Outsourcing

Welcome to the Global Age!! I hate it too, but the truth is...it's a lot cheaper to set up a call center in India than it is in the states, and money is the bottem line. I try to remember that I am speaking to someone intelligent enough to learn a second language, and that I'm helping a less-fortunate economy. I might be blowing smoke but it helps keep me from yelling at them :-)

Speaking as a former Compaq tech support rep who lost his job after HP bought Compaw and outsourced all the tech support to India, I completely understand where you are coming from here. At first, I was upset, pissed off, and ready to get my hate on...but then I had to look at it from a rational point of view. The fact of the matter was simple - HP had a choice to make; they could keep paying me, a relatively unskilled (I had no degree at the time) tech rep $20 an hour to answer phones and solve most problems through scripts (like it or not, that's how most tech support is done) or they could hire a guy in India with a PhD in Computer Sciences for $8 an hour, and he'd be happy to have it. Looking at it like that, it's clear why they made the choice...but they didn't take into account the real difficulties of the language barrier, and of trying to communicate technical issues with non-technical people in a language that was not native to the support rep. Hell, it was hard enough explaining tech stuff to people who spoke the same language as I do! I can't imagine trying to do it in a second language, especially one that I couldn't quite speak perfectly. So I give the folks in India creds for trying...but users are going to get fed up, and quit using their products. In the long run, it is only going to cost the company money, and eventually the jobs will return to the US. Unfortunately for those of us in the tech field, when the jobs do return, they will likely be much lower paying than they used to be, as the company attempts to recoop their loss. In the end, it all boils down to money, and the fact that the US economy is so much higher than that of the rest of the world doesn't help domestic workers a damned bit.

I agree. Our medical records are also being outsourced to India for transcribing! There are so many people in need of work in our own country. I'm hoping our next president will put a stop to this. You know what is downright insulting? When you reach an Indian outsourcing group (IT call or whatever) and they are all like, "Hello and thanks for calling so and so, my name is Bob." or Dave or some other typical American name. It's like a slap in the face! I hate being lied to like that, like we are ignorant or something.

It is a usual problem, we cannot blame this to the sutomer representative if their accent is different from what we expect, we have to blame the company becuase it is their responsibility to provide a realiable and effective customer support for its customer, if they will hire a non-english speaking customer service representativet(CSR)/technical support representative (TSR) they should provide a proper training in accent for a reasonable time. 1 American CSR/TSR is equivalent to 10 CSR/TSR in other countries that is why they hire CSR/TSR outside US.

I hear ya' Try calling customer servie for The Home Depot. "Iam sorry, what did you say?" "No, I am sorry, I can't understand you" "Where am I calling?" "India?" :)

I guess cause they pay people cheaper. But even then, the pay would be lots bigger than regular salaries in their country. By the way, I'm from the Philippines and I work in cosourcing, which is kind of like outsourcing :(

make your money talk send you product to the head office with a little note stating you will never buy their $%&* *^^%% #%&*) #$%&^% products again while they have their help center i some non-enlish speaking country i refuse to do business with any company that has indians as a help center if their help center does not have english speaking people then i call head office and force them to help until i can get out of that company i dont cancel the service i tell them exactly where to stick it and how far

I think to an extent you are correct. I have also seen cases where companies are loosing their customers because of poor customer service from the outsourced vendors. But I think its not the talent that is lacking in India. Its the way the people are recruited into this job. Frankly speaking, any underqualified agents are picked without any prior experience of such a high profile job. Even people pursuing their graduation or college are picked for this job. If the Human resource departments of such companies do a good job of recruiting talented guys, I think the situation would improve a lot. They just need to change their attitude towards such jobs. I think such jobs should be given importance equal to any other high profile jobs such as banking or software development as there is tremendous amount of skill needed to do such a highly challenging job. As far as outsourcing is concerned, I think yes, its a big loss to US. There is no doubt that US is loosing jobs as more and more companies are outsourcing their work to the countries like India and China and other developing countries. I think there should be constraint to this even though I am an Indian.

Those companies are saving millions of bucks by outsourcing. As I am from India I can tell you that average salary of those workers are in between $100 - $500. Whereas in US and UK it would run into several thousands. But as far as I know that each and every worker are given necessary training to handle the job properly. That includes improving the accents.

I understand outsourcing because I actually lost a job due to OUTSOURCING. Here's my opinion on it. We are involved in a GLOBAL ECONOMY. There is financial competition out there. Whether we like it or not outsourcing is here to stay. I understand the frustration of trying to get non ENGLISH speaking people to understand and be understood. Certainly, gripping doesn't help... I also feel that our jobs should stay here, BUT we are (The United States)CAPITALISTS and our incentive is to make major profits. So always do your best in your job. Be proud of being American, stand up for your rights and for how you believe and support CONSERVATIVISM and CAPITALISM. : )

Yes but, It is not just HP trust me I bought some stuff from Dell and when you but your product the people speak english, But after the fact you needhelp and you call and you get and indian person. I actually called and asked to speak to a manager or supervisor. I wated on hold for 10 minutes and then the person who answered was indian. I couldn't even understand her at all! I was screaming on the phone English English! please get me someone who can speak english! It doesn't end there either latley it is everywhere! Yes I cannot stand it ! Kudos for commenting!

Hi there:) I have just today registered on mylot, and am still wet behind the ears, here. I was browsing thru the discussions and stumbled upon this post. Lemme tell you, I am from India. I can understand the difficulties you had in getting understood, or making sense of what you were hearing. The experience can be quite frustrating. However, please do not generalise..maybe you were particularly unfortunate to get connected to a thick accent!!! With todays levels of IT development, communication and globalisation it is only natural that firms like HP, Dell, Toshiba, IBM and so many others outsource such services to where they can get it most competitively. While on a recent extended visit to USA, I could see only "made in China" goods cutting across a spectrum of goods...durables..non-durables..clothes... etc. Does this mean USA is losing the skills needed for sustaining such needs? I only wish these firms would adopt strict audition tests with special emphasis on accent, pronunciation, vocabulary, voice modulation, and telephone manners before selecting people for manning such call points. The point here is that we should view the whole world as one global village..it is fast becoming a very practical reality. I wish you better luck next time you get connected to someone in India!!:):)

hi, i am in australia, and we have the same problem here, our main phone company has got indians for tech support, ( we call them curry munchers ), and i have never had one that can speak english well enough to understand properly, or got what i rang for, the worst part is, it costs a small fortune to ring interstate, overseas is the price of a bank vault, yet you can call india for nothing, go figure, there is hardly anything that hasn't gone there, our major airline is going to go employ asians and indians, so our contrymen lose their jobs, the service is still crap, and the price for a air ticket is still the same, then there is a lot of jobs in industry, that has sacked australians, just to get asians and indians, then the government complains the unemployment rate is too high, or there is not enough skilled labour in the contry, yet you can't get a trade, because there is too many foreign workers here, there has got to be something done about it, the governments of all contrys that do that sort of thing, should look more to their constituents, and start to help their own people, before helping other third world contry's, also a thing to think about, how many imported workers or trainees, have turned out to be a member of a terorist group?

Dear Friend, I believe your problem has nothing to do with Outsourcing to India. The problem is very simple - its a communication gap. The people who are attending customer calls, whether in India or in Philipines, are properly train in ascents, technical knowledge and customer care. Companies like H.P. are very particular about these standards. The biggest reason for outsourcing is the cost cutting. People in developing countries can do the same job in fraction of costs. My suggestion for you is - if you are not satisfied with the customer care, than write a mail to HP mentioning your problem in detail and in steps. Be specific and brief in your discussion. It helps the other person to understand your problem better. Hope you have not mind it. Thanx and regards Ranjan

The outsourcing is not done in USA because the hourly rate for a programmer or computer operator is 4-5 times higher at USA than India. As labor is very cheap here the big companies are doing this. And now if you search internet you will find that the Indians are doing very great at programming and research. IIT is world famous now and Microsoft has declared that they will recruit 7000 employee from India during this year.

My dear friend,can i know as to what differenceit makes whether a person from your country or from other, attends to your problems? All that you require is a solution,isnt it? It would be appreciated if everyone grows up as a international citizens, instead of limiting themselves to the boundaries of the country of their birth.

I believe that outsourcing is good.You can get the same help from an indian CSR or ana american CSR,you know what onabreak2? I think you are just being rasist

I am from India. I like to say that upfront. Outsourcing hasn't been all glitter for India. Many people lost their jobs when rich American companies came to India. Now The American companies want India to open up more sectors for them to come to India. For the record no one in India forced these companies to come to India. If you have any problems it should be with these companies and your Government. I know friends who spent more than a hour to help some Americans who have never used computers. Talk about patience on Indian side.

This is one subject that makes me furious. I think that every company that out sources to another country should be made to deposit money into the unemployment for every state in the United States. I think it is the ultimate slap in the face to every hard working American or American who wants to get a job. Not only that but it is useless to hire someone who does not speak good enough to be understood. It is not good customer service. It is telling your customers we don't give a damn about you and your problems with our products. Its only money in our pockets we care about. Mishelle

These companies are trying to survive in a competitive global economy, what would you have them do, go belly up? American workers make in 1 hour what an Indian does all day long. ALL DAY. We still have a standard of living here that is the envy of 3/4 of the world. While we may have poverty, poverty American style is middle class in places like India. We act like we're entitled, we aren't. If we wish to stay on top of the game, we need to get out there and be competitive. The old days where you could count on union wages and retirement isn't there anymore. And because of technology, the global market is exploding, you can't force companies not out souse, they'll go where they can get the best value for a buck. That is the difference between survival or going out of business. I absolutely agree that Indians or anyone else who works with English speaking customers should be better trained, both in the language and the culture, but we can't blame them because we're sitting around whining while jobs go elsewhere. Its time for us to get up off our butts, roll up our sleeves and get our edge back.