“For once, it is not thinking different. Like its fellow global technology majors, Apple Computer too has decided to set up a massive technical support centre in India,” John Sujit reports for The Economic Times. “Sources say Apple will hire as many as 1,500 people by the end of this year, and have a total of 3,000 employees by the end of 2007 in its Bangalore facility.”
“A state government official said the government had cleared Apple’s proposal to invest in Bangalore. ‘But they are yet to reveal the extent of investment or the total employment. They should be starting operations within the next two months,’ the official said. Sources say the decision to set up the facility in Bangalore was taken after a rigorous examination of seven cities in India… It is not clear yet whether Apple’s India centre will result in job losses in its Cupertino facility.,” Sujit reports.
Full article here.
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Related article:
Apple Computer may set up tech support center in India – February 17, 2006
Bad idea – Apple needs to stop this!
Maybe now that Amber can go home and get a job she’s good at!
Talking on the phone all day is about all she’s qualified for!
Thank you come again!
While it’s tough for a company (paying $60K+ per year for an employee) to ignor reducing that cost to only $10K per year by setting up support staff (on very long phone extension cords) in India or Phillipines, it doesn’t make it less of a bummer for us Americans.
If Apple would come up with support plans manned by Americans in America speaking clear English I’d be much more agreeable to paying for a yearly support plan like ProCare (as in Pro American).
President Bush favors offshoring of jobs – he says it’s good for America – so this has to be a good thing. Way to go Apple!
I was on the phone with applecare last night, 3 different people, all 3 were indian, even the recorded voice with the wait time had an accent.
The tech suport helping me on the phone, got angy and frustrated with me becuase i couldnt understand some of the things they were saying.
After 3 techs, and a lot of frustration on both ends, my problem still exists, (fan on my new intel mini runs all the time).
I don’t think this is a good move on apples part.
I have been an apple user for about 10 years, and have always raved about
applecare, switching dozens of PC users to mac. now what do i tell them?
great computer, amazing OS, but dont call them for help?
“If Apple would come up with support plans manned by Americans in America speaking clear English I’d be much more agreeable to paying for a yearly support plan like ProCare (as in Pro American).”
Anyone else spot the flaw here?
This is a VERY bad move on Apple’s behalf. Have they not listened to all the complaints from dell customers etc about indian call centers? I was hoping that Apple would be smart enough to give india a miss, but sadly this is not so.
One less differentiation factor between pcs and macs…
I wonder how this would impact the quality of support. Two words – Genius Bar although that doesn’t help if you need help right away.
I have been involved in outsourcing software projects to other countries where I used to work and I can tell you that the savings are too significant too ingore.
If people in the US would stop smoking and eating too much fast food companies wouldn’t have to do this.
Gee Rob, I own the Sydney harbour bridge and want to sell it. Are you willing to buy? W said it was OK to sell to you because you are a good guy. Going cheap at 2Mill and I’ll throw in a few Kangaroos for the kids.
Leo
Oh my various gods!!!
Apple needs to support customers all over the world and in all time zones, we don’t know which customers these workers will be offering support to. I haven’t seen any report which states that support for American users will be handled from India. Apple have made no comment, so you can only guess whether these jobs would displace existing jobs, or whether they would be in addition to those jobs, offering support elsewhere in the world.
However, I don’t suppose that will stop people from dragging this thread down into a mindless exhibition of racist bigotry.
I really don’t care where the support center is as long as they speak without thick accents. I had to call IBM support at work and got a woman in Atlanta who was Indian. So its really about the speaking quality of the person. If they are Indian, fine. But they better speak good English.
Oh no! Another tech support line whose only experience of western culture is watching reruns of BBC TVs cockney soap Eastenders:
RING! RING!
“Ello. Apple support. ‘Ow can I ‘elp you?”
“Hello. There’s something wrong with the RAM in my machine.”
“What’s all that abaht then guv?”
“I think the RAM is stopping my machine from booting up.”
“Stone the bladdy crows!”
“Well look, can you help me at all?”
“Phwoar, dunno chief…’ave you tried givin’ it a good kickin?”
“Look, it’s obvious that you can’t help. I’ll just try somewhere else thanks’.
“Fair enough guv. ‘Ere… I once had that Steve Jobs geezer in the back of my cab”.
Click…..Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I can’t figure out why the best, most advanced, greatest, most perfect computer in the world would need tech support at all.
Hey troops, I don’t think this is racial or anything to do with bigotry. We all just want to be able to call someone and be able to understand them.
I have worked with a lot of Asian Indian people and they are great but a little hard to understand sometimes and that can be a little daunting and embarrasing when you keep having to ask and apologise because you did not understand what they have said.
it is simply a point of manners and keeping your cool. Remember they are just as nervous as you are and if you both play it cool then it will turn out OK. I have used Apple’s phone care in Australia and spoken to a person with a South Asian accent and we got through it OK.
Patience and courtesy. Simple.
Goodnes, gracious me!
Have a nice day.
Pierre
If they’d really learned English from EastEnders the conversation would go something like this
RING! RING!
“Wot’s goin’ aahnnn?”
“Hello. There’s something wrong with the RAM in my machine.”
“Wot’s goin’ aahnnn?”
“I think the RAM is stopping my machine from booting up.”
“Phil! Phil! Wot’s goin’ aahnnn?”
“Well look, can you help me at all?”
“My Martin. My Martin. Phil! Phil! Wot’s goin’ aahnnn? Phil!”
“Look, it’s obvious that you can’t help. I’ll just try somewhere else thanks’.
“Wot’s goin’ aahnnn?”.
Click…..Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
(I hate that show.)
Just because they are opening in Bangalore does not mean they are dropping support elsewhere. If Apple is going to continue to grow they will need more tech people and Bangalore is as good as anyplace else.
Note to Steve-
Keep US tech support in the US. Austin Texas is where I seem to get my phone support from.
NOW YOU KNOW WHY UNIONS ARE DESTORYING THE AMERICAN JOB MARKET
Times have changed. There’s more engineers graduating in India alone than in the US and Europe combined.
They’ve got the brains and are willing to use them for less money than we do.
Well since Apple computers are made in Asia they might as well move the tech support there, too.
DaveH, I spotted the flaw – most American’s can’t speak English!
Somebody once said English would be the most popular language in the world – if only American’s learnt how to speak it! So true.
i see this as an opportunity for 3000+ potential converts to Mac OS X in a country already known for a solid IT industry and software development (mostly Windows). Maybe better than just opening an Apple store in the country.
Apple could pull this off. I don’t really care where support is put, but I do expect it to meet some standards. For instance:
– Crappy VOIP service that sounds like I’m listening through a tin can & string is not acceptable.
– Poor language skills in English are not acceptable.
– Flip card reading instead of listening and working to resolve a problem.
Some of these problems exist in the current call centers.