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YUCK!!! Outsourcing gone bad

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by oz_media

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I am still REALLY pissd so I better be breif. I disagreed with all of you about the downside of outsourcing but now have seen the light and bow to you all gracefully.

I think your concerns outlined the lack of jobs and the fact that companies are sending work to India for example.

In that discussion very little was said about the QUALITY of the work performed and everyone was offering opinion on the basis that these people getting the jobs were just as capable as US IT staff and were doing it for less.

Well, after 5.25 hrs on the phone to ??? in the Middle East(YES A HALF DAY AFTER A FULL DAY OF WORK IT WAS 2AM!!!)nothing was resolved, I had been politely walked through the same predictable steps I had tried myself, then all three of the 'techs' I spoke with did the SAME thing again. I ended up asking for Quality Assurance and getting some answers, basically to call the HO in California as they couldn't fill my request from somewhere in the middle east.

this morning I made a call to the provided number, in less than 5 minutes I was issued an RMA for a DOA product. Note: I had already determined the product was DOA before calling support to obtain an RMA, 5.25 HOURS!!!

Well, I can humbly say, I bow to the American IT staff who were so efficient and friendly, spoke excellent English (well American) and helped my with a happy tone.

In the original 5.25 hour call, I must add that the staff was extremely kind and understanding, they just didn't understand the problem and no matter how well explained they still just started with screen one step one and worked forward from there. Very polite, moreso than most, but absolutely USELESS as far as reading the customer and feeling me out for prior knowledge or things I've already done.

Well done USA, I hope to see you ALL get your jobs back!!

16 replies

by oz_media

Hey you can't say that Oldefar. Last weekend I was at the track and someone had left a $31 voucher in one of the betting machines. This happens often but vouchers just get cashed. We're not talking a betting slip but a cash voucher.

I the ,horrible and mean spirited Oz, bent straight to the cashiers and turned it in. If the person asks, they can trace your bets back and they will give you back the voucher if it hasn't been cashed.

About four races later, the Mutuel manager came up and said 'thanks for turning it in, it wasn't claimed' and he gave it back to me. KARMA!!!

So then I went a bet the next exator with it and made a $32.00 key bet which came in and paid $15.640.00. KARMA!!!

So don't go pulling the bad Karma trip in me, 'm big on Karma and LOVE it when it comes around.

by maecuff

I was explaining to my 5 year old about the belief that if you are a bad person in this life that when you die, you could come back as a rat or a snake, etc. He thought about it for a moment and said that he hoped that was true, because he wanted to come back as a bird and wants his brother to come back as a slug, then he can eat him.

by pgm554

I had a cousin (home user) with a Dell Dimension (P4) that kept on getting drive not found errors upon boot up.

She called tech support (India), they said reload the OS from recovery disks. It is a software/OS issue.

She said she would just rather leave it on than trash all of the programs and data.

She did this for a year and just happened to see me at a family function and asked me if I could look at the system.

I ran a disk diag from Maxtor, and sure enough the disk was bad. It was a hardware issue, not a software issue.

Well, the system was out of warranty and I had to image from the old disk to a new one.

The level of tech support sucks. She is out $100 bucks, plus my time, because Dell is out to save a few $$.

This was a $2000 system new. Just goes to show you what hype and marketing get you.

by topesblues

Dells support WAS one of there strong selling points. I haven?t had to deal with them lately but I don?t think that?s the case anymore. It may save them cash at first but in the long run it will cost them their reputation and profits.

by jkaras

I worked for an outsource center called Convergyes. This center had Dell and Gateway accounts including Jello, Sunbeam, and everything under the sun. I got the Gateway account and all they taught me was the hose and close technique. The mantra that it was all about the 15 minute call due to they get paid per call and you were pressured to sell the FFR line to get them off the phone blaming "its a virus". All phone support is outsourced and you are not calling the actual company but these call centers. You would try to do your best but either one customer set you off not to care that day or trying to cover for the other iddiots screwup that made the situation worse. The only real training I got was how to document the call for payment rather than how to troubleshoot the issue.

by oz_media

The same crap and useless tier one support comes from Canada and the USA too.

My problem was not being understood, reiterating myself, having the nice fellow apologize over and over while walking in the same circle I just walked with the last support tech. As I explained that I had already been walked through these steps and that wasn't the issue, the kind man apologized and started doing ti ALL OVER AGAIN!!! Don't freakin apologize and then keep doing it!!! ARRRRGH! If you apologize, you are seeing that you may have made a mistake or repeated something already done thus wasting my time. Don't just start all over again then, try something new or let me speak to someone with a clue!

What I see as someone who has trained inside sales/customer service staff is that IT companies hire A+ certified employees and don't give a hott what their customer service skills are. If you can't caml a customer and keep them moving forward, who cares if you have A+. Secondly, A+ is USELESS in most of these positions because they simply read a resolution sheet and don't need any hardwaer knowledge anyway. Hire a monkey with good people skills instead.

by oldefar

I don't believe that offshoring and poor customer service are one issue.

I have encountered poor customer service world wide, as well as incredibly superior customer service. The issue has always existed and will likely continue regardless of location. Companies who put a higher emphasis on quality customer service will build a more loyal customer base, but survival may require more than a small loyal base of customers.

Offshoring has a different set of issues depending on whether you are the beneficiary or victim of the location change in your job, and how much of the cost savings goes to reducing consumer costs versus enriching the 6% or so who control the bulk of any nations' wealth.

I think when we mix these issues we do nothing to improve either.

by oz_media

For a five year old to see a benefit to such a story is fantastic. This must be your 'creative thinker' who the teachers don't understand.

Looks like you've got a great mind evolving here, don't hold that one back! He's a winner.

by oz_media

I agree completely. As
i've said above. poor service comes from Canada and the USA as well.
The frustrating part, ans again without any predjudice intended, there wa a language barrier that couldn't be overcome. The VERY last tesh I spoke with was a senior engineer and he spoke much better English than the first three and understood me immediately. It was him that gave me the number to call in Calidornia as well as a new case number to show that it was DOA as per the call center. As I said they TRIED to be helpful and were extremely kind, the second guy was BARELY audible, I asked him to speak a little louder several times and he would start OK but trail off into a mumble with a broken accent.

These people spoke much better English than I do Hindi and were correct in their tests the first time around, very good service. They failed to understand my responses though, this was the barrier.

Getting my call into a country where English is the primary language helped me immensely. They understood me rught away, they were helpful and fast.

My only point I am making is that with all the greif I get with Americans, I really was glad to have one on the phone that day. I am not implying that service in North America is better or that it is more professional, I've seen the garbage we get here too when I was a QA manager.

by oz_media

I just wrote a post regarding the lack of proper communications skills due to English not being a primary language.

I could barely read it, there were typos all over it. Sorry, I'm still working on it as a New Year's resolution.

by oldefar

What is exactly stated, what is implied by intent, and what is implied by interpretation can be very different things.

How often have we seen that in threads here at TR?

I had just finished reading some extremely hateful postings from those who feel victimized by offshoring and those feeling falsely blamed for jobs coming to their locations. This bothers me, for both sides failed to see that each side was victimized by those who gained the largest share of wealth by the move.

by oz_media

None of us are the winners that is for sure.

It is a false gain, "hey look at all the jobs we've created, look how we've helped their economy." But very little actual benefit to anyone but the owners. The sad part is the victims are held responsible.

by road-dog

I deal with Cisco periodically on more advanced issues. On heavy duty bughunts, I have chased issues through Cisco support "following the sun", beginning here in the US, and finishing the day talking with an Australian.

I have yet to deal with a support rep that could not understand me or vice versa. I don't have a CCIE and the immediate tier III benefit, but they don't waste my time at tiers I and II. Typically my core dumps get escalated with my ticket without delay or retransmittal.

For this support, Cisco is well worth the money.

I guess PC support is a different deal altogether. If you are in your local electronics store looking at computers, it pays to give the 1800-sup-port number a quick call on the cell phone. If the other end of the line is in Hyberabad, tell the sales rep "no thanks" and walk away.....

This is a marketing issue, balancing cost vs market share. Dell et al will not modify their support infrastructure unless they get jammed on market share because of it. If the customer considers support as a part of the purchase, then support will improve.

If the bottom line is the greatest (or only) issue of concern to the consumer, then the company cannot be faulted with looking only at the bottom line in product delivery.

Caveat emptor - buyer beware.

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