I am a retired person working 3 days a week in a call center of sorts. Sat. the ear bracket snapped on my headphones. Unusable. I am told that I will have to purchase new ones from the company for $30. Reason-“we have lots of kids here who break them constantly”
Thoughts? I am annoyed at buying company equipment.
Sounds like a ripoff to me. Things like that just break when used all the time. And $30 does not sound like you are getting cast iron headphones either.
Do you get to take it with you when you leave? Can you buy one yourself for less?
I’m betting that they rip people off in other ways.
In all the ‘bricks and mortar’ call centres I have worked ALL the equipment was provided by the employer, including headsets. When yours broke, there were boxes and boxes of the buggers so you’d wander off to the storeroom and get another.
I work from home now (virtual call centre) and I have to pay for EVERYTHING myself, computers, phones, internet costs, etc etc. However, I can claim every single thing as a tax-deduction so come the end of the financial year I invariably get a nice cheque as a tax return.
If the US tax system works like here in Aus, your company will be claiming the cost of all the equipment they use to offset tax liabilites. Sounds very dodgy to me…
Good luck.
It’s dodgy either way, but if you are working straight commission (as opposed to getting an hourly wage), they may be getting away with this skeevy practice by labeling you a contractor.
At one call center I worked at, they said they would replace one headset per year, because people keep breaking them.
Your employer should be providing the equipment you need to perform your job.
Their response leads me to ask, “A call center of what sorts?”
Phone sex?
You’re getting ripped off. Maybe more than you think. Are you one of those call center telemarketers who thinks that spamming is just a benign way of spreading the wealth? If so, I hope you pay for every headset you break, and I hope they break hourly. If not, never mind.
Seconded. And I would bet it’s actually a violation of wage and hour laws for your employer to charge you in any fashion for damage to anything work-related, whether or not you might have caused said damage (they can fire you for breaking stuff, but in most states they can’t make you pay for it). Unless you’re desperate enough for this job to allow them to extort you, I say refuse to pay and file a complaint with the appropriate government agency if they somehow take the money from you.
I guess it will come as a surprise to many people that employers can and do require employees (not contractors) to supply their own tools to do their jobs and that this is not illegal in most states.
Probably the best known example are automobile mechanics. A typical mechanic at an automobile dealer and most independent shops has to bring about $20,000 worth of tools with them. Plus they have to pay for their own training to become certified to work with new technology. If anything breaks or gets lost, they have to replace it. Some dealers may provide a flat tool allowance, but they are not going to keep replacing stuff that breaks.
Over in Silicon Valley, more and more employers are coming up with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies. The kids were upset that their bosses weren’t buying them the latest and greatest devices every six months, so the employers threw up their hands and said “just buy your own then.” Generally, they give them a monthly or yearly allowance, but if your device breaks, it’s your problem.
Police officers are responsible for replacing their own kevlar vests in many places.
And in many jobs, people are required to buy and maintain their own uniforms.
It’s reasonable to regard a headset as a tool of the telemarketer’s trade. Just because your employer may pay for your first headset, that doesn’t mean that they become obligated to pay for additional headsets. Of course, if you object to paying for a replacement, you can quit instead of paying.
Call center where I work, you pay a 60 dollar deposit for a headset, upon being hired. They replace it at no cost to you if it breaks. You get the deposit back on your last pay, as long as you return the headset.
I worked in the customer service call center for E*Trade in the very early days. I can’t remember ever breaking a headset, but I’m pretty sure there was just a bunch of replacement head sets in the office supply cabinet if someone broke theirs. But that was a long time ago. I guess things have changed.
Maybe they should buy less fragile headsets.
Thirded. If they did that, i’d be looking through my paychecks and transfers to make sure something else wasn’t missing. Definitely a ripoff. A company that relies on something so heavily should have a surplus of supply of it available to get the job done, like pens.
Why? It seems at $30 per replacement, and that kind of fragile junk, they’re turning a noticeable profit. Not every company can succeed by generating revenue directly off of supplying their employees. If they can go big with this, they may become the toast of Wall Street! (Until the next big idea of monetizing employees, like demanding they “donate” plasma for the company to sell.)
Isn’t that how The United Way works?
Start making all your calls via speakerphone. They might replace your headset quickly at no cost to you. 
Enh, not how it works in a lot of industries. Mechanics (from heavy duty right down to small engine) provide their own tools.
When I was a labourer in a steel fabrication mill, I was expected to provide all of my own hand tools, and anything larger than toolbox-sized would be provided by the company. A dickhead stole my tape measure from under my nose 16 years ago and I’m still pissed about it. I had neglected to electropencil my initials in it and he had his added in minutes. I had modified it with a longer than stock length tape too. Nobody cared.