Keeping work in America - India work not good enough - Tech Support Forums

vass0922 · April 28th, 2004, 06:44 AM

http://news.com.com/2100-1022_3-5201...l?tag=nefd.top

Quote:

Even as the prospect of high-skilled American jobs moving to low-wage countries like India ignites hot political debate, some entrepreneurs are finding that India's vaunted high-technology work force is not always as effective as advertised.

"For three years we tried all kinds of models, but nothing has worked so far," said the co-founder and chief technology officer of Storability Software in Southborough, Mass. After trying to reduce costs by contracting out software programming tasks to India, Storability brought back most of the work to the United States, where it costs four times as much, and hired more programmers here. The "depth of knowledge in the area we want to build software is not good enough" among Indian programmers, the executive said.

Not just in helpdesk areas where we all know their work is atrocious (can't understand them and poorly trained!) but in software as well apparently.

gerald_weigel · April 28th, 2004, 10:15 AM

Yeah, I've seen that in the manufacturing sector as well. It's actually cheaper in India than in China, but the quality of work is just horrendous, from my experience you get what you pay for!

And if the majority of business keep send jobs to other countries and people can't afford their products because they lost their jobs, then they deserve that too!

blubomber · April 28th, 2004, 11:02 AM

That is why i dont call Dell anymore for tech support. I send an email to them on the support site to get replacement parts for my client PCs.

I also keep getting survey calls from India too. Very anoying.

elroy · April 28th, 2004, 11:10 AM

I heard on the radio the other day that organized crime in India is offering workers in India's call centers money to hand over financial data of US customers. [SS#, credit card # etc]

I was in a department store back in January and looked at a nylon jacket, a ski type jacket. It was made in Viet Nam. Price, $168.00 Where is the benefit to the American consumer that is so often talked about?

rastorize · April 28th, 2004, 11:21 AM

That is an excellent point Elroy...I've often wondered that myself. IBM yesterday just announced that they will be off-shoring 3000 more jobs - they are big proponents of outsourcing. My company, Intel, has not replaced any of us with Indian counterparts, but we now work with them on a regular basis.

So what happens when all of our jobs end up in India? Won't Indian workers begin demanding higher salaries eventually? Then what will companies do? Come back to the U.S...and expect us to beg for our jobs and work for ridiculously low wages so they can make a little extra money next quarter?

It's all about money and cheap labor...but like Elroy said...when do we get to see the benefits of these companies saving money by outsourcing? Have Dell's products gotten any cheaper since they moved their call centers to India? Are our cloths cheaper? How about our cars now that many are made in Mexico instead of Detroit?

vass0922 · April 28th, 2004, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rastorize
So what happens when all of our jobs end up in India? Won't Indian workers begin demanding higher salaries eventually? Then what will companies do? Come back to the U.S...and expect us to beg for our jobs and work for ridiculously low wages so they can make a little extra money next quarter?

This has already started to happen (was reported on either CNN or CNet can't remember).
Move back to the US?
Hardly

Move to China

dusty825 · April 28th, 2004, 12:29 PM

The problem is caused by greed in our country, in 1965 a new vet cost about $3500 today the same car runs about $50000. What has changed other than the fact they use less people and more machines to make it, so then to company decides to outsource it's call center to save even more money to increase their profit margin.
I have delt with some of the call centers in India, and found them to be polite and well versed. I can not say I have bought any merchandise from them that I know of off hand, but you can't blame them for trying to better themselves. It is after all what they lerned from us. ( The American Dream )

Dooin' it · April 28th, 2004, 12:31 PM

I've had this discussion many times over the last couple of years since 9/11 because I deal heavily in aerospace metalworking supplies and our industry has suffered dearly!!

Whereas aerospace was getting bad before, it is almost non-existent today. My current customer base is more recreational than anything else. Automotive aftermarket is a huge part of my business these days simply because that's the only place people are willing to spend money! Airplanes, no, Harley Davidsons, yes! (bizarre). Where this money comes form, I can't figure out 'cuz jobs are going away daily and still people continue to drive/buy H2's, BMW's etc.

Here's the best part...........everyone's biggest concern seems to be "quality of life". Well, I think most of us agree that we live better than our parents, did but at what cost?? And what does the future hold?? My wife and I both work to have better life than my folks. Is that really better or just different? Also, if the US ends up becoming strictly a "service based" economy ('cuz in another decade nothin' will be made here) then why would anyone pay anybody more than $10/hr to do *anything* here in the states???????

PresterJohn · April 28th, 2004, 01:03 PM

the money saved in moving jobs overseas will almost *never* translate into cheaper prices on consumer goods & services. the money saved is 'keep on the books' and is either translated into a few more cents payout on the stock dividends or to pay some executive a salary increase because they demonstrated that they saved their company money.

either way, it sux.

Tazzin · April 28th, 2004, 01:59 PM

I have to add my few cents to this topic:

I recently purchased a Dell PE 400SC server... and have been having lots of problems getting them to honor the rebate that was offered. I called their rebate status people (USA) and they couldn't help me. They basically told me to call their Customer Care reps. I called them and... of course... they are ALL in India.
Not only did I have a problem understanding them, but one rep was looking at my order info on her computer and was different than anything that I had received. I asked her to send me a copy of what she was viewing on her screen. She attempted a few times to send me something... she sent me a .dat file

-and then a .html file which was just a navigation bar. She even attempted to fax it to me... but that didn't work either.

Their reps over there seem to not be very computer / tech savy. Doesn't know how to send me a copy of what she is looking at.. (umm.. prt scn.. paste into MS Word doc)... and couldn't get the fax machine to work or something.

When work moves to other countries there is alot more benefits to the companies than just lower wages... the companies dont have to pay Unemployment or Disability Insurance. More $$$$ into their pockets!