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Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

My company outsources to India, so we have all these Indians working for us who don't have a full grasp of the English language. From day one it has been a nightmare, for us and our customers.

Today, one them transfered a customer to me. It's rare, because normally they don't talk to customers over the phone, just electronically. When I looked up the guy's name who transfered the call, he is one of our American reps. He just happens to be middle eastern.

Sure, he's just another guy trying to make a living, but I thought it was funny how customers probably get him, hear the accent, and think he is some foreign outsourced guy from India. But really he is an American. I'm not sure what our HR department was thinking when they hired him, because there is one thing that our customers absolutely HATE, and that is being tech supported over the phone by a person with a thick accent.

fritz · Silver Status Member

It also takes jobs from Americans when you outsource. One of the reasons for our economical situation.

thepaladin · Senior Member

I hate that JOBS are being outsourced...I know of jobs that went out, not just "work". I hate that we are doing credit checks and such by sending social security numbers and other IDs to India, where you can buy a credit card in the name of an American for $5.

I hate trying to get an answer from someone who knows less than I do (is you computer plugged in?) Rolling Eyes

Jaxom · Senior Member

Of course those same evil companies that outsource are also being forced to pay the 2nd highest corporate taxes in the world...something like 47%.... Yeah, that makes me want to start/own a company in America....

thepaladin · Senior Member

Say that when your job has been outsourced. Many of the outsorced jobs are done poorly or not at all.

Example?

I bought my Dell when they had in country tech support. it was so good it was the main reason I chose Dell. Not long after I bought my computer...they outsourced. The people I have talked to I'm sure are nice people and I'm sure they need jobs to. But they aren't techs. They pay people pennies a day and they work off a scripted list. They want a credit card number before they will forward you to any actual tech.

I decided then if at all possible I will upgrade my computer locally and then have one built. When my hard drive failed Dell was hopeless, I finally simply had it fixed even though it was supposed to be under warrenty.

Mostly it's just frustrating. No I don't hate Indians or anyone else. But we won't "fix" our economy by spending twice our national income and sending Americain jobs else where. Those workers pay taxes to.

Consider those of us who said "don't vote democrat they rais taxes"? The corporate tax reate has little to do with sending jobs elsewhere. That's simply "Hey why this person $19 an hour when we can pay someone in Asia $.50 an hour".

Just a thought.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Dell is a particularly poignant example. A friend of mine was a supervisor in the premium tech support area (some stupid acronym, ASP or MPS or such- i.e. for the machines that still cost $2 grand and for third-party software tech support (i.e. you could get support for Microsoft Office and such from Dell)).

First, Dell 'outsourced' to Canada with a huge government subsidy (Canadian government). Then the US-Canadian dollars became at par for about a year and they were paying Canadians exactly what they would have been paying Americans after all was said and done- so what was the next step? Fire (er, 'lay off') everyone (North America wide I believe) and go to India. I know if I were one of the people paying $200.00 an hour for all-inclusive tech support and got someone who's English-language skills were substandard I'd be giving Michael Dell an earful.

Jaxom · Senior Member

I don't like outsourcing anymore then the next guy does. In fact one of my jobs was outsourced to Puerto Rico. The building I once built Panasonic cell phones in was then torn down and a mini mall built.

And the building across the street, in which 2000 employes use to build Panasonic, Quasar, Technics, RCA, Emerson, Radio Shack TV is gone as well. Thank you Nafta, that factory was moved to Mexico.

And I too have more then once gone off on a "tech support" person, because they couldn't even pronouncd my name right, let alone have a decent conversation in English. Damn frustrating, when you're already pissed off because something you NEED to work NOW isn't, and then deal with that crap.

But you have to look at they why companies outsource. Sure some are doing it out of corporate greed. But there's also many doing because of the high corporate taxes they have to pay.

Then you have to also look at this. Did you know that Detroit/Mighigan has outsourced their Unemployment processing department to India. In the process laying off several hundred people in the process.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

Part of the problem is the stupidity of Americans (another thread in this forum). Since there are tons of stupid American customers that call tech support because they can't do something simple like setting up a password, then companies have to hire ALL these employees to answer these stupid calls. So would you rather pay Americans $15/hour to answer dumbass questions, or pay some Indian $4/hour to read a canned response? If you're a business, outsourcing is the way to go.

The problem is that you don't know when a normal customer with a legitimate problem is calling in vs. some idiot whose monitor isn't turned on.

billandbeaufort · Senior Member

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

fritz · Silver Status Member

Maybe their computer wasn't plugged in?

Slavia · Moderator

fritz · Silver Status Member

Slavia, I think that was legit. They assumed stupid things like that weren't the problem. That is why the tech support people ask if your printer is plugged in and has paper.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

And that's fine that they didn't know, because maybe they suspected that the problem was with the hardware. But if there was a bright red light on the front of the printer that says "Out of paper", then they are morons.

fritz · Silver Status Member

I concur Roger.