Last Person You Talked To At A Call Center Probably Wasn't Faking American Accent

from the still-the-800-lb-gorilla dept

Wed, Aug 16th 2006 3:27pm — Joseph Weisenthal

Judging by stories in the media, you might think that India dominates the market for call centers, and we're probably a little guilty of feeding this perception as well. But the actual numbers paint a different picture; the US still dominates this space, as 62% of all global call center jobs are in the country. India's share is just 5%. And while the percentage has declined in the US, the net number of jobs has actually risen; in the past four years, the economy has created 183,000 new positions. It's not surprising that these numbers aren't often told. Layoffs make for a much better story than hiring. And while it's been noted plenty that Indian economic growth doesn't hurt our own economy, it's interesting that even this one specific industry isn't a zero-sum game.

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Jeff, 16 Aug 2006 @ 3:42pm

Also 62% of the global call center employees are out right rude! I don't want to point any fingers, but one of the companies I am talking about rhymes with Sprint.
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EasyJim, 16 Aug 2006 @ 3:42pm

Point taken. However, the last person I talked to who *faked* an American accent probably wasn't an American.

Frist pots?
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Monarch, 16 Aug 2006 @ 3:46pm

No but I've been laid off from 2 jobs from a major ISP and a major telecom company in the past 3 years. Both times the companies were outsourcing their technical support. However my jobs weren't technical support per se, but 3rd level support for the people on the phones. And I will say the ISP did send some of the jobs to India and the Phillipines. Where as the Telecom company sent the jobs to outsourcing companies in the US and Canada.

Let's just hope my newest job in support for the IP NOC for one of the major backbone providers doesn't get outsourced.
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festerius, 16 Aug 2006 @ 3:51pm

That doesn't make any sense...
How come my OEM's customer service and tech support are in India, my ISP's tech support , my home VIOP's customer service is in India, and also the tech support for my printer and router is in India?

Am I just the stupidest American that only buys products and uses services that use Indian call centers? To say that only 5% of calls are handled by Indian call centers and that 100% of customer service/tech support numbers that I call are handled by Indian call centers just doesn't add up. To me the odds seem astronomical!
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Monarch, 16 Aug 2006 @ 3:52pm

Another point about this article. I have also worked front line technical support. One of my favorite stories was a guy that called me all angry that the company I worked for was outsourcing to India.
Attempting to assure him we did not have any outsourcing to India he complained that the tech he just spoke with had such a think Indian accent, he couldn't understand a word, so he hung up and called back. I asked for the tech's name, which he gave me (apparently he understood that), and then pulled up the customer's account. Yep, it was a co-worker of mine that sat 2 cubes from me, and had a Master's degree in IT Networking. I explained that to the customer, and he went off on a different tangent about immigration. Kind of let that one slide without comment, as I don't have any animosity towards immigrants if they are in the U.S. legally.
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Drama2Sell, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:11pm

Numbers DO NOT add up
Sorry, but this is just plain wrong. When I call tech support for almost anything I get a thick accent.

DirectTV, VISA, Dell, Microsoft, etc.

I don't believe the odds are that I am only getting that "lucky 5%:.

They might be opening call centers in the US, but they are forwarding the calls to other countries.
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Noalear, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:12pm

Outsourcing... or Indian Insourcing?
I worked for "ATT Yahoo! SBC DSL". My contractor was 2Wire and I was hired by Volt. So I was obviously pretty far down the line. I worked here in the United States- Arizona to be exact. 95% of the people that worked there were Americans. White and black, 20-30 year old male Americans. The other 5% were Indian. Those 5% were probably the best tech support we had. They certainly have a knack for it, although once your call lands in India they just read from a script- of course they get paid like $5 a day (HUGE CASH for over there). One thing I have noticed is that more and more of my tech support calls are landing on American soil. The company I was working for is building a new MASSIVE call center in San Antonio and within the next year they will have it operating. So, it is possible that the calls you think are outsourced are just Indians over here in the U.S. The only way to tell is to listen for "non-script" teching. "Hmm"s and "Ahh"s are a tell tale sign of a tech that cares and is knowledgable.
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Felix, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:38pm

depends when you call
you would be surprised what would happen when you call during business hours :) Not to be mean
but I try to call during regular business hours and most of the time i get a US call center. Sometimes they only outsource after hour calls.
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Mike, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:39pm

Oh how I would love to have indian tech support...
Most of the time I call I don't even get an accent, I just get a recording stating that my call is important and that all representatives are busy. I think more companies are finding that it is actually much cheaper to buy those recordings then actually tech support personell in india or the US!
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DittoBox, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:41pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
That's just mixed up logic.

A given nation's global market-share isn't going to translate directly into a given company's use of that nation's call centers. Take Microsoft for instance. Simply because they have call-centers doesn't mean that 62% of them will be in the US and only 5% in India. They'll contract out to whoever is cheaper, or does a better job or what not. If the person (wait, we're speaking of microsoft, it's probably 2 or 3 inept committees) who manages the contracting of call-centers decides that they should go with 98% india and 2% canada, that's what they'll do.

Even that's over simplistic, different company divisions will have different call-center routings, and in fact even seperate products may have seperate call centers.

This isn't even taking into account the fact that some Microsoft engineers are Indian. Which again is probably concentrated in certain products or line-ups.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:45pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
I work in a call center that services DirecTV and we have over 900 agents in Las Vegas. There's definitely a variety of accents but its all here in the US. We also just added support in two other centers for DTV also in the US. We also support Logitech and Sony from Las Vegas.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:52pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
I am assuming that the article is talking about ALL call centers. Each example given here is in reference to large companies, which are more likely to outsource. Yes, Direct TV, Dell, MS, Visa may be outsourcing to India. But there are literally thousands of smaller companies that have "call centers" that are in the US. My assumption is that those smaller call centers, companies that you have probably never heard of, ar included in these statistics accounting for the 62%

Or I could be completely wrong.....
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Dazey, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:53pm

Damn scripts
I make calls to various support lines (HP, Dell, Lexmark, MS, etc.) a few times a week. I don't care much where the person is that I end up talking to, or if they have a thick accent. What bugs the crap out of me is the scripts.

Like this little chat with Dell:
Them: "What is the error code you are seeing?"
Me: "I don't have it now, but the HDD goes *CLUNK* *CLUNK* *CLUNK*, I need a new one."
Them: "But what is the error code you are seeing?"
Me: "It's not showing it now, I just need a new HDD, this one is failing."
Them: "I'm sorry sir, but without the error code I cannot send out a replacement HDD. It could be a fan or CD drive."
There was no getting out of the script he had in front of him. They expected me to sit at my client's site for the next 2 hours and wait for them to call me back asking if the drive made any more noise.

Now compared with a chat I had with an HP technician up in Canada: While looking up info and part numbers the tech was telling me about his late night poker game and the massive hangover he had. I started to feel sorry for him figuring he'd probably be fired and it was the most entertaining call to tech support I had been on. But he then went on to say it was ok because his boss was playing too.

I'm not saying Dell's support is always bad and HP's is always good. Heck, one time it took an HP tech 15 minutes to find my info to start the call, I had already figured out the problem while waiting but wanted to see how long it would take this guy to ask what the problem was.

I guess it's just cheaper to pay people to read than to think.
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Dan, 16 Aug 2006 @ 4:58pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
Don't forget that just because it's in the US, it doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna talk to a white person with no accent.

Those jobs suck, so usually the darker skinned, immigrant variety get stuck with them.

The hard work immigrants show is why I don't mind them at all.

They may be Indian, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're speaking to someone IN India
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Dan, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:01pm

Re: depends when you call
Good point, I always call after hours.
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Me, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:04pm

Duh
What you guys aren't realizing is that that "small" 5% of companies are the ones that own 90% of the world's commerce (money).

That's why the odds of reaching one aren't so "astronomical".
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Bob, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:04pm

I think the 5% number they came up with for Indian call centers includes all product support not just computer related stuff. So if you call for technical support on your toaster it probably wont be in India. If they did a survey on how many computer oriented products and services had call centers in India I am sure the number would be a lot higher maybe even over 80%. Good technicians cost a lot of money in the US compared to $5 a day in India. You can hire a minimum wage high school person to support a set of bed sheets.
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Anonymous, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:12pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
When you call our call center, you will get thick accents as well. We have Chinese, Arabic, South Korean, and Indian people in our call center. But the thickest accent will be from the Americans, we have a large percentage of people that live out in the sticks. They have that country twang when they speak. This center is in the US. I work second level support and I hear complaints about not being able to understand the first person frequently. Many times it is one of my "country" counterparts with which they had problems.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:15pm

Re: That doesn't make any sense...
Thanks to the dune coons, camel jockys and sand n*ggers, I can't understand a damn thing they say anymore.

Yay America.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:26pm

Speaking English
I live in Canada. Ten years ago, if I tried to call our Federal government I could not get through to anyone who could speak English clearly and competently. Now, with the spread of voice mail, I can't get through to a human being at all.
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craig, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:31pm

Well, my last support call was to Motorola over a wifi thingamabob... and he was american, and though I don't normally like to give Evil Corporate America free advertising, the tech support was fantastic. He not only helped me with the Motorola product, but even though i tried to excuse him he stayed on the line and got my non-motorola DSL Modem/Router working too.
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Mark Kitchen, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:34pm

Re: Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
Thank You. While it is true that a lot of TECH companies have outsourced the centers to foreign soil, don't forget about all of the OTHER call centers. Examples:

Kraft
Kitchen Aid
Oyster
Char Broil
Etc, etc etc.

Keep in mind there are still cheap states in the US to farm call centers. OK, TN and FL lead the pack.
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chartreuse, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:36pm

this type of argument misses the point
which is that call centers in general are about declining customer service, disempowering employees and, in the worst cases, shifting cost to the customer.

It's a total accountant solution, displacing an engineers view.
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Celes, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:46pm

Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
Erm? I called DirecTV for lower-level tech support twice on Saturday morning, and twice got individuals with American accents.
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w1nX, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:49pm

All "aboot" scripting, eh?
Proud to be TWC-RoadRunner Tech Support in CANADA.

Granted, we have Pakistanis, Iranians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koren, English, Scottish, Irish, Frenh, Jewish, Catholics, Protestants, etc ALL working in Call Centers in CANADA.

Yes, we do use phone scripts. Do you think I want to hear your life story when all I asked was if you had firewall software on the computer that I believe is blocking your crappy AOL software from connecting? No. The reason ANY call center (even in the good ol' US of A) uses script is to keep the call on topic, so that customers have the issue resolved a soon as humanly possible.
If I ask you to click start and go to the control panel, and you reply "so I'm in Outlook Express now," do you really think it would help troubleshooting browsing issues if you started to rattle off Microsoft error codes for Outlook Express (0x800ccc19)?
To be honest with you all - us "Techies" or "Help Desk Agents" generally refer you to a PC Tech or OEM for two reasons; 1. PEBUK or 2. DFU.

Think before you speak. If asked for a 'commonly used Email address" and you reply "123 Any Street, Buttf**k, USA 30318 or the best answer ~ "Do what now?" chances are we've got you on speaker and we're laughing our collective asses off.

So, when you're expected to take 50-60 calls in an 8 hour shift (including 30 minutes for lunch), yes - we use scripting to stay on topic, so that we can keep our sanity and fell to great an urge to disco a call because the modem is in standby (what the button on the top that says STANDBY" didn't clue you in??)

BTW - here's a little something for anyone with a sense of humour:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7466442083227549651&q=joe+canadian

This post wasn't meant to flame anyone (race, religion, ethnicy or country of origin). If you have hurt feelings, please feel free to call me at my desk: 1-877-328-7448, ext 70682

Again, My name is Joe, Thanks for calling the National HeLL Desk, ave a nice day!
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charlie potatoes, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:52pm

Oxford Mississippi tech support
Ok. it was an accent. and it was american english, sort of... but it was not decipherable. Try Dell sometime at 3 am and see how easy it is to understand.
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arganis, 16 Aug 2006 @ 5:58pm

Re:
I don’t care how many degree's the guy on the other end of the phone has, if he can't speak English well enough to be properly understood, then he might as well have a degree from McDonalds for all the good it does him. People with thick accents just shouldn’t be in the phone answering business, or rather they shouldn’t be in charge of answering calls that will most likely be in a language they are not proficient with, otherwise they might as well use sign language, it will be just as effective.
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Jessica, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:04pm

I worked for a major call center in central IL. They have sooo many accounts that I know people call into all the time.

Toshiba
Sharp
Eureka
SBC
Dex Media
Wrigley (gum)

Oh so many more that I cant even think about.

Some people in the call center are rude to customers, but to be honest they are young, and think they own the world. Dont hold it against the company they are trying to get rid of the bad ones, turnover is huge there!
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charlie potatoes, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:10pm

Abraham
I swear this happened. Its late. the tech answers..he says he is Abraham and asks if he may call me Charlie. I say sure, why not?
then he says...'abraham...lincoln'. i don't reply.
he asks, 'so..you know abraham lincoln?'.
i say i do.
he says, 'they told us to pick names americans will like. so..you like this abraham lincoln?'
i say i have heard good things about him.
he seems pleased and we continue with my problem.
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Feech, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:19pm

I think I know why
My company uses our own call center but alot of our calls are shipped to the ATL to a different co who handles our overflow and certain types of calls, instead of Florida where we are. I'm pretty sure this may be the case with alot of companies but instead routing out of country. I'm not sure how they would count this in the figures. Also there are a few companies that are offering all in one services where they are handling cell comapny, power company, and phone company calls.
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w1nX, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:21pm

here's more funnies
http://www.audiocomedy.net/techsupport/index.shtml
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w1nX, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:25pm

Re: Abraham
Damn - this must either be Dell or Dish Network
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:31pm

Re: sprint
Ive had nothing but positive experiences with sprint call center.
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Brian, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:46pm

Those numbers dont add up or do they?
I was in a call center for a major hosting company ...60,000.... plus........ And we would get up to 400 or 500 calls a day. Now we did not use any types of scripts. While you may hear the life story but their is a nack for keeping on track without scripts. I have been doing this for 12 years and believe me I have heard alot. The one thing that I know is if you cal someone during the day you will get USA call center with americans. But if you call after hours you will get Canada or India Call center. That also depends on who you call. Whenever I call Timewarner during the day its in the USA but at night its in India or Canada. When I call netgear netgear I always get India and they are for the most part idiots.
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Amused, 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:58pm

Re: All "aboot" scripting, eh?
LOL... you bring up some good points too!!

As an independent IT contractor (do-it-all tech) getting connected to a call center canbe a truly frustrating experience. However, I have noticed a massive increase in the efficiency, knowledge and short hold times for some of the major companies - notably SBC, MS and Dell.
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w1nX, 16 Aug 2006 @ 7:08pm

Re: Those numbers dont add up or do they?
What divison are you? RR Help desks are in Ontario and British Columbia. The only US-based NHD I know about is in Morganfield, Kentucky. Mostly all calls from the Eastern seaboard are handled by the Ontario centers, while Mississippi and west calls are handled in BC.

Don't forget - most TWC local offices are closed no later than midnight - and then all calls get funnelled to the NHD
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2006 @ 7:13pm

At an Intuit call center, we were told to break the rules in terms of the help we could give our customers.

This ability lead to me receiving several hundred dollars in Starbuck's gift cards in reward from being praised by the callers.
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some dude in Kansas, 16 Aug 2006 @ 7:22pm

Re:
Yeah, Sprint's a joy to deal with! The word we use to describe them in my house is "GHETTO"! They seem to have no interest in customer satisfaction, retention, etc.. Are all the mobile carriers like that?
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tech 1234, 16 Aug 2006 @ 9:50pm

following a script
man I work in a call center for a isp
and the level 2 techs are pushed like made to stay with the script
quality assurances is litening man and a couple of bad scores and the boss is on your case...
dont forget 14 minutes average call time.
most of the agents try to move the questions through so they can asked questions on the side.
once the basic questions are done than maybe they can right a ticket o move you up to level 3 agent that has more scripts. of course if your yammering on and lowing them down what do yu think they are going to have you do to get off the call .???. maybe like unpug the phone to check the filter ...opps lost customer.next call.
So if you want help ..learn the questions be ready to move through the troble shooting fast... rember may that last call the agent had was a stay at home parent wih kids yelling or maybe some very old that moved slow.

to my boss we are just a ### and we are judged on our numbers..

try to help your agent help you
-t
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Thomas Blumer, 16 Aug 2006 @ 11:00pm

Call center jobs increase
Contributor joe, you missed it on the 183,000 new jobs -- from the article:
The net effect of the closures and openings in the last four years has been more than 183,000 new call center jobs, with about 25 percent of those in the U.S., according to Butler.
That's only 46,000 new jobs in the US. Beats nothing, but nowhere as good as you indicated.
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Techy, 16 Aug 2006 @ 11:09pm

Call Center
As an American, I have trouble understanding some of the people that call me. I say we only allow nuetral accected people to be able to call help desks!

Interestingly, I work on a help desk that ONLY takes call from US Post Office employees. Figure that one out!
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Frink, 16 Aug 2006 @ 11:32pm

Re: Re: Abraham
Dish Network for sure.
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Donald Duck, 17 Aug 2006 @ 3:27am

American Companies
American Companies would pay a mexican or an spanish speaking person more money per hour then just english alone speaking people because they want dual speaking people. The market for spanish speaking phone ops should be pretty good business. I mean a mexican who speaks good enough english could be making $15 $20 or per hour while the person beside them is makeing $9 bucks per hour. Let me also just say that this is a market.

Like any thing else if you work in that market then you have to be aware of the market your in, if you sale car's would you rather sale Chevy's or Toyota's? One of the things is that the companies can move these phone banks to another country like Canada and get much cheaper labour. Verizon try to once closed a new york call center and a court order blocked it.

In my opinion some of these places was paying out way to much money to some of these people and it was hurting profits big time. If you can hire some dude in india for $2 bucks per hour not give him blue cross blue shield and you compare that to some one here for $17 dollars per hour then you are saving your company from being taken over or going out of business. Even state governments are using foreign people for their call centers face it that is CHEAPER.

But not only that, these workers over there in places like india is a market that you can sell things too. Cell Phones, digital cameras, tv, DVD's, CD-ROM, Computers, Internet, Clothes you name it now they can afford it, some one in america has a job because of those people over there buying merchandise. The people here on the phones just might have to learn more as in speak spanish or get a better job. The thing that bothers me is that the government made the call list, which many now home less people lost their jobs over. Also let me point out that in america you can't listen to employees in a phone bank with out some legal paper work or your breaking wire tapping laws, you could get sued by a worker in america for millions and insurance is high here. There could be a million reason to move the phone bank to india and there could be a million different jobs here for these people if they really wanted it or worried about it.
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keith f, 17 Aug 2006 @ 4:32am

Call Center: Is this just the tech sector?
But does this article take in account just the tech sector, where all the money is? I don't think so. I'm sure the percentages are much high there.

Nice try putting your slant on things.
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Brian, 17 Aug 2006 @ 5:51am

Re: Re: Sprint
Yes, all mobile carriers are rude and dont care about their customers. I have dealt with sprint many times and most of the time they just plain do not care. I thought it was just them but when I went to another company their support was just as bad and just for the simplest of things. Of course there are times when they are good but the bad far outways them.
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Celes, 17 Aug 2006 @ 5:54am

Re: Re: Re: Abraham
Must have been Dish Network. When I call Dell and get an Indian tech, they always give me their real first name.
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KevinG79, 17 Aug 2006 @ 8:13am

Indeed...
Yup, this is BS. It's a lot more than 5%. I used to work in a call center for Charter Communications (eww, I know). I left in March. A few months after I quit I found out they outsourced 80% of the call center to Mexico and India. The only people left in that call center are the Internet support people, and their jobs won't be along now. It is Charter's plan to close 80% of their USA call centers and move them all overseas.

And, like others, anytime I call a major company for tech support, I talk to some little Indian who barely speaks English. I just called HP the other day to get a replacement digital camera (warranty swap). I talked to two people, both heavy Indian accents. When I call DirecTV, same thing. When I call the phone company, same thing. There's no way 5% is accurate. Sorry Joe, but you need to do some more research. This article is plain wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2006 @ 9:38am

i had a guy from dell come in to talk to my senior design class about the global market. after he was done, we got to talking about dell itself. (also, mr. dell visited our campus about a year prior. he was asked by india is doing stuff for america, he said that computers are built near where they are shipped, i.e. in usa for usa purchases, china for the chinese, india for the indians. i don't think he addressed the tech support issue tho) the guy that talked to my class said that if you want an english speaking guy, ask for level 3 support when you call, that's the us call centers. but the thing we should focus on is learning more languages, breaking down those barriesrs and being more open to other nations. (bunch of bull) i'm american, buying an american product, so i want american support. is that so wrong to ask?

he said that it's cheaper to buy support from india. plain and simple. what he said tho, is that the corporate purchases were upset that they had indian tech support, and said they would pull business if they didn't change. so guess what, dell listened. so if you have corportate needs, you're fine coz you bring in tons of money, if you buy a dinky dell for 299, like hell you'll get good american tech support. it's all about the benjamins.

i've also called tons of places, multiple times. like when i was setting up my home network, calls to verizon and linksys. i got a wide variety of people from ghetto to old lady, to southern to indian to chinese. kinda scary. but hey, that's life
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Indian Call Centre Vetran, 17 Aug 2006 @ 11:57am

View from the other side
I worked in a number of call centres in Bangalore, India (AOL, IBM, Sony) and I would just like to clear the air here.

None of you guys want to accept the fact that customer satisfaction improved a billion times after customer support was outsourced to India. Don't believe me? Just try talking to anyone from Dell, AOL, Microsoft, HP...

Everyone here is b*tching about Indians' "thick" accents and them reading out of scripts.
This is just plain nit-picking. The fact is no American call-centre worker is as motivated, qualified or patient as the average Indian call centre worker.
Americans simply don't consider working in a call centre a 'real' job.

The bottom line is: apart from a few whining Americans that post in forums, politicians desperately looking for issues and journalists who love to sensationalize everything, Americans are extremely happy with Indian call-centre support.

Those of you who are lamenting the loss of American jobs, wake up to the 21st century! A job for life was something only your grandfathers enjoyed(?).
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2006 @ 12:32pm

Re: View from the other side
sure MS, Dell, HP and others will claim that outsourcing to india made CS better. a way of justifying their actions.

as for thick accents, and nit-picking...HELL YES. if i'm paying for a product, and it's based on a GREAT tech support, then i expect to have a tech junkie who know's their stuff and can tell me, w/o me having to have it repeated like 7 times then be spelled out. if i want to hear thick accents' i'll go to the kwik-i-mart.

as a college educated individual, i'd love to work in a call center. i believe i have the background to properly solve questions about different computer issues. the problem lies in the fact that i can get a call center job for about 10 bucks/hr or make 70k doing even less work. so, tell me what's the better job? until cc pay well, we won't get a decent helper.
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Tom, 17 Aug 2006 @ 1:28pm

Win-eee Cooop-Ahhh
HAH!! I like the fellow above who's Tech support called himself Abraham Lincoln.

In my case I got a phone call from a gal with a VERY VERY thick Asian accent and stilted engrish trying to offer me DISH network.

Oddly enough i was just cancelling DirectTV for being morons, and said let me call you back tommorow.

She said OK and that her name was Winnie Cooper.

All I can think is some jack like me devised that name for her in a cube next door.

"Win-eee Cooop-Ahhh"

lols... i'll take win-eee cooop-ahhh over the automatic phone call recordings any day tho.

Tom
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jay dodge, 17 Aug 2006 @ 6:15pm

Re: All
I'm sorry, Joe, but I'm going to have to knock off points from your business process at the closing. You should know full well you're supposed to brand with the company name now.
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Donald Duck, 17 Aug 2006 @ 9:59pm

American Companies
Lot of these companies that has been posted about has billions of dollars invested in Asia already. Manufacturing their products. I remember Dell Computers just expanded their manufacturing unit in India not long ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4663484.stm

All of these companies as you know make their cell phones, monitors, computers, keyboards what ever it is in asia most of the time. Not only that but their is a growing market in those nations with billions of people in them. That means millions of people NEED HELP with their computers in their own nations. I recall one story that there is more people online in asia then in the United States, so there is a huge market worth BILLIONS.

After reading more about the subject if the manufacturing facility was in India that Dell has I'm sure american workers would want $35 plus per hour. The way they churn out their computers.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/hardware/0,39043471,39199103,00.htm

Some thing I don't understand if you want a product that doesn't have foreign phone support, then why did you purchase a product made in a foreign nation? As far as I'm concern I don't have to have any of those products made in Asia. I have a nokia and I bet you your cell phone bill that a Finland person couldn't handle the call load if their english call center was based in Finland. You know you couldn't really understand them, but who doesn't love their N gage?

I also recall a story about credit cards. If you have like a $50,000 dollar limit then your phone call via computer programs goes directly to an English speaking person. If you have bad credit and a limit to $500.00 dollars then that call goes directly to some foreign nation.

To me that sounds like good business for the company it self. There is one company that wants you to spend about $25,000 dollars every year on their card and I'm sure if you do that you expect the very best, and they probably get paid very well!

But of you just use your credit card at the local 7 eleven for gas. Your going to get a foreign person not paid much to wait for you on the phone. They are not going to pay some one over $10 bucks to help you with a minor problem or to call you to make you pay your mastercard bill? When they could pay some one a h*ll of a lot less.

Now the problem with some people is that they are all against jobs going to foreign nations but a lot of these same people want to welcome foreigners from Mexico and other places with open arms.

They want to give them green cards and drivers licenese, section 8, free health care and offer them YOUR JOB.

Which one are you more worried about? People in some phone bank job in India or millions of people coming here in such a large number american phone workers lose their jobs because they can't speak spanish.
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kruzer, 19 Aug 2006 @ 6:11pm

I have the same problem.
yup...
I haven't bought a product that didn't have an Indian help desk. Maybe I just pick the wrong products?

I gotta say that when I bought an Acer notebook... and that's Chinese, right? But the service was in Texas and they all spoke fluent English. It's was a shock to hear it ... and not only that, the service was super fast to replace a failed HD.

Sooooo, the Chinese hire US help desk/service and the US hire someone in Asia.
Hey, it makes sense to me dude.
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Julie, 29 Aug 2006 @ 5:48pm

Re: Re: Numbers DO NOT add up
I just contacted Dish network and Direct Television to get a comparison for new service. I'm going with Direct Television, the company who use American's in their call centers. The girl I spoke to was an American college student and did her best to explain services. Dish representatives (I called X3 before I could get someone I could understand). Had a delay after each work spoken, stated that they were in Denver (Since when is Banglore in Colorado?) They were not able to give me specifics as to what I needed. We all need to speak up and complain when jobs are going oversees, It is not right. Especially when Dish denies it and states they are in Colorado.WRONG
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Geef, 31 Aug 2006 @ 10:54pm

Comcast
I got a job at ATT Broadband back when it had internet service and it was my 2nd job but I'm a computer nerd so it worked out great. There was basically nobody who knew things better than me for computers so I was always training groups and stuff. Having a job where I had to show people how to use computers was cool. We got bought by Comcast and it worked out the same way but then we started getting mega calls sometimes. Comcast then got some people up in Canada and India to take calls but only sometimes. The rest of the time its the normal people in the Washington call centers.
This was all in Washington state. ATT and Comcast used centers in Tacoma and Everett.
I don't work there anymore though.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2006 @ 10:05pm

183000 jobs is small compared to all the LAYOFFS and downsizing. They're plugging a hole in a dike that was washed away by a tsunami.
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Boris, 29 Sep 2006 @ 6:32pm

DISH Network
I've been on the phone with DISH several times this week. Judging by the signal quality and the odd usage of words ("thankyou for patiently waiting"), I spoke with India 5 out of 7 times. Americans took the calls on Tuesday, late evening.

But whether in India or the U.S., I shouldn't have to speak with DISH 7 times to get a DVR upgrade that I am paying for.
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DT, 12 Oct 2006 @ 5:05pm

Call Centers
My issue isn't with the call center employees but their inability to make any mid-level decisions. All they do is look at a computer screen--and email a problem to the next level, and from there it is never, never land. I call Blue Cross at least ten times a day, and it never fails that their response to an incorrect claim processed is "I'll route this back to be reprocessed." Wherever that "route" is, is never resolved. In other words, they can't "get up from their desk" and upstream the issue. Medical doctors are beleagured by the claim process. Outsourcing belies customer service. All you get is someone reading from a computer screen what you can read if you log onto their sight. Hence, a waste of everyone's time.
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Johnsky, 22 Oct 2006 @ 1:52pm

Oh, **** you DT.
We tech support representatives have to put up with ALOT of crap from you people.

We don't just read from computer screens, all we do on the computer is log everything you did, or failed to do correctly.

Yes, companies have strict guidelines as to what we can and cannot do... get over it.

Can you at your job simply decide, "Hey, without having any board meetings, lets just suddenly start giving away free stuff, and making legal decisions that in the end will either A) Get the company sued into bankrupcy, or B) Deplete the companies funds, bankrupting the company anyways.

I have to say, 95% of my customers make completley stupid claims as to what we 'should' do.

Most of these customers get on the phone hopping mad because of some retarted thing they did to their own equipment... they wont give me a moment to speak, then absolutely freak out when I inform them it was in fact their fault.

You expect us to be all smiles, and happy go lucky, while you little pricks can berate us, and tell us we're useless, after refusing to do the one thing that would resolve your issue?!

UP YOURS!
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Carlos Revon, 6 Dec 2006 @ 3:03pm

Re: Damn scripts
I can relate to what your saying about the scrpits. I used to work as a dsl install and support rep. After about 2 years on the job i pretty much had it covered, though they started making me do a scrpit intro and conversation. It took me about 10 min to find the p[roblem and get it fixed, but with scripts it takes about 20 min just to make sure the cus is happy. I think great tech support makes me happy
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LAYCE, 28 Mar 2007 @ 11:06am

Re: View from the other side
GIVE ME A BREAK. I ACTUALLY BECAME A WORK AT HOME AGENT FOR A CALL CENTER BECAUSE AS A CONSUMER I WAS SO UPSET ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE ACCENTS OF THE INDIA PEOPLE. I CAN'T TELL YOU THE ENDLESS HOURS I HAVE SPENT WITH AN INDIAN WHO COULD NOT THINK OUT OF THE BOX, WHO COULD NOT PROBLEM SOLVE BEYOND WHAT THEY WERE READING.

NOT MOTIVIATED? I WILL TELL YOU THAT THE HOURS WE PUT INTO LEARNING DIFFERENCE SYSTEMS AND 6 WEEKS OF JUST BASIC TRAINING FOLLOWED BY UPDATED CLASSES AND CONTINUED COACHING FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS DOESN'T SOUND NOT BEING MOTIVATED TO ME!!! WE ARE ALSO VERY MICROMANAGED AND THERE ISN'T A MINUTE FOR PRIVATE IDLE CHIT CHAT WITH FELLOW WORKERS AS IN A REGULAR WORK PLACE. EVEN THOUGH IT SOUNDS GREAT 'WORKING AT HOME' BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY IT IS HARD WORK AND NOT A SECOND TO SPARE.

TRULY WHEN A CALLER CALLS IN WITH PROBLEMS AND TROUBLES WE ARE MUCH BETTER ABLE TO RELATE TO OUR WESTERNED CULTURED CALLERS BETTER THAN SOMEONE IN INDIA. THE SAME GOES FOR ME HANDLING A CALLER FROM INDIA; I WOULDN'T KNOW BANGALORA FROM SINGAPOR.

CALL CENTER JOBS FOR MANY, THE DISABLED, THE RETIRED, AND THOSE WHO HAVE TO STAY AT HOME HELPING OTHERS FOR EXAMPLE ARE DELIGHTED TO FIND THIS WORK AND ARE PLEASED TO THE AN OPPORTUNITY TO FILLED POSITIONS AVAILABLE. MORE JOBS LIKE THESE WOULD CERTAINLY HELP TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN THAN TO SHIP THESE JOBS ELSEWHERE.

SO LET US THE CHIPS ON THE TABLE. EACH COUNTRY IS BETTER AT HANDLING THEIR OWN COUNTRY'S CALLERS. LET INDIA TAKE CARE OF INDIA AND WE WILL TAKE CARE OF US.
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Kamal Kumar, 11 Jul 2008 @ 1:43am

Comment
As talking to the slice-of-life workplace comedy following the lives of call center agents in the span of working period. Speaking with a fake American accent is a prerequisite for the job. This ensemble comedy is an inside look into the maddening, sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled lives of those who ply their trade in the call center industry. Basically call centers deals with 24 X 7 where sleeping also makes a factor for the night shift working people as it is right time for sleeping and giving rest to the body . As continuous working at the night shift gives birth to different types of diseases. But as per the needs of the customer demands we have to work 24 X 7.
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Kamal Kumar, 11 Jul 2008 @ 1:46am

Comment
As talking to the slice-of-life workplace comedy following the lives of call center agents in the span of working period. Speaking with a fake American accent is a prerequisite for the job. This ensemble comedy is an inside look into the maddening, sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled lives of those who ply their trade in the call center industry. Basically call centers deals with 24 X 7 where sleeping also makes a factor for the night shift working people as it is right time for sleeping and giving rest to the body . As continuous working at the night shift gives birth to different types of diseases. But as per the needs of the customer demands we have to work 24 X 7.
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Business Process Outsourcing, 2 Aug 2008 @ 5:39am

Blended outsourcing Solution services
You may want to check this link for the latest trends in Outsourcing. http://www.1888pressrelease.com/end2end-consultant-launches-new-blended-outsourcing- solution-pr-m3g362u7h.html
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Juliet, 1 Sep 2009 @ 8:13pm

what about Argentina?
Did you know that the number of call centers in Argentina and other Latin American countries are rapidly increasing. This is due to the low incomes, the proximity and similarity in time zones to the US and the well educated population. For these reasons many call centers are begining to set up in Argentina. One of these in 5CA, a Dutch company offering call centre services to clientel worldwide
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Manju (profile), 7 Aug 2018 @ 1:07am

Inbound and Outbound Call Center Services in India
Most of the call center agents in India fake american accent to make american callers feel comfortable.Thanks for sharing the post.
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scooby71, 4 Jun 2019 @ 8:16am

Re: I have the same problem.
And this is why the US voted in an a**hole like Trump.

Big companies were ripping it out of US citizens (same here in the UK by the way) for long enough that they got greedy and complacent. Now they complain about tariffs.

I don't agree with tariffs but I do think if you buy a product in a certain country then they should offer support in that country.

This is why an iPhone is so expensive, not because it costs more to make but because you can go into an Apple store in whatever country you live and get real time assistance.

How many Acer, Lenovo, Netgear, HP stores do you see around?

You want the best on offer then you pay the best price, simple.
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