EVERYONE....Urgent...read the thread "Lilian Vernon"

[Lewski709]

Please post if you know of anyone else who does this? I want to add them to my DO NOT BUY FROM list. PLEASE!!!!!

 

[Octoberbride03]

There's a bunch of companies that actually do this. Can't remember off hand all of them, but i think Dell is 1 of em.

I know not ordering from these companies seems like a good idea at the time, but remember these companies still employ US residents in some form or fashion, be it retail outlets or otherwise.

LIllian Vernon has a distribution center here in VA, so if we all stop ordering from them and shut the business down then that means a few hundred more ppl out of work. Do you really wanna do that?

I'm all for US owned and operated companies, believe me i look at the tags. Grew up in a union house to boot. But lets be practical about these things please. PPl are just starting to go back to work. I'd rather have them keep their jobs.

Maureen

 

[cherylp3]

I wonder if Harry And David does this too. I thought they were sister companies.

 

[Blondie]

As I stated on the other Lillian Vernon thread, a way to get around having to speak to a foreign call center is to simply place your order online, but I know not everyone is comfortable with shopping that way.

Capital One recently moved most of their customer call center to India, some of their employees were given the opportunity to relocate to the Richmond area. Some of their employees were fired for 'blowing the whistle' so to speak when alerting other employees of what was about to happen.

 

[Lewski709]

If they are contracting for out country to handle, sorry.....I would rather spend my money to support the United States.

As for the people working there in the states: NO, I don't want their job to end.

I would add Dell to my DO NOT BUY from list as well, but I heard they wised up and took the business back due to complaints. Very smart!

I have no Capital One accounts and if I did, I would cancel them.

I feel pretty strongly about this. Maybe if your job were taken from you to be given to someone in a foreign country because the almighty dollar meant more to the company, maybe you would feel this way.

 

[Octoberbride03]

I feel pretty strongly about this. Maybe if your job were taken from you to be given to someone in a foreign country because the almighty dollar meant more to the company, maybe you would feel this way.

I already do feel that way. Don't assume I don't. Fact is I NEVER buy from Lillian Vernon. I have NEVER seen anything in her stores made in the USA and i don't spend my money. Perhaps if they had more items made here in their stores they wouldn't feel the need to have hteir customer service in India.

But if you liked Lillian Vernon enough to order from them b4 perhaps you should organize a call campaign to get them to move their customer service back to the US. That'd be more effective than just swiping them off your order list. They'll never notice you stop buying there unless you tell them.

Maureen

 

[Lewski709]

Sorry, I did not mean to assume you don't feel that way. <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_6_5.gif' border=0></a>

 

[RitaZ.]

American companies are doing this... it's happening more than people know, it's truly frightening. It's happening in other industries as well, like tech companies. Everyone is setting up shop in India. I really worry what effect this will have on our economy a few years down the road...

The best thing to do is to write your state representatives/government officials and express your concerns to them.

 

[Bumbles]

Maureen makes a very valid point

well, I think a lot of us had better add a lot of our Disney store and theme park merchandise to the list...because I'm pretty sure when it says "Made in China" on my antenna topper, it doesn't mean China in the World Showcase

 

[caitycaity]

because I'm pretty sure when it says "Made in China" on my antenna topper, it doesn't mean China in the World Showcase

 

[I <3 Eeyore]

Maybe I should quit my job at Pier 1 Imports? I don't want to feed my family at the expense of American jobs.

 

[Arabella Figg 2003]

Originally posted by Lewski709
If they are contracting for out country to handle, sorry.....I would rather spend my money to support the United States.

As for the people working there in the states: NO, I don't want their job to end.

I would add Dell to my DO NOT BUY from list as well, but I heard they wised up and took the business back due to complaints. Very smart!

I have no Capital One accounts and if I did, I would cancel them.

I feel pretty strongly about this. Maybe if your job were taken from you to be given to someone in a foreign country because the almighty dollar meant more to the company, maybe you would feel this way.

then you'd better be prepared to start making everything yourself. welcome to global economics.

 

[debster812]

Global Economics indeed. In this day and age of the multinational corporation I think we will see more and more of this.

Years ago I drove a 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R. I LOVED that car. Yes, it was a Japanese car, but it was manufactured entirely at Nissan's plant in Tennessee. My dad would still grumble at us for driving a non-American car. At the same time, my parents were driving a Mercury Sable that was manufactured ENTIRELY in Mexico. So what's the lesser of the evils, foreign company, yet made in the USA or USA Company, yet made offshore? I just don't know....

I happen to be married to a Teamster, and am well aware of the importance of Unions, and keeping as many jobs here as we can as well, but as we move more quickly to the Global Economy, I think we will see more jobs leaving this country. What will replace them? I don't know...

 

[caitycaity]

let's think about this....

the reason companies are moving call centers overseas is because it's cheaper. this saves the companies money that they can reinvest in other things to help keep the company fiscally sound. they could use it to hire more people doing prduct design in the united states, for example.

as compared to keeping the call center here and spending more money on it which they would have to cut from somewhere else, theoretically it could be cut from american jobs in another division of the company.

in a global economy, it's going to be pretty hard to boycott business that have some overseas element. they almost all do...

heck, even some of the produce in the grocery store is imported these days.

these things are not black and white.

 

[Lewski709]

Hey, I am not saying quit your job. Yep, there a lot of companies out there that I am unaware of that are doing this. I am not naive. Regardless of where the call center is, you probably aren't going to lose your job nor would I quit feeding my family because of it. That's kinda far fetched.

Yep, it's cheaper overseas. A lot of the companies in the past that were abusing child labor laws over seas we shamed. Why is it different this time? They are taking AMERICAN'S jobs away.

I owned a Nissan Sentra and it was a GREAT vehicle. Again, fact is most of it was manufacturedd in the US.

I can't stop buying everything that wasn't made in America, don't claim that I can. What I can do though is make myself aware, as best I can, of the jobs that are taken NOW from Americans to go overseas and not purchase or participate in those programs/companies.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

exactly Caity.

My DH just last year had to make the difficult decision to export a Computer Database design and implementation project to a Software engineering firm in Brazil.

The American consultants who had been hired had been working on the project for 5 years, still hadn't completed the work, and had charged millions of dollars in fees. Two of their employees were literally moved into his office building and most people in the company only vaguely realized that they were Consultants and not actual employees. When he put the job up for bid, the Brazilian firm was by far the lowest bid with the soundest plan for completing the job.

The Brazilian firm completed the initial version of the project in 6 months for a cost of under $1 million dollars. With the money the company has saved, they have been able to delay closing on unprofitable laboratory for 6 more months in order to give those employees and management time to make changes necessary in order to save that operation. Also, they didn't have to make as many cuts in employee health care benefits as they projected and layoffs were much fewer than what they feared. Besides which, the company now has ties to the Brazilian economy, which they can someday use to begin to sell their products in that market.

It's very easy to say that it is all about the "all mighty" dollar, but those decisions are very rarely black and white and I don't think any Executive enjoys taking somebody's job away.

 

[RitaZ.]

they could use it to hire more people doing prduct design in the united states, for example.

It would be great if the companies saw it this way. It's not just service and manufacturing jobs that are going to India. Engineers are being brought here from India, they are trained here by American engineers. The company keeps them here for several months and then they take their knowledge back to India, where eventually software and hardware development will end up.

That's all I'm going to say.

 

[Lewski709]

Let's not forget Mexico....jobs going to Mexico. Why do you think so many people try to come to the states?

The wages in Mexico suck and they want better lives. They work a bit here and then can take 25k back for a nice life for themselves. We love them in the states because they work hard for little money.

The more we are invloved with overseas the more the doors open for overseas immigrants. Don't you think that they are going to see this eventually and want to come on over too?

*When I say you, I don't me anyone in particular. I also don't mean to discriminate against anyone, so please don't take it that way.

 

[CEDmom]

I work for a large financial services company and we started outsourcing IT work to India a few years ago. It was really scary in the beginning because everyone thought they'd be let go. On the contrary, the company has been able to keep costs down and is actually hiring people. Of course I don't want to see anyone get laid off because of this kind of practice but, it isn't all doom and gloom.

BTW, IT jobs are also going to Canada and Mexico. If I recall Canada was 60 cents on the US dollar; Mexico 30 cents and India 10 cents.

 

[CarolA]

I always love these threads. They always have such interesting logic.

I don't by from LV just because I don't need ANY of that stuff and.... it's expensive. Seems like a good reason to me.

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