We needed some critical technical support last week with a computer firm that handles some of our mid-range servers. The tell-tale signs that my call was being answered in a foreign country was noticeable from the very beginning.
1. Phone Connection was poor
2. Highly noticeable Indian accent. (This was what tipped me off that something had changed)
3. The tech support person I have talked to for 3 years was no longer employed there.
4. The quality of this technical support was terrible.
5. After 2 hours and 5 different technicians I slammed the phone down in frustration.
I am not going to accept substandard service from a company we pay multi-thousands of dollars a year for on demand high level technical support. I had the personal and company e-mail address to the technical support person I used to deal with. A quick message to him asking what was going on was answered almost immediately (he was job hunting on the net). In short he was let go several weeks ago while this companies technical support staff was sent packing. You guessed it the service center had been moved to India.
After consultations with my staff we sent a letter to every e-mail address and snail mail address we could find to the Senior Management. We explained our disappointment and canceled on the spot a 100K plus support contract.
I have had another company knocking on our door for over a year wanting our business who invest in America, well today I made a very persistent salesperson very happy.
Absolute stupidity on the other companies part. We will see what their response is to our letters and if they don’t respond I will give you the companies name you will not be surprised.
BTW the guy who got a pink slip I am going to do my best to get him on as a independent contractor good help is hard to find. Very interesting similar topic at [ZDNet]
Response to a comment by a reader:
I believe that American companies need to be held accountable. With a free market system my company chooses to support companies that hire American and keep their business in the United States. Why should my company accept sub-standard premium technical support. Our service contract was well over $100,000 dollars per year. It’s my companies money and it is my job to protect my companies bottom line. Give piss poor service I will find someone who gives good service no better way to show your displeasure then to hurt them in their pocket-book.
Todd..
Two things:
1. While reading the post from taobear, I heard the song, “It Can’t Happen Here” from Zappa.
2. Check this site out:
http://www.isyourjobgoingoffshore.com/
Actually, point #2 could also occur right here in the U.S. since there are no doubt citizens in this country who were formerly citizens in India…
But the point is not that they could all have happened here. The point is that the service he had been getting was replaced by sub-standard service (it really doesn’t matter where the service was coming from). Even if the outsourcing had been to a company here in the states, with the obvious deterioration in service, the outsourcing company deserved to lost this and other customers.
What the average American feels about Outsourcing … & how parochial his/her viewpoint is !
I landed up on this posting on Geek News central on how the writer was so terribly dissapointed with the service he got over phone & then realised that this job had been outsourced to a call center in India…
Murali seems to have a point here. For political candidates, making a case that the United States needs to keep jobs at home seems like a no-brainer. Candidates are increasingly latching onto the crisis du jour: the loss of manufacturing and white-collar technology jobs to other countries.
I don’t have the answer, which is why I keep searching for a solution.
Please respond.
guys like you dissapoint me !
You live in your own small world & believe what your media (& your presidential candidates) tell you !
Grow up man !
you say :
1. Phone Connection was poor
2. Highly noticeable Indian accent.
3. The tech support person I have talked to for 3 years was no longer employed there.
4. The quality of this technical support was terrible.
5. After 2 hours and 5 different technicians I slammed the phone down in frustration.
Except for point 2 … the rest can happen anywhere in the world (including your country) !
Your companies want to make profits … they outsource … incidentally … this is called Capitalism !