Bangalore: US-based Capital One Financial Services has discontinued use of Wipro Spectramind's telemarketing services for its credit card operations, citing slips in the quality of service by the Indian call centre giant.

The outbound telemarketing services project for Capital One's credit card operations was being handled by Wipro Spectramind at its Navi Mumbai centre, where agents handling the project did not conform to Wipro's and the US firm's standards and practices.

"Capital One discontinued the project in January," Wipro corporate vice president Anurag Behar said today (Mar 24, 2004).

However, the Fortune 500 firm continues to outsource inbound calls with Wipro Spectramind, which has over 250 people working at its Navi Mumbai and New Delhi centres for Capital One.

"Less than 10 per cent of the 250 people were working on the project. They offered to resign after we told them that they cannot continue working for us if they did not conform with our standards," Wipro Spectramind president and CEO Raman Roy said.

Stating that it is not revising its revenue guidance due to the loss of the project, Wipro said the project is a fraction of Spectramind's business with Capital One.

Wipro Spectramind, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of IT giant Wipro, has over 9,000 people working at its call centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Chennai.