Dell closes Edmonton call centre

[Mr. Analog]

EDMONTON - Dell Canada is closing its Edmonton call centre after only three years, putting up to 1,200 people out of work.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=a4931ec2-4ca4-4380-9ad5-521291fb4f9e&k=46904

I'm thinking we'll be seeing more juniors flood the job market...

[CowGirl]

I saw that!

[Tom]

I like that, to cut costs they are cutting skilled labour, which in the end will cut profits, meaning they will have to cut costs some more, GENIUS! Bad support == less customers, simple truth that dell seems to have forgotten.

[Lazybones]

The deal with EEDC included a $1-a-year lease for 20 years on 15 acres of land, and a property tax rebate worth $1.1 million.

I wonder what the terms of this 20 year deal where. What kind of penalty there is for cutting loose so early.

"The reason we are here in Edmonton and in Ottawa is because we need skills. ... What's important to us is that our customers get the best experience from anywhere in the world. We found that support teams here have a better track record of helping the customer," Dell said.

They where great, my corporate gold level support numbers sent me right to that call center. They knew their stuff and there where no funny accents.

[Darren Dirt]

My brother phoned me about this earlier today -- he worked there for a few weeks; it was uber-structured Call Centre HELL. They are a badly managed company, because they forget how to treat people like PEOPLE* (customers and employees alike) so this might be a case where a hearty out loud "good riddance" is appropriate. (I don't really care either way, but I sympathize with the 900+ unemployed now, of course.)



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As Lazy said, though, the people manning the Call Centre ITSELF *did* know... and to me that's a sign of the average attitude of Edmontonians... Friendly, helpful Canadian Spirit, eh!