Dell, the baked goods manufacturer, knows that Americans don’t like calling tech support only to get “Pete,” whose name clearly Shoaib, who tells them to restart their computer for every single issue. Fine, Dell says, it’ll improve customer service—legitimate solutions on the other end of the line—but you’d better be ready to pay for it. The Texas-based company has announced a new “premium” customer service scheme, one that only covers in-warranty items and emanates from North America. (So, I guess, the call center can be in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico, right?) Best of all, these premium customer service dudes will actually be “empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues across the breadth of Dell’s product line.” Presumably that means no more “is the power cord plugged in?” solutions.
I totally empathize with people wanting both “American” customer service help and, you know, people that actually can help. The first few political science classes I took were taught by, for all intents and purposes, people straight off the boat from Iran. They were nice and all (actually knew the subject, being PhD candidates), but god was it difficult to understand them. They could have all the knowledge in the world, but without a basic grasp of English it was just a waste of time. That’s what’s so bad about the cheap, outsourced Dell labor: difficult to understand and they’re not really helpful.
via Consumerist