Reply #6: BREAKING: JPMorgan Chase to stop routing Florida food-stamp questions to India

[seafan]

Company to stop routing Florida food-stamp questions to Indian center

By MICHAEL C. BENDER

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, April 17, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — JPMorgan Chase officials announced Friday that they will stop using Indian call centers to answer customer service questions from Floridians on food stamps.

The announcement was made the same day the state announced a 9.7 unemployment rate, the highest since 1975.

"No future calls will go to India," Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said. "This is permanent."

The Palm Beach Post published a story Thursday about the frustration of a Jupiter woman who reached a customer service call center in India while trying to obtain state assistance. The state contracts with JPMorgan Chase to run parts of the Florida food stamp program and uses two customer service centers in India. The company will instead route calls to its centers in Ohio and Illinois.

.....

Several Democrats in the state legislature objected to the contract with JPMorgan earlier this decade when learning the company uses overseas call centers. But the move was part of Gov. Jeb Bush's push to privatize state services and Republican lawmakers rejected attempts to keep jobs from moving overseas.

Outsourcing jobs has become a hot-button issue as the state unemployment rate has doubled in less than a year. The state's food stamp rolls have jumped 58 percent in the past two years, the highest increase in the country.

.....

Dismantling the sorry Jeb Bush legacy, one ripoff at a time.