I always ask "is that really your name".

I always ask "is that really your name".

I find it hard to believe all the tech support opperators in India have "American" names.

There was a documentary on the BBC about telephone call centres in India.

They are assigned new names and places they pretend to come from!

They are assigned new names and places they pretend to come from!
Oh.. my.. dear.. GOD! It's a conspiracy, the aliens are invading the world from India!!11!1 :scared:

It's another example of outsourcing.

When I was living in Yakima, Washington - we had a company called Client Logic - which provided tech support for a variety of companies as a call center. Companies such as Microsoft, etc. contracted with them. This company coming into Yakima was a blessing, because it brought with it a few thousand jobs (they were a big company) - and while the jobs weren't the highest paying in the world, they were above minimum wage and there was opportunity for advancement for the people hired there. The company was a blessing because it brought a larger company to offer jobs to a depressed economy area. It worked well... for awhile.

About 8 months before I left Yakima the company decided to close it's doors in Yakima as it had decided to outsource it's contract to India. After all, why pay someone here $8 and hour when they can pay someone $2 (or less) and hour in India...

Needless to say it was a big blow for the Yakima area as about 2000 people found themselves out of work.

And as to the main topic... so far I've not had a problem with talking to someone outsourced in India (I guess I've been lucky). But then, my experiences have been somewhat limited. I've had perhaps 2 calls fielded by someone I was pretty sure was in India. The main experience I had, was that they were able to help solve my problem, but their customer service skills were a bit on the rough side. I felt as if he were trying to "rush" me off the phone - and while I know that they under pressure to field a certain amount of calls, I always appreciate it if I am treated courteously.

I use to work for GE. Their IT helpdesk was outsourced to India. Talk about a nightmare trying to get assistance. I wonder if they hated receiving calls as much as we had making them...

Maybe it's time you learn to understand dialects. It's not going away.

I don't think it's dialects as much as talking to someone on a telephone halfway around the world. Poor signal = frustration on both sides.

I like the people at the Indian Call Centers. They have been 1000 times more helpful than the bubble gum chomping (in my ear) teenagers and housewives that normally answered my calls and took it personally everytime I had a complaint.

Working in the Navy I deal daily with people with VERY thick accents and after awhile you can understand what their saying through the accents. Diversity is great IMO.

Those jobs were low pay in the states and are even more low pay in India but for the 1 billion Indians that job is a god send. I'm sure the person in America has a new job at Taco Bell where they can forget my order of Nacho's.

R++

Maybe it's time you learn to understand dialects. It's not going away.
1) There is a difference between an accent and the whole new language some of them speak. . .some cross of their native tongue and english.
2) I am sure if I was exsposed to accents more I could understand them, but living in middle America I only get the occasional Spanish accent.
3) When enough complaints get so bad people stop being customers it'll change.

1) There is a difference between an accent and the whole new language some of them speak. . .some cross of their native tongue and english.

And I'm sure they love listening to you talk too.


2) I am sure if I was exsposed to accents more I could understand them, but living in middle America I only get the occasional Spanish accent.

Looks like that's going to change eh? He learned another language. Least you can do is listen to his accent.


3) When enough complaints get so bad people stop being customers it'll change.

That's never going to happen. I can say that almost as fact. The only reason you'll see it stop is due to money or hatred of outsourcing. Customer complaints about languages won't.

And I'm sure they love listening to you talk too.

I never said they would enjoy it. . but it is their job and they are providing a service which makes them be in contact with native English speakers. If your job is talking to people, then shouldn't they be able to understand you. Esp in an area as 'confusing'(to most people) as computers.



Looks like that's going to change eh? He learned another language. Least you can do is listen to his accent.
He came to a place where the native language is English, if I went to Mexico and complained about the accents of people I would be stupid. His job also isn't talking to people and trying to explain (for most people) hard computer instructions.



That's never going to happen. I can say that almost as fact. The only reason you'll see it stop is due to money or hatred of outsourcing. Customer complaints about languages won't.
That is what I said, when customers start to go to another company because they can get a better service then outsourcing will stop. So far outsourcing has gained money for the companies, that will stop sometime. . .it just takes one company to offer the same service but with better help desks.

Except for the fact that the Indians are getting better at it all the time and educated Americans expect to be paid at a far better rate than companies can afford. These call centres are run by Indians educated in England and furthermore a more motivated workforce you are rarely likely to see. There is a hell of a lot of competition for those jobs, and so the level of competency (including a lack of a regional accent) is and remains high.

Quite frankly, I would have more difficulty in comprehending your average 20-something Geordie (someone from Newcastle area of the UK) than a highly educated Indian, and even more difficulty understanding an American with any sort of regional accent.

Frankly, more luck to them. And really, this is the price you pay sometimes if you desire to hold on to Capitalistic philosophy.

Working for HP I deal with customers all day. You would be surprised how many people a day I speak with who thank me for not being in India. I find it rather rude of them to say that. I mean these people are just trying to make a living. Most of our Indian employees are just call routers but some of them are in tech support. I understand people who pay tech support fees get upset that they pay for a service and then can't understand what the person is telling them to do. But still? I mean I have actually had the most discriminating people who even when they find out that my call centre is located in Canada will complain that they want to speak to an American..one wouldn't even speak to me because I was a girl and apparently I know crap about technology. For fun when people really piss me off I actually route them to India so they can struggle with the router. I will send them all over the globe if they really get to me. Never piss off a tech agent, we are only try to help you!!!!

At my job I sometimes have to interact with folks in India and there definately is a communication barrier. They are nice enough and all, but damn if it isn't hard to communicate sometimes, especially given the technical nature of the discussion. Something I've noticed is a difference in the cadence of their conversation (the I talk, then you talk, then I talk kind of thing). They are CONSTANTLY interrupting me. And I've given up on trying to get the name of the person I'm speaking with. I've asked them to spell it out, but the resulting letters were nothing that I've ever heard before.

I resent some folks' implications that it is the callers fault for not being able to understand the operators. The caller, in most instances, is the one who is paying for the service and should not be cast as the one who is callously demanding that other's conform to him. And the operator might be highly educated on the subject, but if he can't communicate that information to me, the one PAYING for the info, it does me no bit of good. Of course I don't condone that people be abusive to the operator.

You have no idea how many abusive callers I put up with in a day. I had one guy a couple of weeks ago go tell me to "**** yourself you 'cword'". Simply because I told him he would have to pay for support. How come people don't understand that if their products are out of warranty that they have to pay. For petes sake that's what extended warranties are for. How the heck do they think that I am getting paid?

...I had one guy a couple of weeks ago go tell me to "**** yourself you 'cword'".

It's a wonder he even knew that word as he's never seen one considering he was born rectally.

R++

My roommate called tech support one time and some person in India picked up. We had some problems with our DSL modem; guess what this guy said? "Do you have a flurosent light bulb over your modem?"

It's a wonder he even knew that word as he's never seen one considering he was born rectally.

R++Burrrrn.


I have heard(and been on the receiving end of many) many stupid support calls. Like a kid I know from school called me(I don't really like him) asked me what it meant when Windows asked him if he wanted to update. . . Or people asking me to install "hacker stuff" onto their computer. Honestly if you need 'hacker stuff' to be installed by someone else you should really just stay away from computers and calculators for that matter.






Gah, why am I posting, been up since 5 and it is nearing 12. . .I am really going to bed this time.

I don't mean to criticize but why do they hire someone at a job when they know they are going to be dealing with mainly english speaking people, when they can barely pronounce the words themselves?

My roommate called tech support one time and some person in India picked up. We had some problems with our DSL modem; guess what this guy said? "Do you have a flurosent light bulb over your modem?"

It's a very valid question:


The effects of Fluorescent lights on Modems.

There are two types of lights which can cause problems.

Fluorescents use a ballast which emits an electronic signal. This includes not only fluorescent desklamps, but also fluorescent shelf lights and those pl lamps you can put into traditional desklamps and light fittings.

Aside from the possible modem problems, they're also well known to be bad for monitors - although they are used to flick impulses to change electronic price ticketing in some supermarkets.

The second type are the newer whizbang halogen lamps. These use a transformer to reduce the voltage from 240v down to 12v. The transformers come in two varieties - copper coil (heavy metal ones) or electronic (lightweight).

The electronic transformers are a real problem and are a source of problems with tv reception, radio reception, monitors and modems. The newer quality models try to overcome this by including emission suppression - but they're still not perfect.

If you have to have a halogen desklamp - get one with a copper coil transformer - preferably one with the transformer positioned on the plug or on the floor, and plug it into a different plug than your modem and computer.

So which lamp is best for computer usage?... the standard old desklamp that takes a normal household globe. For optimal usage and minimising glare - use a daylight globe and position the lamp to the left (if you're right handed - to the right if you're left handed) to minimise shadows.

This is not to say you shouldn't use fluorescent or halogen lamps, but if you're experiencing the occasional problem with disconnections, this may have something to do with it.


Step 2: Check These Simple Things

An important thing to understand is that modems are very susceptible to radio & magnetic interference. So avoid placing your modem near a fluorescent light of any sort. The modem connection may experience intermittent line failures and data losses. Also check for the correct number of serial ports.