I always ask "is that really your name".
I find it hard to believe all the tech support opperators in India have "American" names.Originally Posted by Geeno
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!
Oh.. my.. dear.. GOD! It's a conspiracy, the aliens are invading the world from India!!11!1
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++
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.
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