Hello,
I read your article. American consumers CAN make a difference. See attached article that indicates that DELL is moving the calls back for 85% of their customers, all the business guys. Too many complaints! See attached posts I have made about this subject.
The public needs to be educated about this problem. Most people have no idea the call centers are moving or have been moved.

Dell calls come home

By APRIL CASTRO The Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas – After an onslaught of complaints, computer maker Dell Inc. has stopped using a technical support center in India to handle calls from its corporate customers.

Some U.S. customers have complained that the Indian technical-support representatives are difficult to communicate with because of thick accents and scripted responses.

Tech support for corporate customers with Optiplex desktop and Latitude notebook computers will instead be handled from call centers in Texas, Idaho and Tennessee, Dell spokesman Jon Weisblatt said Monday.

“Customers weren’t satisfied with the level of support they were receiving, so we’re moving some calls around to make sure they don’t feel that way anymore,” Weisblatt said. He would not discuss the nature of the dissatisfaction with the call center in Bangalore, India.

Home PC owners will see no change in Dell’s technical support, Weisblatt said, and Dell has no plans to scale back the Bangalore call center.

Dell is one of a number of high-tech companies that have in recent years moved jobs to India and other developing nations for the cheaper labor, which in Dell’s case helps keep down the cost of providing round-the-clock support.

Corporate customers account for about 85 percent of Dell’s business, with only 15 percent coming from the consumer market.

Worldwide, Dell employs about 44,300 people. About 54 percent are abroad.

Among Dell customers dissatisfied with the company’s use of overseas labor is Ronald Kronk, a Presbyterian minister in Rochester, Pa., who has spent the last four months trying to solve a problem that resulted in his being billed for two computers. The problem, he said, is that the Dell call center is in India.

“They’re extremely polite, but I call it sponge listening – they just soak it in and say, ‘I can understand why you’re angry,’ but nothing happens,” Kronk said.

He added: “Every time I see a Dell commercial on TV, I just cringe. They make it sound so easy and it’s been a nightmare.”

In Monday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Dell closed up 62 cents at $35.14.

Now follows my post on this subject, pulled off the boards by AOL. This might interest you.

Subject: Call centers in India taking US jobs
Date: 11/15/2003 1:30 PM Central Standard Time
From: CreatBobSr
MsgId:

I would like to see some discussion about the current trend for large USA companies to switch their customer service call centers to India. This is being done by MANY top 500 companies such as HP, Dell, Sprint, many banks, and hundreds of other companies.

SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
They close down the USA call centers, and start routing all the calls for assistance and help for HP, for example, to India. There they pay $5.00 per day to Indian people who are "trained" to speak American English. The BIG DEAL is that they cut out all the USA jobs with benefits.

WHO BENEFITS?
Not any USA workers or consumers. Banks are not reducing their fees, HP is not reducing prices, Sprint is not reducing prices, all they are doing is fattening their bottom line. It's not just manufacturing jobs that are going offshore!

WHAT CAN WE DO??
I think consumers can DO A LOT. I think on the Internet we could probably get some HUGE interest about this problem. Then we can SWITCH PHONE SERVICE, for example. to another carrier who has USA call centers.

We can SWITCH COMPUTER SUPPLIERS. If you are an MIS person in a large company, for example, you can threaten to take MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF NEW BUSINESS away from companies that will not return call centers to the USA.

In other words, boycott and vote with your feet these companies who are taking away the jobs!

If you are involved in manufacturing a product in the textile industry, the shoe industry, or almost ANY other manufacturing industry, you are seeing this huge loss of jobs. In many cases it is the desire of the buyers from the HUGE USA retailers who SAY they are promoting products made in USA, but won't give the USA guys any orders, forcing them out of business. Then they "have to buy"
offshore. Neat trick, huh?

Consumers like low prices (who doesn't). But most Americans have an innate sense of FAIRNESS, which these big guys do not. Consumers will have a hard time stopping the move of the manufacturing jobs as long as they want to pay low prices.

BUT... the call centers and customer service centers in INDIA I think CAN be addressed by millions of consumers who agree that this is unfair. Consumers receive no tangible benefits from going to India. If anything, they have a hard time understanding the non-American English. And these people have a harder time understanding your problem. If its anything not on their sheet of instructions where they can read the answer, they will have no clue!

We have nothing against Indian people, who want a better life, food on the table, etc. BUT are we willing to accept this at the expense of American workers?

You may have heard the joke about the us bank customer who called the 800 number to check his account balance. He spoke with a customer service rep (in India) who told him, " you have 50,000 rupees in your account." Wonderful...

So how about it? Anyone want to make a stand on this issue? This is America. Collectively WE CAN STOP THIS FLIGHT of the call centers, and probably force them back here. The threat is ongoing, insidious, and in a few generations will take away everything my family has worked for since 1632.
So lets see if there are an Americans left who are interested in saving their country for their kids.
Let's load up the servers!

Now comes AOL to tell me they "pulled my post"

Dear Member,

Regarding your message posted at Call centers in India taking US jobs

Boards are organized by topic to make it easier for you to find and follow a discussion of interest. Please check for an appropriate topic before posting a message unrelated to the topic you are reading. Your post was found to be "off topic" and, to avoid disruption to the message board discussion, has been removed.

Continued disruptive messages may be reported to AOL's Community Action Team. Please review our Careers & Work Community Standards for more information on what is appropriate in our community.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to your future participation in our community discussions.

Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. If you have any questions or comments, please forward them to HOST WPLC Mgr.

Regards,

LDRS WPLC JS
Volunteer Message Board Leader
Careers & Work Community

Now my ANSWER to AOL, with no respone. My Congressman is working on this.

-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Pulled Post
Date: 11/15/2003 7:50:50 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: CreatBobSr
To: HOST WPLC Mgr

Please review the below post.
Your taking my message off the board, which has the SUBJECT: "Call Center jobs, where are they going" is nothing but censorship of the worst kind.

Turns out, AOL has moved much of its call center activity to India. Me thinks you protest TOO MUCH! Obviously you didn't like the post. Actually, I was not even aware that AOl had call centers in India until I read all the posts on that topic. My post was first made to another section of the board because frankly I was unfamiliar with the use of these bulletin boards. Usually they are full of chat and other drivel that has no interest to me. But I was able to find a subject that precisely fit to my post. My post was made from my own observations and concerns prior to seeing anything on these boards about this subject. It was an original post.

Your letter says my post was "off topic." Please read the post and tell me again how it is off topic with "Call center jobs, where are they going." The post was the 18th post absolutely on topic with the subject

You then state "continued disruptive messages..." Maybe you didn't really mean it was off topic. Maybe you just didn't like my point of view, so you labeled it disruptive. What country is this volunteer team leader in?

You state that there exists a community action team. Well, let's have this team which presumably includes objective people read it and see if it is disruptive. Better still, let's have a few other people read it, who are first amendment specialists.

I have read your "referenced guidelines for posts." Please advise which part of the guidelines apply to this situation. I don't find anything that applies.

For your information, my family has been in this country since 1632. We have not spent this many generations in this country not knowing what free speech is about. I didn't spend 18 months in Vietnam as an officer to have my free speech rights jerked around by some
volunteer message board leader. This Veteran does not like being censored.

I would request that you review these comments and put my post back on the board.
I look forward to hearing from you.