I feel the pain as an old business owner that was shut down due to NAFTA and now that I am in the IT world we are seeing it on this level as well.  Especially with call centers/helpdesks for companies. 

One of the clients I have now is GM and you guessed it ....their call centers are in brazil. 

I have seen it with every customer we manager that moves their call centers or heldesks to other countries.  The support and the level of service you get is automatically dropped as soon as this happens.  It seems almost as fast as you have them moving them over there, companies are starting to realize that it was a mistake and didnt seem to be worth it.  I have seen several articles in the past few weeks regarding this.  I will share one:

(If that's the case, another exception is Fremont-based Everdream Corp. The company makes desktop management software sold as a service, like Salesforce.com. It wanted to scale up a help desk and thought it could do so faster and cheaper in Costa Rica. It thought it was doing everything right. It contracted with a third party which specializes in setting up these call centers, and trained the management in California for four months before opening in Costa Rica.

The move was a disaster, says Gary Griffiths, CEO and president of Everdream. )

I know this is not close to the topic that was started but Just adding what I see as well since I handle some of the major issues when a computer problem fails on a production line for GM or when you go to press that On Star button and that connection doesnt work.  Will you feel comfortable talking to someone in brazil with a fake US name?  What you get overseas for cheaper is not always better.

My frustration exactly. When I call support for my HP computers or Vonage internet phone support, it's India. We go back and forth saying "what?" allot. By the time they look up the problem in the manual, two hours latter, I usually have the problem solved myself and then they tell me how glad they are that "They" fixed the problem.

Anymore when I have a computer problem, even if it's still under warranty, I call my local geek and have him fix it. This has been cheaper than me on the phone to India for hours giving English speaking class.

You're right call centers over seas don't make for customer satisfaction.

Absolutely...  Companies must realize that shipping off the most important part of their business--customer support--to places like India the worst move they can make.

Americans should stop doing business with companies that do this, and let the companies know why they no longer support them...