Pakistan’s 8 million Internet users and 20% of its telephone users have lost usage almost a week after a “fault in a power cable feeding Pakistan’s sole fibre-optic international telecoms link deep below the Arabian Sea” that remains broken.
But more U.S. jobs are siphoned off while Pakistan’s fledgling industry grows:
They can offer foreign companies a cheap, English-speaking workforce while simultaneously benefiting their own employees. Average call centre wages are 8,000 dollars a year, far greater than the Pakistani average of 736 dollars.
The size of the business pales in comparison to the 14 billion dollars in revenue earned by Indian call centres, but operators here had hoped to attract around 10 percent of that within the next two or three years.
The cable breakdown “‘has definitely caused millions of dollars potential losses and a lot of intangible damage you cannot quantify,’ Farrukh Aslam, president of the Call Centres Association of Pakistan, said,” reports AFP/Yahoo. Have you had experiences with overseas call centers?
but then that’s the way I think.
I’ve certainly had experience with call centers in the sub-continent. Most of the time it’s as pleasant an experience as one can expect given that you are calling for tech support or some such thing.
My only complaint is when the representative is unaware of the various features the product has because they themselves have never used it. Calling Bangalore to complain about the quality of one’s DirecTV signal is pointless seeing as no one in India has ever had an MLB Extra Innings package, for example.
Other than that, no complaints from me. All I ask is that my problem is addressed promptly and professionally. They could outsource to Alpha Centauri, for all I care, as long as they meet that basic requirement.
On the few occasions I need tech help, I’ve more and more gone to the Web sites since most businesses have FAQs.
DISH’s FAQs are excellent. A month ago, the TV picture started breaking into cubist squares. I was able to find the solution at DISH’s site … and the solution was so simple. I turned off the receiver and unplugged it from the wall for 60 seconds. Everything was fine when I plugged and turned it on again.
I don’t mind when my 411 calls go overseas, but whoever Microsoft uses is HORRIBLE. I hate it when tech support quotes to you from their website. Do they honestly think that someone who would purchase Developer doesn’t know how to search.
The net result of a 24 hour call that rendered no solution is that I am teaching myself Java.
Right on… and I meant to say that in my note about using the company Web site for answers.
P.S. I asked DISH recently, and they told me all their call centers are in the U.S. Unfortunately, my ISP Earthlink has gone overseas, and I almost quit for that reason. But, I can’t change now because I signed up for a special deal that requires I remain a customer.
I make it a practice not to buy products or services from companies that send their call centers overseas (when that is an option). The reason is two fold: 1) I have found that too much time is spent trying to identify and address the problem because the overseas representative is not completely familiar with American english and/or has limited authority (that is, problems requiring additional support are sent back the U.S., only after you waste significant time trying to resolve it with with the overseas call center) and 2) I am opposed to most outsourcing–there are folks in the U.S. who would love to have those jobs and can do them well. Case in point: I had Earthlink dial-up and considered getting their dsl service, but my repeated attempts to get the service hooked up and deal with a billing error they made were a fruitless exercise in frustration. The call center reps couldn’t understand what the problem was and, when they finally did, they promised that the error would be resolved, but they didn’t. After three or four calls with no resolution, I decided to just go to another provider. I now have Verizon dsl. Part of the reason I am happy with the service is that their locally-based customer service representatives were outstanding. They understood the issues, got back to me if there were unresolved matters and got me set up in no time.
My wireless router was giving me fits and I couldn’t find any info in the FAQs, so I called the help desk. Got a person in India and she couldn’t help me to save my life. There was a language issue, she couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand her and ultimately, I got no good service.
After that, I called Gateway (from who I purchased the router), talked to a nice gentleman in Idaho (I think) and while he wasn’t able to immediately fix my problem (we tried several things to resolve), he sent me a new router. Haven’t had a problem since.
I’ve dealt with other Indian help desks and some are o.k. I just wish they wouldn’t try to fake users by calling themselves “Bob” and “Mary” and try using American idioms. It just sounds weird.
I have had personal response to foreign access to help centers and they are not the most knowledgeable in the world! In fact they were useless. The second time I had to call, I was bound and determined to ask for someone in the States for help! It was not necessary for by then I had someone from the States on the other end asap. Bezaar to say the least!
from overseas call centers. At least I believe they were overseas since, for example, the woman who answered spoke with a pronounced (and quite beautiful) Indian accent and called herself “Sharon”.