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Amazon, which booked net losses in Q1 and Q2 totaling nearly $6 billion and whose shares are down 38% from their high in July last year, is undertaking large-scale efforts to cut costs – including commercial real estate costs. It is closing or cancelling 44 warehouses across the US; it’s halting construction on six office towers, and won’t start construction on a seventh. And now it emerges that it plans to close four of its five call centers in the US and switch those customer service representatives to working from home. Amazon currently operates five call centers in the US....

Department of JusticeOffice of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, January 9, 2020Indian National Pleads Guilty to Owning, Funding, and Operating India-Based Call Centers That Scammed U.S. Victims Out of Millions of Dollars An Indian national pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of Texas for his role in operating and funding India-based call centers whose callers, and U.S.-based conspirators, defrauded U.S. victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016.Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, also known as Hitesh Hinglaj, 43, of Ahmedabad, India, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering,...

A call-center scammer has lost his appeal to overturn a $9m fine – after a court pointed out the crook had specifically waived the right to appeal when he pleaded guilty. Viraj Patel was part of a large India-based criminal enterprise that conned tens of thousands of Americans out of hundreds of millions of dollars: the swindlers would cold-call citizens and pose as US government officials demanding payment for unpaid taxes. But, it turns out that he wasn’t listening very carefully to either his lawyers or the federal district judge who sentenced him in Texas, because Patel was seemingly convinced...

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- One business is bringing 100 new jobs to Zanesville. Cable company Charter Communications announced that they will be hiring 100 new employees at their Spectrum call center on Northpointe Drive, formerly known as Time Warner Cable. “When you hear of a call center you usually hear of a big city,” said Mike Hogan, Charter Communications spokesman. “I think it’s great for Zanesville because we are committed to bringing jobs to a smaller community. We have a great facility here, a great work force and I think it’s our commitment to this area.” The call center currently has 430...

At the Carbonite call center in Lewiston, Maine, every minute an agent spends trying to fix a specific problem is tracked, allowing the data protection software company to put a price tag on each issue as it arises. Nearby, at the new Wayfair call centers in Bangor and Brunswick, customer service representatives reach out to people whose home-goods deliveries are at risk of being delayed or damaged, determined by an algorithm that analyzes previous feedback on similar orders. The world of call centers is changing rapidly as advances in data science allow companies to analyze the troves of information collected...

Connexions Loyalty, a subsidiary of Connecticut-based customer service company Affinion Group, purchased the assets of an existing Tulsa travel service center in January and hasn’t stopped hiring since. The company said in a news release that its purchase of the existing infrastructure in east Tulsa allowed it to retain 50 existing jobs. It has added 100 jobs in the meantime, bringing the number of employees up to 150. Connexions Loyalty plans on adding another 200-plus to its call-center operations at Corporate Woods business park on 129th East Avenue. Tulsa has become something of a call center hub due to a...

Walgreens will create more than 140 new jobs at its customer service center in Muscle Shoals. Made In Alabama, an initiative of the Alabama Department of Commerce in Montgomery, announced the news on its website Tuesday, saying the new positions will bring the total Muscle Shoals workforce to about 600. Pay will start at $10.50 an hour. Allison Mack, a spokeswoman for Walgreens in Illinois, said the jobs will be filled by late July. The positions will cover all shifts, and full-time employees will be offered benefits such as medical, dental, vision and life insurance, as well as stock purchase...

We've been digging for this kind of news story for a long time. Monday, we told you jobs and life are going back into the old Macy's building at Medley Centre in Irondequoit. It's a 750 job call center. The goal is to open the call center in the fall. The renovations inside the former Macy's store should be done by August. Right now it's just a big open space. The mall is owned by one company called Morgan Communities. The Macy's building is owned by Flaum Management and that's where the call center is going. Loren Flaum, CFO Flaum...

Bend, Ore. – Ibex Global, which employs about 500 people at a Bend call center, is planning to double that number this year, a company recruiter said Thursday. Ibex provides customer support for four brands that it declines to identify. Two are telecommunications companies; one is in motor sports, and one is a medical company, according to John Schweiter, lead recruiter for Ibex Global in Bend. Ibex Global, based in Washington, D.C., and formerly known in Bend as iSky, is a subsidiary of privately held TRG, based in Pakistan, said Rosemary Hanratty, Ibex senior director of marketing. According to news...

<p>Outsourcing companies in the Philippines, whose clients are mainly U.S. companies, are worried that Donald Trump’s plan to bring jobs back to America won’t end at just manufacturing but extend into services.</p> <p>The industry is considering hiring a U.S.-based consultant to monitor the threat of rising American protectionism, Ike Amigo, the head of the Philippine association representing outsourcing companies, said in an interview on Wednesday.</p>

In 1998, Vijay Chokal-Ingam was “determined to become a doctor,” but his 3.1 GPA significantly reduced his chances. When he realized his application wouldn’t cut it, he came up with a back-up plan — he pretended to be black. Chokal-Ingam, brother of famous actress Mindy Kaling, said he “knew that admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let’s say… less stringent.” In a blog post, Chokal-Ingam explains how he ended up getting into the St. Louis University School of Medicine despite his low GPA and MCAT score: So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to...

American information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) companies should take a serious look at the Philippines, which continues to be an “ideal location for customer service and technical support outsourcing,” the Philippine ambassador to the US advised. Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. made this pitch to business executives and decision makers from Wall Street and Fortune 500 firms who attended a networking event hosted recently by the Philippine Consulate General in New York and the Seven Seven Corporate Group. “The IT-BPM industry has been the fastest growing industry in the Philippines in the last 10 years,” Cuisia said as...

IT’S midnight in Manila, and the capital is just waking up to the start of another working day. At the Worldwide Corporate Centre office block, thousands of young Filipinos are crowding into endless open-plan offices. Once seated, they quickly start answering the questions and calming the frustrations of vexed American consumers beginning their own day on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. These Filipinos are call-centre workers. To outsiders it is hardly a glamorous profession, yet despite the antisocial hours these men and women have every reason to be as well-motivated and cheerful as they seem. They are well...

Guys! I made calls today from the Waukesha Victory Center and the all numbers were down for almost all the call centers this Super Saturday at all the call centers compared to the last Super Saturday! The dems are out calling us and turnout on June 5 is crucial for a win for Governor Walker! Please don't be complacent because of the poll numbers. Please sign up to make calls at a Victory Center soon! There are several in the state, more than are listed at the official site. For those of you who hate making the voter ID calls,(we...

Citing a backlash from customers who complained that they were finding Indian accents hard to understand, Delta Air Lines has dropped the use of Indian call centers to handle sales and reservations. Delta is retaining its call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, which generate far fewer complaints. Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers. The company services Florida’s Electronic Benefit Transfer program. The company directed overflow calls from EBT card holders to two Indian call centers. Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, said,...

How’s this for noche buena? Mother, father and sister carry packed food in plastic containers and then alternate between walking and taking public transportation, seemingly off to a special mission. Just outside a building, they prop up a table with a few chairs. They set the dishes they have brought. Brother, a call center agent, is in the graveyard shift; there are no holidays in his job. But when he sees his family outside, waving at him, he puts down his headset, turns away from his computer and walks out the door of his office for a little break. Of...

See for example this thread first. The Catholic church to unfurl programs for Indian "call" girl Call centers outsourced and that somehow forced them to give Kama Sutra a whirl !

India is by far the largest outsourcing market with a predicted 169,000 offshore call center staff by 2010-- nearly double the present number of 95,000. But call centers in Eastern Europe are expected to triple in that same amount of time from 3,700 to more than 10,000. Growth in North Africa is also expected to triple from 7,800 to over 23,000-- mostly driven by Egypt. The major concerns are the high turnover rate in India and the instability in the latter players. Still, India has to be looking west, AND while doing so, looking back over its shoulder at China....

'Racist' ad forced off air after 9 months By ANNA VLACH 05may06 THE RAA has been forced to withdraw a popular television commercial after the Advertising Standards Board voted to uphold a single complaint that it was racist. The "Which deli?" advertisement, which has aired for more than nine months, showed George, played by actor George Kapiniaris, telling cafe owner Trevor about the service provided by a call centre operator from New Delhi, India. The person who complained about the ad alleged the RAA explicitly used New Delhi "to show that service from India is bad compared to Australia". It...

Inspired by India's success at turning itself into the king of global outsourcing, countries all over the world are trying to perform the same feat on their often-struggling economies. Many send delegations to India to meet with experts and visit its hundreds of call centers, into-tech support operations, and back-office processing facilities. They also tap into expertise at the World Bank or hire consultants such as Accenture (NYSE: ACN - news) , McKinsey, or market researcher Gartner (NYSE: IT - news) . Armed with support from ambitious politicians, many countries then roll out packages of economic reforms to sweeten their...