Congressman Wants Foreign Call Center Workers To Disclose Their Location

When they're asked, they say "Just a little north of Seattle."

:-)

I don't like this because it's just going to cause conflicts with the person taking the call. If somebody in India is on the phone with you, they're happy to have work. That person doesn't deserve to be yelled at for not being in the United States.

But the normal way is to kill the messenger rather than not buy that company's product or tell off the executives who make these decisions.

Transparency is one thing, but I think this just will cause hard feelings and some ugly calls where the wrong person is treated badly.

Not so sure what the cost savings of that are though.

Under $10.00 Canadian/hour.

It's insane. That was how little TECHNICAL support was paid for one of the biggest computer companies in the world.

I grew up in Victoria in the 60's and 70's and was making better money than that. Damn, that is sad.

Due to the contract they were under, the outsourcer could only pay a maximum of X/hr. So you either left when you got to that level, or never got a raise again.


It comes down to the old adage, how much profit is too much? When you're raking in billions a year in profits, and pay nothing to the bottom of your org chart, how is that right?

The company I used to work for had outsourced people all over the world.

When people started really complaining about accents, reports were run.

The #1 most complained about person in the company was in Canada. Deep Indian accent, but a Canadian by birth.
So was #2.

Now, the funny part.

This was 2004. These two guys had worked for the company for 10 years. And there was survey data going back for 5 years of it.

2003 = some complaints.
2002 = a couple of complaints.
2001 = no complaints.
2000 = praise.

Did these guys get worse, or did customers become sensitive to the problem and begin to complain?

Strange for sure, but it's true.

We deserve to know where the person we are trying to communicate with is located. Most of the time these individuals barely speak understandable English.

We pay for the use of these call centers when we purchase a product or service; that cost if figured into the price. I usually ask immediately. We deserve to know.

:applause:

which is why places like Canada, India, and Ireland are used - low wages + native English speakers are the corporations dream for a service center.

I think that they should disclose this information on the software box or their support website but they shouldn't subject the poor guy in India or Canada or Ireland to having to do this and be unfairly verbally abused by some racist/xenophobic yahoo somewhere.

Doug De Clue
Engineer/Programmer

I am not talking about proper use of English. I agree they speak "the Queen's English". When speaking to them in person, one can at least get some better understanding from lip reading & hand gestures.
Their accent & Southern accents don't mix well!

(and I mean Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, not just Florida) I'd say, be more open minded and tolerant of other people accents y'all..

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

the reason for the connection in the first place.

Sorry I don't accept that...

Doug D.

for the company that provides the software development tool in Austin Texas and sometimes the service is great, other times I know more than the guy I'm talking to so it all just depends. I've gotten great tech support for Symantec out of India in the past.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

The representative's fluency in English is what's important; not their location.

in a call center in SW PA, I think its a good idea. :)

Some of the companies would start bring home these jobs, if their customers started knowing where the call center was IMHO

On the occasion when I call IBM technical support, the announcement proudly says, "We will now transfer you to our technical support center in Atlanta, Georgia."

They should expand this so you know which prison is operating the call center that is booking your flight with your credit card. (I think most of those are in Texas, natch.)

What difference does it make where they are? Hell, they're working stiffs too.

:sarcasm:

were from, there would be more complaints. It could even be a marketing advantage to stay in the US. Would you be more likely to buy a product or service if you were guarranteed they would have their support in the US? I have seen one ad mention it - so I assume it works.

that is larger than most repubs care to report on.

When you buy something, do you care if it is American made? I do. My purchases are evaluated on a few levels.

When ATT had offshore support, it was awful. Very difficult to understand and they kept saying "thank you". Don't thank me, please, how do you fix it? Once I had to call back three times to get to someone who knew exactly how to resolve the issue. If you ask for a supervisor, in any call center, you HAVE to be escalated. Not every tech is going to follow the rule. BTW, last I knew, ATT had moved their customer/tech support BACK. I sighed in relief.

I was employed as a TSR for an outsource call center, and it depended on the contract, but usually we were not supposed to give the impression that we were not in their home town. You cannot always tell from an accent where someone is. This isn't prejudice or looking for a scape goat.

I saw too many people get a big BITE from the failed IT sector. No job to be had in their field. Layoffs. My former company no longer exists. We serviced major companies. If they aren't doing it, who is? We trained the manager, who lives in Canada. They were opening a new call center. There. Glad to have people all over the world have jobs. It seems way out of balance, however, when American worker's are rendered unemployed in order that another contry gets them. Any other. Sorry, Canuk's. Love ya, baby. The best service comes from in house.

And what about our economy??? Couldn't those dollars work better for us all if the jobs were here and not there?

Just questions.

If I make a phone call, I have business to take care of. I don't have time for legally mandated announcements designed to make xenophobes feel better about themselves.