My last thread...

[KrazyHorse]

She does the stuff you won't (i.e. give me a free hard drive replacement)

[Asher]

You have no idea the powers I have!

[KrazyHorse]

I DanSed you slightly

[Asher]

There's nothing I wouldn't do for you! I hate you, I hate everything!

[KrazyHorse]

I'm afraid that if you did it for me it would void my warranty.

[Jon Miller]

My Lenova netbook has served me well.

JM

[rah]

Fair enough as far as quality goes, but I'm just suspicious that economic nationalism plays a bigger role in a lot of the anti-outsourcing kick of many people than they like to admit (yes, I made that sound worse than it is by imputing racism. Sue me )

But it doesn't matter if whether it's racism or not. It's your customers. If they're not happy with the outsourcing that's all that matters. Their reasons are immaterial. Now you could spend money to educate your customers but if you're unsure what are real reasons or percieved ones, it would be quite likely that you'd just be wasting more money. Now if you want to fix the problem the reasons may be important but if one of the reasons is racism, good luck fixing that.

[KrazyHorse]

rah, I asked you about YOUR reasons as a customer for complaining. Not those of the unwashed masses, or of the people who are responsible for pleasing the customers.

[rah]

IF I get good service, I don't complain. I can honestly say I have never received good service from an Indian call center. Communication is usually the biggest problem, but product knowledge usually is a close second.

But, after saying all that, I'd be foolish to say that my dislike for foreign call centers had 0 impact. But I don't believe it has ever been the determining factor.

[KrazyHorse]

I have a positive prejudice toward foreign call centers.

Lifting people out of poverty
Cheaper everything
The bilateral gains from trade

[rah]

But there are too many instances where it has proven not to be cheaper.
I'd rather lift my unemployed neighbor out of poverty than some one half way around the world.
There is no bilateral gain when you trade money for services that could be provided by your own workforce.

[KrazyHorse]

But there are too many instances where it has proven not to be cheaper.

It's the responsibility of each company to decide that. Not you as an individual to change the whole system

I'd rather lift my unemployed neighbor out of poverty than some one half way around the world.

Your neighbour's not in poverty relative to the average Indian. I hope.

There is no bilateral gain when you trade money for services that could be provided by your own workforce.

And we come to the root of the issue: neo-mercantilism.

[KrazyHorse]

The Indians will get all of our green paper! Buy American.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Wow. New site owners. Ming deModded. When Obama said he was going to bring change he meant it. o_O

[rah]

But there are too many instances where it has proven not to be cheaper.

It's the responsibility of each company to decide that. Not you as an individual to change the whole system

I'd rather lift my unemployed neighbor out of poverty than some one half way around the world.

Your neighbour's not in poverty relative to the average Indian. I hope.

There is no bilateral gain when you trade money for services that could be provided by your own workforce.

And we come to the root of the issue: neo-mercantilism.

One, at my last company I was the decision maker. Now as an individual in my current company, through the research that we do in this area, I get to recommend policy that could impact the whole system. And can honestly say that I had impact on the decision of the one financial institution that I mentioned before to reverse a previous move and to back to insourcing part of it's operation.

Two, if my neighbor stays unemployed long enough he will become homeless. I will consider that poor enough. And since he's treated my family well over the years, my loyalty to him is considerably higher.

Three and your claim of neo-mercantilism is kind of stretch. If your own people can do it better and overall it works out cheaper, there really is no protectionism involved, so I don't think it qualifies here.