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Dell suddenly closes Edmonton facility after touting it as the top-performing facility globally

The Edmonton Journal reports that Dell has closed its Canadian call center located in Edmonton after only three years of a 20-year lease was fulfilled. The closing of the call center resulted in the loss of 900 jobs to employees working in the center.

Dell recently decided to change its traditional exclusive marketing approach of direct sales and now offers computers in retail outlets. With stiff competition in the computer industry Dell has had to fight hard for market share with the likes of HP, Acer and Apple, and is now attempting to cut costs in an effort to remain competitive.

The Edmonton Journal quotes Dell’s Edmonton site leader Dave Vanden Bosch as saying, “This has been a difficult decision. We have a good team of people, and will do all we can to help them and our community partners through this transition." The call center was touted by company founder Michael Dell as being the best of the Dell breed and one of the companies highest performing call centers in the world.

Sources at Dell say that the closure of the call center and cutting all the employees was partly a result of the strong Canadian dollar and the difficulty keeping employees due to the hot job market in the Edmonton area. The strong job market reportedly made it difficult for Dell to keep trained employees that could maintain the Dell expectations for customer service. The closing of the facility is expected to be done over several months and other companies are reported to be interested in the facility itself.

Dell also recently announced it was closing all of its U.S. kiosks and direct sales stores.

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There was a Canadian Call Center??
By RogueLegend on 2/1/2008 4:15:32 PM , Rating: 5
It would have been nice to talk to someone there instead of India. Not that I don't want them to have jobs, but tech support becomes so much easier when comprehension isn't an issue.




RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By TomZ on 2/1/2008 4:21:15 PM , Rating: 2
I'm guessing that call center was for sales, not support. Usually when I call Dell for sales, I end up talking with someone in the US. Tech support...we'll, that's another situation entirely.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By BruceLeet on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Grast on 2/1/2008 4:46:46 PM , Rating: 5
Nothing is wrong with Indians?

However as a paying customer for support, I would PREFER to talk to someone in which English is their primary language. I have better things to do with my time than cross the language barrier. This is not an issue of slamming people from India. It is about total customer experience. The average person calling for tech support does not have the interest or time to learn how their computer works. They simply want to call someone when it is not working and get a resolution quickly and with least amount of effort.

Calm down and understand that it is easier for someone to communicate their issue with a person which speaks the same language.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By leexgx on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
By frobizzle on 2/4/2008 8:58:51 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
...made it difficult for Dell to keep trained employees that could maintain the Dell expectations for customer service.

Uh, when expectations are low, it is easy to meet them.


By arjunp2085 on 2/4/2008 1:36:25 PM , Rating: 2
I understand...it....

I was in Dell support until very recently....

Trust me... there are a good load of English speaking people...

I have had loads of satisfied customers...( i speak Decent English Though English is not my first language)

it is That a few of them Some how get missed in the screening process and start working in here .. its not the language only the issue with the issues But the attitude with these techs also....

Trust me Guys Dell process of support Quality is the most stringent...
I am not in dell anymore but it is the most challenging process one can be in...

we have a very rigorous language training and tech training....
quote:
Nothing is wrong with Indians?
quote:
However as a paying customer for support, I would PREFER to talk to someone in which English is their primary language. I have better things to do with my time than cross the language barrier. This is not an issue of slamming people from India. It is about total customer experience. The average person calling for tech support does not have the interest or time to learn how their computer works. They simply want to call someone when it is not working and get a resolution quickly and with least amount of effort.


By TomZ on 2/1/2008 4:49:00 PM , Rating: 2
You're reading too much into my post. I don't have any issues or prejudice talking with tech support anywhere in the world, as long as (a) they are properly trained and knowlegable, and (b) we can understand each other.

In my experience, however, calling tech support at different tech companies, the odds of having both of these elements I listed above is maybe 1 in 4 at best.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By jstchilln on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
By christojojo on 2/1/2008 9:26:21 PM , Rating: 3
Here is my viewpoint:

I have mild hearing problem and when it comes to accents, be they Bostonian or Indian, they distort the line of communication. As a teacher, I know that many failures in performance are a failure of communication.

If the tech person can't communicate in that language, they shouldn't put the customer through a long tortuous time that forces them to ask for someone else. I have had the person on the other line keep calling me Mrs Stevens; not only is that not even close to my real last name but I have a deep male voice.

I don't see how it is fair to Indians, Canadians, or any foreign speaking customers. If your native tongue is Swahili why should they be forced to listen to an English person slaughter Swahili?

Companies offer Spanish tech support so why can't they offer English?


By tastyratz on 2/1/2008 10:44:02 PM , Rating: 1
Ugh people always have to turn it dont they?
Dell tech support is famous for being horrendus. You havent had any bad experiences and some people have been struck by lightning - these things happen. They are not and will probably never be... Top rate.

I agree with what other people have posted. A language barrier be it indian, spanish, or alabaman is still a language barrier. This is going to be a problem no matter what your collaborative task is. Introducing this by nature where the telephone is the main method of communication and your asking for trouble.

The biggest problem with reaching india for tech support istn india. The problem roots to the fact that they are sending support overseas to save money. They save money on labor, and on Telecom costs.
India is capable of housing like any other country... but they dont save any money hiring the smart ones though do they?
Put someone unqualified in front of a script and your gonna have the same imbecile no matter where they come from.

Hire a bunch of idiots in india and now when you hear the indian accent your going to assume its just another idiot. Tech support in india has become a very negative concept for this reason. Ive talked to some smart people in india before but they rarely work at a call center...


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By SiliconAddict on 2/2/2008 5:33:43 AM , Rating: 2
While it’s gotten easier to deal with Dell's Bangalore support branch I can tell you right now that there ARE under trained people at that location. I've dealt with them...painfully dealt with them might I add.

Look. I'm a Dell field tech. In the last 2 years of this job I’ve run over 300 Dell calls both Desktop\Laptop\Server\and Printer. So I can say this as a person with interment knowledge of Dell.
Language isn't so much the problem. Its accent and culture. The simple fact is that their accent is so bad from a communication standpoint that being in the field it’s the single biggest complaint that I've gotten from customers and from me. The accent isn’t the only problem. The tone and inflection is different and also reflects the cultural differences between East vs. West. Having dealt with India now for a couple years I know this isn’t the case, but the tone can sometimes come off as hostile and it does impact the relationship with the customer. This isn’t something that Dell can simply fix and is the primary reason Dell implemented IM chatting with Dell on support.dell.com
Beyond that these people are NOT trained to troubleshoot. Event their DCSE support reps aren't trained to troubleshoot. All they do is flowchart a problem...that is all. So when someone who really knows what they are doing gets on the phone with India they are butting heads with a script...This is where culture comes into play. We had a Dell rep at our location recently and they talked about how from a cultural standpoint that job performance doesn't just effect them but it’s a reflection of their family itself. Deviating from their job to get the job done simply isn't done. So they do X or Y to the letter. Which can cause issues. Dell knows this all too well. Now there are times when my call doesn’t go to Bangalore but instead gets transferred to Round Rock. When I get an American not only can I understand them perfectly, but the communication between myself and the person on the other end of the phone isn’t as . . . I guess the best word would be intense. Its much more laid back. They get words and phrases….things like yep. . . nope. Etc. There really is a cultural aspect to all this. Its not just accent.
Now I don’t have anything against the people in India other then those who are so under trained that I want to beat them senseless. I had to deal with an IT outsourcer a couple months ago on a backup issue. The person kept kicking off the backup job when we hadn’t scratched the tapes yet. I had to get on the phone and tell him outright to stop fucking running the damn job until we get the tapes prepped. And that isn’t his fault. I don’t blame the tech for lack of training. I blame Dell or any IT outsourcer for hiring someone who is woefully under trained to do a job. The cost savings for hiring Indians isn’t just because they can get away with paying for less over there. . . They are hiring people who are under trained which saves companies money on paper. But JUST on paper.
Sorry if the above was poorly worded. Its 2:30 in the morning and I’m at a convention hitting the jello shots harder then I should be. :-P


By xti on 2/2/2008 11:54:47 AM , Rating: 2
they'll hire 'comprehensive sounding people' if you take the same wage they do working here.

exactly.


By arjunp2085 on 2/4/2008 1:56:32 PM , Rating: 2


Dude i am a guy who works with computers....there are a lot of good techs who are understanding...

the post of what u were referring to is about 40%...

But i have got calls from customers who call their CPU Cabinet as "modem"

also i have spoken with multiple customers who when Told to "restart the computer SWITCH OFF THE MONITOR AND TURN IT BACK ON" and People just scream on the phone and say nothing is happening to the computer.....

we work under various pressures.... If the cust is open to what we are saying things Go DAMN Smooth .... and those are the Best calls i have taken.....

of all the calls that originate most calls Do not require Techs to handle it....i would say (30%)

these will compose off calls

monitor screen is upside Down...(it is a setting of rotate screen with "Intel graphics adapter")

small loose connections in the cables causing comp not to turn on

and soo on....

We are also people Who work here ... "And there are some bad apples also",,, I have build rapport with Ever customer i Could...

quote:
While it’s gotten easier to deal with Dell's Bangalore support branch I can tell you right now that there ARE under trained people at that location. I've dealt with them...painfully dealt with them might I add.


By Alpha4 on 2/1/2008 4:42:26 PM , Rating: 2
I knew someone who worked for the Call Center and they did a lot of tech support and sales. True to Dave Vanden Bosch's statement my buddy did have his sights set higher and didn't stay longer than 6 months.


By dirtypants on 2/1/2008 4:45:14 PM , Rating: 2
That call center was for business customers in the US and Canada,and it used to be XPS and Canada home users.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Orbs on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By TomZ on 2/1/2008 4:53:37 PM , Rating: 2
Obviously you're not aware of our secret plan to annex Canada... Soon your entire country will be ours, ha ha ha ha ha (evil laugh)... :o)


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Rhaido on 2/1/2008 5:56:55 PM , Rating: 2
By Omega215D on 2/2/2008 1:40:29 AM , Rating: 4
AmeXiCan?


By aos007 on 2/1/2008 6:18:42 PM , Rating: 2
Played that game already. It was called Fallout. Made in Edmonton, ironically.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Motley on 2/1/2008 6:17:44 PM , Rating: 4
Actually, Canadians are American. American doesn't mean from the US, it means from the Americas, which is the North and South American continents. Last I checked, Canada was indeed on the north american continent.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Geraldo8022 on 2/1/2008 8:15:41 PM , Rating: 4
Wrong, Motley.
The United State of America is the only country which incorporates the word "America" into its official name. Canadians are not Americans. According to you someone from Argentina could go to Europe and introduce themselves as American. Wrong. Doesn't happen. American does mean from the USA, and only from the USA.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By ArenaNinja on 2/1/2008 11:23:42 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, they do.

I believe what you mean is that only "Americans" (i.e.: US people) think that they are the only Americans. In my varied experience, many South/Central American people introduce themselves simply as Americans. To date they seem to be mostly unaware that people within the US think that they're the only Americans.

Funny how the world works.

In any case, it's a sad thing when you see a business close operations because of the "strong performance of the Canadian dollar".

/begin Canadian flame =\
//I think this comment was more appropriate for Fark... but still true


By GreenEnvt on 2/4/2008 9:16:59 AM , Rating: 2
You have a different experience then I. My wife is from South America, Paraguay. Her family is all from either Paraguay, Brazil, or Uraguay. I've never heard any of them, their friends, or the people in Paraguay or Brazil refer to themselves as Americans. I suspect when I confer with my wife, who lived there up until a few years ago, she'll have the same experience.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Oroka on 2/2/2008 1:05:31 AM , Rating: 1
Ummmm, no. American means a person from the United States of America, not a person from North America. Just cause there is terms like 'European', 'South American', and 'Middle Eastern', doesnt automatically make anyone from North America an 'American'. If I was to say I was of American decent... where would you think I came from? In such a situation, it would more likely be 'North American decent'.

Also, if anyone from N America was an 'American', wouldnt that make central and south American people 'American' too? I am pretty sure that if someone knows where North America is, they know about Canada and the USA, and how they are seperate.

Visiting Europe, I certainly wouldnt say I was an 'American'. Last vacation I went on, I wanted to by a drink, but they guy went on some rant I couldnt understand... blah blah blah blah, American, blah blah. I cut him off, pointed to myself and said 'Canadian'. He stopped, apoloigized in English (we Canadians speak English, not American), and told me about how most Americans were ignorant, loud, and pompous (that is the exact words he used).

I have many friends who are American, but dont lump me in with the people who speak 'American'. The world revolves around the north and south poles, not Texas.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By qt on 2/1/2008 5:30:24 PM , Rating: 2
The call center may have been for "gold" or corporate tech support. I spoke to some tech support people out of Canada a few times. They were very competent and went out of their way to help. All my tech support issues when I talked to them were resolved first time around. Sorry to hear they were closed down.


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By DOSGuy on 2/1/2008 5:11:32 PM , Rating: 2
Dell also has a large call center in Ottawa, Canada. They just built a new building that they had promised to create 1200 new jobs for, but they recently announced that they are no longer going to create those jobs, and the building is currently empty. Nevertheless, there is still a call center with over 1000 people in Canada. I don't know if they receive calls from the US, but I would suspect that they do.


By dirtypants on 2/2/2008 1:40:49 AM , Rating: 3
I worked in Ottawa for a year and a bit before I left back in December, and all I did was Dell On Call. That took up 1/3 of the building as I left, while the other 2/3 was XPS voice, chat and email support. All our calls were from US, sometimes one or two Canadian callers got through. I am pretty sure they are now switching everything to voice chat support now in the building, and laying off a lot of people as well. Its really not the place to work in for a long time, I don't understand how people make a career out of over the phone technical support, plus they promised a apprenticeship through the Ontario government after a years work on the phones, neither I or people who were working there for longer have those apprenticeship certificates from the government yet, and I don't think anyone will get them,,,,,


RE: There was a Canadian Call Center??
By Screwballl on 2/1/2008 7:35:54 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
It would have been nice to talk to someone there instead of India. Not that I don't want them to have jobs, but tech support becomes so much easier when comprehension isn't an issue.


agreed. They may do their job well just as I do but when productivity is lowered as you have to spend all this extra time trying to understand what the heck they are saying, both you and they lose time and money. Keep the support in North America where at least the largest difference in speech is y'all, about and aboot.

I am tech support and I work in the USA. My company is American (as in USA), my boss and fellow employees are all american and each of us can understand and be understood well. We have black, asian, Peruvian, caucasian... a mix of all types of people here but even those from other backgrounds speak English well and can be understood quite easily. Not like 99% of any Indian that we ever deal with through our own calls for Covad support.


By rudy on 2/2/2008 3:13:52 AM , Rating: 2
They don't even do their job well, they read off a screen the same thing I can get by going to dells website. This is the thing that bothers me the most about dells terrible CS and many other companies that hire out to India. If I could not figure it out on your website why the heck would you hire someone who speaks English poorly and make me tell them all the same junk I told your web site. US companies just don't get it customer service for people who are having trouble is the one place you simply cannot use people from another country unless they are incredible English speakers. But if they speak English that well and know computers, they won't be working for pennies at your crap call center.


By ToeCutter on 2/3/2008 12:20:49 AM , Rating: 2
Actually, Dell's Support Center for Storage/AX100 was in Canada and manned those by "speaking English as a second-half language".

I've called there many times and the support was ludicrous. There was no sense of urgency, and they demonstrated no logical problem solving ability, they depended far more on "trying things" than working towards a solution.

This combined with the language barrier resulted in much unnecessary downtime.

I have no prejudice towards Asian IT people. Some of the brightest people I've worked with have immigrated here from India, as well as other Asian countries. But poor support delivered by those who simply cannot speak conversational English represents bad support weighed my any metric.


Dell Edmonton, Not Indian, Hard To Keep Employees
By Aborted on 2/1/2008 9:05:57 PM , Rating: 2
You guys have it all wrong about this call center. I worked there for a month 2 years ago and I live about a 5 minute drive from it. It's almost entirely Dell On Call that they deal with there, which is tech support. They also have departments for printer tech support, and software/hardware tech support. A lot of American companies have tech support in Canadian cities because Americans like dealing with us on the phone a lot better than their own people. We are a lot politer. This is what I was told when I was hired at Dell and IBM doing tech support 100% for American customers. The reason I quit? Well for starters it paid $13/h when I could walk to a fast food store and make $15, or go to work in sales and make closer to $20 an hour as I am right now. Also the extremely "omg yay Dell!!! Dell is awesome!!" attitude they have scared the crap out of me. I've never worked for a company that went on so much about how awesome they were in the 3 weeks of training and it felt like a cult. It was also a bad place to work, high turn over rate. You couldn't really pick your schedule and would often be working like 6am until 2pm which for me is not going to happen. I was 19 when I worked there, partying until 2am and then working at 6am no thanks. Old people can work those hours haha. The wages are crazy in Edmonton though because of the Fort McMurray oil sands about 300 miles away. You can get a $100000/y job as an 18 year old working on the rigs. So lots of people do that, companies here in the city have to have high pay just to get young people to stay. All the good white collar work is in Calgary or Vancouver, so there's isn't many good places to work in the IT industry. And the companies that are here for IT go through employees like crazy. Dell and Convergys have to be 2 of the worst tech support companies in the world. Dell uses proprietary parts and archaic tech support methods. Ive worked in computer stores and had to turn away people who wanted parts because I knew that the parts I could sell them wouldn't work in a dell. and then you go to dell for the parts and they charge you 3x as much as the retail stores. it's rediculous. also that entire dell facility in edmonton is full of world of warcraft playing nerds. Michael dell came to the facility a year or two back and the one question the employees asked him was if he plays world of warcraft. I got out of there as quick as possible and back to school. so I say good riddance, nobody is going to miss having dell here. I wish they would have left sooner. They rip off their employees just like they rip off their customers.




By Aborted on 2/1/2008 9:15:21 PM , Rating: 2
Dell closed this facility 100% for the reason of nobody in Edmonton wants to work for $13/h. The Alberta economy is strong. Get this Americans, our economy is so strong that our government paid off the provincial debt and then had so many billions of dollars left over that they just started giving money to the citizens. Surplus checks they called it, $400 to every citizen.

Dell will open a facility in a foreign country, or a poor American city where they can pay the people next to nothing and have no problem keeping employees. Simple as that. It's smart business.


By gshock888 on 2/2/2008 5:08:30 AM , Rating: 2
your economy is also awfully dependent on your southern neighbor. get off your high horse.


By Aborted on 2/2/2008 3:46:43 PM , Rating: 2
I don't know what they tell you guys in school but our economy is not as dependent on yours as you might think. In actuality the American economy is very dependent on ours in very compelling aspects. For example, we are your number one exporter for all sorts of goods and services. The Alberta economy is strong due to our oil sector. If what you said was true our economy would have collapsed or at least decreased since 2001 when Bush began his 8 year tyrannical war mongering reign. But quite the opposite has happened, this past decade has been some of the strongest this province, and the entire Country has ever seen.

Instead of being defensive, why don't you try voting in a president who spends more on education and less on military. As you are clearly lacking in the former.


By arjunp2085 on 2/4/2008 2:25:15 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Ive worked in computer stores and had to turn away people who wanted parts because I knew that the parts I could sell them wouldn't work in a dell. and then you go to dell for the parts and they charge you 3x as much as the retail stores. it's rediculous..


U are WRONG DOWN RIGHT TO THE CORE....
I am an Electronic Engineer as well....
Dell used contracts to third party manufactures....

Have u Ever Heard of Foxcon ... they are a part of supplies who manufacture main board for dell....

DELL just assembles the computer and Sticks the label and sells them... only the Software forms the locks....

Microsoft Customizes the software For Dell....Dell only installs them.....

IN EFFECT..... ANY RATED COMPONENT WILL WORK ON A RATED SOCKET IN ANY COMPUTER "DELL OR ANY BRAND"

PCI,PCI-E , AGP , DDR ,DDR II Are all Standards set by independent organizations ...ALL MANUFACTURES FOLLOW THE STANDARD....

I have Guided customers to Buy from local store For their Dell computers and THEY WORK.....

quote:
also that entire dell facility in edmonton is full of world of warcraft playing nerds. Michael dell came to the facility a year or two back and the one question the employees asked him was if he plays world of warcraft.


Gamers are the most Techies of all.....
Most gamers Push the computers to the limits... and Really Know about Computers ..."NOT LIKE U"

I Bet U have never heard of "Over clocking a PC" at all.. Gamers always Do that.... and Know the Physical and Electrical limits of the machines.....

If u Do not know How a computer Works Do not post mis information......" most common Users are Riddled With mis information"


By arjunp2085 on 2/4/2008 2:25:53 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Ive worked in computer stores and had to turn away people who wanted parts because I knew that the parts I could sell them wouldn't work in a dell. and then you go to dell for the parts and they charge you 3x as much as the retail stores. it's rediculous..


U are WRONG DOWN RIGHT TO THE CORE....
I am an Electronic Engineer as well....
Dell used contracts to third party manufactures....

Have u Ever Heard of Foxcon ... they are a part of supplies who manufacture main board for dell....

DELL just assembles the computer and Sticks the label and sells them... only the Software forms the locks....

Microsoft Customizes the software For Dell....Dell only installs them.....

IN EFFECT..... ANY RATED COMPONENT WILL WORK ON A RATED SOCKET IN ANY COMPUTER "DELL OR ANY BRAND"

PCI,PCI-E , AGP , DDR ,DDR II Are all Standards set by independent organizations ...ALL MANUFACTURES FOLLOW THE STANDARD....

I have Guided customers to Buy from local store For their Dell computers and THEY WORK.....

quote:
also that entire dell facility in edmonton is full of world of warcraft playing nerds. Michael dell came to the facility a year or two back and the one question the employees asked him was if he plays world of warcraft.


Gamers are the most Techies of all.....
Most gamers Push the computers to the limits... and Really Know about Computers ..."NOT LIKE U"

I Bet U have never heard of "Over clocking a PC" at all.. Gamers always Do that.... and Know the Physical and Electrical limits of the machines.....

If u Do not know How a computer Works Do not post mis information......" most common Users are Riddled With mis information"


By Aborted on 2/7/2008 3:41:28 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure where you get your information but I watched the staff in our service department turn away customers as we could not replace parts. Memory being the biggest example, just not being compatible with the Dell. People coming back to our store upset as the price for identical sticks being as much as 3x as expensive on the Dell website and there being very little of technical difference between them. The term used is "proprietary technology" and many companies use it to force customers into replacing systems pre-maturely, or purchasing upgrades through the same company as exorbitant prices.

I think the company you are talking about is Foxconn, and yes I have heard of them. Not only that but I have attended corporate seminars for their products (motherboards in particular) to further my knowledge and be equipped to better sell.

For an "electronic engineer", whatever that is. I'm guessing you meant to say electrical engineer, you certainly have terrible spelling.


Strong job market?
By utaka95 on 2/1/08, Rating: 0
RE: Strong job market?
By knacko on 2/1/2008 5:44:53 PM , Rating: 5
You might want to actually do some research before you post. In Edmonton (and Calgary), people working at fast food joints start out at just about double the minimum wage ($8x2 = $16/hour). Even at that pay, they're still having trouble finding workers. Dell picked the wrong province to put a call center in.


RE: Strong job market?
By aos007 on 2/1/2008 6:22:17 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. For example, I hear from a former coworker the people who pack your food in Safeway in Calgary were making $17.50 an hour over a year ago. As you said, Dell picked up the wrong province for a call centre and combined with the appreciation of the Canadian dollar, I imagine it is now actually cheaper to reopen it in the US.


RE: Strong job market?
By Darkskypoet on 2/1/2008 7:33:49 PM , Rating: 2
Yeps. Alberta over the past 5-6 years has been on fire job market / boom wise. The biggest problem, is that if your not making 17-20 dollars an hour, you won't find much of a place to live. The number of 45k+/yr workers living in mobile homes / trailers, etc in campgrounds and such is actually astounding.

They should've built in Winnipeg; cheap cost of living, cheap power, and a huge number of low - middle tech workers for call center staffing. Also, being located in the middle of the country tends to be helpful for time difference issues. Never much more then 2.5 hours off of your North American clients.


RE: Strong job market?
By sanjamal on 2/1/2008 9:45:50 PM , Rating: 2
I worked in Dell Edmonton for a solid year. It was an awesome place to work, and we did a good job there. The reason that most people didn't know about us is because they put us in charge of the business unit for computers and printers. They were later given the premium support services, but I wasn't there for that. If you're a regular consumer that spoke with us, then it's probably because you purchased your personal system/printer through a company purchase plan.

I agree with Darkskypoet. With what I was getting paid at Dell, Winnipeg would have been a way better option to put a location. I live in Winnipeg right now and there are tons of people that would like to have a job that paid that well. Not only that, but the employees would have been living really well on that pay in low-cost Winnipeg.

To all the cool people that I got to work with: Good luck wherever you end up, and may your next job pay way better!


By encryptkeeper on 2/1/2008 4:16:46 PM , Rating: 1
Dell suddenly closes Edmonton facility after touting it as the top-performing facility globally.

They will set you on fire.




By FITCamaro on 2/1/2008 4:31:18 PM , Rating: 1
Seriously. So it's better to keep people in India who their customers hate since they can't speak f*ing English and fire those who they rate the highest. Way to go Dell. You continue to fuel my lack of desire to purchase your products.


By 0uterlimitz on 2/1/2008 6:41:40 PM , Rating: 1
of course. thats the whole global agenda. deflate our economy (including our sister Canada) because then it's easier to "corral" all us goyum (cattle). In the meanwhile spread the wealth all over the world to only further deflate our currency and standing in this world. Only then will the new world order be complete.

on the real though It does suck. I love Indians, think their chicks are hot, and totally dig the food. I know some hella talented peeps come from there and this has NOTHING to do with culture. It has EVERYTHING to do with an elite global agenda.

Pass the Sag-Paneer

1


By Kratos on 2/2/2008 1:56:05 AM , Rating: 3
Well for starters i would like to tell you that u have absolutely no knowledge about the customer experience(read AMERICAN customer experience) in these "INDIAN" call centres.I have worked in one for 6 months and would like to inform you that the most important parameter of our work is customer experience(CE) and in that we are even better than your american sites.True we may not have the same accent or fluency of the language, but we are more skilled, knowledable, courteous and polite...i can go about this for long, sharing my experiences but there is no point since it would all be greek to you...and by the way u can go ahead and buy a gateway,HP,acer or any other brand and then u would still end up speaking to us!!!


This is sad to me
By Varun on 2/1/2008 7:55:56 PM , Rating: 2
This was where all of our corporate tech support came from and I really enjoyed dealing with this call centre. As someone in a Canadian IT position it was refreshing to have someone actually know where Canada was when it came to shipping.

I can understand that the Edmonton market is not the place for a low paying call centre though with the current boom going on. There is no way they could keep people there with the wages being offered around Alberta. At least these 900 people will only be out of work until they want to work again - they can literally get a job when ever they decide to.




RE: This is sad to me
By BOBSHACK123 on 2/2/2008 1:25:52 AM , Rating: 2
Trust me this is best for these people that slave there. I worked there for almost a year. All the upper management there cares about is numbers. I used to be so good at helping people and really solving current and preventing future problems but that threw my number's out the door so i was low in the stats and ended up working retarded shifts for minimum pay. They wanted "ownership" of problems aka. Fixing from start to finish but this had to happen in 40 minutes or less or you werent making a profit. This is how Dell works. If you've ever been on the phone with one of their tech's you'll notice this point during a call where the tech gives up and basically sets u up for an OS reinstall which you'll be promised will fix everything and left with an unprotected, venerable, windows install with none of the programs that came with the computer back on. You'll have no help with backing up your files because this is outside of their scope of support(READ: IT TAKES TO DAMN LONG) At the time almost 2 years ago i was making 28 000/year working 40 hours a week on some retarded schedule(o ya and we were promised 9-5 when we started). I'm glad i left edmonton and went back to Lloydminster to work on the rigs because now i'm making 100G/year and just bought my first house at 22 and 2 cars. Gawd I love alberta :D


RE: This is sad to me
By SavagePotato on 2/2/2008 1:09:58 PM , Rating: 2
I've had a few dell customers call that have been a victim of this.

Call saying my Internet's not working and it CAN'T be my computer so don't even say that because I was just on the phone with dell and they said my computer is working perfectly, they had me reload it.

Mhm, ok can you go to my computer and right click, select manage then go to device manager and tell me, do you see any yellow question marks?

Um yeah, it says sm bus controller, Ethernet controller, audio controller, video controller, etc etc etc.

Next part of the conversation? 20 minutes trying to get it to register that dell DIDN'T fix but just torched their machine.


Win Win
By SavagePotato on 2/1/2008 7:40:27 PM , Rating: 1
It's a bit of a win win situation for those people.

They are out of a job, but then again they are only out of the most soul destroying maddening job the human mind can be subjected to.

And it is Alberta, if you don't have a job in Alberta it's because you don't want a job. Those people could walk down the street to Shaw and have a gleaming new career in Internet tech support the next day. Or if they are smart save themselves the agony and look into a new field.




RE: Win Win
By Oroka on 2/2/2008 1:14:38 AM , Rating: 2
Heck, if you want a job anywhere in Canada, just head to Alberta right now. I have several friends working in the oil sands, and making a mint. If I had nothing better to do with my life than make money, I might consider it, but moving to northern Alberta is just not in the books right now.

As for $13 and hour to work at Dell... that is about the same they pay people to work at McDonlds and Tim Hortons in Alberta. Dont really help though, everything there costs a mint. I bet Alberta citys are among the most expensive citys to live in in the world.


RE: Win Win
By SavagePotato on 2/2/2008 1:02:09 PM , Rating: 1
I live in Alberta, for those that don't work in the oil and gas industry it isn't quite so rosy. Living in either Edmonton or Calgary and making 17 dollars an hour is basically being at the poverty line. Making 13, thats like time to start thinking about getting a second job if you want to survive.

Landlords push rent through the ceiling just because they can since theres so many coked up rig pigs with nothing but money to throw around for a place to live. Or oil companies that will rent places out for workers at extreme rates.

If you have the stomach to work in the oil industry, you can do alright. It's not exactly what you call an easy life either. If you like working 15 hours a day for a month straight without a day off you will make a hell of a lot of money, but then again what exactly is the point if you don't get to use it.

Oil and gas is a good place to be if you a multiple addiction workaholic that cares about nothing besides making money and doing coke when not making money.


Tech support is a pain
By snickhill on 2/2/2008 5:29:30 PM , Rating: 2
I am an Indian who worked in DELL tech support for about an year.Sometimes we had to bring in a third technician on the line(mostly a guy sittin' in US). I personally felt that most of those guys were rude( and sometimes mean)and rarely came up with a solution that actually fixed the problem, always directing the customers to someone else.In other words, they are as hopeless as some of the Indian techs who cannot comprehend the customers problem in the first place. The point is, Tech support, anywhere in the world, is lousy and unreliable. Only the most frequently occuring problems get resolved promptly. better not to waste time and money. go for geek squad or something like that, who solve all the problems for a fee....
a customer once told me," your accent sounds a lot better than southerners here"




RE: Tech support is a pain
By falacy on 2/2/2008 10:21:45 PM , Rating: 2
I often feel morally obligating to keep supporting HP all-in-one printers, as I am one of the few people who are actually good at resolving issue. Of course, it's because I am over qualified for the position. That said, it boggles my mind how so many agents around the world are so amazingly incompetent, but hey you wouldn't want me to paint your house (ask my brother), so everything is relative I suppose.

It does astound me though that so many contractors will hire any old "sock in the mouth" person for a telephone rep position. Truly, it's not the agent's fault, it's the company's fault for hiring them; not everyone is suitable for every position. I don't think Playgirl would hire me to do a spread, for instance. I'm OK with that. If people will have a hard time understanding you when you speak, maybe it would be prudent to save yourself the agony of taking a telephone job. This goes for anyone, anywhere in the world.

Anyhow, I just can't seem to pull myself away from the nice warm seat, the stupidly easy money, and the nice coworkers at my job. I also enjoy "meeting" and helping people from the USA, because a Windows printer is just the balance between being something important and something inconsequential that most of the time the help I provide actually makes a positive difference in a person's day and rarely does anyone get angy with me. However, ever since we started taking Canadian calls I have begun to dread taking calls in general. We Canadians are the most ignorant and rude tech support callers out there, flying in the face of the "polite Canadian" myth. People from the state of Georgia seem to be the nicest callers, but that may be due to my admiration of their cute accent.


AMPR
By geon on 2/3/2008 2:43:44 PM , Rating: 2
any one here who worked @ dell,Canada remember AMPR




RE: AMPR
By geekbyte on 2/4/2008 10:04:13 AM , Rating: 2
I worked for DELL in Ottawa, ON. the city gave DELL a free building to have them do support in the city and promote jobs. not even 1 year into the contract and they let 200 ppl go. DELL is the worst place to work for. I would like to see DELL crash and Apple take over the market share and open some call centers in Canada instead.


Big Ups
By 0uterlimitz on 2/1/2008 6:36:09 PM , Rating: 2
Teh "Union of Americas" for teh win.




By falacy on 2/2/2008 9:54:41 PM , Rating: 2
This does not boad well for the Dell French tech and sales support in Ontario, who work for Stream and get paid around $15 to $17/h. This is a premium over the rest of the Stream Dell agents, of course.

Almost eight years ago, Stream opened the call center in our town. Since then they've lost 60 cents on the dollar for every hour we work. Though we are always one of the top performing sites for customer satisfaction and total problem resolution (actually solving the issue on the first call) for HP, I can't help but expect to be out of a job in the near future. I wouldn't be suprised to see Stream lose this Dell contract and that would unemploy about 35% of our staff, many of whom earn around $10/h. We have more HP agents than Dell agents in our location, with our site being the only center for HP printer support for Mac OS X (they are always swamped with calls, go figure).

Sadly, in this area $10/h is an average wage, not that it's sufficient for an adult or family to survive upon. There are some great employers in the area, but wouldn't know it, they have very low turn-over rates and very few openings. From an employment persective, I miss living in Vancouver. That said, the community and four full seasons are much nicer where I'm living now (Vancouver has one season, "Wet"), which makes up somewhat for being part of the "working poor".




Ironically
By Digimonkey on 2/3/2008 3:08:39 AM , Rating: 2
It's probably one of the main reasons dell still has competitors. I worked in a call center once upon a time, for internet service, and we would help customers fix their computers because of the failings of the India call center.

I cannot say whether they were inept, or there was a big language barrier, only that most customer's that owned dells couldn't seem to get their problems fixed through their support number. In hind site, we probably should've made a stance and let people switch PC providers.




"This is about the Internet.  Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis











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