treat their Emplyees as children...well maybe for some, but not for Me   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 25 November 2012 by Rater #17 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• The worst call center I've ever worked at, there is sooo much wrong I would rather try to find something positive, the list is shorter. NEVER again. They wouldn't work around my schedule and I did not like the environment. The managment team was rude and I worked there for 8 months. I had an awesome supervisor that deserved to be working somewhere better   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 31 October 2012 by Rater #16 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Unbelievably corrosive, paranoid and disordered culture. Management shifts so often that there are times when you genuinely don't know who you report to. Employees are treated as a disposable resource by upper management, preying on desperate people in economically depressed cities. Layoffs were conducted illegally as standard practice, with management betting that people won't fight for benefits and severance entitlements. I received a substantial settlement for wrongful dismissal - for earning raises that they no longer wanted to pay for. Make sure you're familiar with the Employment Standards Act. There's a reason that it always says "Now Hiring" on the door, and it isn't because business is booming. Very few people last more than a few months.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 25 September 2012 by Rater #15 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I work for Sitel St. Catharines and its horrible. Cox Communications service sucks and they wants you sell on tech service calls. The majority of people quit, and the ones that are left take an abundance of calls. The shift hours are ridiculous...10 hours shifts. Managers are very sexual and unprofessional, they make rude comments and have attitude when you ask for assistance. Moreover, some of the supervisors don't have enough information to assist you, they are lost. I am begging someone close this company down, worst place to ever work for.They made us work in hot conditions with no windows for days and also no light. They don't give you no raises. The senior manager is a fat head, who doesn't care about his employees because he always has meetings what he needs to do fix why people leave and nothing changes.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 30 August 2012 by Rater #14 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Feedback is often varied between official quality.
  There is no time within work hours to speak to my coach. Aux codes are monitored, and the power of one prohibits us unscheduled assistance.
  Floor support is weak, and often takes over the maximum aht.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 5 June 2012 by Rater #13 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• This is the worst company I have ever worked for. After a year and a half of being employed with Sitel i came to work one day with laryngitis. I asked if I could walk the floor and help people as I couldn't perform my regular duties on the phone. I was advised by a coach that I couldn't and that I had to go home if I couldn't do my job. At that time I no longer had any sick days available and reminded them of that. I was informed that it wouldn't be counted against me as I did show up for work. Two weeks later they fired me for my absence on that specific day. I told them I wanted to speak to someone in HR but they said that I had to leave the premises immediately or they would call the police to escort me from the building. I applied for EI as being unjustly dismissed. When the person from EI called the company to speak to the coach who said my absence would not be held against me that day, she open admitted to telling me that and then firing me for it. She had no problem telling them that she lied to me. Worst company I ever worked for.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 19 March 2012 by Rater #7 | Comments (2) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I must say I don't think i've ever worked for such a disorganized, and unprofessional company in my entire life ! I was hired full time in June 2011, and had good attendance and stats through my seven month employment through this company. In October I had approached my coach at time to inform him I would be starting school in November, and doing some upgrading of high school courses .We worked out a scheduled that would allow me to work full time and still have the hours off needed to go to school Monday - Friday. However this took almost three months to work out and did not show up on my schedule. Therefore I got numerous calls the first week of school asking why I was not at work.
  
  Since then things have been running rather smoothly up until January 2012. I informed my coach before Christmas I would need two days off as we were doing mid-terms in January. We worked it out and had those days removed off my schedule . Well come midterm days I began getting calls from another coach asking where I was, I explained to talk to my coach as we worked this all out. This coach informed me that my coach I set this all up with quit without any warning, and they were trying to access any e-mails or notes from him.
  
  I was then told that unfortunately where I have another coach now I would have to renegotiate the scheduling around my schooling. I informed them of the hours once again I was available, which were pretty expansive hours as I am only in school four hours a day ! I was told I would have to remain on my old schedule until they could work something out, but could be excused that day as it was my midterm. Well after a full week of missing school, I told my new coach that I was falling behind and couldn't afford to miss anymore school. I let him know that I need to attend classes the following day to get caught up, and he said he'd see what he could do about it.
  
  Needless to say he did not get back to me about it, and I could not find him for the rest of my shift as he had gone home for the day. Therefore I wrote my coach an email explaining that I would be coming in the following day after school via my old schedule we had worked out for school. Shortly after I received an e-mail of termination ! I had my swipe card locked, and was told that if I had any questions, id have to go to HR...
  
  LOW BLOW SITEL !! Do not work here, all they care about is having enough people to cover their asses, this is a despicable place to work and i will never return.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 24 January 2012 by Rater #6 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• WORST JOB EVER. No respect for the employees, they would work you hard with little pay. Lasted 2 years. Got promoted to supervisor with no change in pay.  

  Posted on 1 January 2012 by Rater #5 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I would rather be a prostitute than work for this company again. At least I'd be better paid, since the loss of dignity and self-respect would be the same....  

  Posted on 6 December 2011 by Rater #12 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I worked at St.Catharines until 2008. I concur with all of the other reviewers. From the outside, the company looks great - nice facility, cafeteria, great location for local bus and places to eat. Beyond that, there's not much to say. I fully agree that the management went out of its way to "cook" the stats given to the client. The worst was training - the client would set up 4 hour training sessions, the management would cruise through them in 1-2 hours then let us go do whatever we wanted off site just so that they could keep billing the client for our time. The management were more interested in the staff maintaining Key Performance Indicators than they were taking care of the customer. If our tech support calls went over 1 hour, a supervisor came by and asked us to end the call ASAP even if there was not a resolution. We would have to tell the customer to call back and sit in the queue again for a long time just to get another support agent to pick up where we left off. Turnover at the location was incredibly high and they obviously didn't care. I had the same experience as another - the 4 week intro training I had started the next business day after another crew had just finished training to replace those that had already left. Within 4 weeks of me being on the floor, half the team was gone and another training group started. There were new training teams every month just to replace the turnover. After 18 months, there was only three of us from my training group still there. The company attempted to fire me and many others for just cause - made up stories just so they didn't have to give us pay raises. Their method was so vindictive as to prevent us from obtaining EI. I fought my case over four months and won hands down, the manager that fired me and HR manager were both warned by EI that lying on documents was grounds for charges against them company under the EI Act.
  
  Bottom line is this company is not worth the time of day. Even if someone is desperate for a job, move on. This company will only raise your stress levels and blood pressure.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 20 November 2011 by Rater #11 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I worked for this organization for 2 years from 2004 through 2006 in the Ottawa area. They were the most deceitful, lying, falsifying, over-worked, under paid organization that I have ever worked for. They have no issues with falsifying numbers that they must present to clients rather than working as a team with their employees to increase morale and thus the stats of their desks. They have absolutely no integrity - they need to remove that word from the 'meaning' of their name, because it was a lie.
  I would never, ever again work for this organization, and while I understand that the economy makes it hard to pass up jobs - if you interview with them, run the other way quickly as soon as you're done.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 3 November 2011 by Rater #10 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I worked at Sitel in Moncton for six months. It was an interesting experience. There are certainly a lot of issues, including equipment (phones and computers) that often don't work. Most of the problems, however, have to do with poor internal communication and low wages. Some of the coaches are obviously doing their best in a situation where everybody is under pressure to perform, but some are ill suited to their jobs and will bully employees they think will tolerate it. One coach asked a grown man in front of several other agents whether he "really, really" had to go to the bathroom. The company commits to unrealistic goals, I presume in an effort to attract clients, and then the management and employees are high-pressured to try to meet those goals. Annoying things happen, such as being asked to leave early if it is not busy or stay late if it is, having to clock out to go to the bathroom and having to work every single weekend. On the other hand, the company provides a decent break room with TV, phones, a pool table and a kitchenette as well as a gym and showers. Parking is free, there is a small canteen and employees get some discounts and perks from the company's clients. I found the work atmosphere fairly up-beat. There was a sense of comraderie, and trading shifts or covering shifts for others was allowed. In all honesty, not all the problems came from management either; some of the employees were a real joke and until the company got around to weeding them out or they quit, they could be quite disruptive and generate a lot of complaints from the customers. I suspect that if wages were better, a better quality agent could be hired and productivity would improve. The company seems absolutely unconcerned about turnover which must cost a fortune as it is extremely high.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 3 February 2011 by Rater #4 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Basically an outsourced call center for corporate clients from across the continent. These clients dictate the standards that Sitel must follow in order to keep the contract. Managers are the ones who are responsible for applying these standards. Most of them are utterly incompetent and react badly when they realize that they will have a hard time respecting the clients' demands. They get stressed and pass it on to their employees eventually creating a low morale across the organization.
  
  When an employee is facing a challenging situation, managers shy away from helping them because most of them are simply not knowledgeable enough to offer any kind of assistance. Of the 10 managers that I've encountered, I can attest that only ONE of them is actually competent.
  
  Employees are discouraged from promotions because the "next-level", i.e. 1st line management, doesn't pay much more than the entry position. When I asked a HR specialist about the advantages of being a 1st level manager, he literally responded: "The pay stays about the same, the responsibilities are ten-fold BUT you willl not have to answer calls...". Wow, talking about some incentive there....
  
  Hiring was done erratically. The turnover rate was so great that they needed a full-time trainer to train the next batch of freshly-hired employees to replace the ones who have just quit. When I was hired, my training class had a headcount of 15. After training and 2 weeks on the job, 6 remained. The trainer personally admitted that he was happy when he could retain half of his training class. Wow, again, low expectations...He even told me that the average employee stayed for a period of 6 to 12 months!
  
  Simply put, the company has no vision, no respectable corporate values and no plans for the future. I worked at the Montreal location that had the unique competitive advantage of being the only place on the continent that could offer a fluently bilingual staff. Even with that advantage, the company lost all of its contracts and had to be closed down.
  
  Outsourced call-centers in Canada are dying and there isn't much we can do about it. India is taking them away (maybe for the better...).   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 29 September 2010 by Rater #19 | Comments (2) | Flag as inappropriate

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