Re: Gates becomes an embarassment

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:58:31 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

NoName wrote:
On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:17:24 -0500, Gary James <none@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On 22 Mar 2007 04:59:28 -0700, "Capitalist Pig"
<cochon-capitaliste@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Bill Gates said and other large employers have echoed the same
sentiment: there is a shortage of skilled workers in the US for the
types of jobs they have to offer. Public education in America is
useless.

I have no doubt there is a shortage of skilled American workers who
will work as cheap as an Indian or a Pakistani will work.
Microsoft and other multi-nationals would love to see all Americans
work for $1 an hour.


I think we all have experienced firsthand the outsourcing of tech
support jobs by computer manuacturers and other software tech
support sites. to India.

Frankly, I've never encountered a high level of competence with
those I have accessed via phone. Rather a great deal of difficulty
understanding their Engish plus a strong suspicion they were
reading from scripts in asking questions.

I had a very frustrating experience in trying to get help with my
LinkSys router. Atter an hour on the phone with someone I could
barely understand, having my questions ignored and being directed
back to the script she was reading from, I cut off the phone call
in total disgust. My questions were ignored I think because they
are taught to solve problems only "by rote." I was referred twice
to a tech the "next level up" and had to repeat the entire
conversation, if you can call it that, three times with no solution
offered.


Our local ISP used foreign tech support for about a year and then
returned to local support. The reason? It was impossible to provide
good support without knowledge of the local culture. He was smart
enough to realize that the job consisted of more than just solving
technical problems.

Do we pay more for this service? Yes. I pay $30 per month for two
email accounts, very good spam filtering, 50M server storage, DSL, and
24/7 service without a phone tree to navigate and friendly people who
are local residents.

An example: Yesterday morning I had no DSL service. I called the
service number and the woman who answered said something to the effect
that she had just received another call from a neighbor of mine. She
was able to isolate the problem to a local switch, called the phone
company who had the problem fixed within an hour.

I don't know that tech support for ISPs is outsourced -- Road Runner
has always given me satisfactory local support.
Indeed, when I had a problem connecting that turned out to be due to
the Linksys router I first called RR and they were able to determine
that it was the router and not their network. And quickly.

Of course responsiveness of ISPs to phone calls to tech support can
vary by area.

Dell outsources its tech support and the problems are more complex
than an outage in ISP service, or a problem with an ISP's Email
service.

If there are scattered problems with RR service, or with Time Warner
cable, usually the help line has a message indicating what areas are
affected and when they might be resolved.

Yes, this service -- RR plus digital cable is expensive.

I have been pleased with Time Warner both in New York and now in
California. But conditions can vary locally, as I said. I understand
Time Warner acquired customers from two other providers, Adelphi
and Comcast, and these folks have reported numerous problems
in parts of California.

.