We Need To Bring Call Centers Back To The USA

[rsmith6621]

....That should be a condition of the offshore provision that is designed to tax the hell out of BIZ that take there corporate offices off shore.


I am so tired of calling for tech support and talking to someone in India or the Philippines and the fact that job could be back here in the states.

[leftstreet]

1. And each call center employee should make $50k a year

:toast:

[Deja Q]

14. Seriously?

With the stress and blame these people endure, $50k is still cheap.

I know, I am one and despite having KNOWLEDGE and demonstrated ability, can't seem to get the EXPERIENCE people claim to want.

[leftyclimber]

22. Geez, the most I ever made at a call center was about 18 grand.

50k? Wow.

:toast:

[mwooldri]

32. Must have been a long time ago.

Starting pay where I work is $28k-$32k. Then there's bonuses, can be as much as $4k a year in bonuses if you're doing well. Get promoted, get new skills, you get more.

Sorry they're not hiring right now.

Mark.

[leftyclimber]

39. It was. About 15 years ago.

I'm glad to hear pay's gone up. One of the reasons the company I worked for was courted into the rather depressed town I was living in was that they promised to pay a living wage for a family of four. Who knew that a living wage for a family of four in 1994 started at about $16,500? *sigh*

[Greyhound]

51. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it went to India about 2 years ago? n/t

[leftyclimber]

56. I'm not surprised.

They were already shipping some of the not-call-center jobs out before that. Programmers, QA, that kind of thing.

[mwooldri]

30. I work in a call center...

... and last year I *did* make over $50k.

Mind you after deductions it came down to $32k... (not just tax, retirement, health, etc).

A good job in a good call center in the USA *CAN* and *DOES* bring in $45-$50k a year.

Mark.

[Greyhound]

35. Interesting, we have call centers for several major corporations here in Oregon

and the range is from less than $19K to a top of less than $38K with benefits.

The companies are HP, Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Disney, Netflix, and Yahoo. Who do you work for?

[mwooldri]

37. Check your PM.

I won't say in public here. But for those casual readers it's a credit card company.

Mark.

[leftyclimber]

40. Must be location-based.

The center I referenced above was in Eugene. I got a cost-of-living wage increase when I transferred to Toronto (wasn't in the call center by this time), and was shocked to find the cost of living in Toronto was about the same as in Eugene, and I lived in a pretty trendy area of Toronto.

Last I heard these guys had moved out to Springfield (Eugene's next-door neighbor and cheaper to run a business out there, for those not familiar with the area), although they may have pulled out altogether at this point.

[Gin]

44. are you in collections for mortgages?

[Doremus]

2. Don't talk to them. Ask to speak to American tech support.

And just keep repeating it until they comply.

Better yet, we should compile a list of companies that have their call centers here in the US and buy only their products. The cheap-ass outsourcers would hear the message loud and clear in the only manner they understand: the bottom line.

[Revlon10]

34. lets do that

make a list, post it here on DU, than mass e-mail to all

[RockaFowler]

50. I tried that

They transferred me to the Phillipines. Netzero is the worst company and I will never go back to them because of their awful customer service (from India and Phillipines).

[msongs]

3. all those people know your intimate financial details..wonder what they do with em? nt

[OhioChick]

9. Bingo....

Should be on the minds of all Americans.

[flpab]

21. Dell

They want your social security number, I told them no way am I giving you my Social security number. Do they think we are total idiots. This was when they called me from India 6 times on Sat looking for my payment that was 5 days late for the restocking fee on a computer that I sent back to Dell that didn't work. I have never spoke to anyone from Dell in the USA.

[RB TexLa]

41. Yes, Americans have never committed any fraud using other peoples information

:crazy:

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Call centers need to be local.

Living in SoCal, where street names are sometimes Spanish words, it can be difficult to be understood.

Many times it can be really funny, too.

[Enrique]

6. it's also tricky when the Spanish names are anglicized

who's going to know it's pronounced Los Feeliz? San Rafell?

[ColbertWatcher]

7. LOL! n/t

[HillWilliam]

45. The one that tripped me was

Wanna-pair-o (Junipero). I'd lived in Texas before California where you might say June-a-pair-o or maybe even Hune-a-pair-o. Wanna-pair-o I never expected.

Then again, Texas has its own atrocities. Manor is May-ner. Mexia is Ma-HAY-ya (you'd think, mebbe, maHEEya, but, nope). Llano, double l, yano? Nope, lanno, like lanolin.

Here in NC we have lots of Cherokee names to tongle your tangue :)

Like Gilda Radner used to say, "It's always something".

[Le Taz Hot]

46. My favorite:

La Jolla -- pronounced EXACTLY as spelled. Oy!

[TlalocW]

5. I don't know... Call centers are soul-crushing centers of despair...

At least the ones I worked in were.

TlalocW

[MindMatter]

19. Doesn't have to be that way

I am in the process of building one. At this point, it is only a half dozen people. They are consolidating the work done POORLY by 20 people spread across a bunch of separate offices. There is no question that by organizing this into a contact center, my customers are getting better service. And by taking the best half dozen employees and giving them the mission to provide great service, they are more satisfied in their jobs.

If the objective of the contact center is to discourage your customers from calling, then sure, you can make it a horrible experience for everybody, and that's pretty much what most companies did.

[TlalocW]

26. No, that wasn't our objective

Just the ones I've been in have petty tyrants for managers, make you promises that they won't keep, try to switch things up on you, and make you do unethical things.

Of course, the fact that I was a pig-headed jerk experiencing my first problems in finding a programming job after being laid off from my last one didn't help much. :)

The one I worked at that broke the camels back was a Sprint tech support place. They promised me a certain shift after training (which was a joke) so I rearranged my life around it then they moved me onto another one. After a couple weeks, they introduced a new function where we were going to act as salespeople - when someone called in for help, we were going to access another part of their account and see what upgrades were available to them and make them offers. This was their method of getting around the do not call list. I refused to do it as I was hired to provide tech support and was completely for the do not call list. After two weeks of monitoring my calls, my manager called me over to bitch at me for not selling, telling me that I had signed a contract to work for them, which meant doing whatever new came along like the up-selling. I told him that I had a piece of paper signed by management on what my shift was supposed to be so signed promises didn't mean that much to the company in the first place. He didn't like that and told me that I could do it or quit so I chose quitting, gave him my badge and walked out. He was somewhat stunned but got up and started yelling at me to "get back here" after I had reached the exit to the elevators. I hit the button for the elevator then went into the stairs and went two flights up instead of down so when he figured out that I had taken the stairs, he walked down 18 flights of stairs trying to catch up with me.

He called me the next day yelling at me to come back to work, or he could make my life hell in trying to find another job. I told him I didn't believe him, but if he did try something, I would gladly find his divorce record, find his ex-wife, and tell her where he was working so she could get alimony. I then suggested that he didn't tell that story to the next group he managed and hung up.

TlalocW

[givemebackmycountry]

27. I have been affiliated with that company for 23 years and I call bullshit....

What "tech support" place did you work at?
Was it a 24x7 operations center?
Where was it?
If it was a 24x7 operations center, you should have been told that you could wind up on a different schedule at any time.
Nothing is promised.
I know that for a fact.

And like any other major corporate center you just can't get "fired" unless you REALLY screw up.
I have to have months and months of documented evidence, before I even think of calling HR to start the termination process.

But, you were a contractor and not a Sprint employee correct?
And if that's the case, I would have gotten rid of your ass as well.
If I had a dollar for every contractor I dumped I could have a great dinner and leave a sweet tip.

I'm not saying your lying, I'm just saying that my experience says these claims are dubious at best.

[TlalocW]

28. As far as I'm concerned

If I have something signed by me and the company on when my shift is, I consider that a promise. Maybe I was naive going in that companies like these don't feel they have to keep their promises, but everywhere else I've ever been, that's how it works out, and for non-call center jobs I've had - both technical (as a programmer) and with my own side business, I've operated many times on a handshake and never been screwed over. But then something called integrity was involved.

It was 24/7, but like I said, I don't care. If you can't keep promises, don't make them.

I wasn't fired, I quit. My manager "made the offer" that I quit when things got heated to try and scare me, and it backfired on him. I was rash, yes, but the guy was a jerk. He routinely made fun of people on his team in meetings (leaving one woman in tears), was hyper-competitive about everyone on his team making offers on those deals because they were tracked, and he had to win at all costs against his fellow managers and really razzed us about not doing well enough, and bludgeoned people with his brand of Christianity when he got the chance.

I have no idea whether I was a contractor or a Sprint employee. It was a job I took because I had to. Looking back, fast food would have been preferable to working there. Fortunately, after leaving, I went to DirecTV, who kept their promises about shifts, had better working conditions, and did not try and make us sell upgrades to people calling in for help. After that, the economy finally recovered enough that I was able to get another programming job.

I would also like to reiterate how unethical I thought it was to make tech people try to sell things to customers calling in for help to get around the do not call list. I've called dozens if not hundreds of support lines for various things, and I've never been sold to while my problem was getting fixed.

Add this onto the fact that in the days of non-cable/DSL, Sprint, who was unfortunately my long distance carrier at the time, auto-signed themselves up to be the long distance carrier on a purely local line I got for internet. It took a while for me to realize it because the bills for my two lines came far enough apart from each other that I never noticed they were for two different numbers until they finally came on the same day. When I called to complain, the jerk on the other end of the phone said they could only refund me the past month, and if I talked to a manager, I would forfeit that, and it took five minutes of arguing with him to give me to a manager and finally deteriorated into my saying over and over in rapid-fire manner, "Let me talk to a manager; I want to talk to a manager; let me talk to a manager now; I want to talk to a manager!" so that he couldn't get a word in edgewise and finally gave up. Ultimately, I got back not only every cent I had paid to them but an apology and admission that the actions they had committed were wrong.

So, sorry... as far as I'm concerned, Sprint is a shit company through and through.

TlalocW

[Greyhound]

36. Manager in a call center in Florida.

That pretty much says it all.

[bbinacan]

8. I've had a different experience.

As much as I'd love to see those jobs here, I've had better luck with folks in the Far East. Dell support out of the East was great. My first call routed me to a Texas call center. He was an idiot. The second call went to Colorado. She made the Texas guy look like a genius. My third call went east and the problem was solved in short order.

[Deja Q]

16. Proof that there are good people around the world.

Proof there are idiots around the world too.

And, indeed, since companies only want to pay a dollar per hour, is doing a good job really worth it? Maybe not.

[Donnachaidh]

10. I've had horrendous problems with techsupport from India

And it was NOT a problem with my understanding their accents -- it was the FACT that 98% of the time these supposed *techs* would be READING instructions from a sheet. When asked about something that did -not- apply to their all-purpose *sheet of answers* they'd stall, and put me on hold. I knew that they were probably trying to find someone who knew something.

And then on one call I actually got hooked up to a techsupport in NOLA. This was after I'd continually asked for someone with knowledge beyond the *answer sheet*. The Nola folks were instantly on top of the problem I was having, and not only got the problem solved actually were pretty chatty (after I thanked them sooo much for being there).

So companies think they save a few bucks by hiring in India people who are NOT techsupport? They lose so much in respect when they force their customers to put up with this shit.

[Deja Q]

18. Those companies will likely go under. Good riddace;

most companies execs think that cutting corners is so great for their bottom lines.

Look what's happened. And those who do good work are the ones hurt the most.

[flpab]

23. Dell in India

I felt bad afterwards but totally lost my cool when trying to get through to this person that my payment had been sent and that I did not want it credited to a Dell account if I paid over the phone by credit card. I have no clue where the check went but stopped payment. I just lost it when they said it would be turned over to a bill collection agency. 5 days and you are telling me this. I mailed the check, where is it? I almost gave up swearing for Lent after this. Sorry but they were rude as well, just am in the customer service industry and I am usually very nice.

[BlooInBloo]

11. More jobs is good, too bad they're very low paying jobs that you're focussed on.

[IDemo]

12. Call center jobs are almost all that remain in Boise

There's one about a two-iron shot from here, don't know who runs it, used to be Sears credit. DirecTV has a quite large center as well.
Qwest is downtown, Dell computer in Twin Falls.

[seabeyond]

13. i got so mad at ford. first payment, they didnt mail. i get a call i am late from someone i could

not understand. i had to keep repeating what i THOUGHT he said as he lectured me. there was a smirk and obnoxiousness while lecturing me about my responsibility to pay. told him i didnt receive packet. he lectured me to go down to ford office and pick up myself. told him.... buster, we dont do it that way in u.s. i have never had to pick up booklet. it is MAILED to us

call local ford, get it taken care of. he gives me number of someone who speaks english....

then i get a call and am automatically put on fuckin hold.... i was so mad

made payment but for five days until they received payment, i got a call once or twice a day from these people.

yes.... i agree. :)

[Deja Q]

15. Try canceling AOL/Compuserve - what a friggin' nightmare...

Explaining the same damn thing 3 times (two separate phone calls), looking for a supervisor, reading what's jotted down on a piece of paper, bullshit threats (oi, I'm not the one at fault here - you caused the billing problem)...

By canceling, I ultimately hope they get it through their microcephalic thick heads that MY time, money, and productivity is valuable too.

[seabeyond]

17. you know.....

i hear ya.

nightmare

[flpab]

24. AOL

I remember that nightmare!

[SmileyRose]

48. It's almost impossible to get out of AOL

The local consumer guru, Clark Howard, has a website that used to be chock full of AOHell stories.

[CRK7376]

20. My wife nearly goes

ballistic and fumes for hours when she has to call an off-shore calling center. It makes us both nuts, having to listen hard and try to decipher through accents. I'm more tolerant than my wife, but even I have my days of disgust with the calling centers. Much easier to talk with an American....but then you have to deal with those "damn Yankee" voices and accents.....

[W_HAMILTON]

25. I don't get it.

Why can't we put in provisions where companies have to pay higher taxes if they want to offshore jobs so much?

Raise the taxes on ALL businesses, and then give business tax breaks if they hire AMERICAN workers. Give them substantial tax breaks/credits if need be.

But it's time we start to punish those companies that screw over America by outsourcing. We are one of the dominant markets in the world, why don't we take advantage of it? Do you think anyone wants to lose us as a potential market?

[tomreedtoon]

29. Idea: how about making crap that WORKS?

Yes, there are always idiots who need to learn they have to plug their computer into a power outlet. But much of what these call centers do wouldn't be necessary if American corporations didn't make useless and badly-designed crap in the first place.

I only wish that UAW apologists for the American car makers, like DU member dainbramaged, would have to take tech support calls for the badly designed cars they make, and insist that we all buy. But auto mechanics don't get tech support. They have to work with the junk they have, all by themselves, with no help at all. What a pity.

[Mad_Cow_Disease]

54. Union guys generally aren't the ones "designing" the cars.

[MadBadger]

31. I remember calling Charter Cable about the Big Ten Network...I spoke to somebody in Brazil

Needless to say, they didnt know what the Big Ten Network was.

[EraOfResponsibility]

33. when it comes to this issue, I get freeper on these people

NO FOREIGNERS!!!!!! :mad: I'm fucking sick and tired of not being able to understand a damn thing the person on the other end is saying when I'm trying to get something fixed.

[pampango]

43. Certain amount of irony with a DU'er getting "freeper" on foreigners.

One day, if enough DU'ers get "freeper" with foreigners, perhaps we can claim the prize of being more "fucking sick and tired of not being able to understand a damn thing the person on the other end is saying" from the freepers who currently hold it.

Then maybe we could force freepers to use the term "going DU on foreigners" to make them acknowledge our ownership of the "NO FOREIGNERS!!!!!! :mad: " mantra.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

52. Because all people with foreign accents don't live here.

And certain dialects (Southern U.S.) for example, are SO understandable. :eyes:

[JCMach1]

55. Maybe I should tell the story of the Microsoft Tech who used to have video sex with GF

on MSN while YOU were on hold...

Ummm... those 'Mericans have problems too.

[Romulox]

38. Why? So that call center workers can make their Toyota payment?

Free trade in goods? Free trade in services.

Only fair.

[pampango]

47. Well said and a good point. n/t

[ejpoeta]

42. geico has a call center in amherst ny. they were just hiring a couple of

months ago even. too far for me to drive, though. i am a stay at home mom, so.... but it would be like an hour drive for me to get to amherst. when i went to UB it took 50 minutes taking the thruway to get there from my house. but it's nice to know that there is a call center right here in WNY. and it makes me more happy to have geico insurance.

[Kablooie]

49. But it is kind of fun ordering your McDonald's hamburger from India from in your car.

[XOKCowboy]

53. I love it when an obviously Indian voice comes on the line and introduces himself as....

Tom or Joe or Bill. I mean come on, I was born but not yesterday! I know that most support has been outsourced (calling Earthlink support was my most recent experience). I don't like it but I deal with the fact. Lying to me about your name right off the bat puts me in a bad mood from the start. I'm not mad at the tech, I'm mad that some 6 figure making dweeb back at corporate headquarters makes them do it and thinks that I'm too stupid to figure it out.

[a la izquierda]

57. Vonage= India...

I hated calling them. Some tried to hide their accent, others didn't. I think it's worse when they tried to fake it. Dude, you're Indian, it's not your ethnicity that bugs me...that's not the point at all. It's the fact that I should be calling Nebraska or someplace in the states. Sheesh.

[barb162]

58. Yes and also manufacturing, tech, etc.