Got to be the dumbest move. Can I ask a company where their customer service department is (residing) before I buy? I would think if someone stated in their company website, "Our customer service is based right in Goodol' USA or some part of say Maryland" would be a good sell. Take it to a notch above and hire veterans and wounded warriors. But WTF do I Know, anyway? I also know what I just stated is not politically correct. It was not meant to be. It was meant to point out the True fact of bad business practices.
Customer service outsourcing
- Thread starter User0511
- Start date
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
I like that idea of hiring vets or injured service personnel.
Unfortunately we now live in a world where everything goes to the lowest bidder....which usually means outsourcing services to foreign countries.
Even when it comes down to products themselves.
If I go to sprawlmart if there's say 100,000 products in that store I'll be lucky if I can find 10 that are made in the US or Canada.
And of course a lot of the overseas stuff is garbage.
It would seem in our endless quest to save a buck we've shot ourselves in the foot in more ways than one.....
Unfortunately we now live in a world where everything goes to the lowest bidder....which usually means outsourcing services to foreign countries.
Even when it comes down to products themselves.
If I go to sprawlmart if there's say 100,000 products in that store I'll be lucky if I can find 10 that are made in the US or Canada.
And of course a lot of the overseas stuff is garbage.
It would seem in our endless quest to save a buck we've shot ourselves in the foot in more ways than one.....
72Dodge
Well-Known Member
About a year ago, the company I worked for outsourced their entire "IT Help Desk" to India. Every time I call, I can barely understand the guy who answers, and their name is always "Bob". Believe me, it's all I can do to say "yeah, right". Worse, when I tell them the name of the server that is having issues, I have to explain what that server does, even if it's one of the major systems of the company that everyone knows about. I really miss the old IT Help Desk that was a few guys on the 2nd floor of the building.
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
My cellphone service provider has subbed out their customer service to what I'm guessing is Mexico...I always get a Hernando named "John" or "Joe" and can barely understand the guy.....and almost always know more about what the problem is than they do.....
"Ah-lo! Tank yo fohr cahghleen tichneekall soo-port. Maiy name eess Bootch. Hghow maiy aiy asseest yo toe-day?"
Just once I want to get a good ol' redneck-twanged Southern boy named Samhain or Vijay. :icon_biggrin:
Just once I want to get a good ol' redneck-twanged Southern boy named Samhain or Vijay. :icon_biggrin:
You should hear my conversations with the cable company when I have issues.
"Well, sir, have you tried restarting your modem?"
"No, because the problem is not in my house."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"Possibly because I designed the fiber-optic side of your entire network in this area from the headend to the receivers. For some reason, you people changed the signal filter at my drop and it slowed my connection down to a crawl."
"Uh...."
"While I'm at it, don't put the old filter back, either. Drop it a couple of dB past what was there before y'all were last here with the bucket truck."
"Uh..."
"You have to log this conversation in the computer, right?"
"Well, yes."
"Then just type in what I'm saying."
"Uh, OK."
Two days later, Charter's pole-climber bangs on my door with a clipboard and a big grin on his face: "You don't f__k around, do you?"
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
Excellent. :icon_thumleft:
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
That's pretty much it....
ONCE I had a nice southern gal.....best call I ever had with them.
Other than that it's been endless Fernando's....
I had to deal with a guy at a national call center the other day while looking for parts to repair a fire-damaged motorhome. It was a good ol' Southern fella, and I had him absolutely befuddled... poor sonofagun was just drowning on the other end:
"Man, I think I'm seein' what ya want here, but hell if I can find a number!"
"Well, Steve, this ain't my first bull ride in the parts rodeo. Would you rather just send me a bunch of screen captures and let me figure this one out on my own?"
"Man, I sure would be much obliged if I could. I ain't supposed to, but man... this is impossible!"
"Just send it to me. I'll figure it out."
He did send the catalog pages, and I did find what I needed. I called him back to ease his mind that I'd found it, and he asked me if I needed a job.
"Man, I think I'm seein' what ya want here, but hell if I can find a number!"
"Well, Steve, this ain't my first bull ride in the parts rodeo. Would you rather just send me a bunch of screen captures and let me figure this one out on my own?"
"Man, I sure would be much obliged if I could. I ain't supposed to, but man... this is impossible!"
"Just send it to me. I'll figure it out."
He did send the catalog pages, and I did find what I needed. I called him back to ease his mind that I'd found it, and he asked me if I needed a job.
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
The former somewhat knowledgeable old guard at crappy tire which is my auto parts store have been replaced with propellerhead's from a sunnier clime.
If it ain't on the computer they're lost and even then they don't have a clue what said part does....I just turn the screen to face me.....look up what I want and say "go get me these". Much easier that way.
If it ain't on the computer they're lost and even then they don't have a clue what said part does....I just turn the screen to face me.....look up what I want and say "go get me these". Much easier that way.
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MiradaMegacab
Well-Known Member
Customer service, what is that? LOL
ramenth
Well-Known Member
Call 'em Apu. They really hate that. Apparently, they watch the Simpson's and know it's an insult.
We had the Verizon guy come out to the house on a call for a bad junction box. He has to deal with the same idiots we have to deal with when it comes to the service calls. He got on the phone to end his call and started giving the Indian on the other end of the phone a hard time about English being a third or fourth language.
kkritsilas
Well-Known Member
From about 4-5 years back. I have a friend down in Crows Nest Pass (2.5 hours south of Calgary, on the Alberta/BC border). Calls me up, says his computer isn't getting on the Internet. I asked he what it was doing before the outage. Says they had a power outage from last night, and the power is back, but no Internet. He says he is on the land line with Shaw (the local cable provider), and is talking to me on his cell phone. I ask him to check some stuff on his computer, and if the lights are on his cable modem. Tells me the lights on his cable modem are normal, tells me what he is seeing on his computer, its all normal. I ask him to tell the female tech support person from the cable company to send a reset command from head office down to wherever the distribution point is to the Crowsnest Pass. I hear him tell her, comes back and she says that the network equipment resets itself once power comes back up. I said ask her again, just in case. He tells her, and for some reason, she actually does it. Internet comes up about a minute after that. He says that the woman from the cable company was surprised. He asked me what just happened. I told him that some equipment, due to the power outage, many not have reset properly. The reset command should have cleared that up, if it was the case, and it did. Cable company tech support is in Calgary, and Canadian, but tech support people are no brighter.
Kostas
Kostas
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This rant all started because my other car (my 01 Accord) that says "My other car is a mopar" would not fire when I tried to leave work on Thursday. I called my roadside service and you guessed it...... outsource and low volume voice. I could not understand nor hear half of what Sarah? was saying. I was telling her I need a tow truck and she wanted to find me a service garage. I said, "No thanks, I'm my own garage!" I just need a tow home. I gave up and caught a ride with a coworker. I had an idea it was spark related.... Distributor cap and rotor $41. Got to work on Friday in the SS/T with tools and parts. At lunch it was 46 degrees, so I changed the cap (the original was still on it) and rotor. Still no spark........ Off to Pep Boys on columbus ave in Phila. Lets just say it was not a good visit with Peps. I gave the kid a "hey how's it going and can you help me..." he just walked away. When he came back around, he pulled the wrong coil. (Mine is the california emmisions ULEV one) The pissant ignored me and proceeded to get more disrespectful. He had a slight accent and was in no way interested in speaking clearly or in complete sentences. So I'm off to Advance and get the coil. that Advance Auto guy was a good dude and went the distance to get the right coil $75. Back to the Honda and still no spark. That meant ignighter ..... $160... back to Advance on Oregon ave in Phila. My man looked, but no stock on the part. I pack it in and head home (I dropped off a coworker who stayed to help) On my way home on the Jersey side, Autozone had one ignighter. Traffic was all screwed up going back. so this morning I went & got the trailer (to threaten that damn Honda and its overpriced parts- worse than mopar and not as cool). In under 5 mins got the Honda fired up and back home about a 1/2 hour later. My wife was talking with our roadside service through ALLSTATE... again with the far distance call. She thanked them and cancelled them in one swoop. Again my wife kept stating,"could you repeat that again?" I get that I am an ignorant American. When I went to Puerto Rico to work, I had to get to learn the language(if you can figure that one?) same with Greece, back in 2009. I don't expect to learn every language, but I can do habla espanol, and some technical German (from my days at Colortronic). I dig the Rosetta Stone, but is it necessary for day to day bullshit. My kids are learning Spanish and I am going to push Mandarin Chinese, as well a European (German, French or other) Simply, I need my kids smarter than me as they try to understand the words being thrown at them in their life. Again, I'm fully aware of my level of ignorance, but I'm improving.
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
I've got CAA up here....that's who I'm with.
Luckily I have old Mopars so I've only had to use then once for a dead car.
Oil pressure switch on the Volare.....other than that I've only used them to pick up cars that I or buddies have bought.
I love these guy's...I always get someone from this side of the pond on the phone and they always send a truck no questions asked and within 40 minutes.
The best part is when I tell them the year of my car they don't have a freakin' clue....so they always send a flatbed......awesome.
With the Volare some kid showed up with a flatbed....he says "Wow!....nice car....what's wrong?" I told him no spark...he asked if I checked the battery.....I said.....I've changed the ECU, the coil and the ballast resister and no dice....he gave me the blank stare like I just spoke Swahili and said...."Yeah man.....whatever you say....where's the car going?"
Luckily I have old Mopars so I've only had to use then once for a dead car.
Oil pressure switch on the Volare.....other than that I've only used them to pick up cars that I or buddies have bought.
I love these guy's...I always get someone from this side of the pond on the phone and they always send a truck no questions asked and within 40 minutes.
The best part is when I tell them the year of my car they don't have a freakin' clue....so they always send a flatbed......awesome.
With the Volare some kid showed up with a flatbed....he says "Wow!....nice car....what's wrong?" I told him no spark...he asked if I checked the battery.....I said.....I've changed the ECU, the coil and the ballast resister and no dice....he gave me the blank stare like I just spoke Swahili and said...."Yeah man.....whatever you say....where's the car going?"
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My imp
Well-Known Member
Direct TV briefly farmed out customer service to India, or one of the -stan's. After killing two fully charged batteries on house phones, & having to switch to the hard wired receiver, I demanded to talk to an American, who fixed the problem in three sec's. On my bill I said that anymore service problems & Dish would be happy to take my business. Enough people must've done the same, as they're based in America again. See, even GM (owners of Direct TV) can learn!
ramenth
Well-Known Member
There have been a few companies which have brought IT/support/customer service back to these shores in an effort to win back/keep the customers they have.
My imp
Well-Known Member
I try to stimulate the economy as much as can be reasonably expected. I have the time to seek out American goods at marked up, but not utterly rediculously overpriced.
Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
I put the guys at Napa through the wringer making them look for US or Canadian made parts.....my cars are allergic to china.
