samira Md., Amazon.com Customer Service (Md. a name or is this a doctor?) tells me I am sorry that you have not yet received your order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 9, 2007 It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 10, 2007, for this shipment to arrive.

OK, but today – no package. So, I write and tell them. Uday Kumar Amazon.com Customer Service tells me I’m sorry–it appears that your shipment was lost in transit. I’ve placed a new order and we’ll ship it to the same address as soon as possible. August 13, 2007 is the estimated arrival.

I email them saying that 8/13 is not acceptable and that they should have ‘Saturday Delivered’ it so that it gets here tomorrow.

Naga (guess this is like Madonna or Cher – only one name needed) Amazon.com Customer Service says I am sorry that you have not yet received your replacement order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 13, 2007. It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 14, 2007 for this shipment to arrive.

It’s not 8/13 yet!

So, I respond to Amazon:

I don’t think folks even read the entire complaint.

The CSR writes, “I am sorry that you have not yet received your replacement order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 13, 2007. It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 14, 2007″ This is written to me on 8/10……

This is not Back to the Future – ie, August 13th has not happened yet. This order is a REORDER of a next-day-air that I had for arrival on 8/09 that is not here today, 8/10. It should have been reordered with Saturday Delivery so that it arrives tomorrow.

Naga closes with, “Again, I apologize for the delay, and hope that your order arrives soon.”
So, even she is ‘Hoping’ at this point.

Is the date in India 4 days in advance of the USA?

Outsourcing works for some business
models and certain industries but not all. Insourcing could well be the reaction after a costly mistake from a bad decision based on poor analysis of one’s own business.

You have quite an insightful blog here. I’ll read more before commenting much, as the more I read, the more I learn. But just wanted to note that I work in Wheeling for an “onshoring” outfit that provides business services within the company it services – which I guess is similar in concept to IKON providing Office Services or Mail Room services within a law firm or investment bank. In this function, we service people not only within the US but for all offices world-wide — in conceptualization and practice it’s a pretty cool implementation of nascent on-shoring services.

I am an Indian, calling from India into the customer support cell, which in turn is also located in India. But the quality levels are so low here that even I find myself totally driven up the wall.

I’ve had thousands of rupees worth of billing mistakes in my telephone account and it took me 8 months to even get someone to sit up and take notice. And all this while I used to be talking to Call Centre Dummies who were reading scripts off the screen, with the least amount of concern about what my real problem is.

My point is, that with such poor quality of services being offered to both Indian and aboroad, these call centres are going to get it back where it hurts them, sooner or later.

I am kinda counting on it !!

Yes, it is positive but most of the time, they are jobs that were owned by American companies that was bought out by international company. Meaning, the job count did not necessarily increase but more or less stayed the same (or less).

I would like to clearly bring that to light.

One thing I have encountered while filling in for our receptionist is companies using Indian call centers for out bound sales calls for companies in this country. They have flat out refused to take us off of their call list when asked to.

I should also mention that sometime ago I worked in a call center. I think it’s an excellent first job out of college for people wanting to learn basic sales skills (in some situations).

The rest of the post is “gibberish”, for example:
1. The folks in Indian call centers are given “American names”
2. They never divulge their location (Mumbai would, in any case, be too expensive as a call center)
3. More likely to talk about American baseball and football than weather in Mumbai or cricket, etc.

As for the “We could see(s)”…. stop dreaming…. and wake up to the same coffee that is brewed in executive offices. Sorry!! and if the economy starts to falter (and trust me, executive payouts do not), there will be more “looking for cost savings” to meet the short-term goals (for in the long term we are dead, are we not?).

Oh well…. enough response to nonsense.

BTW, I am of Indian origin who became a citizen 30 years ago. In America there is only one “Mother Country”… America!! (except, of course, for those specific parade days to celebrate one’s heritage).