Abuse rattles Indian call centre staff

[404 Not Found]

wait are you saying that when you call a company for support you have to call india?

I was making note that customer support for many companies will outsource these calls to India or other countries.

When I called Norton for a support question, my call was redirected to a call center in India. We had problems understanding one another and if the call center had people who could fluently speak English or at leastthe operator that had handled my call, it would have solved the problem I had in roughly 2 minutes, rather than 20+ minutes.

Well it boils down to the large companies saving a few dollars at the buyers expense. I just found that the CNN article hit home with a problem I faced, yet I was not an arrogant asswipe to the operator, just frustrated with the problems we encountered in trying to resolve a problem with language being a barrier between us!

[Kyace]

The result? All the recurring problems that are happening as a direct result of international customer support. This may not sound very amusing to you, but get yelled at by someone from Kentucky for an hour after your shift because they just cannot grasp the concept of voicemail.

You mean those fancy answering machines you have to call to hear the messages? Those are the devil's tools!

[King Baba]

You mean those fancy answering machines you have to call to hear the messages? Those are the devil's tools!

Apparently so; and don't get me started on the actual numbers that you have to put in to get into the fancy answering machines. I kid you not, in fact - I think saying an hour is being quite conservative - the majority of that call was simply trying to walk him through where to put his password in (a sequence of numbers only I had access to on the database). He simply would not believe me and became very aggitated until, finally, he just said he'd call the next day.

Of course, you can't hang up on anyone, it's an in-bound call centre. Needless to say, people from Kentucky are very low on my list of bright people.

[Kyace]

Needless to say, people from Kentucky are very low on my list of bright people.

So the entire population of Kentucky is on your list of bright people?

There are worse examples of ignorance than not understanding new technology. Stereotyping comes to mind.

[King Baba]

Oh dear God, you are just boiling over with the need to raise the flag of prejudice and cry out the injustices of all racial discrimination, aren't you?

If you took anything from my little story as prejudice - which is, of course, stereotyping - then I apologize, but I'm not that shallow. If you so choose, however, to view my post as if I were wearing a white hood with a point and chanting that I hate God, well there's not much I can do about that.

Obviously enough, even when someobody tells a story they find the least bit amusing, some joker will play the serious card as if they're playing some higher purpose than everyone else.

Or perhaps you are from Kentucky, Kyoce? Which would explain the necessity you felt in having to relate a simple post to stereotyping of people from a particular State. If you are not, then I am obliged to think that you are just a poor bloke eager to point out the injustice of the world in every little thing.

I can just imagine your face all bunched up and turning red as you read my story. Did you by chance push a button to set off an alarm when you deducted that *GASP* I used a generalization in my post regarding all Kentuckians? Please. I thought it quite obvious that there is no way of knowing I can speak of all people from Kentucky, but apparently you missed that memo.

Take off your badge and aviator sunglasses; I'm innocent, officer!

[Kyace]

My post was meant to be funny to those who already knew I am from Kentucky.

I'll rest my simple brain and not engage you further on this subject.

[Cremation]

well its fairly obvious that the companies chose India for the cheap labour, but having visited them recently, I can only say that it has affected their economy positively. what i dont agree with on this thread is the fact that they have a racial deficiency or however 404 put it. from the stories i've heard, the majority of them have to have had training to learn the western accent to be eligible to get a job in a company as reputable as microsoft. so i think the entire story about the activation code was a load of crap, or maybe what the guy heard was what he heard through ears filled with prejudice and an overall superiority that people in the western world feel over those who can't speak english with their accent.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I think it's fairly obvious that you've never had to deal with outsourced tech support before.

[Sir>elim_killer!]

Cremation you are an idiot

Seriously cremation you are an idiot and you need to stfu. If you read any of thos posts you would see how we were complaining about the lack of English these customer service reps have. On another not its not that I am racist, but Im spending good money, and i rather spend a little more so when I call customer service I speak to a person I can understand.

On a side note Im just so happy we are all concerned about helping India's economy. Even though millions of hard working Americans have lost there job due to outsourcing, and not because India can do it better, but because they will do it much cheaper. I have known plenty of people that have lost jobs to outsourcing. Yet most of these profits go to CEO'S and so forth and the little man usually gets shit. As you can tell this is a heated subject for me.

EK

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Let's keep it civil--there's no need to be namecalling.

The problem for me arises in the fact that I, as a systems admin, am required to do my job as quickly and efficiently as possible. When there's a language barrier, my job is made that much more difficult. It takes longer and is much more complicated in general. I know what you may think: "Seriously... how much more complicated could it possibly be? They're still speaking English!" The answer is "Sometimes, very." The Windows product activation example above is fairly right-on with some of the encounters I've had.

I agree with EK in the fact that "support" should be just that--support. If you're paying extra for the opportunity to get help when you need it, then it should be helpful, not frustrating. I have no doubt that some call centers may require speech training to be employed there. The problem is either that a majority do not, or the quality control is broken. The "ears filled with prejudice" line is something nice for a greeting card, but it doesn't really have any legs to stand on for the most part.

[Mantra-Slider]

hehe Ive never experienced this either Dont think I ever call someone for help tho.. Its like the last thing companies want these days so they set up mail services instead. they are usually fast and efficient.
If I however would call someone for support and they wouldnt understand me the company isnt fullfilling the support they have offered and are obviously doing wrong. Dont you have some sort of customerlaw that can help you guys to get rid of this? or reject the company i dunno

[Galleleo]

Thing is, most of the european countries don't have to worry about this, because non will be outsourcing it so quickly, because obviously we want to be helped in our own language, and it's a lot harder to outsource to India in dutch or french or swedish or whatever, then it is in English.

[concealed]

In purely macroeconomic terms, outsourcing tech support jobs makes sense. This allows the company to offer the service or product it is offering for a lower price. Would you rather have price increases and better service on some product that is generally pretty easy to fix? It is my best interest to get the product at the lowest price, maybe others disagree? It is quite difficult to understand these people, but what better way of practicing and learning the language than working on technical support for customers who are usually ignorant americans who speak in slang? Granted in some specific cases there are people who are rediculously poor at speaking or understanding, but by far not all of tech support people in india are this way? In addition, the benefit at home is that people who would be in tech support now realize that they have an opportunity to work at something more productive, and thus train for that job. Quick Recap: in the shortrun we lose some quality of tech support, and some jobs, but we gain or maintain cheaper prices. In the long run, we have quality tech support, lots of Indians competing for these jobs nets the best candidates, lower prices, and the added benefit of domestic tech supporters now in new fields providing us with those services.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I respectfully disagree.

in the shortrun we lose some quality of tech support, and some jobs, but we gain or maintain cheaper prices.

In the short run, we lose a decent amount of quality tech support and a fair amount of jobs. Cheaper prices doesn't necessarily equal a better standard. If you have a cheap piece of hardware, but no one can make it work, what good is cheap hardware?

In the long run, we have quality tech support, lots of Indians competing for these jobs nets the best candidates, lower prices, and the added benefit of domestic tech supporters now in new fields providing us with those services.

I think that's a lot of conjecture. I don't think that tech support will just "get better." Something's broken right now and it needs to be fixed. The whole "just stay the course" ideal isn't a good idea in this case. I'm not saying that this is just about Indian tech centers either--domestic call centers can be just as bad. The problem is that, right now, companies don't understand that supporting a product is just as essential as the product development. The business model is moving towards services, not products (at least when it comes to technology), and people would do their best to realize that.

[Pearl Jam]

All I know is that Ahmed from Travelocity Customer Service has zero fucking clue why I can't book the $79 ticket from Kansas City to Las Vegas, even though the website clearly gives me the option.

Fuckin' Ahmed.