Work/Jobs - - Outsourcing?

Sanda · #1 01-14-2003, 02:08 AM

has anybody else received this email.? I was astounded at the per hour rate.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Greetings from Bangladesh.

We are a stock photo agency based in Bangladesh with Image Restoration service. We are capable of serving high quality digital image restoration in a volume level at very competitive price. We are basically serving for USA market as a subcontractor at the moment and looking for reliable partners to extend our service. We thought you would be interested of partnering with us as the potentiality of the business is very high for both of us.

We charge only US $ 2.00 per hour job and our turnaround time for delivering finished job is 24 hours. Since you are already in the business you can easily calculate the profit from this outsourcing for your business. You know, profit comes from the volume and offering low cost solution to your clients. We hope you would consider our proposal cordially.

As we are committed to our clients to maintain confidentiality of the images sent to us, we are not able to show you the samples of the jobs done by us. So we will be doing 5 digital files for free for you to demonstrate our quality. No obligation is required of continuing the business with us if you are not satisfied with the result.

Wish you a Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Best regards,

Jahangir Kabir
Sr. Executive,
Sales & Marketing"

Any comments?

BigAl · #2 01-14-2003, 02:28 AM

Well, first off, I'd probably have deleted the email without opening it, so I'd never have seen it.

I agree with you, the rate sounds unbelievable. However, one probably has to look at it in terms of the exchange rate. I could only find a 2000 exchange rate for the Bangladesh rupee of US$1 costing 50 rupees, so 100 rupees per hour is probably quite a tidy sum.

BigAl · #3 01-14-2003, 02:36 AM

Update: Bangladesh currency is now Taka, and $1 costs 58 taka
(source)

chiquitita · #4 01-14-2003, 03:39 AM

Yes, I recieved that email and I get at least 1 like it every day - from overseas and the US.

Sanda · #5 01-14-2003, 03:43 AM

The only reason I opened it was because it was from my web site and it was addressed to my help address which is available for customers to ask for quotes ect.

pierresplace · #6 01-14-2003, 11:15 AM

This is what I was referring to in the other thread about work. Ross Perot used to speak about all of this when he campaigned years ago. Now I'm not political at all but it has come to pass that the US corporate world HAS shipped, as usual, alot of work overseas. Now technology has enabled much more of that. Two dollars an hour for them is a mountain of money and for us...well, how we beat rates like that??? And five free samples to prove themselves? These people, although impoverished, are not stupid. Now what company can afford not to consider this proposal? I bet the temp agencies are doing this too. General Electric has begun to "migrate" their administrative workload to Kelly Services who is adroit at outsourcing work to telecommuters. Who are they sending it to? Legal firms in NYC have been outsourcing their word processing to offshore countries for years and years. Perhaps we're a little late in discovering this phenomenon? Go look at "E-Lance" and Monster, and all of the "free agent" sites, you'll gasp!!!!! I think what we have to do it to articulate what this "new information economy" is all about and how to exploit it because this is not going to go away.

Eric Polsinelli · #7 01-14-2003, 11:35 AM

Yes I did receive on of those e-mails yesterday...

I love the website stating that they give wholesale prices for 500-1000 restoration jobs! LOL I wonder of we can "group" our jobs together to get that super-low rate of $0.50 a job

As tempting (or misleading) as it sounds I have deleted it.

pierresplace · #8 01-14-2003, 11:45 AM

They say five free samples, right? How long will it be before people send them those five jobs, and then leave them, and then create a new identity, send five more samples for free, and so on and so forth? That is one way to get rid of all these offshore scroundrels once and for all. Just never use them for "paid" work. They'll get the idea pretty quick and go back into their huts.

Eric Polsinelli · #9 01-14-2003, 12:04 PM

Great Idea...

Let's see if they can do some of RP's Challenges for free! Now that would be funny.

pierresplace · #10 01-14-2003, 12:11 PM

We could publicize the "Un-American" companies and individuals who do use them and boycott them globally? I feel that any individual or oganization which uses foreign labor to usurp the US economy should be banned from society.

chiquitita · #11 01-14-2003, 01:07 PM

I get these emails all the time and sometimes, especially when I get them from countries who openly support terrorism, I just want to say that No, I am not interested, and if I had enough work to need to outsource, I certainly would be giving the job to one of the many, many people in this country who are looking for work - most of them because of the attacks on 9/11.

I always try and hold my anger, and assume that this person is just and individual and I can't blame him for the actions of his government, so I usually just don't answer the email at all.

pierresplace · #12 01-14-2003, 03:24 PM

I still say that this is the result of NAFTA and globalization. However, it's an individual choice what to do with it. Personally it sickens me. In addition, individuals overseas who do business this way avoid/evade all US law and financial control, nor do they pay taxes. They contribute nothing at all to the growth or welfare of the US economy or it's people. There is more to a society than just making money. Most of these countries hate the US anyway, why should we have anything to do with them? It really bothers me that I am forced to be a freelancer because US corporations prefer to use temps/contractors on work visas from another country but I am supposed to stand by my flag.

Indigo · #13 01-16-2003, 03:51 AM

To rail against free enterprise is as useful as trying to nail jelly to a wall.

In England we have seen our entire industrial base outsourced.

This outsourcing started in earnest way back in the 1950's with the manufacture of cotton goods. From then until now we have seen the demise of many domestic industries including;

Coal mining
Steel production
Electronic goods
Fashion
Ship building

the list just goes on.

Many people fought long and bitter battles, that divided communities and families, to safeguard their jobs but change still came. Parliament huffed and puffed but things still changed.

Multi-national companies were paid obscene amounts of money to build factories in depressed areas of the UK. They came they built, they traded and as low-wage economies opened up in eastern Europe off they went siting "responsibility to sharehoulders" as their reason for closing the UK operation.

The entrance of low-wage economies into a high-wage market place is nothing new. We are used to those low-wage economies providing consummer goods that we, in high-wage markets. can buy, use and enjoy.

What is different now is that, thanks to the miracle of modern communications, low-wage economies are now competing in high-wage markets for the provision of services.

These people have seen the internet as providing them with an opportunity to succeed in life and they are grasping it with both hands. Their market penetration will continue to grow until wages in their economy start to approach the levels we enjoy.

Whatever you decide to do to compete keep in mind that these incomers are people. People with families, hopes, dreams, aspirations and above all determination.

It would be a shame if, in opposing, we were to become so bitter that we lost our humanity, our health, our dignity.

This is but the start of a change which will rock more than our corner of the employment market. The speed at which the incursion will grow will leave us breathless.

Indigo

LQQKER · #14 01-16-2003, 07:47 AM

Whoa . . . I guess the logical thing to do is to start charging $1.00 per hour and maybe 200 free digital prints. Perhaps having a worldwide "free" delivery system would be a great idea too (you may have to purchase "two" ox carts).

Also, I'm wondering how their recruiting program is going? . . . .

Anyway, look at it from this perspective, people in Bangladesh obviously have a great sense of humor

pierresplace · #15 01-16-2003, 11:29 AM

Yours is simply another brand of "bleeding heart liberalism." Look around the US and view the strewn remnants of the unemployed and bleed that nonsense somewhere else. Should the US sacrifice their own citizenry for the sake of uplifting the poor of other lands? Is it not enough that people walk over our borders, reap the fruits of this great land, and then go on toward prosperous lives? Why is it that we have to destroy what we have here to help others? For the first time in US history, the most skilled and educated are out of work. Investment bankers, stock brokers, many other financial industry professionals not to mention the waves of technology industry professionals, are all out of work, and for what? So the families of these impoverished lands can propser? The trouble with that picture is that we're not really helping anyone, we're taking from "Peter" to help "Paul." It's the same as when Affirmative Action programs were enacted. We gave jobs to neglected minorities at the expense of the people who were already in those jobs. The same with women in the workforce. As the level of working women increased, so also did the number of men working decrease. This is not just my opinion,read the numbers in any of the resources available. If all of this were fair I'd have no comment, but I see it as a maniuplation by the "Big Boys." Case closed.