US mulls Bill to bring back call centres

[OhioChick]

January 29, 2007 18:02 IST
Law makers in the US' Minnesota state are pushing for a legislation that will allow people to request an alternative American call centre if they are seeking personal or financial information.

The bill apparently has the backing of organised labour especially the Communications Workers of America, which has opposed outsourcing of communication and IT jobs to foreign countries, especially India.

Labour unions feel that the legislation will help bring "back" some of the call centres to the US. But similar bills have been opposed by businesses in the past.

The legislation that has been sponsored by state Representative Joe Atkins and state Senator Dan Sparks would also require the call centre employee to disclose, if asked, which country they are speaking from.

The legislators have cited the issue of security of information transmitted and the perceived inability of foreigners to understand American idioms as the reasons for pushing the bill.

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2007/jan/29bpo2.htm

On Edit to Add: Interesting "Comment Section" below article.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Hey, I'd opt for that!

I'm sick and tired of getting people I can't understand and who can't understand me. The point of a call center is communication, isn't it? Then hire Americans to talk to Americans, thank you.

[unblock]

6. indians can speak english, and the better ones are trained well

it's the REAL cheapskates that want to pay 1/6th u.s. wages instead of merely 1/5th u.s. wages who hire the indians who can't speak english well. you know, citibank.

[arcos]

20. Americans can only talk to Americans?

No wonder the US is so unpopular around the world.

[moose65]

24. No, of course not

I will gladly talk to anyone from any country socially, but calling customer service is a whole other ballgame. When we call, we usually have a clear idea what we want, and we don't want to spend hours on the phone. The people from India (or wherever) are always unfailingly polite and I have no doubt I'd love to have a casual conversation with them. But, when I am calling Dell tech support, I want to talk to someone who understands me and who I can understand!

[dogfacedboy]

26. I made a call for some tech support, and

I was speaking to some Indian dude named "Todd".

[Kutjara]

2. Hell yeah! I'm sick and tired of being put on hold and treated like an idiot by...

...foreign people. I want to be put on hold and treated like an idiot by real Americans.

[ChromeFoundry]

3. It's about damn time someone made an attempt at doing something!

"If enough people raise enough stink about this, maybe they'll bring a service centre or two back to the United States."

[ShortnFiery]

4. Yes, I wanted to ask one guy, cover name "Jay"

How's the weather there in New Delhi? :rofl:

[OhioChick]

5. Funny, I always

seem to get "Jimmy." :)

[unblock]

7. you mean bangalore :)

[OhioChick]

8. I thought that it was now

"Bengalooru?"

[unblock]

10. well, true. but we all still call mumbai "bombay", so....

fwiw, i've seen it spelled "bengaluru".

[OhioChick]

11. I've seen

it spelled "Bengaluru" as well. Not sure which is correct.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. The funniest cover name I've heard of

came from a fellow with a deep bass voice who said his name was Vickie!

[Kutjara]

13. His name could have been Vikram.

Viki is a common nickname for Vikram.

[SayWhatYo]

18. The Vickey story is funnier to think about though...

so I'm going to continue to go with the original story...

[mrcheerful]

12. You'd love how michigan did it. Call welfare to speak with a case worker

and you get an Indian operator who then argues with you for a half hour because you mispronounced the workers name and the Indian insists that theres no such person that works for welfare. Then you got morans running around talking about lazy welfare people when it made the news and to them the indian operators were proof on just how lazy those welfare people are because the state had to pay Indians to answer welfare telephones.

[SayWhatYo]

17. no one else will take those jobs....

wait, I'm getting my issues confused... dammit :P

[mrcheerful]

22. Nah it's a one ideal fits all thing

Just like welfare people won't do yard work, clean houses etc etc etc. Well they won't because you can't live on $3 an hour in the US. Well you could, but I'm not willing to live in a one room apartment with 30 other people.

[Kutjara]

14. So the call centers will come back to the US, but...

...the companies operating them won't want to pay any more, so they'll use fewer call center staff, meaning even longer hold times until you finally get through to a bored, demotivated, overworked, underpaid, harrassed operator who couldn't give a shit about your or your problem. I, for one, don't remember US-based call centers being all that wonderful.

Still, at least it will be Americans earning subsistence wages instead of Indians. So I guess we win. Hoo-fucking-ray.

[ninkasi]

21. I will gladly wait longer

in order to keep an American job in this country. A few years ago, I lived in a rural area, and placed an order for telephone service. We did not have a numbered street address, just a route and box number, because the area didn't have 911 service yet. The rep I talked to, who had horrible English, asked for directions.

I asked her where the installer would be coming from. She got all huffy, and said she had no idea, but couldn't accept my order without directions. I tried, to no avail, to make her see that directions to my home would depend on where the installer would be coming from. I asked her to check with her supervisor to see where the installer would be dispatched from. She said it made no difference, I was refusing directions. She hung up.

About a week later, my husband and I were coming home from a trip to the grocery store, and spotted a telephone company truck, and a man getting into the truck. We pulled over, I explained our problem, and the same guy came out a few hours later, and had my phone installed. Having people who speak the language poorly, or who have no concept of the conditions in the area a customer lives in, is not good service.

I would have gladly waited much, much longer in order to speak to a rep who could help me, rather than one who had me frustrated and upset. In addition to losing American jobs, we should realize that when Americans are thrown out of jobs, any public assistance they get comes from our taxpayer dollars. I don't begrudge helping people who need it, but why let profitable companies terminate employees, and let us foot the bill? I have never seen one dime reduction in any bill when that company outsources jobs, and puts our own citizens out of work.

[Breeze54]

15. Right on!!! Bring them back!

Screw it that businesses are against it!

Bring the jobs back! This bill should be in Congress!!

[SayWhatYo]

16. I'm all for it... I haven't worked in over 10 years...

No, I'm kidding about that 10 years thing, it's more like 15... nono I kid again, but seriously, this would obviously be a good move... I think it would be a good move for the companies too.. I was on the phone with dell support a couple weeks ago and I was speaking to someone in either US or Canada first(I think the US since the XPS support is in round rock,tx.. I think) Anyways, it was really nice and we got the needed stuff done. However, I called them up again about a week later for another issue, but I was clearly speaking to someone from India... Whoa, that didn't go too well. If I wasn't on hold for so long I would have simply hung up and tried again...

[Pierzin]

19. What can we do to show these companies we hate them

for shipping jobs overseas? What can we do about that? Do we write to them? Do we say we will boycott them? If you do that pretty soon you are boycotting nearly everything.

[OhioChick]

23. We need help

from our elected officials on this issue.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

25. I have politely asked reasonable questions and been disconnected. I have never been

hung-up on before dealing with foreign call centers. There is a significant communication problem and large drop in the quality of service with off-shore call-centers.

[pampango]

27. Great, as long as Japan doen't mull Bill to bring back

Toyota, Honda and Subaru manufacturing plants they have located in the US.

Different country and different set of trade issues, so there is no direct connection between jobs outsourced to India and jobs insourced from Japan. Still I know some people who work at the Toyota plant in northern Kentucky who would not want to eliminate all out/insourcing.

[OhioChick]

28. Big difference...

Those Hondas, Toyotas and Subaru's stay HERE and aren't being shipped back to Japan.

[pampango]

30. That is a difference, but if Japanese auto workers think like we

do, they must be bombarding their legislators everyday complaining about the outsourcing of jobs to the US. Those plants that Toyota, Honda, and Subaru have built here could just as easily have been built and staffed in Japan with the cars exported to the US, just like Boeing jets are built here and exported around the world.

An new world economic system that required that goods consumed in a country must be made in that country would be fantastic for the US. Since we have the biggest market in the world, everyone that wanted to sell if would have to build here. Cars, airplanes, clothes, computers, everything would have to be made here.

Such a system might not be quite as kind to the Third World, where domestic markets are quite small with little purchasing power. Who would want to build a factory there, if the only people you could sell to are locals who have no money?

I understand that many are economic nationalists who want what is best for America and American workers and do not spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about welfare of people who do not live within our borders. I bet that is true in every country.

[Canuckistanian]

29. Tax companies that use overseas call centers

And give tax breaks to companies that bring labor BACK to America.