Yes... If you would have read the article it outlines this.rockthecasbah said:wasn't there a rumor a few months back of huge expansion of Apple's Indian Tech support with a new facility?
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Apple pulling support out of India
- Thread starter SeaFox
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Not all are indians
Hey, when it comes to call centers or tech support, it is not always INDIA. Do you know the lil country called the PHILIPPINES? They are better than the tech support guys in india when it comes to speaking good english, (hey, im not a racist ok, im just stating a fact). Filipinos are way better in speaking in english because they don't have a strong indian accent, most of them, if not all, have a neutral accent. Most of the filipinos sound like canadian, or people from california. Filipinos have neutral accents.
Dell, well, yeah, they have at least 4 contact centers in india, but then, recently, this february of 2006, they started their operations in the PHILIPPINES. So if you have a dell computer, and called their hotline, and you somehow heard that you're actually not speaking with an indian guy, then that means, you are speaking with a filipino.
Hey, by the way, i am half japanese, half filipino. I live in the philippines and work in Dell contact center (of course, here in the philippines) as tech support assistant. I maybe speaking with you soon. hehehe.
Filipinos are better let me tell you. try it. call dell hotline. if you hear a neutral accent speaking technician, then he / she is a filipino.
I just wish that apple would establish their contact center in the philippines, i would sure love to work for them. hehe. but i love my company now, dell is really providing us with a lot of benefits. I can never really complain.
Hey, when it comes to call centers or tech support, it is not always INDIA. Do you know the lil country called the PHILIPPINES? They are better than the tech support guys in india when it comes to speaking good english, (hey, im not a racist ok, im just stating a fact). Filipinos are way better in speaking in english because they don't have a strong indian accent, most of them, if not all, have a neutral accent. Most of the filipinos sound like canadian, or people from california. Filipinos have neutral accents.
Dell, well, yeah, they have at least 4 contact centers in india, but then, recently, this february of 2006, they started their operations in the PHILIPPINES. So if you have a dell computer, and called their hotline, and you somehow heard that you're actually not speaking with an indian guy, then that means, you are speaking with a filipino.
Hey, by the way, i am half japanese, half filipino. I live in the philippines and work in Dell contact center (of course, here in the philippines) as tech support assistant. I maybe speaking with you soon. hehehe.
Filipinos are better let me tell you. try it. call dell hotline. if you hear a neutral accent speaking technician, then he / she is a filipino.
I just wish that apple would establish their contact center in the philippines, i would sure love to work for them. hehe. but i love my company now, dell is really providing us with a lot of benefits. I can never really complain.
People people people. This is not the end of Indian tech support from Apple! They may be stopping their own plans, but Apple will continue to use Transworks in Bangalore for tier 1 ipod and computer support. They might decide to increase Transworks support instead now.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
Apple should consider the expanding American work at home agent market. I do at home inbound order processing--it can be cheaper for companies than outsourcing because there are no minimum wage requirements or health care obligations for work at home agents. I get paid $.17/minute which according to the company I work for's marketing, is cheaper than labor in India.
(If anyone is interested, I do inbound bilingual (English/Spanish--although mostly Spanish) Pizza Hut orders--from Florida to Hawaii).
(If anyone is interested, I do inbound bilingual (English/Spanish--although mostly Spanish) Pizza Hut orders--from Florida to Hawaii).
Apple should just establish their contact centers here in the philippines. Really. Filipinos are better in communications skills. And alot of you guys would never even notice you are speaking with a filipino because filipinos are good in mimicking accents. WE have neutral accents, and whenever i speak with an american and have him/her guess where im from, he/she will say he/she doesn't have any idea , and some say i maybe from canada.
I am now working in dell, and previously, i work in an outsourcing call center, and our account there was BESTBUY. Yes, BESTBUY, you've heard me right. All of the americans ive spoken with there thought i am from canada, or sometimes california. Bestbuy is instructing us to tell americans that we are from minneapolis, lolz, but the americans couldn't believe i am from minneapolis because i sound like an american from california, or maybe canada. Coz i can't do a minneapolis accent. I can only try to have a neutral one.
I am now working in dell, and previously, i work in an outsourcing call center, and our account there was BESTBUY. Yes, BESTBUY, you've heard me right. All of the americans ive spoken with there thought i am from canada, or sometimes california. Bestbuy is instructing us to tell americans that we are from minneapolis, lolz, but the americans couldn't believe i am from minneapolis because i sound like an american from california, or maybe canada. Coz i can't do a minneapolis accent. I can only try to have a neutral one.
I'm glad. I don't care that the US and their efforts to offshore created a nice padded middle-class in India. It is un-American if you ask me. Don't call me a racist, call me American. If I were in the UK and they were offshoring jobs, I'd consider it to be the same thing, only UK not America.
Bottom line is I stand around all day watching the parade of people from India come into my office wearing polo shirts with my company logo on it interviewing each of the managers, whether they're capable or not, to decide what can be offshored to their country. What cannot be offshored they find a reason why it can be automated. What cannot be offshored or automated is trimmed....or done away with.
We outsource to India and Mexico. Our staff of 300 call center people in California is down to 50. 100 are in another state and 200 more are in India and Mexico. IT is India now unless you lose your password. Seems as though I lose my password every time my computer crashes because I refuse to talk to IT in India.
I am not opposed to people in India handling anything, but when my friends are sitting around without a job because they were laid off last week, I feel like there is no loyalty to anyone any longer.
Bottom line is I stand around all day watching the parade of people from India come into my office wearing polo shirts with my company logo on it interviewing each of the managers, whether they're capable or not, to decide what can be offshored to their country. What cannot be offshored they find a reason why it can be automated. What cannot be offshored or automated is trimmed....or done away with.
We outsource to India and Mexico. Our staff of 300 call center people in California is down to 50. 100 are in another state and 200 more are in India and Mexico. IT is India now unless you lose your password. Seems as though I lose my password every time my computer crashes because I refuse to talk to IT in India.
I am not opposed to people in India handling anything, but when my friends are sitting around without a job because they were laid off last week, I feel like there is no loyalty to anyone any longer.
Dell provides support to its' business and other repeat buyers. Once Dell has a home computer buyer's money, they definitely do not want to hear from them again. If those users have issues with the tech support, they could care less. They have fulfilled their obligation. In the execution of this 'business model' they are not going to spend a dime (inflation) more than they have to.
What I dislike in any tech support is someone on the other end of the line reading from "Solve Problem 101". It seems to happen much more frequently with foreign support centers. I suspect that is the way they have been set-up and their staff follows to the letter. I find I am much more likely to get a 'unprogrammed' tech support person if the center is located in the US. These are generalities, so please accept them as such.
What I dislike in any tech support is someone on the other end of the line reading from "Solve Problem 101". It seems to happen much more frequently with foreign support centers. I suspect that is the way they have been set-up and their staff follows to the letter. I find I am much more likely to get a 'unprogrammed' tech support person if the center is located in the US. These are generalities, so please accept them as such.
Well, demoman, you see, most of us tech support technicians, already have the answer or solution to the problem, but the problem is finding it in our system. You probably don't get it, because you are not working in a contact center, but heres how it goes. If we know the answer, we have to find the answer in our own system for us to be able to log it down. Example, i know that the solution to the prob of the customer is to just press the power button for 6 seconds. But you know what the problem is, we have to search thru millions of articles to find that answer, in our system. It seems odd. Or a delay to the customer, because why couldn't just we tell that to the customer and have to wait til we finally be able to find the steps in our system?
well, indians, from what i've read from the internet, have a tendency of sounding like they are reading from a script, because the steps or solution they have on the screen, they just read it, and never rephrase it.
well, we filipinos, have an advantage on that. We don't sound like we are reading from a script. have you ever spoken with a filipino over the phone? try calling bestbuy hotline, at 1800bestbuy.
well, indians, from what i've read from the internet, have a tendency of sounding like they are reading from a script, because the steps or solution they have on the screen, they just read it, and never rephrase it.
well, we filipinos, have an advantage on that. We don't sound like we are reading from a script. have you ever spoken with a filipino over the phone? try calling bestbuy hotline, at 1800bestbuy.
floriflee said:
I couldn't agree more. But that's because my problem with "foreign" tech support has less to do with people's accents and more to do with the static and delay that makes it hard to have a two-way conversation in the first place. Technology has come a long way in making it possible to call anywhere in the world, but the latency issues are more a function of physics than they are of technology.
As another person posted, just because someone was born in the U.S. doesn't mean that I'll be able to understand them. Heck, sometimes I can't even understand our president (but that's a different thread).
Sdashiki said:
I know it's toooo easy, but I just couldn't resist!
"Finally, the desk, where we'll have our picture taken in front of -- is nine other Presidents used it. This was given to us by Queen Victoria in the 1870s, I think it was. President Roosevelt put the door in so people would not know he was in a wheelchair. John Kennedy put his head out the door." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006
"And so I'm for medical liability at the federal level." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 10, 2006
I guess that just leaves the 2 sec delay as a problem then....
Haven't read through all the posts, but all I can say is "THANK GAWD!!!"
Please don't misunderstand me, this has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with supporting the US job market.
My feelings aside, over the past few years I have seen a steady increase in switchers PRIMARILY because of this outsourcing issue. Most have been Dell customers who did not like dealing with their Indian support center, both because it took jobs from the US market and because of the obvious frustration of trying to get help on an already infuriating windows issue, from someone that they can't fully comprehend.
Most recently [and unexpectedly] however, I have had quite a few customers coming in and asking me which computer companies utilize operations in China, because they [paraphrasing] "do not want to purchase anything from those companies who are dealing with a communist country that blatantly commits human rights violations".
After looking into this, I found that ALL the computer companies do, including Apple, so they have no choice but to go with the lesser of the "evils" because not using a computer is not an option.
Most of those customers end up switching to Mac because at least Apple's packaging has class and doesn't look like it rolled out of a Chinese assembly plant [even though Macs are assembled there] with the typical windows box manufacturer's brown box and stickers slapped all over it.
Also, the very prominent "Designed by Apple in California" writing you see when you open the box helps too.
Please don't misunderstand me, this has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with supporting the US job market.
My feelings aside, over the past few years I have seen a steady increase in switchers PRIMARILY because of this outsourcing issue. Most have been Dell customers who did not like dealing with their Indian support center, both because it took jobs from the US market and because of the obvious frustration of trying to get help on an already infuriating windows issue, from someone that they can't fully comprehend.
Most recently [and unexpectedly] however, I have had quite a few customers coming in and asking me which computer companies utilize operations in China, because they [paraphrasing] "do not want to purchase anything from those companies who are dealing with a communist country that blatantly commits human rights violations".
After looking into this, I found that ALL the computer companies do, including Apple, so they have no choice but to go with the lesser of the "evils" because not using a computer is not an option.
Most of those customers end up switching to Mac because at least Apple's packaging has class and doesn't look like it rolled out of a Chinese assembly plant [even though Macs are assembled there] with the typical windows box manufacturer's brown box and stickers slapped all over it.
Also, the very prominent "Designed by Apple in California" writing you see when you open the box helps too.
mmmcheese said:
HA!!! Me too!
But at least it was still a job that stayed here in the US for a US resident.
FleurDuMal said:
Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, its the horrendous experiences that will be remembered more often and accounted for in the business world.
netdog said:
I do not doubt that the staff in india was well trained and worked very hard, however, i do prefer my tech support to be in North America or Europe during odd hours] as it feels more personal than someone halfway across the world. {just like buying from a mom and pop shop over wallmart}
rockthecasbah said:wasn't there a rumor a few months back of huge expansion of Apple's Indian Tech support with a new facility?
Uh, yeah. The article linked in this thread is simply stating that Apple has now changed it's mind about that previous fact [it wasn't a rumor].
MS Spanish support
TBH I HATE Microsoft's 'spanish' support, based in northern Africa (but not Saharauis indeed). Spanish has only 5 vowel sounds but they skip-miss-mix at least 2 ... They have most of America (and a few places in the same latitude in Africa) to choose from if they do not want to put it in Spain but MS is just so f*#∞¬@ up ... Oh, and they 'support' you by reading a script for idiots ... And they will not skip a line even if you ask them with tears in your eyes ... And last time I called I got the impression the kid who answered me was not even of legal age to work (can't put my hand on a fire for that, and I do not even know what they consider legal ...) ...
Hector said:
TBH I HATE Microsoft's 'spanish' support, based in northern Africa (but not Saharauis indeed). Spanish has only 5 vowel sounds but they skip-miss-mix at least 2 ... They have most of America (and a few places in the same latitude in Africa) to choose from if they do not want to put it in Spain but MS is just so f*#∞¬@ up ... Oh, and they 'support' you by reading a script for idiots ... And they will not skip a line even if you ask them with tears in your eyes ... And last time I called I got the impression the kid who answered me was not even of legal age to work (can't put my hand on a fire for that, and I do not even know what they consider legal ...) ...
I've had A LOT more trouble understanding texans/other people in the south than I have indian tech support. Plus, most of the Americans are giant *******s when I call for tech support. The foreign support people at least pretend to be nice, which is amazing because I'm sure they talk to a lot of *******s all day.
Please let this be so!!! They hardly speak english and are impossible to undertstand......When I called up for help with my old G5 all i got was a guy reading out the service manuals form the Apple support website, nice guy but he didn't know what he was on about....
ShadoW
ShadoW
Don't any of you guys see the irony of Americans complaining about people in other countries being unable to speak English.
tis a good thing.
when i worked for sky a few years back they started a callcentre out there, and within 3 months trashed it and went back to scotland. so now instead of someone you just can't understand on the other end of the line, most subscribers (based in england) call up and get a load of neds they still barely understand.
when i worked for sky a few years back they started a callcentre out there, and within 3 months trashed it and went back to scotland. so now instead of someone you just can't understand on the other end of the line, most subscribers (based in england) call up and get a load of neds they still barely understand.
What does ironing have to do with it?Peterkro said:Don't any of you guys see the irony of Americans complaining about people in other countries being unable to speak English.
Kidding (Simpsons reference)... but seriously, yeah, it's kinda funny. I've had some good experiences and bad experiences with both. I'm glad they aren't outsourcing as much, but it's expensive to pay people a decent wage here so I don't blame them for trying. I'm sure someone else will use the facility, they all got some training and 2 months severance, and who knows, maybe they'll use them in the future for EurAsia-based support so all us 'Mericans can quit complaining that they took our jobs (South Park reference).
i had actually just skimmed the article and missed that partFragTek said:
. Well i am certainly in support of better tech support, but i must admit i didn't have many problems at all with the fact that the people that helped me were indian. I didn't have 2 second delays, language barriers, or anything like that. What annoyed me the most was very long waits on hold...
You what
Who are you calling a ned? Do you want to make something of it? <P>Seriously, I can't understand all this stuff about accents ...I have lived in Scotland for 30 years and I'm Welsh but sound English. No problems with Americans, Indians, Phillipinos or any other nationality, so long as they can speak reasonable English and are articulate. The problem is more to do with(whereever they are) not knowing their stuff.
Who are you calling a ned? Do you want to make something of it? <P>Seriously, I can't understand all this stuff about accents ...I have lived in Scotland for 30 years and I'm Welsh but sound English. No problems with Americans, Indians, Phillipinos or any other nationality, so long as they can speak reasonable English and are articulate. The problem is more to do with(whereever they are) not knowing their stuff.
bigandy said: