What to do when your ISP off-shores tech support

Dave Pooser dave.nanog at alfordmedia.com
Thu Dec 25 22:36:30 UTC 2008


> Macs are macs, Windows is windows and mail is mail whether you're in Mumbai
> or Memphis. As long as the language skills are good and the people are well
> trained, it should be mostly irrelevant, IMHO.

The problem, IMO is that the sort of organization that wants to reduce labor
costs from $11/hr to $1.50/hr (all numbers made up out of thin air) by
moving tech support offshore is likely to be the sort of organization that
reduces labor costs from $1.50 to $1.15/hr by moving tech support from an
offshoring house that provides well-trained people with good language skills
to one that provides warm bodies and asinine scripts. I'm know there are
good tech support people in India-- I've dealt with some of them-- but the
overwhelming majority of times I've ended talking to Indian tech support
I've gotten people who are as fluent in English as I am in Hindi and as
familiar with the technology they are "supporting" as I am with rebuilding
transmissions ("not at all" and "not at all" respectively).

That said, Merry Christmas to all and I hope Santa brought extra eggnog to
any poor souls working tech support this evening, on any continent.  :^)
-- 
Dave Pooser, ACSA
Manager of Information Services
Alford Media  http://www.alfordmedia.com






More information about the NANOG mailing list