Time to Boycott Lloyds

[maninasuitcase]

Course they do as we dont really make much here any more.
But we are all at some point doing business with banks/insurance/phone companies and if people could be bothered there is an opportunity to support ones that support our workforce, but as MK says the general apathy of the population will probably prevent if from happening.
However, if a national newspaper started a campaign to promote the use of companies that only use English call centres, and if everyone who cared about it sent a simple email to all of their contacts making them aware of situations like this, maybe public opinion might make a difference.

I know Sussex and suitcase and plenty of others wouldnt agree but is there actually anything wrong in supporting your Country ahead of others?

There's nothing wrong with supporting your country. If people are really serious about it, you can probably find most things are manufactured in this country but they would be very expensive. If you can't find something that isn't made here, you could always go without.

The banks are just making the same choice you are when you fail to buy british.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I hate talking to my bank on my phone and also Virgin media the conversation takes twice as long because I have to keep asking them to repeat what they said because I can't understand them or vice versa.

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

Ah bless, take the **** and hail open markets when it suits. Forgive me if laugh out loud if any of you contributers to this thread who fail to give a **** about our own workforce being made unemployed suffer the same fate. Wont that be a giggle as well eh?

My views on unrestrained globalisation have been documented at some length. It's a system in which the emphasis is on undercutting the competition - on prices, and as a result on wages, production costs and other overheads. Look through the labels in your wardrobe and I'll bet that there are a good few "made in India" and "made in Bangladesh". We seem more than happy with that side of the deal, no matter how many times suppliers are busted using child labour and sweatshop working conditions, but when the consequences strike a little closer to home we're up in arms about it. Out of sight and out of mind. Funnily enough, call centres generally provide some of the better working conditions that our companies bring to the developing world.

Since I've been accused on my profile of being "anti English", let me address that. I love my country. Much too much to blithely assert that it's right in every instance and superior in every way. That way lies complacency, hubris and decline. If globalisation is the system under which we're going to play, then we have to accept that others will seek to make it work for them too. I love Southend United, but I wouldn't for one moment want the rules changed so that the opposition are forbidden to score.

 

[steveo]

Look through the labels in your wardrobe and I'll bet that there are a good few "made in India" and "made in Bangladesh".
.

So if we didnt buy these goods that would leave their workforce with no jobs and make these people even poorer. Who would that benefit?

I love my country. Much too much to blithely assert that it's right in every instance and superior in every way.

So you love your Country but are quite happy for British jobs to disappear to India, while we continue filling your beloved Country with immigrants and housing them ahead of British people?
Seems like we dont need anymore patriots like you.

 

[WickfordShrimper]

If everyone boycotts LloydsTsb how will that benefit the workers at southend

I agree...no one likes to see anyone losing their Jobs

Sadly when the government (Gordon Brown and co) asked Lloyds TSB directors to buy HBOS last September (to save another tax payers bail out i.e. Northern Rock)

Lloyds TSB inherited billions of pounds Debts from HBOS Irelands commercial loans book

So now Lloyds TSB have got the bad name as they needed Government bailout money in January 2009 as for doing the Gov a favour this year now everyone’s lost out from the Lloyds TSB shareholder, (who in the end will pay the Government back) Tax payer for now and the poor employees as they must now down size operations as a lot of the positions / posts within the new bank are duplicated…. What a mess

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

So if we didnt buy these goods that would leave their workforce with no jobs and make these people even poorer. Who would that benefit?

That's jumping from one extreme to the other, without pausing to consider whether there might be a reasonable middle ground. Suppose that we took the time to make sure that the companies we buy from insist upon decent living wages and working conditions - the likes of which can be found in many foreign call centres. We wouldn't be able to pick up a suit for £20 in the supermarket, but the human cost would certainly come down - maybe even to the point where our domestic workforce could compete without making unacceptable sacrifices.

So you love your Country but are quite happy for British jobs to disappear to India, while we continue filling your beloved Country with immigrants and housing them ahead of British people?
Seems like we dont need anymore patriots like you.

"Happy"? Not really, I sympathise with anybody who loses their job but I feel that it's hypocritical to support a system one moment and criticise it the next when it works against you. Increased competition is part and parcel of a global market. UK exports total over £200bn annually, and within our lifetimes the Indian economy is going to be bigger than ours. Do we really want to advocate the kind of petty parochialism that might exclude us from competing fairly?

We've done the housing immigrants debate - the statistics show no bias yet the line is lazily trotted out again even in threads on different topics. Let's discuss the matter at hand rather than build irrelevant strawmen.

 

[pickledseal]

I have had so much trouble with Lloyds India based call centres. Last time the woman I was speaking to didn't know what a 'branch' was, it would have been comical had I not been so frustrated... I said, "If I go into a branch will they have all the information about my loan available to them?" and she replied, "A branch? I'm not sure how a tree will help you out Mr Lewis"!

 

[steveo]

Suppose that we took the time to make sure that the companies we buy from insist upon decent living wages and working conditions - the likes of which can be found in many foreign call centres

So its up to us to ensure decent conditions for workers in other countries then?
How much money have India spent on their nuclear weapon programme for instance? Maybe they could have spent it on improving conditions for their workforce.

The main point of my original post is that I want to see my fellow countrymen looked after and do well. If its at the expense of other Countries, I'm not particularly bothered. If the boot was on the other foot could we expect any help from them?

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

So its up to us to ensure decent conditions for workers in other countries then?
How much money have India spent on their nuclear weapon programme for instance? Maybe they could have spent it on improving conditions for their workforce.

Your first question is one that we all need to ask ourselves. I feel that the human cost of driving prices down as low as possible outweighs the pocket change I might save as a result. Maybe others feel differently. I do think it's reasonable to reiterate the reality of the situation in an attempt to overcome the principle of "out of sight, out of mind" that I believe many companies rely heavily on. Mightn't your concern for British workers be better served by seeking to raise working conditions to a point where our own workforce can compete?

I don't know offhand what India has spent on nukes, though I would guess it's less than we'll shortly be splashing out on Trident. I'm open to correction on that. Nuclear proliferation is a terrible waste of money that could be used to tackle poverty, though. You're absolutely right about that.

The main point of my original post is that I want to see my fellow countrymen looked after and do well. If its at the expense of other Countries, I'm not particularly bothered. If the boot was on the other foot could we expect any help from them?

The shift of the boot will continue to gather pace during our lifetimes, so let's hope so for the sake of future generations. I am concerned about people of other nationalities. I've been lucky enough to know people from all over the world during my life, none of them any more or less human than the next. My own life experiences simply don't allow me to accept the idea of an inate British superiority that entitles us to bend rules as suits us.

 

[Bazza the dog]

There is an even better reason to cut them off the reason being they are a crap bank with poor service to boot.

Their Isle Of Man operation is shocking, I have personally broken all ties with them after telling one of the brokers there if he ever pitched any of my clients with his ****** products again I would personally go to his office and smash his ****ing teeth down his throat. Cheeky prick he was.

 

[fredheim_holm]

How does that work? You can pay an Indian call centre worker £2 a day, treat them like poo, forcibly stop them from forming a union and work them 12 hours a day.

Keeps that profit margin nice and fat.

I know I'd choose a decent customer service over .25% more interest each year.

 

[steveo]

I am concerned about people of other nationalities. /QUOTE]

This is obviously where we differ. I am first and foremost in favour of British people. In fact to be totally honest I am fed up with hearing about British troops dying in Afghanistan. Bring them all home and nuke the place -end of problem.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Ah bless, take the **** and hail open markets when it suits.

I couldn't agree more Groutie, there seems to be an inordinate amount of joy at the perception that steveo might be contradicting himself, rather than any sadness for the people who are losing their jobs. I thought the left were meant to be looking out for the little man?

I may be wrong, but I don't recall steveo advocating unfettered globalist capitalism. I certainly do support it, and my objection to this move is on business grounds. As a former customer of LTSB, I found their Indian call centres to be utterly incompetent. If you want anything more than you could get from online banking (and if you could have your enquiry sorted online, why would you phone the call centre?), they can't help you. You end up being transferred to someone in blighty with a degree of authority and an understanding of the lingo - so where's the saving for Lloyds? They're also alienating customers by putting them through this linguistic assault course before they actually get to have their problem heard.

Whatever the reasons, and I'm sure that many of our left-wing friends would say they are invalid reasons, British people want to deal with another British person when they are sorting out their finance/insurance/self-gratification. If that wasn't so, why would companies like NatWest emphasize that they only use British call centres?

 

[Mad Cyril]

Perhaps banks should give customers the option to use a UK or Indian call centre?

1. Press one to speak to an Indian customer representative - this call will be free/charged at local rate.
2. Press two to speak to a UK customer representative - calls will be charged at x pence per minute.

 

[Napster]

Perhaps banks should give customers the option to use a UK or Indian call centre?

1. Press one to speak to an Indian customer representative - this call will be free/charged at local rate.
2. Press two to speak to a UK customer representative - calls will be charged at x pence per minute.

A decent compromise. I also think the future of telecoms should be ad-revenue based anyway, but BT wouldn't allow it.