News
July 25, 2008
Dial America shuts SC telemarketing center
Employees told Monday of closure
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A telemarketing business in South Charleston has closed, leaving 160 people without jobs, according to employees.

Dial America Marketing Inc. told employees Monday that the office would be closing Tuesday, one employee said as she left the building on Thursday.

Employees were picking up their final checks on Thursday.

The facility, which makes outbound marketing calls for Fortune 500 companies, opened in 2000.

A handful of other employees talked inside the darkened office on Thursday afternoon. A manager said he could not comment on the closing.

Calls and e-mails to the corporate offices of Dial America were not returned.

Dial America is located in Mahwah, N.J., and started in 1957 as Life Circulation Co., according to the company's Web site. It generates $135 million in yearly revenues and is the nation's largest privately held teleservices company.

In total, the company has 25 locations in 12 states, including West Virginia, and more than 4,600 call agents, according to the company's Web site. The South Charleston office was the only call center location in the state.

- Gazette staff report

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Posted By: maddog 2020 (10:59pm 08-03-2008)
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Some of this stuff is hilarious. I worked there for 6 weeks and called for the majority of it. Yeah, yeah, your management sucks - it will always suck until you're the manager. We should have been warned but the managers were just as suprised as us. My roommate knows two of them and neither had any idea. If you didn't like the management you must have never needed to call off work. For you haters, feel free to keep hating on telemarketing because i was making more money sitting there making calls than some guys make in manual labor. Like you were really "heading to the doctor" or "just running out the door" anyways. While you were loathing your job i was making friends with mostly college kids or younger adults working a job that fit around their kids school schedule. If you can cold call successfully you could sale ice to an eskimo. The goal in any sale job is to establishing a productive sales record for the next, hopefully hire paying, job.

Posted By: blah (1:37am 07-29-2008)
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I am one of those people, was not given any answers just told that I shouldnt show up for work, no one gave me any answers as to what was going on. I was actually told by word of mouth that Dial America was shut down.
I loved my job, and loved the people that I worked with.
I will miss being there
I completely shake my fist at the company for not giving any notice

Posted By: CDM (9:47am 07-28-2008)
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There is a telemarketing office that is always hiring, big sign out front, on Washington Street on the West side of Charleston.

Posted By: Mountaineer1863 (11:17am 07-27-2008)
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Foxcpa- I agree that appropriate notice should be given. At least 2 weeks. For those who make derogartory comments about low paying or "menial" jobs, remember that many fundamental services are provided by those folks, and it sure would be hard for this society to function without them. How would you like it if you had bills coming due, and was told the day before to clean out your desk, your job was over? Of course this is going to be outsourced. We have both political parties to thank for this. Realistic, there isnt much that can be done, but two things come to mind. (1) Require a 2 week notice on layoffs involving some arbritary number of employees (say 25 for example), and (2) Impose heavy tariff anf tax penalties on those companies shipping our jobs overseas. Surely more can be done, but we have to start somewhere. My full sympathies are with these workers and the shabby way they were treated.

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