TORONTO – Residential high speed Internet customers of Primus Canada will no longer have their customer service or technical support calls handled by off-shore representatives.
The company announced plans to transition most of its customer service operations, some of which had been outsourced to India, back to Canada “as soon as practical”, which will create 113 new Canadian jobs in the process.
All of Primus Canada’s technical support team has been transitioned back to Canada, the press release detailed. DSL, wireless and VoIP home phone service customers will be able to speak to local representatives if their calls are placed from their home phone or if they enter their account number when prompted.
"Every company with customer service operations that are partly outsourced, has heard some complaints from customers, for a variety of reasons, with respect to dealing with customer service representatives located overseas," said Rob Warden, vice president of residential marketing, in the release. "Our customers have told us they prefer to deal with Canadian representatives and we’re responding to their feedback. While we hold all our representatives – wherever they are located – to a high standard, we have also come to believe that the best way to serve our customers is to locate as much of our customer service operation as possible in this country.”
The alternative communications carrier currently employs more than 200 people in its Edmundston, New Brunswick-based call centre.
The move comes amidst some controversy over the policy of outsourcing customer calls to offshore call centres. Bell announced in February that it would be returning some of its technical calls back to Canada from India due to unsatisfactory results, while Telus has been criticized by its union for its plans to open a fourth facility in the Philippines.
