I blogged about this last April 2008 from a tip given to me and though there was no solid evidence then, it turned out to be partially true. Dell Philippines has sold its call center at Mall of Asia, Pasay City to Teleperformance.
In a report by Inquirer.net, only the Dell Pasay call center has been sold but leaving the Quezon City operations still intact. The amount of the sale was undisclosed but a former employee claims the unconfirmed amount to be around Php200 million.
Dell tech and customer support will still be provided by Teleperformance and some employees (management level) will be retained by the latter. Everyone will be asked to submit their resignation letter as announced last Friday, March 20, 2009.
The fate of most Dell call center employees in the Pasay operations is still unknown. Once they’ve officially resigned, they may be able to apply again for the same job over at Teleperformance.
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OMG! Is this really happening? I got hired by DELL International Services (DELL Philippines) three years ago. Our batch (or Wave) was one of the pioneers. The truth is, I wasn’t able to finish the training. I went AWOL (toink!). Let me tell you my DELL experience.
My first corporate job was with eTelecare Global Solutions (at PBCom Tower) way back 2004. I was with DELL Account (they do not have their contact center yet in the Philippines) under the Account Name: CYBERTRON. Why Cybertron? Well, it came from Transformers (the cartoon during that time). You see, when you are with DELL Home Sales and Financing, it’s all about building or “transforming” computers from small parts to a MEGA-computer. So yes, “Thank you for calling DELL Home Sales and Financing. What may i build for you today?”
eTelecare per se is ONE OF THE BEST BPO companies in the country. But man, I’ve gotta tell you. Being with DELL Account, it was like torture as hell especially when you’re in SALES! I don’t know with other DELL Departments like the ones in Ambergris (peace!). And yes, I continued to be one of the best sales agents they could possibly have. After 13 months of working with eTelecare and with DELL, I resigned. Not because of the pressure of the job but simply because of the money I was getting from my HARDWORK. Also, rumors had it that DELL would pullout its account with eTelecare to focus on their plans of putting up their own contact center in the Philippines. For a wise call center agent, it’s the best time for you to consider EITHER staying with the BPO company you’re currently with and hope for the best that they don’t terminate you with reasons unclear to you (terminating agents save BPO companies LOTS OF MONEY than allowing an agent to resign. That is also the main reason why the “bossings” in the BPO industry keep on telling the public that the industry is still doing okay. They DO NOT want MASS RESIGNATION!) OR resign, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, and look for better opportunities from other companies.
Anyway, after working with eTelecare then Sykes Asia, Inc., there was this “DELL” in me that I wanted to work with them again. I missed the pressure and definitely the prestige of letting people know that “Hey, I’m with DELL. How about you?”
I applied in DELL Philippines after more than a year of having their own contact center here. I passed the initial examination and was prompted to wait for the schedule of my first interview. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. And oh yeah, I waited for 6 months for my FIRST interview. Don’t call me stupid for not making follow-ups with their HR. (duh) My pride got in the way and told me to wait and not apply to other BPO’s. DELL is DELL. Who cares if you’re from IBM, HP, Microsoft, or whatever. I WANTED TO BECOME A DIRECT DELL EMPLOYEE AND I WANTED TO HAVE MY OWN DELL BADGE NUMBER. Bwahahaha!
Oops! Sorry for the evil laugh. Haha. After my long wait, it turned out that one of their HR’s, who was supposedly handling my application, messed up. When I got inside DELL (at Mall of Asia), I was still able to see the BITCH who made me wait that long for my first interview. After few weeks of training, I learned that she got fired by the management brought about by same incidence with other applicants.
Let’s go to the training part. Our Wave was fortunate that we got the Training Manager herself to train us. I was like…scared and thrilled! I just loved the adrenaline rush everytime she was infront of us, teaching. You really couldn’t fall asleep.
Gee, it’s already 9AM. I already wrote too much. I have lots of things to do today. Haha. Oh yeah, about my DELL experience. After waiting for 6 months to have my first interview schedule, I resigned from DELL even before my first month of training ended. My reason? I NO LONGER WANT TO BECOME A CORPORATE SLAVE! The reality in the Corporate World is, you are always a slave and there will always be someone higher than your present position in the company.
I thank you. Bow.
Please make a blog for this one: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/boycottboyetfajardo
whoa! whatever former dell employee’s sniffed, i want one too!
^
hehe.
But seriously, I wish the Philippine BPO industry well. It seems to be the one of the very few sectors doing quite well in these financially gloomy times.
In its subtle sense, I believe that life is terrific without computers. Geeks rule the world. Including you, yuga.
°º¤ø„¸Da Mamangan¸„ø¤º°¨~
¸„ø¤º°¨Kelvin Dino.“°º¤ø„
¸„ø¤º“°º¤ø„¸„ø¤º¨°º¤ø„
@Former Dell Employee
So are you still in the rat race? or on your own?
@Lito, I am currently managing my own marketing business.
it’s hard to measure success, right? however, if you’re going to ask me if I’m financially independent, I would say that I’m getting there.
I couldn’t find a ‘contact me’ page on your blog site. I’ll post a comment on your latest entry and give you a hint of my business, okay? cheers!
Twitter: littlewolf
says:
Others may not like your long comment Former Dell Employee but let me tell you that I enjoyed reading it. I used to work as a TSR on Etel too. I was assigned in the Libis office then later at Shaw but I did apply for the job at PBCom. Actually I was referred by my friend who was in a Dell account. You might even know him.
Anyway, it’s been a year since I left the call center industry but I don’t think it changed that much. Unsuccessful accounts will go but there will always be profitable accounts and that will be enough for most BPO companies to get through the crisis.
Twitter: sugodcom
says:
Its a good start opportunity for local companies to compete with its global competitors.. They are struggling, we are growing.
But why do they have to resign and then will apply for the new owner?
@information,
quote: “…OR resign, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, and look for better opportunities from other companies.”
Whenever an account of a certain BPO company pulled out, the management should sort of “re-assign” (I forgot the jargon there. It’s already 2:03AM, tired of playing Nintendo Wii.) agents to their other accounts. But that is not always the case. Just like on this (Yuga’s) entry:
“Dell tech and customer support will still be provided by Teleperformance and some employees (management level) will be retained by the latter. Everyone will be asked to submit their resignation letter as announced last Friday, March 20, 2009.”
Sad? Yes. However, this is the reality or should I say “THE” trend in BPO industry. Too many lies, too many cover-ups. Who are the victims? The entry-level employees. Sigh.
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Contact centers (the facility and everything in it) changing hands is not uncommon. In fact, from the smallest to the biggest industry players, it’s like a day-to-day thing–instead of hanging on to a x-seats facility without any significant productivity (or revenue) especially during daytime, rather rent it out or totally have it sold to those with deeper pockets. It’s usually the people in it that suffers, with the growing trend of axing higher-uppers with fat paychecks and keeping the more hard-to-find front-line agents.
not everyone will be asked for their resignations. a job offer will be extended to all employees. unfortunately according to some who had already received the job offer from teleperformance, the job offer only covers the first 3 months after the transition wherein current dell pay and allowances will be maintained. then another job offer and contract will be offered this time with the normal teleperformance newbie pay. i dont think that is fair since most of us here at dell has previous call center experience since it is a must for application.
sadly most of us are planning to resign after the 3 months. the only thing that is holding a lot of us back is the loss of financial support for our families. its not that easy to lose a job this days, nor is it easy to find one that pays well. sadly if you stay with the Dell account under teleperformance, pay would go from good to meager.
Not all BPOs are in trouble. Some are, I’d say, “challenged”. Everyone’s been affected by the economic downturn in some way or another.
Let’s not even go into “the lies and cover ups”. This isn’t a global conspiracy. It’s just business and the aim right now is to survive. I feel bad for people who lose their jobs but I’m sure the management of companies (not just BPOs) that lay them off didn’t intend to. It’s just that tough decisions have to be made.
I remember a few years back during the Asian financial crisis. I got laid off too. At the time I couldn’t swallow the reasons my former company issued.
Still if there’s one thing we Pinoys are good at it’s surviving. There’s still a glimmer of hope. Not all companies are closing down. Sure majority aren’t hiring but there are some who are. Some BPOs are still looking for people (Dell employees you might want to check out your options). You never know right? YOu never what’s waitig once you step out of the comfort zone.
sad!
Well look on the bright side guys…
They were going to close the Dell sites anyway. That means redundancy with 1 month pay. All employees lost. Then you go to other companies searching for jobs…and with their entrance tests and what not, you may actually start from the very bottom.
With Teleperformance, the largest call center in the world and the only big BPO that has zero debt, even extended their arm to transfer some key benefits.
TP has 88,000 employees and more, yet we only hear of “horror stories” from like 30 people or less. If I were a politician, I wish I had that type of approval rating. Let’s face it, people that complain are usually the minority.
Truth be told, TP with no debt, expanding all the time, didn’t need to help Pasay Dell…in my personal opinion. But they did.
If there’s anything to be angry or sad about, let’s blame the lies that was built around running a call center with high salaries and no cost control. In the end, you crash.
Twitter: markdown07
says:
Thanks for linking to my article kuya Abe. This is such a depressing moment for all Dell and former Dell employees. I understand how they feel and I am saddened by what happened. I resigned from Dell in September 2008 because I had the gut feeling that the “end is near.” And this incident proved my intuition to be true.
Edge
I beg to differ, Teleperformance isn’t the only BPO that has no debt. Sykes (and yes, before any meaning is put to my words, I am a Sykeser) doesn’t have any debt as well. We’re still going strong.
Now I’m not saying which is better. We all have our good points and bad. All I’m saying is that I agree with Sally, “horror stories”, if you really think about it, come from a small percentage of the total population. Most people do survive.
There’s still flashes of optimism despite the whole global economic crisis. It just takes an effort to see them and recognize them for what they are.
That means for Dell employees there are opportunities for you if you want to look. And I’m not selling my company here. You can apply at any company. It’s a free country.
By the way I’m no corporate slave. I just have hell… opinions. And isn’t that a good thing here?
“Truth be told, TP with no debt, expanding all the time, didn’t need to help Pasay Dell…in my personal opinion. But they did.”
yes i do work for dell (qc).
dell did not need the help of tp either.
it was not like dell was going bankrupt or anything. just like TP, dell continues to be without any debt.
if the company was really losing money, why did it still provide bonuses to all of its employees last march 20? i think it was just a normal business move on the part of dell to sell its moa site.
dell has constantly been part of the global fortune 100 list of best companies (rank 34 in 2008) and yet TP does not even come close to that ranking.
in my opinion, this sale of the moa site to tp is more like an Ate handing down used clothing to a younger sibling.
peace.
There, there ,there though it’s a sad thing it had
to come to an end because all things come to an end.
> dell has constantly been part of the global fortune > 100 list of best companies (rank 34 in 2008) and
> yet TP does not even come close to that ranking.
Enron was top 100 too.
In other words, it doesn’t mean anything in business how people write you up in a magazine. What matters in terms of stability is cash and profit. Not only has Dell lost market share to Hewlett Packard but also to Apple. The site got bought out cash.
> in my opinion, this sale of the moa site to tp is > more like an Ate handing down used clothing to a > younger siblingt
Remember Dell’s words why they sold it? “…to increase the efficiency of its business” — In other words, they didn’t know how to work a call center and it cost too much so they are selling it. Quezon — sorry, you are next. Maybe Dell can convince eTelecare to buy it? (Assuming they have the cash after being de-listed from Nasdaq.)
Ate to younger sibling is a good metaphor, but in this case, the younger sibling has no debt and is number one in its industry.
I second the motion on what Semper Fi said…
Why Dell retain to its “Good” poise its because they can sacrifice some of their non-priority business.
“Truth be told, TP with no debt, expanding all the time, didn’t need to help Pasay Dell…in my personal opinion. But they did.”>>>
I understand that these is your personal opinions, but if you look at it in a wider view, you’ll see that their losing a lump sum…
I’ve been with Dell; the first day they landed their Tech Support Service here in the Philippines…
Why do many Corporations gave parts of their businesses? Its because they wanted to retain their main priorities and for Dell that is their Computer Sales and Manufacturing.
If you notice, Ron, Dell only have a Manufacturing and Sales Facilities, they don’t have Delivery Services & Replacement Depots. Even their Contact Centers have been scattered outside the US, many were in Asia Pacific Regions. If they’re not a Third-Party Partners, they could be handled by a Contractors, which means not a direct employee of Dell.
“…if the company was really losing money, why did it still provide bonuses to all of its employees last march 20? i think it was just a normal business move on the part of dell to sell its moa site…” >>>
Yes, we do understand that these are part of their “gimicks”. C’mon those bonuses were not given by Dell, the Corporation, itself. It’s the Manager, or whoever Big bosses you have in your company/account created it. Once they provided a proposal to the client, in some BPO/Call Center Industries, the client will give them an incentives for a job-well-done… Try to think of it bro…
You might check your company, maybe in 6 months time, if the QC office will be handed over to a BPO, starts will a letter E, here in the Philippines.
Sad to say, Dell is also having their big lost even the recession started. You might also check the Stock Index in NASDAQ and other related news about Dell business.
Til’ then, the only thing we need to do is to cross our fingers so this will not happen in our company.