October 4, 2010
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The trouble with outsourcing…
The trouble with outsourcing your customer service (VERIZON) is that when a customer calls with a problem, even if the CSR (Customer Service Representative) speaks English, their accent leaves much to be desired. If I have to ask him to repeat himself more than once because his English is sub par or I can’t understand what he’s saying, then there’s a problem.The only highlight was when he slipped and told me that the tech would arrive August 4th. August? Ummm, no. I think I’ll take my business elsewhere if I have to wait eleven months for a fix.
Also, while I’m not a Nationalist by any stretch, I think if the majority of your customers are in the US, the majority of you jobs should be in the US. It’s not even a race thing; it’s just common sense. Cheaper or not, if your customers and your employees are separated by an ocean, how comfortable do you think your clients feel about getting their problem fixed when something goes wrong, and they have to call up someone they can barely understand. If I can’t understand your CSR, how certain am I that he understands me? Not at all.
Even their tech guys are outsourced to separate companies, albeit local. The guys that come to fix whatever problem you have aren’t even actually Verizon employees. They’re contracted through another company. Since I’ve also had the misfortune of calling their payment line upon occasion and gotten a Latino CSR, I’m reasonably certain that they outsource some of the CSR jobs to Mexico as well as India. So let’s just say that the chain of command between the techs, the CSRs, and the actual people in charge of Verizon is very convoluted indeed.
Anyway, in May when my contract is up and my modem is mine to keep even if I drop Verizon… let’s just say I’ll be in the market for a new internet provider and I’ll be asking pointed questions about the locality of their CSR jobs.
Comments (7)
So the tech guy came and jimmied a connection because apparently he’s only allowed by his union to go so far with repairs, not being an actual employee of Verizon, and the ball is now in Verizon’s court again. I will lose connection again at some point, though it will be tomorrow while I’m asleep after working all night. Hopefully when I get up in the afternoon, I will not have to worry about connectivity issues any more.
Unfortunately most jobs are being outsourced. Except of corse retail… and hospitol jobs.
I take it that someone won’t be tuning into that new Outsourced show, then?
@NightlyDreams - If only they could outsource retail. I wouldn’t mind telecommuting to work. lol
@ElusiveSoul - Tell me you’re joking. Please…!
Your story almost mirrors my experience with Verizon. When me moved in June I cancelled everything we had to do with that Verizon and started new with our local cable company – so far I have no complaints and even when I did have a problem I spoke to someone right in my county that fixed it within 24 hours. I totally feel you pain and hope you don’t have much longer to deal with it!
hey there, I’m still around
.. I used to have verizon too … customer service for the net was in the Phillippines and after I calmed down lol , I’d just chat with them , makes their job easier and I got better support / help 
anyway I’d found a site today and decided it needed to be shared
http://www.newrealitytransmission.com/ check it out when ya can
I have verizon as well. well, outsourcing is not as beneficial as it use to be so we might see more domestic resurgence.
Long time no see. Well if you ever visit xanga again, visit me. I’ll be sitting around silently to see comments drift into my comment box. See you around.