DCFC,You are right on!!!Here's a new one. I just bought the latest IBM notebook, took it home, and it had a defective LCD. I called IBM; they gaveme a service center to take it to. I brought it in and guess what, the service center couldn't get the parts within a week. I called IBM again, and the best I could do was talk to (many many) folks in india who couldn't help me out with expediting a part for my newnotebook.Conclusion: Service centers in India are assisting IBM out ot the notebook business. There is no way IBM will survive in that business.I'm still kicking myself for not buying a DELL.

I am sick and tired of calling India. My IT is now in India - and they are f'n useless. I closed a bank account recently, and they processed it wrong, so it appeared that I had a neg balance. What happens? Collections in India calls me. I'm not even going to go there - I took hours and days to resolve. (At one point the idiot woman on the phone asked me if I could walk to the branch that I closed at. I said it was far and that it is not my resposibilty to fix there mistakes - further, my relationship with them is OVER! She asked if I could leave work and drive there. I asked her what planet she was from. Then she asked if I could leave work, go home, and get some paperwork for a date that she should have known how to access. I said she needs to f*&k off immediately, cause I'm really getting pissed. You can't have a culture barrier like that. An (Indian) friend was joking that when they ask me to go home to get something it is not the same as going outside to my elephant and riding 20 meters to the family home)

QuoteOriginally posted by: chiral3I am sick and tired of calling India. My IT is now in India - and they are f'n useless. I closed a bank account recently, and they processed it wrong, so it appeared that I had a neg balance. What happens? Collections in India calls me. I'm not even going to go there - I took hours and days to resolve. (At one point the idiot woman on the phone asked me if I could walk to the branch that I closed at. I said it was far and that it is not my resposibilty to fix there mistakes - further, my relationship with them is OVER! She asked if I could leave work and drive there. I asked her what planet she was from. Then she asked if I could leave work, go home, and get some paperwork for a date that she should have known how to access. I said she needs to f*&k off immediately, cause I'm really getting pissed. You can't have a culture barrier like that. An (Indian) friend was joking that when they ask me to go home to get something it is not the same as going outside to my elephant and riding 20 meters to the family home)hey chiralif you're so pissed off, why dont you have your account elsewhere. your bank is not indian and i think they are responsible for the screw ups. if they want to take all your money and give you shit service (like most american firms do), that's something you have to sort out with them. i'm sure they know its not like riding your elephants for 20 metres...you need to drive your shitty chevy for 40 miles before you reach anywherebtw don't you think it's strange that so many companies are outsourcing to india if everyone there is riding elephants and the most lucrative profession is snake charming....i think it's a very stupid stereotyping...sort of like calling all americans sister humping mormons...now you would'nt agree with that, would you?

Quotebtw don't you think it's strange that so many companies are outsourcing to india if everyone there is riding elephants and the most lucrative profession is snake charming....i think it's a very stupid stereotyping...sort of like calling all americans sister humping mormons...now you would'nt agree with that, would you? Like I said, it was an Indian friend's joke. I thought that it was cute.Quoteif you're so pissed off, why dont you have your account elsewhere. your bank is not indian and i think they are responsible for the screw ups. My bank is not Indian. Actually, I had closed the account and, up until then, I was very exceptionally happy with the service. I didn't realize until then (and it happened to coincide with my company firing much of our IT support to outsource to India) how much American companies are doing this. I like my models and such - I don't do the management thing. It has nothing to do with India per se, rather it would be anywhere that they outsourced to. I have a problem with my new fangled phone and it would be nice to have someone in the building to help, not a phone call to the other side of the earth to someone (from my experience, as well as some colleagues) have no idea what the phone looks like, nevermind how it works.Quoteif they want to take all your money and give you shit service (like most american firms do), that's something you have to sort out with them. I don't know if that is true, but I have no basis for comparison.The last firm that I worked at I worked with predominatly Indian people. (Funny too, because they arll had the same background: Engineering in India and business school in America) Some of my old peers were very well educated and very articulate (in that they also adopted many "Americanisms") One person was telling me that the demand for people with his education to go home to manage these firms that handle the outsourcing was very high, and that many of his old HBS friends were doing just this. I don't know if Eurapean firms are doing this, but I would believe it if someone said it was a uniquely American cost-cutting technique. But with globalization (or, rather, globalisation) I don't know how true it could be for large firms.Dunno. Don't take offense at the comment, I think that it was just meant as a dramitic visual counter-point: an American business man who, dispite his vast education, can't change the email font to Times New Roman, calling India, and someone who has used Outlook once.

Quotesort of like calling all americans sister humping mormonsThat made me laugh too. Good imagery. I suspect that 99% of the people on this forum are educated enough and exist in such diverse environments that I wouldn't take the comment too seriously, even though I don't know you

QuoteBritain is hardly a lackey of the USA, Americans thought the IRA was pretty cool until September 11 showed them the true nature of terrorism.I don't know if that is true. You had the small subset of Irish Americans who, in an attempt at nationalism, would be all pro IRA. These are the folks who all, magically and coincidentally, "hail from county cork", but probably couldn't find it on a map. NY had another attack, and it had nothing to do with civil unrest like the tensions between Britian and Ireland, rather it was an attack from outside. I certainly didn't connect the two and say "Ah, so this is what it is like in Belfast!" I see your analogy though, and while none were as severe as 911, I don't think Americans could imagine the shear frequency of occurances of bombing that were connected to the IRA on weekly and monthly bases.

C3,If you're not in management (ie. only a model maker), I'd start to worry about my job. I hear quant jobs are the next to go to India after all your IT has been canned.N

I am management, just not that kind of management.

Oh... And IT management kept their jobs? What do you think will happen to quant mgmt when QF joins IT in India?

Chiral:I am sick and tired of calling India. My IT is now in India - and they are f'n useless. I closed a bank account recently, and they processed it wrong, so it appeared that I had a neg balance. What happens? Collections in India calls me.I'm not sure which country you live in, but I will assure you that British banks, run by Brits are just as bad.

You had the small subset of Irish Americans who, in an attempt at nationalism, would be all pro IRA. Other americans were quite happy to go along with laws with helped those who murdered Irish people. There was no real effort by American agencies to stop the IRA breaking US weapons laws. I don't think Americans could imagine the shear frequency of occurances of bombing that were connected to the IRA on weekly and monthly bases. I'm not one of the Brits who see the average American as catastrophically dumb and ignorant of the world, but you've hit the nail of why that number is so large.As it happens IRA murder and torture was daily, not monthly or weekly.Recall that the IRA is supposed to be fighting for Irish Catholics. However so many catholics have turned up at British hospitals with their kneecaps removed by electric drills or chisels that British doctors got really quite good at fixing them. However the IRA simply switched to elbows which are much harder to fix. The IRA has also killed far more Catholics than has the British army since it was founded.Note that in none of this I have pointed out the English tortured and murdered. The Americans were backing a group who attacked the people they were supposed to be liberating. To add support to those Brits who see americans as dumb, the IRA is explicitly marxist.Thus the FBI, american judiciary, the Kennedys, and ordinary Joes were helping a Marxist gange who killed Irishmen.

DCFC: but I will assure you that British banks, run by Brits are just as bad.Amen to that. I personally think the worst banks in the world are all british... the number 1 being Natwest, followed closely by Barclays. You think India is bad, C3?

Look hereText

All I get out of Natwest when I visit the branch is, `thats now handled by our call centre, could you call this number'. I gettelephone banking level service but with 0.1% interest rather than 3.5%, not to mention the 17% over-draft. There brokerageservice also is going downhill... Four years ago they refused me a mortgage in Yen, and even last year they refused me a loanwhich I would guarantee 100%+ with defensive stocks.The fact that retail banking services are going downhill, Madonna is still being recycled and jobs are being sent to India. Hasto do with the fact that corporations have not come to terms with the telecommunications revolution. Banks are being undercut byinternet banks, Madonna is being recycled because Yazza had shifted the risk/return profile on investing in new bands and Indianis sitting pretty on a massive telco arb of the job market.

Outsourcing firm hires chimps