Over 100 Jobs at Buckeye Broadband Call Center to be Outsourced – What This Means for Customer Service

Job Loss Announcement at Buckeye Broadband

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - More than 100 employees at Buckeye Broadband’s local call center will be laid off effective March 31. The company has decided to outsource these jobs to a third-party provider located outside the United States.

An anonymous employee expressed their shock, stating, “I grew up with Buckeye … and it was a company that I always wanted to be able to work for and, to be honest, I feel like my loyalty is now ripped to shreds.” This tough news came just two days after Christmas, with Buckeye’s President, Geoff Shook, explaining that the timing was intentional to give team members a chance to plan ahead.

Shook noted that the decision stemmed from increasing costs for the company. He mentioned, “Some of the calls that we get, we found a more cost-effective manner in which to address the questions; and what that meant is that I can now absorb some of the other cost increases without passing them on to our customers.”

Changes in Service

Starting April 1, the remaining local staff will only handle sales, outbound, and advanced technical support calls. Customers will still have the option to visit Buckeye stores in person, as Shook assured that they maintain five payment centers for customer interactions regarding bills or payments.

However, a soon-to-be former employee expressed concern that customer service would suffer due to these changes, stating, “We were the first line of defense to make sure customers were getting the best quality service, and I’m sorry that it had to come to this.”