Outsourcing to India - Brickwork - Part 4 of Experiment 2

Posted by admin on November 14th, 2007 filed in Advice

Well watch as this 4 part saga which started in February continues to unfold and comes to its conclusion in todays’ post.

April 11, 2007, Danny emails me…

Hi David,

I apologize for the delay. We were not able to call you due to the time differences. I and John our designing expert will call you today or Friday on your convenient time (4PM – 9 PM). Please write back to me on dannygsam@hotmail.com if we can call you today.

Hmm… they didn’t know about the time differences? Well, OK, let’s move on. I told them to call me that same day (April 11th) at 6PM (it was currently 2 PM).

They didn’t call.

I sent a followup email.

Hi Danny:

I am heading out to a meeting right now. Can you call me Friday (April 12th) anytime after 4 PM at my number?

David

They didn’t call.

April 13th…

And then an email from Rajesh, August 27th.

Dear David,

Sorry for the communication lapse. We would like to schedule a call on Tuesday or on Wednesday as per your convenience?.

Kindly let us know the time and your contact number for us to call you.

Look forward to hear from you.

Within 2 hours, I reply back with my phone number and specify noon, New York Time on August 28th.

They don’t call.

So at 12:40 on August 28th I send back

Hello.. I had said Tuesday at noon, New York time… but no one called. Why don’t you tell me a time when you can call?

David

I get a reply…

Dear David,

How about a time between 2:30 PM to 2:45 PM New York Time? Would that be convenient for you?

Regards,

Rajesh

Just to be certain we are on the same page, I ask if they mean ‘90 minutes from now’ and they confirm… ‘YES’

Guess what folks… they didn’t call!

So it is August 21st - well past the February start time of this project. My next letter.

From: David
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:01 PM
To: Danny G. Sam
Cc: David ; John J. Joberson; Vivek Kulkarni; Sangeeta Kulkarni; Billy Graham
Subject: Re: Thank you David: Graphic design

Don’t think I’m some angry American (I am NOT an American!) just rambling on angrily, as that is what they seem to do best. I’m just letting you know that somewhere, my work did not receive any attention. I did not receive the calls that were needed. If I was running the company, I would want to know. It would ultimately help me serve my customers better and fix any of the policies and procedures I had in place.

For me, it was an opportunity to test out Brickwork on something like this book before hiring an assistant or getting you to do other design work. So far, it’s not a very compelling case.

I didn’t receive the calls on the days that they said were going to happen, I didn’t receive any estimate, nor was the two page spread finished.

To be honest, I ‘d really like to develop a working relationship with Brickwork. How can we make that happen?

David

TWO WEEKS LATER on September 10th. Yes, it takes two weeks to follow up to an urgent call from a customer who for some crazy reason, still wants to deal with this company!

Hi David,

I would like to make an apology for the delay in following up with you. I do understand that this project has been impeded enough.

Please let me know if we can start work immediately. If yes, would we be working on the same book design project? If not, please let me know your requirements. I can get back to you instantly on the time and cost estimates.

Looking forward to working with you!

Regards,
Danny G Sam

Exhausted of this process by this point and still not having received an estimate I ask once again for the estimate.

September 13th, 2007 - I get a reply!

I did discuss with the designing team and they have mentioned that it would take 200 hours to work on this project. Our hourly rates would be $18 per hour. We would be sending you daily updates/reports on the number of hours worked and the work done during these hours.

At this point the project has moved out of one fiscal year into another and I need to get budgetary approval *again.* New people are in charge now and I ask brickwork for some of their other layout and design samples so we can get an idea of their work.

From: david
Subject: Re: Thank you David : Graphic design
Date: September 22, 2007 8:34:34 AM EDT (CA)
To: danny.sam@brickworkindia.comDanny:

Can you also send me some samples of your layout work for the team in charge of this product?

David

Well, it is November 10th as a write this and I’ve never heard anything back. I’m sick of trying to chase Brickwork to do this work for me.

Since that time I’ve read the ‘4 hour work week’ and it also mentions Brickwork.

Well I for one have to say this is the most incompetent organization out there. They have been horrible to deal with and lack any sort of communication skills either to the client or within the organization.

Hopefully the publicity received from ‘4 hour work week’ and ‘the earth is flat’ will be enough to save these two companies.

So Outsourcing To India Experiment Number Two - A Total Failure.