No but I’ve been laid off from 2 jobs from a major ISP and a major telecom company in the past 3 years. Both times the companies were outsourcing their technical support. However my jobs weren’t technical support per se, but 3rd level support for the people on the phones. And I will say the ISP did send some of the jobs to India and the Phillipines. Where as the Telecom company sent the jobs to outsourcing companies in the US and Canada.

Let’s just hope my newest job in support for the IP NOC for one of the major backbone providers doesn’t get outsourced.

Another point about this article. I have also worked front line technical support. One of my favorite stories was a guy that called me all angry that the company I worked for was outsourcing to India.

Attempting to assure him we did not have any outsourcing to India he complained that the tech he just spoke with had such a think Indian accent, he couldn’t understand a word, so he hung up and called back. I asked for the tech’s name, which he gave me (apparently he understood that), and then pulled up the customer’s account. Yep, it was a co-worker of mine that sat 2 cubes from me, and had a Master’s degree in IT Networking. I explained that to the customer, and he went off on a different tangent about immigration. Kind of let that one slide without comment, as I don’t have any animosity towards immigrants if they are in the U.S. legally.

I worked for “ATT Yahoo! SBC DSL”. My contractor was 2Wire and I was hired by Volt. So I was obviously pretty far down the line. I worked here in the United States- Arizona to be exact. 95% of the people that worked there were Americans. White and black, 20-30 year old male Americans. The other 5% were Indian. Those 5% were probably the best tech support we had. They certainly have a knack for it, although once your call lands in India they just read from a script- of course they get paid like $5 a day (HUGE CASH for over there). One thing I have noticed is that more and more of my tech support calls are landing on American soil. The company I was working for is building a new MASSIVE call center in San Antonio and within the next year they will have it operating. So, it is possible that the calls you think are outsourced are just Indians over here in the U.S. The only way to tell is to listen for “non-script” teching. “Hmm”s and “Ahh”s are a tell tale sign of a tech that cares and is knowledgable.

What you guys aren’t realizing is that that “small” 5% of companies are the ones that own 90% of the world’s commerce (money).

That’s why the odds of reaching one aren’t so “astronomical”.

I live in Canada. Ten years ago, if I tried to call our Federal government I could not get through to anyone who could speak English clearly and competently. Now, with the spread of voice mail, I can’t get through to a human being at all.

which is that call centers in general are about declining customer service, disempowering employees and, in the worst cases, shifting cost to the customer.

It’s a total accountant solution, displacing an engineers view.

At an Intuit call center, we were told to break the rules in terms of the help we could give our customers.

This ability lead to me receiving several hundred dollars in Starbuck’s gift cards in reward from being praised by the callers.

Contributor joe, you missed it on the 183,000 new jobs — from the article:

The net effect of the closures and openings in the last four years has been more than 183,000 new call center jobs, with about 25 percent of those in the U.S., according to Butler.

That’s only 46,000 new jobs in the US. Beats nothing, but nowhere as good as you indicated.

American Companies would pay a mexican or an spanish speaking person more money per hour then just english alone speaking people because they want dual speaking people. The market for spanish speaking phone ops should be pretty good business. I mean a mexican who speaks good enough english could be making $15 $20 or per hour while the person beside them is makeing $9 bucks per hour. Let me also just say that this is a market.

Like any thing else if you work in that market then you have to be aware of the market your in, if you sale car’s would you rather sale Chevy’s or Toyota’s? One of the things is that the companies can move these phone banks to another country like Canada and get much cheaper labour. Verizon try to once closed a new york call center and a court order blocked it.

In my opinion some of these places was paying out way to much money to some of these people and it was hurting profits big time. If you can hire some dude in india for $2 bucks per hour not give him blue cross blue shield and you compare that to some one here for $17 dollars per hour then you are saving your company from being taken over or going out of business. Even state governments are using foreign people for their call centers face it that is CHEAPER.

But not only that, these workers over there in places like india is a market that you can sell things too. Cell Phones, digital cameras, tv, DVD’s, CD-ROM, Computers, Internet, Clothes you name it now they can afford it, some one in america has a job because of those people over there buying merchandise. The people here on the phones just might have to learn more as in speak spanish or get a better job. The thing that bothers me is that the government made the call list, which many now home less people lost their jobs over. Also let me point out that in america you can’t listen to employees in a phone bank with out some legal paper work or your breaking wire tapping laws, you could get sued by a worker in america for millions and insurance is high here. There could be a million reason to move the phone bank to india and there could be a million different jobs here for these people if they really wanted it or worried about it.

Lot of these companies that has been posted about has billions of dollars invested in Asia already. Manufacturing their products. I remember Dell Computers just expanded their manufacturing unit in India not long ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4663484.stm

All of these companies as you know make their cell phones, monitors, computers, keyboards what ever it is in asia most of the time. Not only that but their is a growing market in those nations with billions of people in them. That means millions of people NEED HELP with their computers in their own nations. I recall one story that there is more people online in asia then in the United States, so there is a huge market worth BILLIONS.

After reading more about the subject if the manufacturing facility was in India that Dell has I’m sure american workers would want $35 plus per hour. The way they churn out their computers.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/hardware/0,39043471,39199103,00.htm

Some thing I don’t understand if you want a product that doesn’t have foreign phone support, then why did you purchase a product made in a foreign nation? As far as I’m concern I don’t have to have any of those products made in Asia. I have a nokia and I bet you your cell phone bill that a Finland person couldn’t handle the call load if their english call center was based in Finland. You know you couldn’t really understand them, but who doesn’t love their N gage?

I also recall a story about credit cards. If you have like a $50,000 dollar limit then your phone call via computer programs goes directly to an English speaking person. If you have bad credit and a limit to $500.00 dollars then that call goes directly to some foreign nation.

To me that sounds like good business for the company it self. There is one company that wants you to spend about $25,000 dollars every year on their card and I’m sure if you do that you expect the very best, and they probably get paid very well!

But of you just use your credit card at the local 7 eleven for gas. Your going to get a foreign person not paid much to wait for you on the phone. They are not going to pay some one over $10 bucks to help you with a minor problem or to call you to make you pay your mastercard bill? When they could pay some one a h*ll of a lot less.

Now the problem with some people is that they are all against jobs going to foreign nations but a lot of these same people want to welcome foreigners from Mexico and other places with open arms.

They want to give them green cards and drivers licenese, section 8, free health care and offer them YOUR JOB.

Which one are you more worried about? People in some phone bank job in India or millions of people coming here in such a large number american phone workers lose their jobs because they can’t speak spanish.

183000 jobs is small compared to all the LAYOFFS and downsizing. They’re plugging a hole in a dike that was washed away by a tsunami.

My issue isn’t with the call center employees but their inability to make any mid-level decisions. All they do is look at a computer screen–and email a problem to the next level, and from there it is never, never land. I call Blue Cross at least ten times a day, and it never fails that their response to an incorrect claim processed is “I’ll route this back to be reprocessed.” Wherever that “route” is, is never resolved. In other words, they can’t “get up from their desk” and upstream the issue. Medical doctors are beleagured by the claim process. Outsourcing belies customer service. All you get is someone reading from a computer screen what you can read if you log onto their sight. Hence, a waste of everyone’s time.

As talking to the slice-of-life workplace comedy following the lives of call center agents in the span of working period. Speaking with a fake American accent is a prerequisite for the job. This ensemble comedy is an inside look into the maddening, sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled lives of those who ply their trade in the call center industry. Basically call centers deals with 24 X 7 where sleeping also makes a factor for the night shift working people as it is right time for sleeping and giving rest to the body . As continuous working at the night shift gives birth to different types of diseases. But as per the needs of the customer demands we have to work 24 X 7.

You may want to check this link for the latest trends in Outsourcing.

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/end2end-consultant-launches-new-blended-outsourcing-solution-pr-m3g362u7h.html