Pat Keeble sends word that the Denver Business Times (DBJ) reports that MediaNews Group, publishers of the Contra Costa Times and the Bay Area Newspapers (BANG) is now outsourcing customer services for some of its California dailies — including the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, and San Jose Mercury News — to the Philippines.
Phone calls from customers will now be answered by employees of APAC Customer Services Inc. at its three call centers in Quezon City and Muntinlupa City. According to the DBJ, “APAC employs about 4,000 “accent-neutral,” English-speaking operators who take calls about subscriptions, delivery problems and billing and then relay the information back to the client for action, according to reports on the deal in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star.
“APAC already offers customer service for nearly 80 U.S. newspapers. Call centers for offshore clients are a booming business in the Philippines.”
This news was found in the email from the Bay Area newspaper guild organizing committee newsletter. They’ve filed with the NLRB to establish the union among the BANG-EB newspapers, including, the Contra Costa Times
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
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I think this outsourcing to the Philippines is absurd! Have you ever actually tried calling this customer service? The have no idea what is what. Why is that? BECAUSE they are in a whole different country and really could careless about the customer.
It seems this is their motto: “Welcome to the BANG brand experience. We hope you enjoyed your visit. Now buggeroff”
Try buying an online ad. No clue.