Samsung offshores Aussie mobile support

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Event

blog As Korean giant Samsung has grown its presence in the mobile phone space to rival and even exceed that of industry leader Apple, it has also had to grow its support network. This is to be expected. But what many readers may not have realised is that much of the company’s support for its devices in Australia was actually supported from Australia, with a call centre based in Wollongong. Unfortunately for those concerned, according to Ausdroid (we recommend you click here for the full article), those jobs are now to be offshored. The site reports this week:

“This call centre houses five permanent staff and anywhere up to eighty casual staff members providing technical support via phone, email, and online live chat for Australian owners of Samsung mobile devices. Ausdroid has been advised that as of June 1 2014 this customer support will be moved to the Philippines, meaning that a friendly Australian voice will no longer be there to help you through your issues.”

Now, of course this kind of move is to be expected. Very few technology vendors provide support wholly based in Australia, and it has long been standard for call centres to be hosted offshore, especially in low-cost locations such as the Phillipines and India. There is little inherently local about Samsung devices sold in Australia; we are sure these devices can be adequately supported through offshore staff.

However, the move is still disappointing. Other major companies such as Vodafone have chosen in recent years to go against this kind of offshoring move; instead pushing jobs to low-cost locations such as Tasmania. It would have been nice to see Samsung continue to support Australian jobs … after all, the Korean vendor certainly pulls enough profit out of Australia every year.

Image credit: Samsung

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