Dell cutting 1,100 jobs in Canada

For those Canadian customers who have bought or are thinking of buying from Dell. You can probably expect your customer service calls to be routed to India from now on.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=466633

OTTAWA -- Employees at Dell Canada's Ottawa operation learned Wednesday morning that the customer contact centre - once one of the city's fastest growing employers - will close its doors.

 

<--- sneaky Canuck, I bought my dell in the U.S. Take that Dell!

 

I don't really care who it is as long as they can answer my questions.

 

Uhh... customer service calls have been redirected to India for a long time now (excluding XPS)... but I guess even those customers will face the uncomprehensible terror now?

 

we should just vote to kick Dell out of Canada, they don't give us good deals anyways XD

 

I vote we kick you out first.

 

Dell is likely cutting jobs in many areas, not just Canada. 900 jobs will be gone by the end of the year in Texas.

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/04/01/0401dell.html

The company needs to break new ground and stay afloat at the same time. Competition is fierce, margins are slim and costs are on the rise. Sadly this is how they start. Cutting jobs

 

aww.

Now that you think about it minimum wadge just went up to $8.75 in Ontario...

 

Canada was once considered an outsourcing center by the US because of our weak dollar. Now we are pretty much on par with our southern friends so it has become more expensive to conduct business here.

By the looks of some of those people (staff?) in the article's press photo I'm kind of glad service calls will be redirected.

 

Because a person's looks affects how apt they are at providing support.

 

Its business....

Dell is an international company and, as such, has the power to employ how and where they like.

Its economically more feasible to pay a university graduate 20-30000 per year in India for doing the same job that nets CSR's anywhere between 50000 to 100000 plus here.

Its also unfortunate because there is a different perspective or 'similarity' in the thought process from those in the same demographic region. Many of those who are being let go are valuable CSR's, techs and client reps who have, not only the training, but experience in helping out within specific areas.

A perfect example of this comes with XPS support which seems to be non-existant now. When I got my first XPS, I had a Canadian tech who knew his stuff....

Too bad.

 

You're kidding right? You telling me those guys make 50k-100k/year? For tech support that in most cases consists of "Is you computer plugged in?... There ya go have nice day." I don' think so. If yes then man, did I ever pick the wrong career & co. to work in.

 

They probably make a little over minimum wage.

 

They where probably makeing like $8.25 then when it went up to $8.75 it was to much for Dell. They probably got good perks though.

 

LOL, the city of Ottowa was a customer support center.

 

I'll correct those numbers for you.

 

Except the outsourcing trend for Dell is over...

They are moving their call center operations back to the US, like many companies. So it is no surprise they are cutting jobs in Canada. They are also doing the same in India...

Not sure why it matters either way, but to each his own I guess.

 

Oh really? Interesting. Anyone care to explain why they are moving call centres back to the US? Is it because not being able to understand the CSR generally doesn't help with the problem? That doesn't explain Canada tho.

 

IMO Outsouring operations to India is relatively easy and quick way to save money, but in the long run the companies tend to loose as they can't provide the same level of services as in the West. This results in loosing customers and damaging business in the long run.

I should know, myself being an Indian

 

Time and time again, customers have proven that their number 1 loyalty is to price. I don't know where you heard that Dell was moving its call centers back to the USA, but Dell is in a heavy price-cutting phase right now. They need to take the #1 spot away from HP, and are cleaning up as much wasted money as possible.

 

My numbers are dead on. Dell pays very well and, for many years, has rewarded its employees with many bonuses and raises.

The statement I made came from inside Dell itself.

I was expressing my views on how it should be illegal to 'farm' out cheaper labour from other countries when it was explained to me.

 

Well in that case no f-ing wonder the company is in the sh1tt3r and can't make any money. They pay 3x-4x the salary they should to their employees.

I can't believe a call center joe job pays 50k-100k/year no matter what you say. Your inside man is either seriously out of touch with those positions and their salaries or is simply trying to make his crappy job sound good :\

 

I'd have to agree. A typical Call Center job is around $20-$25k a year. A Technical Call Center job, $40k MAX.

If Dell really is paying their employees that much (as Thund3rball said) it's no wonder they're having to cut back so many employees and close up centers......they're hemorrhaging money out the wazoo!!

 

Dell hasn't just been cutting jobs in Canada.... computer customisation has dropped a lot as well. The only difference between Dell USA and Dell Canada used to be the price but now Dell Canada offers less and less configuration possibilities and is moving toward standard pre-built systems.

Quick exemple, the XPS 420 desktop now only has a choice of 1 processor and 3 GPUs in Canada while it has a choice of 6 processors and 5 GPUs in Canada. If you want a quad core and a 8800GTX in Canada the only option you have is now the XPS 720 while on the Dell USA website, you can have a quad core in the XPS 420 and a 8800GTX in the XPS 630 lower models.

Dell is really losing any advantage it offered in Canada.

 

That should have been obvious when our dollar started gaining strength and Dell prices remained much higher than the US.

As much as I hate to say it.....if Dell keeps going the way they are in Canada, my next laptop purchase probably won't be from them.

 

Hmm, maybe this explains why I haven't heard back from an Ottawa CS rep that I last emailed on tuesday after we had been working on some CS issues and him previously replying the next day. What will happen to my open email I had been having?

 

It was a trade-off that couldn't be avoided.

Ottawa had to decide between getting a new football team or keeping Dell.

The answer was obvious.