Accepting a welcome from Rob O'Brian, president of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce (far right) are from L-R: Jon Blum, director of sales for Best Buy; Bob Corsi, NCO senior vice president of operations; Karalyn Sartor, vice president of operations for Best Buy; and Carole Greentree, vice president of NCO.
More promises were made for expanding operations at the Systems and Services Technologies (SST) location at 1717 West Seventh St. Officials from the NCO Group, which includes SST, and Best Buy announced on May 12, 2008, that they are planning on bringing 350 new jobs to that location with 300 more jobs possible in 2009 depending upon market growth for BestBuy.com services.
Depending upon experience, the starting salary for the new customer care agents, who will be responding to 1-800-GEEKSQUAD or 1-888BESTBUY, will be $10 per hour. Jon Blum, Best Buy's director of sales, reported that the call centers already established receive an estimated 25 million calls per year. The Joplin center will provide direct support for the Geek Squad Mission Control and Best Buy Dot Com Support/Reward Zone, according to Bob Corsi, senior vice president of operations.
Headquartered in Horsham, PA, NCO has been partnering with Best Buy since 2005. Based upon the quality of support programs NCO provides for Best Buy, it received a 2008 CRM Excellence Award from Customer Interaction Solutions, the trade publication servicing the call center and teleservices industries.
In January 2008 NCO closed a deal with J.P. Morgan Chase & Company (owner of SST since 2002) to purchase SST in both its Joplin and St. Joseph locations. At that time the stjoenews.net reported that 80 employees out of 550 had been laid off in St. Joe and 40 dismissed out of 200 in Joplin as an effort to 'right-size' SST's current business.
In spite of acquiring a room full of unused computer stations, NCO has reported that they will invest about $1,000,000 in additional equipment to support the Best Buy center. The firm also is expected to take advantage of up to $1.3 million in Enhanced Enterprise Zone tax credits over the next five years and $650,000 in state training funds, contingent on hiring and maintaining the projected 350 people.
With three locations in the US, two in Canada and 120 worldwide, NCO claims to have a strong commitment in keeping jobs in North America.
Job fairs have been scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for Tuesday, May 20 and Wednesday, May 21 at the SST location on Seventh Street. According to Beth McDaniel, human resources manager,"There are a wide range of opportunities available, from Best Buy agents to supervisory and management level positions." Jobs will range from $10 to $22 per hour.
Bad publicity for NCO's debt collection operations
Numerous complaints labeling NCO's debt collection operations "a scam" have been posted on the Internet. However, according to a report filed by the Better Business Bureau, as of May 13, 2008, NCO has been cooperative in settling any complaints brought to their attention by the bureau. This was a change in status from 2006 when a report filed by them concluded that NCO had an unsatisfactory record due to unresolved complaints. Early in 2006 the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) announced an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance (AVC) with NCO Financial Systems to resolve issues concerning the company's operational practices. The company agreed to implement new collections procedures and pay $300,000.00 as costs of investigation and future public protection purposes.
Promises, promises
It was inferred that the SST and NCO operations would remain separate with the implication that the 135 present employees of SST, a figure quoted by McDaniel, would not be reflected in the 350 promised to be hired. Her figure, however, suggested a further reduction in the SST Joplin workforce since January 2008.
In 2004 when J.P. Morgan Chase moved its Joplin SST workforce from 809 Illinois to the empty Wal-Mart store on Seventh Street, they promised to "initially house approximately 500 new employees" and be able to "house up to 900 employees in managerial, technical and customer service positions." That obviously didn't happen. What did happen based in part on bringing jobs to an otherwise distressed area was the authorization of nearly $2 million in building and equipment tax abatements over a 25-year period, affecting the coffers of the Joplin R-VIII school district and Jasper County. From the city of Joplin's point of view, SST made viable an otherwise empty "big box."
For more details on this earlier article, go here.
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