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Apple outsourcing techsupport to india

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http://www.tuaw.com/2006/03/09/apple-to-outsource-tech-support-to-india/

I don't get why companies continue to do this. Sure it's cheaper, but most customers absolutely hate it. Sad to see Apple going this route.

I have at times had perfectly fine tech support by someone located in India, but have at other times gotten people that I couldn't understand at all or who obviously did not understand what I was saying and were just attempting to read a script. It's very hit or miss and can be extremely frustrating, and that Apple has had a US tech support staff has been a plus on their side. Not anymore I guess. New tech support is supposed to begin in a couple of months.
 
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Not another company....

Doing this does not look good for the company...
 
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$799 20" Apple widescreen LCD vs. $397 20" Dell widescreen LCD...integrated graphics in the new Intel Mini...outsourcing tech support to India...when will it stop??




Oh well, at least my hardware looks cool.
 
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lil

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When I rang Apple Care last August, I must gave got through to a chap in India. He was very helpful if a bit difficult to understand at times but then I am quite used to the telephone. At least I presume it was in India, he had far too much of an accent as it were to be based in Uxbridge :flower:

That said, Apple is a company in it for the money at the end of the day, so economically it makes sense for them. The company is no saint.

Just as well I don't really need to phone them I guess!

Vicky
 
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I have to agree with companies doing what makes good business sense and increases profits. What I don't agree with, is when it affects quality of product or service. Barriers caused by hard to understand accents, behavior/cultural differences can make it very difficult for the customer needing support. Enough bad experiences from customers and the word starts to get out and doesn't look good for the company.

While I'm not keen on the idea of tech support being outsourced to India for the reasons mentioned above, I've had just as bad expereinces with US Based tech support from people that speak perfect english. Personally, I noticed tech support with many companies going down the tubes long before the foriegn outsourcing trend began.

Companies can't afford to have their skilled technicians and engineers on the phones so they pay hourly employees the lowest wage that they can to sit on the phone and read scripts from whatever support system them have. With the appropriate training, I do beleive that they could improve the experience, but until enough customers complain or it starts to hurt their image and pocket book, I'd be surprised to see anything change. It's too bad really.

Steve
 
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yes, this practice annoys us all and we hate it.

But what will any of us do in order to stop it?
 
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dan828 said:
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/03/09/apple-to-outsource-tech-support-to-india/

I don't get why companies continue to do this. Sure it's cheaper, but most customers absolutely hate it. Sad to see Apple going this route.

I have at times had perfectly fine tech support by someone located in India, but have at other times gotten people that I couldn't understand at all or who obviously did not understand what I was saying and were just attempting to read a script. It's very hit or miss and can be extremely frustrating, and that Apple has had a US tech support staff has been a plus on their side. Not anymore I guess. New tech support is supposed to begin in a couple of months.
Generally speaking, I like to actually... you know... have a bad experience with something before calling it bad. I'll wait to see how good/bad Apple's support team in India actually will be before concluding Apple's phone support is going to drop to the level of AOL's or Dell's. Then again, that could just be me with my crazy method of trusting what I see for myself more than conjectures based on irrelevant material. ;)
 
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lil said:
When I rang Apple Care last August... Just as well I don't really need to phone them I guess!

Vicky
*Fallooza stares at screen confused*
 
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As yet I haven't had to call tech support.

Although I tend to attempt to fix the problem myself if something goes wrong.

I don't mind if a call centre is in India, I understand why a company does it, there's various reasons but to put it simply and quickly it's more economical for a company.

I especially don't mind if the call centre is in India if I haven't got a problem to report.

I love my iBook, it works perfectly!
 
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Discerptor said:
Generally speaking, I like to actually... you know... have a bad experience with something before calling it bad. I'll wait to see how good/bad Apple's support team in India actually will be before concluding Apple's phone support is going to drop to the level of AOL's or Dell's. Then again, that could just be me with my crazy method of trusting what I see for myself more than conjectures based on irrelevant material. ;)

For me tech support is usually "Did that already" and "already tried that" or "no that wouldn't be the case because..." for a bit before I either give in a let them complete their script or convince them that the thing really is broke and I need to send it in. If they can't effectively communicate in English this usually takes longer. As I said, many times the people are great. Once or twice I've ended up with someone that could only read the script, didn't understand what I was saying, and seemed to randomly throw in various phrases that didn't seem to fit the situation. In that case I've had to just hang up and try again. Overall, I don't think anyone disagrees that switching to non-native English speaking tech support degrades the level of service provided.
 
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teenagemom

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indian labor is very much cheaper although if apple is considering a good costumer service maybe they sshould go to other asian country that has better accent and its easier to understand...maybe we can give apple suggestion on what country they can put their costumer support... :doctor:
 
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I'm just really angry; you shell out, what $250 for AppleCare and they give you some random guy you can't even understand? My grandfather owns a Dell... I've been on the phone with their tech support staff...

One of the reasons I wanted a Mac was because I knew that the guys at the tech support center in Austin (Texas) were a few hundred miles away. Now granted, that's not like getting tech support from my next-door neighbor, but you get my point.
 
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I feel that's a bit harsh. Being an Indian, and having a cousin who works in tech support for Oracle USA she needed perfect qualifications in English, including a CAE certificate.

She also had to pose as "Nancy" on the phone.

I don't feel the quality of the support itself would be any worse than any supprot guy elsewhere. If the accents a problem, Apple should see to outsource to a company that makes sure their employees know to speak good clean english, even if it has a slight accent, but understanding slight accents is part of any normal persons knowledge (you shouldn't try seeling the idea that american english is "accent free" - it took me quite a bit of practice to understand spoken word in hollywood movies, being brought up in british indian english) .


Besides, let's take 3 guesses on where in the world the most advanced IT professionals come from? Hmm? Competence is important...


Someone stated non-native english speakers? Hello? India's national languages are Hindi and well... duh, english, and the latter is more widespread than the former.
Please, people, who do you think are at the phones there? Farmers?
 
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Oh geez not another one... WHY APPLE!?!?!?!? I can't stand it when companies do this. I loved apple for having people I can understand assist me with my computer problems... Will we still be able to get US tech support if we have apple care? I sure hope so... Not a good move by apple as far as customer satisfaction goes...
 
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This is exactly why I refuse to buy Applecare, along with the fact that I like to modify my machines beyond what they usually allow in the warranty. I realize it's cheaper for the company, etc. but I think it's bad for a U.S. based company to do this. Why? Because our companies have been gradually selling themselves overseas, making fewer jobs for the masses and spreading their money (albeit less of it) to other countries. This could potentially weaken the U.S. economy by a gradual process of erosion in jobs, money, and export of goods AND services. Meanwhile the Fed is printing money like nobodys business to keep up with federal welfare and social security. But maybe I'm a bit more conservative than most corporate types. Just my $0.02.
 
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From an economic standpoint probably true, sevenhelmet.

But I think that the US current state relies largely on the administration, which greatly announce some "wonderful" things it is going to plan to try to do in the near future whenever that may be in Iraq.
We'll see.
 
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From an economic standpoint, outsourcing is just the next progression in our economy. I see nothing wrong with it, but I don't think it should happen on a large scale. Government can control it, but they just give tax cuts for outsourcing, so the way our current government is handling this is a problem in my eyes. Apple to india, I don't see a problem with, if they get a good company to handle tech support. I've gotten great support from india, and horrible support from India. It just depends on who is giving it.

Smesh
 
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yogi said:
I feel that's a bit harsh. Being an Indian, and having a cousin who works in tech support for Oracle USA she needed perfect qualifications in English, including a CAE certificate.

She also had to pose as "Nancy" on the phone.

I don't feel the quality of the support itself would be any worse than any supprot guy elsewhere. If the accents a problem, Apple should see to outsource to a company that makes sure their employees know to speak good clean english, even if it has a slight accent, but understanding slight accents is part of any normal persons knowledge (you shouldn't try seeling the idea that american english is "accent free" - it took me quite a bit of practice to understand spoken word in hollywood movies, being brought up in british indian english) .


Besides, let's take 3 guesses on where in the world the most advanced IT professionals come from? Hmm? Competence is important...


Someone stated non-native english speakers? Hello? India's national languages are Hindi and well... duh, english, and the latter is more widespread than the former.
Please, people, who do you think are at the phones there? Farmers?

Based on my experience on the phone with Indian tech support, some companies (to be precise, Microsoft, Dell, HP, and Verizon) are not always that careful with those that they hire. I have had issues on the phone where the people I was talking to either could not make themselves clearly understood because of their accent or did not understand what I was saying. Add to that a bad overseas phone connection and things get worse. This is frustration added onto frustration because I was already dealing with a broken product that I knew to be bad and just had to convince the first tier tech support person (who are almost always barely trained and just reading from troubleshooting scripts, and are not IT professionals) that it was non-working and needed to be sent back. I hope this will not be the case with Apple, but I am not hopeful.

Nothing against Indians. As I said earlier, many times I have talked to pleasant people that could communicate in English just fine, but it is not always the case. And while American English does have its regional accents, I have never had any trouble understanding someone with a regional American accent. But most everyone that I know has had some experience with tech support in which they could not understand the person that they were connected to. And it wasn't because of a regional American accent that they were having problems.
 
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