Fair salary for telephone support?

danswan · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:40

I know a lot of you on here work in the IT industry, was hoping you could help us out here. I am currently working as a telephone helpdesk advisor for a company who are sub-contracted to a large ISP. Basically they are starting a new campaign which will offer support over the phone for any PC based issue. This includes supporting 3rd party products, full support for all MS home OS, everything including full formats and reinstalls of operating systems over the phone. Currently we just support one type of wireless router.

I know the company is going to try to pull a fast one on the wages they are prepared to pay, basically I just want some idea of what you guys reckon is a fair wage for providing support this extensive. The wage we are getting at the moment is pretty low, and I can see the company trying to get away with paying the same as they are now, or a very small increase. Obviously wages can vary depending on the geographical location, so bear in mind we are based in Newcastle. All we need is some opinion and hopefully some examples of what similar companies who provide telephone support are paying their staff. Please post if you need any more info, but I'd rather not be specific about the companies involved here.

Thanks for reading, am interested to see some replies!

Tru · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:43

£250 p/w after tax, minimum.

danswan · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:47

Thanks! Keep 'em coming

callmeBadger · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:48

Sounds like a similar setup that a call centre in Nottingham has. They work warrenty repair and telephone support for the big Purple Money machine.

They pay a "Competitive" salary of around £13500, rising to about £16K if you know the right people. They do have an anual staff turnover of around 60-65% for some reason.

The bad news is, they can pay this amount as there is an everlasting supply of people willing to work for this as a first step onto the IT ladder.

Sic · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:49

i dont know a lot about newcastle salaries, but the guys here get £900-£1000pcm/at starting.

ramirez · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:49

Yeah, around £250 / week is likely.

Docaroo · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:52

I used to work as a temp in an IT department for a company called Richard Lawson (the Car Transport comp. that went bust!!) . This was just on holidays from University and I got ~ £230 a week I think... that was untaxed though as I was a student!

I was just a general lackey type answer phones/fix the printer upstairs/ etc so nothing major.

I reckon than the man above is right - that would be a good minimum after tax for that job!

InsomniaCalls · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:53

Sounds like client logic

Probably 7-8 quid an hour.

Wryel · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:56

callmeBadger said:
Sounds like a similar setup that a call centre in Nottingham has. They work warrenty repair and telephone support for the big Purple Money machine.

They pay a "Competitive" salary of around £13500, rising to about £16K if you know the right people. They do have an anual staff turnover of around 60-65% for some reason.

The bad news is, they can pay this amount as there is an everlasting supply of people willing to work for this as a first step onto the IT ladder.

Cause its the worst place ever.

I'd say 14k was fair as you are offering more than said call centre in Nottingham.

callmeBadger · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:58

Wryel said:
Cause its the worst place ever.

I'd say 14k was fair as you are offering more than said call centre in Nottingham.

haven't you got some work to hide form?

stop traling the forums and create some accounts!!

Conanius · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:01

starting salary about 12-13k, more if you have useful qualifications, going up to about 16-17k, 20k ish if you become a 'manager'

danswan · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:05

Thanks, tbh we are on similar wages to those that are coming in, (£13800) but our argument is that we are going to be supporting everything going as opposed to just a small range of products, and would like to see a comparable wage rise.

Who said Clientlogic?

InsomniaCalls · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:06

Worked for a company in Newcastle (Benton) outsourcing for a large ISP (who have since jumped ship to India) doing pretty much what you're currently doing.
Was on £6.15-£6.45 ph.
Moved to working on Microsoft Support as level 2 (tech supervisor type role) and was on £8.10 ph.
Moved to Sage and provide support for their CRM software.
Now salaried and on £18.5k so far.

Tech support has a range of salaries but you'll rarely get a decent wage while you work for an outsourced project.

Conanius · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:06

danswan said:
Thanks, tbh we are on similar wages to those that are coming in, (£13800) but our argument is that we are going to be supporting everything going as opposed to just a small range of products, and would like to see a comparable wage rise.

Who said Clientlogic?

ive seen job adds for people who have to support hundreds of applications on many systems to people all over the world, they dont get much (if anything)more than 13,8 starting salary

penski · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:07

danswan said:
Who said Clientlogic?

Knew it.

*n

InsomniaCalls · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:08

penski said:
Knew it.

*n

It stinks of CL.
Has to be really.

D33 · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:15

lol I'm Clientlogic! ;/

Down in Exeter, BT Business Broadband Technical Support,

It's ok, quite a fun job and good people but some of the customers kinda suck ass.

danswan · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:17

Yeah, tbh I really enjoy my job, just need more money, actually it's my last day here tomorrow due to false promises about the new campaigns. I'm joining a company that provides accountancy software to businesses. 3 guesses who that is. At least I will be getting a slightly more acceptable wage there.

*edit* same place as you insomnia

HamZilla · 27 Mar 2006 at 16:14

I work for CL too :mad:

on Bulldog.

D33 · 27 Mar 2006 at 16:21

HamZilla said:
I work for CL too on Bulldog.

heh, we were made into Bulldog Sales for a while.
The training was crap, she kept on avoiding questions we asked etc.

Some lass called Debbie.