Spokeo reviews

* Recent 20% staff reduction * Ongoing Silent Layoffs: Folks frequently fired for 'performance reasons' * Incompetent Engineers: Promotions are based on seniority and politics rather than performance, and people are often fired for going against the grain * Lack of Diversity, especially among engineers/leadership. Practically zero female representation. D&I efforts are lip service at best

The job title was for which I applied - I think it was "admin" but it changed several times while I was there - whatever I thought it entailed, despite whatever the extensive training process seem to anticipate, the office is really a call center and the job is 95% answering phone calls from angry "customers". These callers are rightfully upset and generally want to know: "what is Spokeo?" "why is this on my bank statement?" "how long have you been charging me for this thing I never wanted?" And once they inevitably cancel their "subscription" and demand a refund, the MOST important question you have to deal with is, "when do I get my money back?" The crux of this job, the foundation of the entire company really, is in the art and execution of convincing this caller that they are not ALLOWED to have their money back. Every meeting, every training exercise, every memorization technique and pneumonic device, every guest speaker or strategy workshop is designed to strengthen your resolve in asserting to these angry callers that they, in fact, cannot have their money back. Which they of course have every right to. All they have to do is mention going to their bank and it's an instant refund, but as an employee your job is to make them jump through every hoop before they get to this point, your job depends on it. There's a score system on how easily or difficult you allow customers to get their money back. The "service" itself is questionable at best, Spokeo compiles all the public information it can on private citizens against their knowledge - phone numbers, social media, address history, family members, dating apps, marriage certificates, employment history, even legal histories, arrest records - and sorts them into "profiles" to which you can purchase full access. Strangely, a large portion of it is wrong, it will combine numerous people with the same name or create 9 different versions of the same person - so ultimately the information you purchase could be incorrect, though that's not Spokeo's problem. For me the worst wasn't the angry callers - though I've seen co-workers brought to tears from angry calls, or get so upset they have to leave for the day. To me the most soul-punishing calls were with the NICE people - often elderly - who call with genuine concern and confusion. When I'd explain the fine print to that "free phone number search" link they clicked on, how in fact they signed themselves up for a recurring charge (another heinously deceitful business practice highly dependent on people's credit card information being saved in auto-fill) they sometimes would just politely accept that they are not entitled to the hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars we'd taken from them. Those were the hardest for me.