Tech Support

[WildHorse]

Originally posted by: buck
Pray to god that you dont have to call their internal helpdesk.

And H E R E `s why!

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

lol, the pedal to power everything is priceless

 

[whistleclient]

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

 

[chrisms]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Yes. In other words, they want to be rich and popular. Who doesn't?

In any case, I know of very few people my age (I'm 19) that wants to be like Paris Hilton or live like her (or any other celebrity). Those that do are the space cadet ditzes and wannabe jocks who's puberty apparently stalled while they were in middle school.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

Umm... no offense to the Indian work ethic, but I believe I've only talked to 1 Indian person (Indian being described as someone operating in India) who actually knew what he was talking about.

Also, I saw a special on IIT a few days ago, and from what I saw the entire educational system is just memorize and regurgitate, with a focus specifically on technology and science. There's no music, no history, no literature courses, nothing but something that'll get them a job. Given the economic hardships most of India faces I can't say I blame them. But there still seems to be very little creativity or free-thinking in Indian education.

 

[athithi]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

Umm... no offense to the Indian work ethic, but I believe I've only talked to 1 Indian person (Indian being described as someone operating in India) who actually knew what he was talking about.

Also, I saw a special on IIT a few days ago, and from what I saw the entire educational system is just memorize and regurgitate, with a focus specifically on technology and science. There's no music, no history, no literature courses, nothing but something that'll get them a job. Given the economic hardships most of India faces I can't say I blame them. But there still seems to be very little creativity or free-thinking in Indian education.

Everybody has a different experience. I have met very few Americans in the workplace who have any depth in knowledge. They have excellent personalities and communicate very well. They are able to think laterally and in a wholesome manner. But if you dig just a little bit deeper, you find very little understanding beyond application. So, on one hand you have a culture that focuses on application and on the other you have one that focuses on implementation. In short, Americans know how to use and Indians know how to do. It is completely untrue that American tech support is superior in depth of knowledge. However, considering that communication is a large part of support, I think Indians are too underskilled to be performing those duties.

Let me put it this way - if I wanted someone to present something or manage a task, I would pick an American. But if I wanted someone actually do a task, Americans fall woefully short. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but a lot of Americans don't have the retention, retrieval and application of technical knowledge needed to complete tasks satisfactorily. On the other hand, most Indians just don't know how to present themselves. I haven't met a single Indian in the United States that can present a topic or communicate an idea with any clarity. So, it cuts both ways.

I do not find the tech support jokes about Indians the least bit funny - not because it offends me personally, but because it is often made out of spite and not any sense of humor. Spiteful comments are seldom funny.

 

[puffff]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

Umm... no offense to the Indian work ethic, but I believe I've only talked to 1 Indian person (Indian being described as someone operating in India) who actually knew what he was talking about.

Also, I saw a special on IIT a few days ago, and from what I saw the entire educational system is just memorize and regurgitate, with a focus specifically on technology and science. There's no music, no history, no literature courses, nothing but something that'll get them a job. Given the economic hardships most of India faces I can't say I blame them. But there still seems to be very little creativity or free-thinking in Indian education.

i think our (american) education system would be much better off if we placed more emphasis on hard work over creativity.

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Yes. In other words, they want to be rich and popular. Who doesn't?

In any case, I know of very few people my age (I'm 19) that wants to be like Paris Hilton or live like her (or any other celebrity). Those that do are the space cadet ditzes and wannabe jocks who's puberty apparently stalled while they were in middle school.

Sure, we'd all like to be rich and popular but-- and maybe I have a different viewpoint on this because I live in Los Angeles-- I swear many people come to Los Angeles thinking that being rich and popular is the ONLY thing in life.

Worse than that, they equate being on TV as being popular. And they think that whatever they do to get there is fine by them-- reality show, youtube, porn tape. And the people that often claim they just want to be actors don't actually want to be actors, they just want to be famous.

So when I see the jpg posted by the OP, it's hard not to be ashamed. Pretending we're so much better than India when we made Paris Hilton famous.

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Some already did, I saw some videos floating around...

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

First of all, the original picture wasn't even funny. It was the comedy equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy or Yakov Smirnoff.

I mean, that was the point of Borat-- it wasn't that other places are so backwards, the joke was that Americans are so stupid and conceited to believe that they could be so backwards, especially when America is such a backwards/ ignorant/ racist country in its own right.

I'm not a tech support guy, but I imagine it to be a very difficult, frustrating job. Now imagine doing it in a 2nd language. Could you do tech support in Indian? I couldn't.


I'm sorry I think about things. I'm sorry you don't.

But like I said, this whole line of thinking would've been avoided if the original picture had been funny...

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

First of all, the original picture wasn't even funny. It was the comedy equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy or Yakov Smirnoff.

I mean, that was the point of Borat-- it wasn't that other places are so backwards, the joke was that Americans are so stupid and conceited to believe that they could be so backwards, especially when America is such a backwards/ ignorant/ racist country in its own right.

I'm not a tech support guy, but I imagine it to be a very difficult, frustrating job. Now imagine doing it in a 2nd language. Could you do tech support in Indian? I couldn't.


I'm sorry I think about things. I'm sorry you don't.

But like I said, this whole line of thinking would've been avoided if the original picture had been funny...

If it's too difficult for them to provide quality service to American customers then they shouldn't be doing it in the first place. There are plenty of hard working Americans who need good jobs. Let me be clear - I have NOTHING against India or Indian people. It just drives me crazy when American corporations send good jobs offshore just so that they can tell their stock holders that they're being proactive in saving the company money (at the expense of quality) - at the same time removing wealth from their own country. If Indians can't provide support in two languages then the answer is simple. Hire Americans to do the job instead.

 

[athithi]

Originally posted by: Icepick

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

First of all, the original picture wasn't even funny. It was the comedy equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy or Yakov Smirnoff.

I mean, that was the point of Borat-- it wasn't that other places are so backwards, the joke was that Americans are so stupid and conceited to believe that they could be so backwards, especially when America is such a backwards/ ignorant/ racist country in its own right.

I'm not a tech support guy, but I imagine it to be a very difficult, frustrating job. Now imagine doing it in a 2nd language. Could you do tech support in Indian? I couldn't.


I'm sorry I think about things. I'm sorry you don't.

But like I said, this whole line of thinking would've been avoided if the original picture had been funny...

If it's too difficult for them to provide quality service to American customers then they shouldn't be doing it in the first place. There are plenty of hard working Americans who need good jobs. Let me be clear - I have NOTHING against India or Indian people. It just drives me crazy when American corporations send good jobs offshore just so that they can tell their stock holders that they're being proactive in saving the company money (at the expense of quality) - at the same time removing wealth from their own country. If Indians can't provide support in two languages then the answer is simple. Hire Americans to do the job instead.

Exactly. Indians are great code churners but have little communication skills. It is an atrocity that they are handling customer service operations for US firms. How can a country where corporations do not even have a passable measure of customer service for domestic consumers be able to provide said service for consumers half-way across the world? 😕 Now, writing code? Indians are in a league of their own. I remember a few years back how they had .Net certification courses even when the software was barely in pre-release version!

 

[WildHorse]

Apologies for any UNINTENDED put-down of Indians.

The picture struck me as funny, that's all.
It still does, which is why I haven't removed it.

I see it mostly as commentary on greed of the US companies that offshore the jobs to save a few bucks, resultant injury to quality of service be damned.

Plus the guy pedaling his own electric power is just funny.

Obviously the photo is parody, since he doesn't have a microphone on his headset, not to mention that he violates MS dress code.

Again, apologies to our Indian friends.

 

[Ktulu]

Damn, some people can't take a joke!

 

[chrisms]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

First of all, the original picture wasn't even funny. It was the comedy equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy or Yakov Smirnoff.

I mean, that was the point of Borat-- it wasn't that other places are so backwards, the joke was that Americans are so stupid and conceited to believe that they could be so backwards, especially when America is such a backwards/ ignorant/ racist country in its own right.

I'm not a tech support guy, but I imagine it to be a very difficult, frustrating job. Now imagine doing it in a 2nd language. Could you do tech support in Indian? I couldn't.


I'm sorry I think about things. I'm sorry you don't.

But like I said, this whole line of thinking would've been avoided if the original picture had been funny...

Oh darn, you got me. I don't think about things. Touche.

Its a picture on the internet. If it isn't funny to you, just close it and move on.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

One of my clients outsources his web development to India and I was working with one of the developers this morning and he was telling me that the the work week for most places is 10 hour shifts 6 days a week. (My client has them work 40 hour weeks with paid overtime as needed)

 

[FoBoT]

that's not funny

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

Umm... no offense to the Indian work ethic, but I believe I've only talked to 1 Indian person (Indian being described as someone operating in India) who actually knew what he was talking about.

Also, I saw a special on IIT a few days ago, and from what I saw the entire educational system is just memorize and regurgitate, with a focus specifically on technology and science. There's no music, no history, no literature courses, nothing but something that'll get them a job. Given the economic hardships most of India faces I can't say I blame them. But there still seems to be very little creativity or free-thinking in Indian education.

Was that the ONLY Indian that you've spoken with? It seems more than a little ridiculous that out of a country with over a billion people you seem to imply that such a minority are qualified for their positions. Also, if the one Indian that you spoke to was tier 1 tech support, how many tier 1 techs have you spoken to in GENERAL that know what they are talking about? You pay tier 1 as little as possible to read from a script, not to think critically and trouble-shoot. If it doesn't fit into the rubric it gets escalated to someone that has a little better trouble-shooting skills.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: Icepick

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

First of all, the original picture wasn't even funny. It was the comedy equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy or Yakov Smirnoff.

I mean, that was the point of Borat-- it wasn't that other places are so backwards, the joke was that Americans are so stupid and conceited to believe that they could be so backwards, especially when America is such a backwards/ ignorant/ racist country in its own right.

I'm not a tech support guy, but I imagine it to be a very difficult, frustrating job. Now imagine doing it in a 2nd language. Could you do tech support in Indian? I couldn't.


I'm sorry I think about things. I'm sorry you don't.

But like I said, this whole line of thinking would've been avoided if the original picture had been funny...

If it's too difficult for them to provide quality service to American customers then they shouldn't be doing it in the first place. There are plenty of hard working Americans who need good jobs. Let me be clear - I have NOTHING against India or Indian people. It just drives me crazy when American corporations send good jobs offshore just so that they can tell their stock holders that they're being proactive in saving the company money (at the expense of quality) - at the same time removing wealth from their own country. If Indians can't provide support in two languages then the answer is simple. Hire Americans to do the job instead.

Look, here is how tech support works:

Tier 1 - you just have to be literate and have a pleasant disposition - you get paid as little as possible (In America usually minimum wage or slightly above)

Tier 2 - The ability to think critically and some experience with tech support

Tier 3 - Expert on the subject matter.

In India since wages are lower, its much more likely that you'll get someone with the skills to be in Tier 2 or 3 on the tier 1 line because for 25000 rupees a month you can get a qualified sys admin.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: DaiShan

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: chrisms

Originally posted by: tangent1138

say what you will about India, but there they actually respect education and hard work. here the highest aspiration of many of our teens is to have a life like Paris Hilton.

Lighten up

At least for me, it's something that bothers Indians when they hear these things. They aren't simply popping into a college, getting wasted for 4 years, and taking jobs away - they have to work very hard and probably insanely harder than most others. Being a student in India is very hard and there are a lot more cultural/life difficulties you face. Let's not even get into economic hardships... you don't get the same choices you do here and so doing anything at all takes a lot of effort. To get anywhere in life, you have to do 10 times more than someone in the US. If you fail at it, *no one* will come to help you - no government aid, no health care or hospitals that will even let you in, etc.

You face a lot of competition and pressure from everyone you know - parents, relatives, brothers/sisters, etc. It's a very conservative place and even acknowledging a different opinion on things like gay marriage than what they're used to will make them question you.

Those are part of the reasons why people, especially Indians, get frustrated when people make comments against this topic and do not even acknowledge their hard work and efforts. It's unfortunate how some of the companies here have used it because they are capable of doing a much better job than what the public thinks of it. I will not blame Indians for the issues that the public sees, but rather the US companies that choose to do things the way they do them.

Umm... no offense to the Indian work ethic, but I believe I've only talked to 1 Indian person (Indian being described as someone operating in India) who actually knew what he was talking about.

Also, I saw a special on IIT a few days ago, and from what I saw the entire educational system is just memorize and regurgitate, with a focus specifically on technology and science. There's no music, no history, no literature courses, nothing but something that'll get them a job. Given the economic hardships most of India faces I can't say I blame them. But there still seems to be very little creativity or free-thinking in Indian education.

Was that the ONLY Indian that you've spoken with? It seems more than a little ridiculous that out of a country with over a billion people you seem to imply that such a minority are qualified for their positions. Also, if the one Indian that you spoke to was tier 1 tech support, how many tier 1 techs have you spoken to in GENERAL that know what they are talking about? You pay tier 1 as little as possible to read from a script, not to think critically and trouble-shoot. If it doesn't fit into the rubric it gets escalated to someone that has a little better trouble-shooting skills.

Once I had a problem with my DSL connection. After taking extensive diagnostics on my own equipment, I called tech support. The person who answered the phone had very clear Indian accent, and his english left much to be desired. I asked if I could speak to his supervisor, who turned out to be teh same way, with slightly better English. After asking to speak to HIS supervisor I finally got to someone who was definitely caucassion and actually made a cheap attempt to help me. I called back several times, and about 20% of the time I got the same response.

NOTE: This is just my experience. I am in no way attempting to generalize that Indian tech support is bad FROM THIS DATA.

 

[Nocturnal]

I fix computers for a living and speak to a lot of people who have said they're not quite happy with outsourced tech support be it to the PI or India.