In reply to a post by 4M2:

Surely we have to speak in terms of local economies:

No - if you employ someone in India you pay them the established rate for India.

If you employ someone to do exactly the same job in the UK - you pay them the established UK rate. Which by your own admission will be several times higher.

No one is talking quality of service or quality of life - just the cost of providing the service (the operating expenses that get entered onto the company's balance sheet).

People in the UK do not work 20x harder just because they are paid 20x more.

p.s. Did the company you worked for whilst abroad reduce your salary because the cost of living where you were travelling was lower ?

Edited by deleted (Fri 22-Feb-13 23:24:02)

In reply to a post by HTTP404:

p.s. Did the company you worked for whilst travelling reduce your salary because the cost of living where you were travelling was lower ?

I was an unemployed drifter spending hard earned cash that I had saved from working here in the UK

Actually I also did a bit of self-employed English teaching whilst in Nepal - however what I earned from that (normal local rate) only covered day to day expenses meaning that I didn't have to cash any travellers cheques...

In reply to a post by 4M2:

What an absolutely ridiculous think to say - have you ever been to India?

I was talking in absolute monetary terms. Why should TT pay someone £15 p/h to provide uk support when the they can do it for £1.50 p/h in India?

In reply to a post by HTTP404:

Moving support back to the UK is an option that is way too expensive for many large organisations to contemplate - no matter how much their users think it is a good idea.

Nail. On. The. Head.

TalkTalk, BT et al will simply lose customers in huge numbers if they brought back support to UK as a result of having to increase prices. They cannot afford to pay their support staff £15 p/h yet offer broadband for a few quid a month...its simple economics. I would happily pay £40 pm for my TalkTalk connection if it meant having quality UK phone support on a par with the likes of AAISP, Goscomb, Xilo etc but i suspect the majority of TT customers wouldn't be too chuffed.

Edited by deleted (Sat 23-Feb-13 07:55:20)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Even banking is superior.

God help you if you ever have to call HSBC's overseas support line

In reply to a post by 4M2:

I was an unemployed drifter spending hard earned cash that I had saved from working here in the UK

So being paid in the UK was significantly better rewarded than being employed in Nepal as one provided "spare" cash, the other didn't. But maybe not a direct job for job comparison - but you get the picture.

But ask yourself, how much more would you have expected to be paid for self employed teaching in the UK, compared to what you were paid in Nepal ?

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Sounds to be an interesting trip, providing you managed to survive - which you obviously did as you're here to tell the tale.

OK - apologise to the OP - TalkTalk (and many other overseas) customer service functions are not winning any medals - but usually there are ways round them - which unfortunately are quite often learnt the hard way.

With TalkTalk register and use their online customer forums. With BT use the email "contact us", that also bypasses the front line telephone, heavily scripted support.

In both cases you have to wait a little longer for a response (compared to phoning them), but the response is of a far better quality.

Not always possible - but horses for courses - and not beef Bolognese.

Edited by deleted (Sat 23-Feb-13 09:41:02)

In reply to a post by HTTP404:

So being paid in the UK was significantly better rewarded than being employed in Nepal as one provided "spare" cash, the other didn't. But maybe not a direct job for job comparison - but you get the picture.

But ask yourself, how much more would you have expected to be paid for self employed teaching in the UK, compared to what you were paid in Nepal ?

Well the income was much less, if one thinks in terms of pounds sterling, although I could live quite comfortably - if I had stayed longer and perhaps gained a good reputation then I could have charged a higher hourly rate which would have been equivalent to an income, in real terms, that one could get in the UK - except some imported goods and much foreign travel beyond the sub-continent and China would have been beyond my means.

But going back to the point of ISP UK based support being paid the same as Indian based support, purely in terms of exchange rate, in order to reduce costs that is what I call a ridiculous concept. An ISP may indeed take advantage of the economic differences between the UK and India in order to reduce costs to the end user but that does not mean that the quality of support needs to be lower.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

I was talking in absolute monetary terms. Why should TT pay someone £15 p/h to provide uk support when the they can do it for £1.50 p/h in India?

Yes for economic reasons TT use overseas based support staff in order to keep costs down and be competitive in the UK market. But that doesn't necessarily mean a lower standard of living for those overseas support staff compared to equivalent support staff in the UK. Also there is no reason why the quality of support should be any better in the UK, if people believe or find that UK support is better than overseas support then that is the fault of the ISP and not necessarily with those staff based overseas.

It could have also been surreal due to the agent being on drugs,

The UN in 2008 identified that 25% of Indian call center staff used cannabis or abused over the counter medicines.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1023947/The-...

Oh, the Daily Mail. I wonder how many British call centre workers are on drugs.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Oh, the Daily Mail.

Yes the Daily Mail - e.g. how to sensationalize a harmless situation: http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/508125-emirates-a...