Jobs plans India trip to launch center

Someone from our helpdesk called yesterday. Part of our call center is in India. Not sure if I told him to close the call or if he just updated it. All I did was go yes...umm sure. OK, etc. Couldn't understand a damn word and it just ended up pissing me off. That being said the client's helpdesk I call into also is in India. I have no problems with them. Heck we generally chat a bit as well. I don't think I'm racist. I'm just accent biased. I don't know what it is about thick Indian accents. I simply CANNOT understand people who have them. I have an easier time understanding a thick Scottish accent then an Indian one. This could go badly for Apple in a hurry. Part of me hopes it does.

Frankly, I could give a shit whether Steve has some spirital connection with India. My German heritage and affinity certianly shouldn't influence my view towards Jews, should it?????

Dell Indian Support Sucks. In fact every outsourced tech support, with the exception of maybe Ireland and England, is useless.

Undoubtedly, I will have to give them a try because I have no choice. Luckily, Apple's products require less tech support than, say, my Windows machine. But I am NOT HAPPY.

I have had issues with my iPod which required a call. Most of the time, the first level of support is filled with these ignorant people that rarely are able to fix or fulfill my needs. Only when I insist on moving up do I get anywhere.

Now, imagine having the same discussion with an Indian, or a Phillipino. Its not racist. These guys just dont communicate the same as us. As a result, things that used to take 10 minutes to remedy will take 2 hours.

I am not happy. This reflects poorly on Apple. This isn't as if they changed a processor, or changed from OS9 to OSX. This is truely a disaster in the works. This is a very short sighted move.

I remember the days when we had Apple Macintosh Plus's. I remember one day we had a tech support issue. I called Apple. They were so arrogant that they said "We don't provide technical support, call your local supplier". Well, needless to say, the Pittsburgh Computer Store was just retail sales. Today, we have a resurgant Apple. Flush with success. And ARROGANCE raises it's ugly head. And with customer support they, instead of hiring the best qualified, hire the cheapest in quality instead.

SHAME SHAME SHAME

I thought Apple's products were so amazing, so much better then all other makers, so lacking in issues or defects, that no one called support anyway!

Oh, right, that's the way Apple USED to be. Used macs since 1984. For the first 18 years, my problems consisted solely of (a) power supply issues with 128K mac (b) more power supply issues with 128K (actually upgraded to FatMac status). (c) did I mention that power supply?

[All of which, I believe, could've been solved if Jobs put a fan in there initially. But I digress.]

Since then, nothing. Well, until 2003 or so, when I went out and bought one of those iBooks with the bad motherboard architecture. You know the one. The one Apple has to keep fixing because they never fixed it, they just keep repairing it with the same crappy components. The one which they needed to create the repair extension program for (OK, that doesn't narrow it down, since so many macs have that now, it seems, but it was the first, I believe!)

Then I had to call about my iPod's screen going dead. And to get the battery replaced (OK, that last one doesn't count, as when I called the first time they hoodwinked me into buying applecare for the iPod, and it was running out, so I figured, why not, I paid for it, let me get my money's worth. Plus the case was kind of scratched, so it became like new again!).

We always tout Apple's premium price as being worth it because of the superior product . . . . Well, now we have the same cheap Intel hardware and soon the same cheap "Dell-like" India support . . . . . Yet the premium price remains intact.

That Shuttle Micro gaming PC is starting to look very appealing.

I had to phone tech support a fortnight ago (as it turns out my problems were the sole responsibility of Crucial) - phoned tech support in the UK and after the usual menu options the tell tale signs of a long distance line kicked in and I was met by an Indian accent. The person on the other end of the line was courteous, but utimately unhelpful - recommending I approach my local Apple Service centre.

When customers feel they have a problem and are met by an attitude from the company that it seems they are cutting corners (outsourcing tech support to India) it does not give a good impression.

The last time before this that I had a problem the Irish tech support was very helpful and I had replacement iPod earphones within 24hrs and a post paid sticker to send back the faulty pair - tech support like that is the thing that breeds brand loyalty. I fear Apple is starting to take it's customers for granted as the iPod becomes a mass market phenomenon.

Apple products aren't any better they use the same off the shelf components and just design a better product thats all. The only mystery piece was the PowerPC chips that they had now since they've moved to Intel they uses exactly the same parts as any Dell. They can't even claim better performace than Dell anymore. Remember when the G5 Macs first launched and they had that photoshop shoot out between the best Dell and the best G5 at the time? guess who won? of course the PPC now what? suddenly the new Intel Macs are X times faster than their PPC counter parts what a load of crap.

ronjamin states: "Dell Indian Support Sucks. In fact every outsourced tech support, with the exception of maybe Ireland and England, is useless."

Well, Ron, in case you were keeping count, but 'Dell product support sucks, including their sales', so do the products, and customer service, and tech support of most other tech companies as well. In fact, so do their products. You are implying that Apple is 'just another tech company', so would go down that same path (just as the rest of you "I'm disappointed" naysayers.

Were you disappointed in the iMac; the G5; the iPod? Were you disappointed with iTunes; ???

Apple's success, and the reason we use their products is due to them being different, and doing things differently than these other box pushers - subsequently, I find it brazenly amazing how you folks condemn Apple, even before you had a chance to see how this is going to play out.

I'd like to remind you all about the start of the Apple stores. "Apple can't make stores work, Gateway's stores all folded" "A retail presence will be the end of Apple" "No one else was successful with boutique retail stores for computers", etc...

Oddly enough, the Apple stores not only survived, but thrived, and now represent a significant portion of Apple's bottom line.

So, here's a suggestion:

How about waiting to see how Apple has planned this out, and giving them, maybe, some minor credit to handle this the proper way? I mean, don't you think they are smart enough to KNOW that a lot of people have a stereotypical view of Indian tech support, and that they would make sure they don't succumb to the same pitfalls?

To those of you claiming that, with intel CPUs, Apple's hardware is now the same as commodity PC hardware, and eyeing Shuttle Micro Gamiong PCs - don't let the door hit you in the ass!

So how long before all of the awesome support staff in Austin disappears? Whatever happened to proudly designed in the USA that is on the back of most Apple products? ROn does make some good points.

There is nothing in India that cannot be done here from a support standpoint. There are tens of thousands of technical jobseekers waiting for good jobs right here in the US.

Unless there is a significant difference in the level of service from a foreign call center, and I mean significant, then you can forget my AppleCare dollars and my company's premium support dollars ($6,000/year).

There are plenty of people here that need the work to be transferring it to some other country.

With all due respect Solardesign, Does the ‘Designed in California by Apple’ logo mean more to you than the ‘Assembled in Taiwan’ designations on the back of your Apple products? Offshoring is something that happened to manufacturing a long time ago, and it’s going to continue happening to other areas, including service. However, the fact that Apple designs the product gives us hope that the same quality we have come to expect from the hardware may also be evident in its support solutions, regardless of where that support comes from.

Ronjamin, you’ve made these sorts of comments before… but do you really feel that, because you can appreciate a plate of tandoori chicken at a local Indian restaurant, that you can also determine the cultural and communicative strengths and weaknesses of a billion people?

I am an American, born and raised in the Midwest, and have not had any problems communicating with well managed offshore support anywhere; neither have my clients. Your and others’ rampant ability to jump to conclusions based on the location of tech support is intriguingly reactionary. Apple is not Dell… instead, they might be more like Linksys (which has terrific 24h support based in Chennai, India). The truth of the matter is that the success of any tech-support operation in India or anywhere is predicated not on a national ability/inability to communicate (English is the most widely spoken language in India), but rather, by the ability of the parent company to involve their contractors in the business, and to train them to deliver adequate support.

The benefits of such a strategy are obvious; some form of Applecare tech support is available at all times of the day, since Indians are waking up when Americans are getting off work. There’s no reason to suspect that Austin tech support center is going anywhere. If Apple is intelligent about it (and there’s no reason to suspect they won’t be), the Bangalore call center may be a developing supplement to existing support networks that include Genius Bars and 9-8 (CST) phone support.

As much as he hope the Austin call center will continue operations, who really thinks it will be around three years from now? Any chance the lower costs for Apple will result in cheaper Applecare?