Tech Support From India - WHY?!

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I used to work in publishing, copy-editing and proofreading medical journals, until the company I was working for decided to outsource that work to India, as well as our page comp and coding. It might seem strange that well-known titles, like the New England Journal of Medicine or the Journal of the American Medical Association are proofread by non-native English speakers, but they are. I was put into a position where I had to train some of the people who eventually took our jobs and, honestly, they did speak better English that the vast majority of Americans I know.

False. Teams in India need far more hand holding than teams in North America.

Then what's your point.

Yes but the business managers do not do that hand holding. That task is delegated to business analysts.

You want to put every person working in a call centre out of work because you don't like the job? Seriously?

So don't buy.

ruveyn

I refuse to subject my people to working night shift hours, so I have some outsourced support overseas in an area that is in a time zone nearly opposite our main presence - so everyone works during (mostly) normal hours. It works out pretty well.

On one occasion I looked up my local bank branch in the phone book and phoned them asking "What time do you close today" (I needed to pop in late) and after some initially confusing conversation I discovered the woman I was talking to wasn't based in my bank a mere couple of miles away... she was in India, and had no idea when my local bank closed.

My main complaint about call centres, Indian or otherwise, is that if I'm desperate enough to call one it is usually for a problem that they are incapable of understanding or resolving as it deviates from their idiot-script - "Have you got the power turned on?" type dialogues.

In general I think they are bad news for the countries that have outsourced to India (or elsewhere) simply because it kills jobs back home. Not only has the West lost out on lots of manufacturing jobs due to cheap foreign imports but it is also continuing to decline in service jobs too. The price for all this is unemployment and economic recession in the West. This is now starting to impact China and India as the increasing poverty in the West means the public have less buying power.

Last edited by TallyMan on 19 Nov 2012, 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is very true. Technically-minded people dealing with tech support is almost universally a painful experience, but there's a reason for that - 90% of the people calling into tech support are dealing with pretty simple issues, and those people are usually served well by tier 1 tech support.

But outsourcing is also a good way to get knowledgeable people for considerably less than a US-based employee. Most of the time you have to put in a considerable investment into training - but I've found that a lot of my foreign employees pick up on things pretty quickly.

I believe the problem with most people's support programs has to do with the fact that the companies running those support programs don't *trust* their people with the ability to think for themselves - and they're worse off because of it.

That's big business for ya!


Score +1 for Captain Capitalism.

Sounds about right. I read an article in the computer press a few years ago that one of the computer-problem call centres manages to resolve something like 90% of all calls over the Christmas period (people buying new computers) with the simple advice of getting them to plug things in and turn them on! Frankly it never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people are.

Only the other day I had an example myself. Someone downloaded some software from my site. It clearly states the installation includes two semi-related products, lets call them applications X and Y. Rather like 'Office' has several products such as Word, Excel, Access etc. Anyway, if people uninstall my software they can optionally complete a feedback form on my website. Anyway, this guy uninstalled my software because he was looking for something that did X. Apparently he tried the Y program and it wasn't what he wanted. He was oblivious to the fact X was installed on his computer too and even had its own icon on his desktop. It is literally like giving a plate to someone with a cake and a biscuit on it telling them to take whatever they wanted and the person taking the biscuit and then complaining and sending the plate back because they wanted cake instead. Grrr. In my thirty years as a software developer I've found that at best you can only make your software semi-idiot proof; there will always be some people who manage to screw up the most trivial things, sometimes in the most spectacular and unexpected of ways.

Last edited by TallyMan on 19 Nov 2012, 1:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Once more (and for the last time). All other things being equal do you not purchase at the lesser price than the greater? Yes or No.,

All rational buyers seek to maximize the value (or quality) to price ratio. The best buy for the money. And a rational buyer does not seek more quality (or utility) than he requires.

ruveyn

^^^ Crap-quality products exist because lots of people care ONLY about price.

GOOD quality products also exist because enough people still buy them, insisting on good quality instead of crap!

GAH! It's not just tech support... I just called about my credit rating/report, etc. and the calls are routed to India. It was hard to understand my agent, she had a very hard time understanding me, could NOT think beyond the page in front of her... communication and getting the info I needed was almost impossible!

Its more complicated than that. The banning of such places is part of my grander vision for how i see how society should be reorganised. People should be encouraged to find information for themselves and stop being so stupid all the time anyway.

If I had my way, all menial jobs would be automated and redundant.

Roll out socialised university education and enable anyone without the skills to get into a real profession and a dignified wage.

Of course, you realise that with the current world population you'd need to murder tremendous amounts of people to make that feasible?

I don't think you realise just how many people are employed in these "menial" jobs. Hell, I work a factory job, the sort of thing you'd rather see automated, leaving me up s**t crick with no income.