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Apple plans India call center
March 9, 2006
An Apple spokesman confirmed that the company no longer intends to locate a call center in Bangalore, a hub for call centers in India. "We have re-evaluated our plans, and have decided to put our planned support center growth in other countries," Apple's Steve Dowling said.
The Times of India reported the move on Saturday, and said Apple had already hired about 30 people for the operation. Dowling declined to comment on what caused Apple to pull back on the Bangalore plans, or which other countries Apple is considering for the new call center.
In March, Apple announced that it would build the call center in Bangalore after experiencing a surge in growth over the past few years. Apple currently operates call centers in Sacramento, Calif., and Austin, Texas.
Apple's technical support has generally received higher ratings than its PC counterparts. An August 2005 study conducted by the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index found consumers ranked Apple ahead of other vendors, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway.
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http://www.otherthingsnow.blogspot.com
I have had very good customer service experience by the representatives employed in an indian call center.
A follow up email produced another response which looked like they used Google translator to get it to English.
Rediculous. How much money are they saving versus how many customers are being lost?
Your problems (phobias) with India based call-centres are exactly that!!!!! Not Apple's.
Apple doesn't have any that serve North America.
What's that phrase??? "Buy a Dell rot in Hell".
Glad to see you 'converted' Moron!!!!!
From articles i've read there are well-educated indians in their early 20s who are fairly enthusiatic about these jobs (wait till they find out what a dead-end they've found).
The reasons for exporting all of these jobs is purely economic - american corporations and consumers are looking for the best deal - this translates to manufacting the products in china and supporting them in india.
Bottom-line. Dealing with support is frustrating. Dealing with differences in accent and culture aggravates it.
For full disclosure - I am of indian descent and your note crossed the line from frustration to pettiness when you took a shot at indian culture.
http://www.otherthingsnow.blogspot.com
I have had very good customer service experience by the representatives employed in an indian call center.
A follow up email produced another response which looked like they used Google translator to get it to English.
Rediculous. How much money are they saving versus how many customers are being lost?
Your problems (phobias) with India based call-centres are exactly that!!!!! Not Apple's.
Apple doesn't have any that serve North America.
What's that phrase??? "Buy a Dell rot in Hell".
Glad to see you 'converted' Moron!!!!!
From articles i've read there are well-educated indians in their early 20s who are fairly enthusiatic about these jobs (wait till they find out what a dead-end they've found).
The reasons for exporting all of these jobs is purely economic - american corporations and consumers are looking for the best deal - this translates to manufacting the products in china and supporting them in india.
Bottom-line. Dealing with support is frustrating. Dealing with differences in accent and culture aggravates it.
For full disclosure - I am of indian descent and your note crossed the line from frustration to pettiness when you took a shot at indian culture.
I am just presenting another side of the idea. From this point onwards when I refer to Indians I do not refer to all Indians just a part of the population.
Though I can not deny that Inians have a great tendency to just memorize things and repeat them at will I know I am sick of it here. They can tell you recite a book but lack creative thinking and logic. They just dont think out of the box.
The Indian mind solves problems like this.
1) understand problem
2) follow guidelines
3) If aove doesnt work give up
The 3rd step is what we all really get irritated with. Call centres should hire people who know what they are dealing with and when the guidelines dont work they try to figure out new things that might fix the problem.
tekthots.blogspot.com
Someone brought up the fact they use fake names. This is not by choice. I was shocked when my new hires told me their previous companies made them do this. They were also give accent training to recognize say a southern US accent compared to a New England or West Coast accent. This is nice and all but what does this have to do with the product or service training they really need.
The companies that hired these people and give this lack of services deserve the finger pointing. They careless if all of you are mad at a person on the other side of the planet. Just as long as you don't blame the company.
Ask yourself how many times you have been just as mad by a company with a US representative that enforces lame policies. You never say F#@$ing Georgians or Kentuckians or whatever state they are from.
Point your fingers at the company and not at a race of people. And you wonder why other countries hate us and want to destroy us.
Here is an actual creative thinker, a true racist creative thinker! By the way, what made you think that you are better at 'logical analysis and creative thinking'?
I am just presenting another side of the idea. From this point onwards when I refer to Indians I do not refer to all Indians just a part of the population.
Though I can not deny that Inians have a great tendency to just memorize things and repeat them at will I know I am sick of it here. They can tell you recite a book but lack creative thinking and logic. They just dont think out of the box.
The Indian mind solves problems like this.
1) understand problem
2) follow guidelines
3) If aove doesnt work give up
The 3rd step is what we all really get irritated with. Call centres should hire people who know what they are dealing with and when the guidelines dont work they try to figure out new things that might fix the problem.
tekthots.blogspot.com
Someone brought up the fact they use fake names. This is not by choice. I was shocked when my new hires told me their previous companies made them do this. They were also give accent training to recognize say a southern US accent compared to a New England or West Coast accent. This is nice and all but what does this have to do with the product or service training they really need.
The companies that hired these people and give this lack of services deserve the finger pointing. They careless if all of you are mad at a person on the other side of the planet. Just as long as you don't blame the company.
Ask yourself how many times you have been just as mad by a company with a US representative that enforces lame policies. You never say F#@$ing Georgians or Kentuckians or whatever state they are from.
Point your fingers at the company and not at a race of people. And you wonder why other countries hate us and want to destroy us.
Here is an actual creative thinker, a true racist creative thinker! By the way, what made you think that you are better at 'logical analysis and creative thinking'?
I have had my share of calls to both kinds (outsourced and onshore) and had the same furstrating experience. So I guess it has nothing to do with where the location is, its all about training. So get your facts straight !
I have had my share of calls to both kinds (outsourced and onshore) and had the same furstrating experience. So I guess it has nothing to do with where the location is, its all about training. So get your facts straight !
Again, let's imagine, there's a guy who flips burgers at McDonalds and makes $5 an hour and you hire him to work as a tech support personnel for let's say at $10 an hour, is he going to refuse the job? It really doesn't matter whether he knows stuff or if he just follows the printed flow chart given by Dell, HP or whatever company he's working for. If he can double his income, he will go for it. And you'll have to hear "Yo! wassup. How u doin? aite." The same thing is happening over there in India. Call center jobs are easy to get, generally without any technical background, and have good pay (for their standards) and Indians are going for those jobs. By the way... I once asked a guy working in a call center and he told me that they get paid around $1/hr (converted from INR). So we can expect this kind of service, nothing better.
Finally, Apple should not outsource anyways. They have a habit of charging their customers exorbitant amount of money. For example, a black macbook is $200 more than a white macbook of exactly same specifications, and they charge $65, just for changing iPod battery (at the time when $100 laptops are being developed). So, the least Apple can do is provide quality service to their customers and keep the call centers in US.
capacity over the white.. Doesn't justify the higher cost though. As
far as ipods go.. you won't get charged the $65 if you're in
warranty.. ipod support is web based and automated either way, if
you're trying to get support for your ipod don't call apple, go to
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/index.html.
yourself! Oh wait, maybe you can't? Then perhaps what the Apple
tech does is worth it.
Go to a local car dealership and see what they will charge to replace
your car's battery, which is a much simpler operation. It's going to
be around $60 - $65. You'll get charged a basic hour for the work,
even if it takes 10 minutes to do it.
Again, let's imagine, there's a guy who flips burgers at McDonalds and makes $5 an hour and you hire him to work as a tech support personnel for let's say at $10 an hour, is he going to refuse the job? It really doesn't matter whether he knows stuff or if he just follows the printed flow chart given by Dell, HP or whatever company he's working for. If he can double his income, he will go for it. And you'll have to hear "Yo! wassup. How u doin? aite." The same thing is happening over there in India. Call center jobs are easy to get, generally without any technical background, and have good pay (for their standards) and Indians are going for those jobs. By the way... I once asked a guy working in a call center and he told me that they get paid around $1/hr (converted from INR). So we can expect this kind of service, nothing better.
Finally, Apple should not outsource anyways. They have a habit of charging their customers exorbitant amount of money. For example, a black macbook is $200 more than a white macbook of exactly same specifications, and they charge $65, just for changing iPod battery (at the time when $100 laptops are being developed). So, the least Apple can do is provide quality service to their customers and keep the call centers in US.
capacity over the white.. Doesn't justify the higher cost though. As
far as ipods go.. you won't get charged the $65 if you're in
warranty.. ipod support is web based and automated either way, if
you're trying to get support for your ipod don't call apple, go to
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/index.html.
yourself! Oh wait, maybe you can't? Then perhaps what the Apple
tech does is worth it.
Go to a local car dealership and see what they will charge to replace
your car's battery, which is a much simpler operation. It's going to
be around $60 - $65. You'll get charged a basic hour for the work,
even if it takes 10 minutes to do it.
BTW, with a 3.x% market share, Apple doesn't need to employ many technical support people. :-)
I worked in Apple Tech Support, and we took about 30-35 calls a day, each at about $6.50 per call. Apple support employs 800-1000 people, you do the math.
I agree, Apple should keep American-English speakers, that wasn't going to change with the new support center. American calls would still be handled in the States, the expansion was for the rest of the world.
Not sure what they plan on doing now.
BTW, with a 3.x% market share, Apple doesn't need to employ many technical support people. :-)
I worked in Apple Tech Support, and we took about 30-35 calls a day, each at about $6.50 per call. Apple support employs 800-1000 people, you do the math.
I agree, Apple should keep American-English speakers, that wasn't going to change with the new support center. American calls would still be handled in the States, the expansion was for the rest of the world.
Not sure what they plan on doing now.
The profesional waiter is a product of capitalism, just as much as McDonalds is.
The essence of capitalism is "give someone money, time, opportunity and incentive and they will create a product the market wants." The second essence of capitalism is that the value of said product is set through competition.
The profesional waiter is a product of capitalism, just as much as McDonalds is.
The essence of capitalism is "give someone money, time, opportunity and incentive and they will create a product the market wants." The second essence of capitalism is that the value of said product is set through competition.
kinda makes all the ranting a bit pointless as the facts fall squarely
against their complaints.
kinda makes all the ranting a bit pointless as the facts fall squarely
against their complaints.
Today I spent 6 hours with DELL techsupport in India over a 4 month old 20" monitor that is failing. 6 hours! 8 calls including four to their corporate office in TX insisting that I speak to someone in management.
I was told I needed to buy a new monitor at one point. Thats when I threw down the gauntlet and called Texas and asked for Mike Dell's office. After explaining the problem yet again, I was once again transferred to India but at least I am finally "supposedly" getting a new monitor.
I bought this Dell monitor for my Powerbook. 1/2 the cost of an Apple Display. Never again. Lesson learned.
Tom
Today I spent 6 hours with DELL techsupport in India over a 4 month old 20" monitor that is failing. 6 hours! 8 calls including four to their corporate office in TX insisting that I speak to someone in management.
I was told I needed to buy a new monitor at one point. Thats when I threw down the gauntlet and called Texas and asked for Mike Dell's office. After explaining the problem yet again, I was once again transferred to India but at least I am finally "supposedly" getting a new monitor.
I bought this Dell monitor for my Powerbook. 1/2 the cost of an Apple Display. Never again. Lesson learned.
Tom
AGAIN, the India operation was not being built to replace anything in the States.
http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-6047975.html
""Apple has gained millions of new customers in the past year, and we are building a call center in India to help meet our growing service and support needs," an Apple representative said in a statement to CNET News.com.
The company stressed that it isn't cutting any U.S. jobs, noting that its ranks are growing both in the United States and overall. "Our call centers in Austin and Sacramento also continue to grow," the Apple representative said. "
AGAIN, the India operation was not being built to replace anything in the States.
http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-6047975.html
""Apple has gained millions of new customers in the past year, and we are building a call center in India to help meet our growing service and support needs," an Apple representative said in a statement to CNET News.com.
The company stressed that it isn't cutting any U.S. jobs, noting that its ranks are growing both in the United States and overall. "Our call centers in Austin and Sacramento also continue to grow," the Apple representative said. "
- you are all missing the point
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by bqdla
June 6, 2006 1:58 AM PDT
- Regardless or race, creed, and whatever else you wanna whine about. The fact is....these are telephone-based customer service positions; they should be filled by English speaking people who understand the language of the target consumer. Sure, we should be mad at Dell, Yahoo, (insert friendly outsourcer here). But we don't talk to them; it's either "Mary" in Mumbai or "Dawn" in Dehli that ends up wasting our precious time, and it's crazy frustrating!! So I say let them be the scapegoats, Americans comments about them are doing no more damage than each phone call they answer does to us. And it's not like Dell is gonna go in there and retrain or anything. Michael Dell is like "Outta sight, outta mind....." Until people stop putting their money into these companies, they will do whatever they want, whenever they want, and yes, however they want to do it. Another pretty bi-product of capitalism.
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