Talking to people from India when you ring the bank!

[Jimmy Little]

it's bad for the UK IMO simple as that, poor service and lack of jobs

[malfunction]

I'm not a fan of outsourcing on a global scale (unless its for a skill that you cannot get locally )

What I meant by that was that on a global scale and in the (very) long term it has the potential to reduce poverty, etc... Idealistic I suppose. In the short term all that will happen is exploitation of poorer countries / people.

Some companies are already moving back as people are unhappy with the drop in service since the companies moved to India.

India = good at simple business.
Britain = good at specific business needs.

I'm not just trying to be politically correct here but - perhaps it's got nothing to do with the location of the call centre (or other service) but the fact that the company has gone for one of the cheapest possible options in the first place?

[TiG]

You miss the point guys, companies like banks belong to shareholders, they must make as much money as they can for the shareholders. That is a cost driven business, so if all the of the companies move call centres abroad you are stuff you can't change to a bank that has any call centres, here, while you have one still using a british call centre you can take your business elsewhere.

Money matters guys, and thats what drives the economy we live in....

TiG

[Zak33]

TiG's right....its dough....all dough.

We all want service but we dont wanna pay for it. Very few of us shop for Service....we all shop for price.

To keep prices down, we need either less service OR cheaper people.

Cheaper people...and its more diplomatic to use cheaper people. India happens to have a high rate of English speakers who are prepared to work their ass off to learn a language that frankly we would never do in return.

Soo.....Bobby I feel for you in terms of Accents and the difficulty ....I had it once with Diamond Multi Media on a help line.....my modem was doing my head in, the cusotmer support was in German !!!! The woman tried and so did I....but you gotta give up eventually.

If you dont like the Bank....move to another.....but remember......its all money...always.

And for THAT reason....next time you go out somewhere.....and get even half decent service....

TIP THEM.....pay for what you want....dont be tight....BUY SERVICE!

I do....always will ....

[RVF500]

Funny thing, when I worked on a contract in India, reading the local rag (in English) on the way in to work was an article in which the writer was saying they shouldn't get complacent or shout too loudly about taking all the call centre business from UK. Sooner or later an even poorer country will offer call centres etc. even cheaper and the business will move on. So even the Indians were beginning to look over their shoulders.

Having seen their quality control at first hand. I wouldn't pay for it.

[IBM]

it's bad for the UK IMO simple as that, poor service and lack of jobs

I'll put in my 2pence worth at this point, and say that you can't have a global market, and then bitch about it when someone offers goods for cheaper. A greater percentage of british firms profit (and exist) because of the export market than British firms catering to the British market. It's like the Americans slapping import charges on steel because other countries were producing it cheaper and had the gall to export to the US....you can't have it both ways...

Although I will agree that there's no excuse for poor service, and these companies should only be outsourcing if the quality is comparable to what's available in the UK....which makes me laugh, 'cause I once got put through to a call center in Dudley, and I tell you, I'd rather have to deal with someone from India (for the majority of educated Indians, English is their first language, and the accent is just that, like someone from Newcastle, Wolverhampton, or Cornwall).

[DeludedDude]

Tiscali also have a call centre in India, they dont know a single thing about data comminication. When I had problems with my broadband I gave them several calls, Its like talking to a machine, they are reading everything off a script.

[TechnoKitty]

I complained directly to HSBC about the fact that they are so bosy trying to speak English and understand you that they do not process your transaction correctly. The reply I got was that they underwent the same amount of training as the English staff, plus one extra module on speaking English. rolleyes tbh.

[shiato storm]

i got a call the otherday from some one - thames water, BT - dunno can't remember but basically a company that was a service of sorts but the household doesn't need/have, anyway their english was so poor I just said 'listen mate I can't understand a word you're saying, good bye' and hung up.
what more could i do, spend tireless hours trying to understand this fool?

[Stoo]

It'll soon start to backfire on them, many Indians are getting wise to it and asking for more money, the companies are aware of this and are starting to look at Africa instead..

There are also concerns about the security of entrusting your hard earned wedge to people being paid not a lot.. They're *very* open to bribery, there have already been a spate of incidents where callcentre staff have been offered large sums of money for bank and credit card details.

Having said that I've already had an incident with Egg when someone added a bunch of extra services to my account against my wishes, purely to bump up their bonus figures.

As soon as I can get my job status sorted out I think I'll be dumping both HSBC and Egg.

[aeonf242]

Outsourcing (offshoring) is the Answer?
What is the Question

That's the common industry response. That is to get companies to think why they outsource/offshore and don't just do it as a bandwaggon thing.

I'd like to conduct a poll (maybe I should set up a thread) to ask teh following question:

Q. If you had the choice of what country your Banks Call Centre was in BUT you had to pay for the choice what would you do?

1. Call India for Free, That's 0p/minute
2. Call the UK and be charged at national rates, say 5p/minute

[Stoo]

Depends if I actually got to speak to a proper person, and not a machine.. Even then it depends if the person on the other end of the line is actually of any use or is just following a script.

[RVF500]

It'll soon start to backfire on them, many Indians are getting wise to it and asking for more money, the companies are aware of this and are starting to look at Africa instead..

Exactly what the author (who was Indian) was saying in the article I mentioned. He mentioned Ghana.

The thing about the corruption is very true. I only spent 3 months there but I saw it everywhere. I contract agreed upon ment nothing. Once work was done it was then time to renegotiate the price. Now you've built your telecoms network Mr service provider, we aren't going to allow you access to your site unless you give us more money (for example). There was a huge drive to get the slumdwellers out of the slums and into proper accomadation. Once in an apartment the erstwhile slumdweller would then sell it and move back to the slum with a wedge of money.

My friend was riding in a taxi in Bangalore when one of the other passengers (who didn't know any better) said jokingly to the taxi driver 'run that guy over for 100 rupees' a sickening crunch later and the taxi driver was holding his hand out for the money (about £1.40). Just an example of how [very little] money talks out there.

[shiato storm]

i think it also depends on whether if sh*t hits perverbial fan then you actually get to speak to someone who's able to take some responsibility of matters

[Jimmy Little]

i think it also depends on whether if sh*t hits perverbial fan then you actually get to speak to someone who's able to take some responsibility of matters

yeah thats a good point, i think all staff in a call center should have a number as well as a name, cos some of those names are a bummer to remember if you need to speak with the same person or speak about that person!

[Blub2k]

yeah thats a good point, i think all staff in a call center should have a number as well as a name, cos some of those names are a bummer to remember if you need to speak with the same person or speak about that person!

Personally I would not like to be referred to by a number Bobby, would make me feel like a robot or borg.