GoAmerica Outsourcing Relay Call Center to the Philippines
By Josh Mendelsohn on Tue 19 Feb 2008 |
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According to a recent Modesto Bee newspaper article, GoAmerica has begun outsourcing its Internet relay services to a new call center in the Philippines.
As I explained in a recent blog post, GoAmerica operates the popular i711 relay service as well as a number of other state-based relay services, and had taken over Verizon’s relay service. In addition, GoAmerica recently merged with Hands On Video Relay Service (HOVRS). As a result, GoAmerica is now one of the largest relay service providers in the nation.
As part of this outsourcing process, and according to the Modesto Bee article, GoAmerica will be giving layoff notices to hundreds of relay operators and staff at the Riverbank, California call center. GoAmerica will begin routing its Internet-based relay calls through the new call center in the Philippines. At this point, this only seems to affect Internet-based relay calls made through GoAmerica’s services. That is, you’re making an Internet-based relay call when you make text relay calls via i711’s webpage or make calls via instant messaging through one of GoAmerica’s services. Video relay calls are not affected (yet?).
So, it’s not good news that a large provider like GoAmerica has begun the process toward outsourcing a significant number of relay operator jobs outside the United States. This may cause a significant impact on how deaf and hearing people interact with each other through the telephone. And I wonder how GoAmerica will maintain the quality of relay calls when using operators that are based outside the country. I’m not familiar enough with relay call procedures to know whether “Deaf English” is translated / transliterated into smooth spoken English, but I’m uncertain this would happen at a call center outside the United States. Lastly, hearing people and businesses are already wary of getting calls from telemarketers as well as scam calls through a relay service. I fear that businesses will hang up at a much greater rate when they receive relay calls from outside the country.
I use Internet-based relay calls quite a bit — in fact, about the same amount as my video relay calls. I often use Verizon’s IP-Relay services via instant messaging on my Palm Treo, or through its webpage interface. And guess what? Since GoAmerica owns these Verizon services, that means soon I’ll have a relay operator who’s based in the Philippines.
I don’t know about you, but if this affects the quality of my relay service then I may start frequenting a different relay service.
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17 Comments
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I wouldn’t think there are ASL signers galore in the Phillipines, either so that’s gonna be a big problem, isn’t it?
Well, I suggest that everyone use an American-based call center, effective immediately. Why wait? Doing this n o w will send GoAmerica a very strong message that they’re making a mistake. We care about the quality of our services.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m not using their services anymore.
SIPRelay opened one in Price, Utah, hiring the ones who lost their jobs as result of closures of coal mines, keeping the jobs in USA.
The reason Sorenson picked Price is that Siprelay jobs aren’t interpreter jobs. (hiring up to 100 persons for that place.)
I’m sure there are other IP based text relay centers in USA.
What kind of tasks those employees do at such centers? Speaking to hearies what they read on screens then type what they heard to deaf callers - is that it? If so, then this outsourcing move is a very bad one. There are many factors including cultural factors to consider.
Also it’d be helpful if there’s a list of relay services that are connected to GoAmerica and list of those that uses North America centers. That way consumers will know which to use or not if they wish to do something about this. Thanks!
This is a very common practice among MANY companies. Not just for Relay, but for medical, technical, and not to mention the clothes you’re wearing at this very moment - made in third world countries.
This is how the world has changed. If a company wants to stay competitive, they need to save as much money as they possibly can while maximizing their profits. “Made in china”, “Made in the Philippines”, “Made in India”. Do I need to go on? Not to irritate anyone, but if it was my company, I’d do the same thing. You can train people to speak “American”. In fact, some tech support call centers you may call to may reach someone on India, and even though the person you reached is from India, he/she may have mastered the techniques in speaking with an “American” accent.
Not to babble on here, but read a book titled “The World Is Flat.” This explains everything. :D
Welcome to the real world. :D
Though it may be common for many companies, I do find much at fault with the idea of outsourcing. Outsourcing creates a PERMANENT underclass and a class of Third World slaves, such as those in the Phillipines, India, and even people from Mexico that come to the United States to pick fruit during the summer.
While “outsourcing” may have some temporary benefits, the bigger picture is that Corporations and the Global elites are the ones that reap the MAJORITY of the benefits from this. Example: Corporation A: Wants to close down a Facotry in Detroit to somewhere the sweaters could be processed for Cheaper and with LESS regulation, so they relocated the factory to CHINA.
In China, there are not any bothersome regulations such as Minimum Wage, Work place safety regulations, Overtime laws, and Child safety laws. NOT to mention that in some countries if Employees talk about UNIONIZING they can be executed.
So, Company A decides to set up shop in China, and pay the workers $2 dollars per day to produce sweaters that workers in America were paid $12 dollars an hour plus health insurance. In China, the company NOT only gets to pay less, but because they DON’T have to abide by Overtime laws, they can work the employees 16 hour workdays. The wage offered by many of these companies make the “trappings” of Western Materialism to Purchase these products enticing, therefore because there are little to NO child labor laws, many children drop out of schools to begin working in the factories for $2 dollars a day to afford to buy that sweater produced by Company A.
Meanwhile, The CEO and the board of directors from these companies are facing record BONUS payouts, as well as the stock holders (who are the Gods of the company).
If you look at the Business news in your local newspaper, one can see that many Global companies are NOT as worried about the U.S. job market OR on how well they can sell their products in U.S. markets and instead have shifted their attention to the GLOBAL markets, such as China and India, so regardless of whether the U.S. enters a recession and a record number of people are unemployed, Company A will benefit from shifting the purchasing power to the people who are working 16 hour days in China.
As for “Speaking American”, at many of these call centers, the people from India have to take on assumed identities, “Hello My Name is Bob Smith, How can I help you today?”, when it appears obvious that the person’s name is NOT Bob Smith but could be Kumar Pinjolez. The changing of names to “Americanized” names was a tactic that was used during World War II by the Nazi’s to Jewish prisoners. To tell a group of individuals that they have to abandon their racial identities and assimilate to accomodate people in ANOTHER country, one which many will not be able to afford to ever visit, is beyond unethical, but I guess in the “Business World” there is NO Such thing as Morals and ethics.
There is also a toll being paid by the American Middle and working class, many 20-somethings are grauduating from college and finding it difficult to compete with people around the world who are willing to work for MUCH LESS than they can in order to purchase an overpriced home, car, and support a family. Many people in various industries, the Hershey plant in Oakdale comes to mind, are forced into early retirement, sadly, little do we know if Social security will be present.
I am familiar with Thomas Friedman and his book, “The World is Flat”, many young demoralized zombies are found quoting that book to defend the concept of Globalization, at the expense of the American Working and Middle Class and the creation of Third-World Slavery to benefit a few CEO’s and shareholders.
To suggest that ONE Book “EXPLAINS EVERYTHING” is very ignorant and shows a dangerous simplicity in thinking.
It is fair though to suggest that the fault does lay to an extent with American consumers, but at this point, with many goods many in other countries it is impossible to find American-made products at FAIR prices, especially with the way that wages are dropping in this country (the average hourly wage in today’s America is MUCH lower (adjusted for inflation) than it was in 1979), meanwhile the prices on items such as gas, home heating, and groceries have raised dramatically.
In the end, “The World” is NOT flat, the “World” is round, and as in the case of the economic recession in the U.S., now with Wall-Street investors shaking in their boots, “What Goes AROUND comes AROUND”…
Thumbs Down to the GoAmerica! Thank God, I never buy anything from the GoAmerica like the wireless pager or use their service!
I really could not believe that how idiotic the GoAmerica could be for outsourcing the American jobs to the Flipinos.
Don’t the American corporations learn anything from India which many Indian teleoperators are highly stressed out from their jobs handling Americans and Brits?
Many Indian teleoperators expressed themselves that they faced emotional and self-worth taxness because of abusive reactions from Americans and Brits’ intolerance with Indian telehandlings.
Let’s boycott the GoAmerica and report it to the anti-outsourcing group to demand that the U.S. Congress revoke the GoAmerica’s special tax status and levy the highest tax percentage on this same company!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
Just thinking about this, Josh… I’m sure GoAmerica made what they consider a good business decision. a.Stranger is right - many North American companies have already done the same thing… BUT, with a name like “GoAmerica” - maybe they need to change their name to “GoAwayFromAmerica” .. I’m sure they chose their name to inspire patriotism and to make customers think they are doing something For America… HA!! I suppose in the Philippines they can hire employees for 50 cents an hour, and not pay any benefits, thus saving money!
RLM - I usually agree with your comments, but this time I have to say, “Why increase taxes on their company??? How do Deaf people benefit from that??? Instead maybe levy a surcharge on all calls originating from outside the US, with the fees to go towards researching and enhancing ASL.. Otherwise it will just go to pay the huge National Debt (how many trillions??) and benefit NO ONE…
Hey Deaf cults, you need to learn that today is 2008. Not 1980. Economics keep going down anywhere around the world. Go America is too smart and in advance, than all VRS providers. Why? They can see the business in 10 years later. They care about you - deaf community. What if FCC cuts off the budget up to 0.10 cent per minute for VRS reimbursement. Go America will be able to survive with this. Choose No MORE VRS or Keep VRS alive in 2020? Which do you prefer?? ASK yourself. Please be awake! and STOP being SPOILED. Other countries don’t have VRS, the luxury ones you have in USA. Got it??? God counts you.
Definitely YES. I agreed with William and A.Stranger. That is Our real world! All deaf vloggers / bloggers should read this. They are too busy with AGBELL and other deaf cult things! Wasting their time! They must face the reality! How they live :-)
Ignore AGBELL or silly things - They only want is MONEY! Simple! Stop wasting your time. Think how to live in real world. You need to change your attitude and accept the facts. We need to be more competitive with Hearing companies. NOT Deaf companies.
i think that goamerica is making a BIG MISTAKE. theyre saving money, but their customer service is going to go down the drain. goamerica calls are from canada anyway, and not the USA. just to let you know that much…now the phillips.good thing americans are paying their taxes to foreign countries.relay operators in the phillips offer terrible custome service. let’s fight against goamerica to keep it in north america!
emily please open ur mind. USA economic is going down. U fight for nothing. Ask yourself no more vrs or better than nothing which will u choose? Look at other companies all use call centers outside to survive their business. It seems deaf cults too liberal are really igorant and spoiled. Blinded by too much deaf oriented out of balance in real world. Sorry for it. Be awake! Today is 2008. If u own go america u will do the same thing haha! No choice that is real world. Not deaf world
I second a.stranger: “The world is flat” gives you a real grasp of this outsourcing phenomenon. Great book and it reassures how we are all going further and further in the competition. If these calling centers do train the operators to speak “American English” or “British English”, it will be no surprise to train them the “etiquette” to be used in the “Deaf world”.
[…] At least the scam calls will be no more. YAHOO!!!!! Have you seen both of this blog entries? DeafDC Blog » GoAmerica Outsourcing Relay Call Center to the Philippines DeafDC Blog » Update on GoAmerica Outsourcing to the Philippines __________________ Boult […]
Don’t forget that not only is the Riverbank CA center having major decrease in operators, but the Memphis TN center as well. I am an IP relay operator at the Memphis center and out of 250 operators they’re only keeping 40-60!
I’m a Riverbank CRS/IP operator. Wanted to make a point about the fraud blockage. Are those scam calls really being blocked? If they are being blocked then why is Stellar Nordia/GoAmerica’s goal to hire 100 employees a day until 1,000 employees are hired overseas? Since a large majority of IP calls were fraud, then why do so many people need to be hired if it’s is being blocked? Out of the 700 employees in Riverbank their goal is to have only 150-200 operators left. It would be great to know that the deaf community supports us. I’d also like to point out that American citizens are paying a tax on their phone bills that is now used to pay the salary of those international operators to process calls for callers in the United States. Shouldn’t those maditory taxes at least be going to workers in the United States? Also, once our contract is expired, I can’t imagine why they would keep our center open. Without a contract then they don’t even have to keep a CRS center in CA! I’d like to mention that I have found my job very rewarding for the last 5 years am I am going to miss it very much.