HDTV seller Vizio adds jobs, expands customer service
May 14th, 2009, 11:52 am · 9 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
Slow economy? Bah! Vizio, the Irvine firm named the nation’s top seller of LCD TVs this month, continues to expand. The HDTV seller opened a sales and marketing center in North Sioux City, South Dakota, today.
The call center is dedicated to customer service and direct sales and will initially employ 25 people, which includes five managers. Staff is expected to ramp up to 45 by the end of the year.
Coincidentally, or not, many of the new workers are former Gateway computer employees. In a former life, Vizio founder William Wang convinced Gateway to start the affordable plasma TV revolution. Gateway, which was once headquartered in Irvine, was acquired by Acer Inc. two years ago. It still has some operations in South Dakota. That said, former Gateway CEO Ted Waitt was among the folks present for today’s ribbon cutting.
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Notice they opened in South Dakota, only a fool would try & do business in this state the most unfriendly & highest taxed state in the union. I’m sure eventually they will move their California operations too.
yeah, how does Orange County benefit if they open in South Dakota?
It doesn’t
This is what California should really care about
Just an example of the horrible times that are coming to California
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget15-2009may15,0,6045334.story
Great buy for this TV
not as overpriced as Sony
They are fooling us with the job creating label (low pay workers at the call center). Most of the better pay positions (such as engineers, designers, manufacturing technicians) are somewhere else, outside of US (maybe in China). One job create in US, 1000 jobs in China. Just give me your money. Keep spending, America.
I’m happy to see VIZIO opening these offices in Sioux; glad that an American company is staying in the US, creating more jobs in a time like this,and not outsourcing.
Read the label – where the product is made. You will find out if it’s out-source or not. Call center have to be in US, because of Chinese can’t speak English as fluently as folks in Sioux.
why doesn’t vizio make the tv’s in the usa? the reason is the comsumer would be paying about 25% more for the tv,
the one thing i don’t like is that vizio has no service centers or authorized service in the usa, if you have a problem with a set under 32 inch you have to send it to california for service,thats what i was told at sams club.
I don’t think anyone makes TVs in the U.S. Anyway… Vizio did open a customer service call center in South Dakota earlier this month. And for folks here in OC, the company is just in Irvine so if you’ve really got an issue, you can go knock on its door.
Cost more, but consumers (who have jobs) have money to spend. They will buy something that cost less 25%. (or spent less on the other expenses). In addition, talking about out-source, why don’t we out-source our prison system to China. I can assure most of the inmates when they get out their term, will have a good behavior to avoid to return (a win-win situation for everyone). Californian will be able to save much more than 25%, may be 75% on its budget for the system