Dell to bring some jobs back home

[Mairead]

AUSTIN -- In a surprising about-face, Dell is returning some technical-support jobs from India to the United States.

The new U.S. employees will provide phone-based tech support for business customers. Dell employees in India have been answering some of those calls. Calls from individual customers will still be routed to call centers in India.

"We felt a little noise and angst from our customers, and we decided to make some changes," said Gary Cotshott, vice president of Dell's services division. "Sometimes, we move a little too far, too fast."

Dell's reversal comes as many U.S. companies are rushing to outsource operations to India and other nations with low labor costs. It suggests the savings some achieved by moving jobs overseas may sometimes be outweighed by the cost of antagonizing loyal customers.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2242314


The squeaky wheel gets the grease--if it's a business wheel.

[FuseONE]

1. hmmmm

Too bad none of the jobs are going to be coming back to Delaware, cause I'm getting laid off in two weeks.

[MoonAndSun]

2. If a CEO's PC goes on the blink, they will get American support....

for us peons, who cares who you talk to!

[Snellius]

3. Yes, because you can't understand a word they say

I swear I spent a half an hour on the phone to Raheeb, a Dell tech support rep in India, just trying to spell my name and id number. I finally gave up and opened an instant message box online. Thankfully, typing doesn't have an accent.

[kysrsoze]

10. We've experienced the same thing with people at my job

I work for a rather large company, and they decided to farm out a great deal of our IT testing work. We had to have an interpreter on one of the calls because we had no idea what the guy was saying.

Let's see: our cost of labor is roughly $65/an hour. Now how much of our time at that rate is actually wasted when these outsourced workers don't fully understand what we are trying to tell them and it slows down both our work and theirs. Sometimes lowest cost isn't the best deal.

[JM]

4. I said this before...

...If I complain, it is one individual complaint. If 5000 people buy a particular product from one retailer, and all return said product because the support sucks, the retailer will take notice and likely bitch about the return cost and return reason.

I think we need to focus our (consumer) outsourcing rage in a more beneficial direction.

Later,
JM

[Sapphocrat]

5. Well, I'm just one person too, but...

...I've already made up my mind that for my next computer purchase (a long time off, since I'm broke, but still), I will not consider any manufacturer which has outsourced service-support jobs overseas. Period.

That means my next laptop won't be coming from from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, or Dell (unless the last brings all jobs home).

And if I have to eliminate all American computer manufacturers from the running (I don't know if Gateway has outsourced yet), then I will gladly buy directly from Sony, Toshiba, or Fujitsu. After all, my money is going overseas no matter what I buy -- at least by buying from a Japanese company, I'm sending my money out of the U.S. knowingly and willingly, and NOT to some in-name-only "American" company that has eliminated my "fall-back" job (tech support).

BTW, I'd appreciate it if anybody could direct me to some central source that would help me keep track of American computer companies outsourcing to India, China, etc.

(Yes, it will be tough to buy anything at all if I find out Intel is outsourcing. But I suppose I could live with an AMD processor if I absolutely had to.)

[Liberal Veteran]

6. Cough...Microsoft....Cough.......

Microsoft is putting almost all of it's support into India and I know this because I am one of about 400 people I know that got terminated by Microsoft when they moved their jobs overseas and I ended up having to...ahem..."train" my replacements in India.

[Sapphocrat]

8. Yep, which means...

...it's time for me to finally dig into Linux! Or maybe I should go back to UNIX (ick) -- or has Sun turned into a treasonous bastard too? No, wait -- I think I'll just dig my vintage PC clone and DOS 2.1 disks out of the attic. As Gates himself said, 64k ought to be enough for anybody. Besides, this Internet thing is just a fad anyway...

(Mac?! Never! As I've always said: If I wanted something cloyingly cute and perky to greet me with a smile every morning, nag me to take out the trash, and never let me remodel the house to suit my personality, I would have married an Up With People singer with major control issues.)

[Myra]

11. Sorry to hear that liberal_veteran

I went thru the same thing at another company.
Its...awkward...having to train your replacement isn't it?

[maggiemay]

9. just an FYI

Gateway has outsourced...



God Bless America!

[kysrsoze]

12. All PC manufacturers are outsourcing their products

If you check it out, you'll find most PC subcomponents are made in Korea and China. Now AMD is building a chip factory in Germany. Hmmm, I wonder how they found a sound manufacturing business case with such a high rate of labor. I'm sure we could figure out something here.

I can't believe companies don't realize if they are all doing this sort of stuff, we end up cutting out our own customers - less manufacturers to build American product/parts means less consumers and business to buy them too. It's a downward spiral. I know we have to face facts and accept that there is a world economy, but I'm getting tired of hearing how these decisions MUST be made when we supposedly have such a ridiculously high productivity rate. Guess we mop floors and clean toilets better and faster than anyone else.

[alfredo]

14. Go to a local shop that specializes in custom built computers.

Support will be a local call too.

You will have it built to your specifications. It may cost a couple more dollars that the production line cookie cutter computers, but it will be just right for what you want.

If I ever decide to go to something outside the Apple computer, I will do just that. I will also insist on Linux or some other form of UNIX.

[goforit]

7. Well , thats what I consider as good business..so I hope.

:tinfoilhat:

[MasonJar]

13. That;s nice because...

on the news tonight I heard that Sprint (I hope that was the company) was getting rid of 2000 jobs by years end, making it a total of 22,000 over last 2 or 3 years.

[wabeewoman]

15. I was excited to hear this

until I heard it was just for business customers because after a couple of 45 minute waits, an obvious India tech person, transfer to the wrong number, another wait and finally help, I wrote Dell an email complaining as a customer, someone who has referred 5 family members to dell (and have 3 more Dells in my house) and own a tiny bit of Dell stock. They seem to take pride in their A+ customer service ratings but its about to go to C-. I don't understand how people can make these decisions. Ok so its all about money but don't they know its going to affect their service???

[dani]

16. nice but

I'm still boycotting Dell.

Michael Dell mobilized high-tech support for his former Austin neighbor George W. Bush throughout the campaign. In a letter dated December 5, Dell ... urged Al Gore to quit the race before the votes were even counted. "We understand that some of your advisors may be urging you to fight to the bitter end ... We call upon you to voluntarily concede this close-fought election . . . for the betterment of our country."

For more info see this webpage on the Mother Jones website:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/mojo_400/104_dell.html

[incontrovertible]

17. bush is going to LOSE on outsourcing

Bank on it. Of the dozens of software engineers I know, probably 90 percent voted Republican - until now.

The bald-face lying that shills like Limbaugh and Armstrong Williams engage in on this subject - flat-out claiming that it DOESN'T EXIST - is an insult to our collective intelligence, which is the last thing one should ever do to a geek.

If one - ONE - Democratic candidate came out and said, straight up, "We're going to CRIPPLE WITH TARIFFS any American corporation that outsources ANY IT job and dares to claim American corporate citizenship," that person would win over that 90 percent in a heartbeat.

Trust me - code is not a bedsheet. It MATTERS where it gets written, and it MATTERS who moves to put out fires when they inevitably, constantly erupt. You think you've got troubles with tech support? Imagine what it'll be like when it takes a four-hour conference call to New Delhi to get the MRI back online, or find that $78 billion transaction that just went poof.

The race to the bottom ends HERE.