The Downfall of America

[ivor]

It amazes me the horrid state of American Industry these days.  Forty years ago we were sending people to the Moon.  Today American Industry hires a sea of telephone support personnel (mostly out-sourced I imagine) who seem only to be overly grateful for everything, (thank you for breathing) and offer nothing but apologies in return.

[Bluenose]

Been talking to Microsoft again, MB?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I think is the scripts they use for customer service, all filled with "thank you for...", "I apologize for..", "We are very sorry...", "I'm sad to inform you... ", etc.

And yes, all of that is outsourced, not only I actually worked for one of those companies, but also my sister-in-law, and my actual sisters back in Colombia (because they actually can speak English).
---
As for if that is the downfall of America I'm not completely sure, it might be a symptom though.

[Aggie]

I call tell you that it's a surprise any time I actually see "Made in USA" on anything these days (and Made in Canada is not far behind).  I'm not sure how much "American Industry" actually exists that is not actually performed in other parts of the globe.  The US is increasingly a paper- and paper-plate pushing economy.  Entertainment and agriculture are still major drivers, but the former appears to have a low ratio of jobs to revenue, and the latter has been almost gutted of permanent employment (it'll be all robots as soon as the industry can manage it - tractors can already be operated by GPS and remote control, and picking will be moving that way.  Harvesting is not exactly stable, lucrative employment even now).

I'm also actually quite surprised at the almost complete absence of Americans crossing the border to work in the oilpatch - Alberta is the end-point of a massive internal migration and international immigration to chase the petrodollar (myself included). Some towns are made up significantly of Newfoundlanders, and practically the entire service industry in northwestern Alberta has become Filipino over the past 5 years.  It may have something to do with the visa regulations, but I'd think these would be fairly lax.  Then again, I think there's a significant portion of the American public that would never dream of leaving the US.

_{I have this sick premonition that Canadians will at some point in the future be cussing out all the 'greenbacks' sneaking across the border to 'took our jobs'}  

[ivor]

We desperately need to out-source management...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

In a way you can say that it was the first to be "outsourced", besides, does it matter if the psychopaths are local or foreign?

[ivor]

Okay, I guess we need alien or AI management.

[Griffin NoName]

Outsourced telephone support lines, etc., should be re-categorised as "torture" and therefore banned.

[ivor]

I have this strange image in my mind.  It's much like a Python skit.  Something similar to the Short that plays before The Meaning of Life on the retail DVD but with a battle between rebels and an evil king.  The battle is basically medieval, swords, armor, flaming arrows.  The evil king is hole'd up in his castle, gate shut, drawbridge up, moat filled, but he doesn't have an army!  What he does have is just thousands upon thousands of "Support" personnel surrounding him.  As the rebels attack the "Support" personnel charge unarmed into the battle apologizing while being run through with swords and thanking the rebels for coming as they lay dying...

There's no ending to it...  That's all there was.

[pieces o nine]

I have concerns about the weak performance envisioned for the 'support' personnel. With the changeover to personally interacting with the attacking army, support had better be making eye contact with and personally greeting every rebel within a ten-foot radius! They (support) had best be asking if they (rebels) have found what they're looking for, using the approved list of focus-group-endorsed customer service / appreciation scripts. Finally, support should be prepared to lead rebels to exactly what they're seeking, rather than vaguely pointing the correct direction, as no one is too busy to directly interact with the customer!

[ivor]

Oh they are very polite but have no information available on who to talk to to resolve problems much like IBM.  They can only manage a last glance at the castle before shedding the mortal coil...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

So essentially you want an army of telemarketers (guess what they do when they aren't answering phones) to be slayed by the hordes in medieval fashion? The poor guys are badly paid and just follow on script instructions plus the "advise" of a subnormal supervisor.

In the end the king remains comfy in his castle while the poor sods bore you to death. Did I ever told you the time I had the phone hung on me by HP representatives after an hour, because they weren't willing to accept that they don't support their shoddy products?

[ivor]

Nothing against "support" people really.  I did telephone sales and support myself.  I just have a problem with corporate greed and them walling themselves away from the real world.

I get hung up on constantly because I don't take no for an answer.  Dell has hung up on me.  I love Dell though!  I get lots of business from them!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Corporate management's job has nothing to do with running the business, they have regional and branch/department managers that do that. Their job is devoted to raise share prices for the next quarterly statement. They can't worry about minutia like customer service, and they only do if the situation is too abysmal and/or there is some semblance of competition; at that point they bug the manager in question for 30 seconds and move to the next item of the agenda.

It wont get better until more serious monopoly laws are enforced and corporations start looking long term (and you can guess the likelihood of those things happening ).