Outsourcing to India-grrrrr

[carnation]

A few weeks ago, I ordered a personalized Disney shirt for my son. When I got it today, instead of the child's XL navy polo with his name we had a man's XL navy fleece with his name! I was furious so I called Disney and got a woman with an Indian accent--oh, crap.

Now I teach ESOL and can understand an Indian accent pretty well but this woman did not get it. She kept saying that they couldn't make him a new shirt because I must have messed up the order. I finally lost it and let her know much too loudly that *they* screwed up, I had the order sheet that came with the shirt, and they could just jolly well do a new shirt. She was hard to understand and she wasn't understanding me either.

I am sooo tired of corporations that outsource their phone work to India! A couple of years ago, my oldest almost went to the wrong place for her GRE because the Indian who was manning the phones couldn't pronounce the name of the building in Savannah where it was being given. Ooohhh! Disney had better get that polo to us in time for Christmas!

@@@###!!!

[icelandelf]

I had the same experience when I ordered something from Amazon for my niece's birthday. Three weeks later it still hadn't been shipped so I called to cancel the order and had to speak to customer service. I could barely understand the man who had a very heavy Indian accent, so I asked for a supervisor. I couldn't understand him either. It was very frustrating.

[Xidelt]

I love how everyone in Bangalore is suddenly named "Matt" or "Katie". Uh, no.

My husband had a problem with a credit card he recently got. It worked everywhere except Walmart. ?? When he called the customer service number, it went straight to "Leslie" and there wasn't anything she could do except keep sending him new cards that still didn't (and still don't) work at Walmart. Thanks guys!

[knight_shadow]

At my company, the outsourcing is for late night/early morning hours (this division is 24 hours). No one that I've spoken to within the company has shown any interest in staying at work past 5/6pm, so it makes good business sense for a company to outsource to someone who will.

I have gotten frustrated once or twice, but my anger usually isn't with the person and not being able to understand him/her; it's with the company itself.

[carnation]

I don't think companies realize how much they're losing by outsourcing--not just money from frustrated customers but also good will. They seem to be taking the word of these people that they speak understandable English.

I'm normally a calm person but when this woman asked me if she could call me by my first name and then used it every 10 words, I was close to a meltdown.

[ZTAMich]

Originally Posted by carnation

I'm normally a calm person but when this woman asked me if she could call me by my first name and then used it every 10 words, I was close to a meltdown.

I hate this. Such a pet peeve of mine. There's no need to keep saying my name, I know who I am!!!

[Munchkin03]

This is something I hate more than anything!!!

After my luggage went missing, I had to speak to a zillion Katies who sounded very very Indian...I got so exasperated that whenever I heard an Indian accent, I just requested that I speak to their supervisor--eventually I got an American-based emplyee. Grrrr on Delta!

[ZTAngel]

It's not just the accents that bother me. It's the cultural differences as well that make the experience frustrating.

Years ago, before the days of online bill pay, I sent off a rent check to my roommate parents (they were the landlords) and then I sent off a check to Burdines (now Macy's) to pay my bill. I put the checks in the wrong envelope and didn't realize it until my roomie's parents called me and told me that they got a check written out to Burdines. Oops.

I called my bank and they told me that I didn't need to void the check since there was no way Burdines would be able to cash a check that wasn't written out to them. Of course, my bank was incorrect and that's a story in itself. Burdines ended up cashing my $550 rent check.

Of course, I wanted that $550 back. I called Burdines and asked for a refund. Their call centers are in India. The woman just did not understand my story. I'm not sure that they have checks in India so I don't think she could have even begun to understand what was going on. I kept telling her that I needed the refund from Burdines immediately since $550 is a lot and it wasn't even their money to begin with. She was not very nice and told me that Burdines wouldn't be able to issue me a refund until 30 days. What? I said to her, "I want the money back now! You all cashed a check that didn't belong to you." She snaps at me, "That's not possible. It couldn't have happened." Oh boy.....

I lost it on her. I'm not exactly sure what I said to her because I was in such a blind rage but it was something like, "Are you calling me a liar?! I have proof. I have a copy of the check with the 'To' line to my landlords and the Burdines stamp on the back of the same check. You want me to fax that over to you to prove that it is possible and that it did happen?! Don't you ever call me a liar! And put your manager on the phone. I want your manager to know you just called me a liar." Not one of my finer moments but I was pissed. She put me on hold and came back a minute later to let me know that they'd be cutting me a check that day for $550. At least I got my way....

I just don't think someone at an American call center would have flat out said to me that what happened with my check couldn't have happened. Someone in a US call center would know that it definitely could happen.

[Lil' Hannah]

I always feel terrible for our perfectly capable IT department/support team when they have to pass calls off to someone not even in their department because some asshole won't believe they're not sitting in an Indian call center

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by Xidelt

I love how everyone in Bangalore is suddenly named "Matt" or "Katie". Uh, no.

I hate that as well, especially considering those agents are usually contracted to use those names when they're hired & are not allowed to use any other names while even in the building! Just keep in mind, some people in India are Christians with "Christian names". Two agents I've met are Jasen & Sam, both Indians but are Baptist.

My company outsources to India, and I've been to the callcenter there twice now. I love the agents, they're so gracious & thankful to have those jobs, and believe it or not they do take English classes! (In fact, most callcenter agents in Banglore specifically have college degrees & have been taught in English since grade school!) Their English is more Britain-influenced rather than American-influenced so its still hard to understand them even in person (at least it was for me!)

So far I've been to 4 callcenters that my company outsources to-they're all owned by Sitel. The same theme has been common amongst Canada (outsourced from America), Germany (they're outsourced from Austria), Morocco (outsourced from France), and India (outsourced from America/Canada)...and thats been that the agents are always hard to understand-but not just because of the language barrier. The agents are taught one or two "happy path" scripts & are told not to deviate from it, and then the company screws up & the agents don't know how to deal with or what to say to the customer without getting in trouble for deviating from their script.

I don't disagree with outsourcing, even though it was my job originally outsourced (although my old department is now in Canada instead of India), but I do disagree with how the companies handle our outsourced callcenters.

[Xylochick216]

I've had major beef with Verizon for the past year (don't even get me started), and since I can't call during the day and spend 2 hours on the phone with them, I have to call at night and always get someone I can't understand who also can't understand me. A year later and after many seething letters to Verizon, our problems still aren't fixed. Sometimes I've just flat out told them that I can't understand them and I need to speak to someone with a better grasp of the English language. When you can't understand every other sentence, you can't help me.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by _Lisa_

I hate that as well, especially considering those agents are usually contracted to use those names when they're hired & are not allowed to use any other names while even in the building!

That's so ridiculous, and so offensive to us. It's implying that 1) we will only talk to people with "American" names 2) we wouldn't be able to understand their Indian names. There was a kid named Pradeep at my high school, and he sure as hell didn't go around calling himself "Pete." Don't lie to me - and it IS a lie - use your real name, or at least your real nickname!!

The over-niceness makes me nuts. I called Cingular once asking a question about ringtones and the guy fell over himself saying "I am so sorry you are distressed" and I was like no, I'm NOT distressed, I just want you to answer a simple question that I don't know.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by 33girl

That's so ridiculous, and so offensive to us. It's implying that 1) we will only talk to people with "American" names 2) we wouldn't be able to understand their Indian names. There was a kid named Pradeep at my high school, and he sure as hell didn't go around calling himself "Pete." Don't lie to me - and it IS a lie - use your real name, or at least your real nickname!!

Tangent alert: My husband's brother's name is Pedro. As in "Vote for Pedro", and yet my stepsister-in-law insisted on calling him Peter. WTF? Oh, and then she named her youngest kids Carlos Daniel and Alberto Alejandro. CRAZY. CRAZY.

[AlethiaSi]

Originally Posted by Xylochick216

I've had major beef with Verizon for the past year (don't even get me started), and since I can't call during the day and spend 2 hours on the phone with them, I have to call at night and always get someone I can't understand who also can't understand me. A year later and after many seething letters to Verizon, our problems still aren't fixed. Sometimes I've just flat out told them that I can't understand them and I need to speak to someone with a better grasp of the English language. When you can't understand every other sentence, you can't help me.

Really? is it verizon wireless or the other services? I have verizon wireless and I have always had great customer service, they even let me postdate a check so I can get my service turned back on (I tend to carry a balance, and then can't pay it until i get paid..)... sure my bill is $100+ but that's my own fault, not theirs lol

Originally Posted by carnation

I don't think companies realize how much they're losing by outsourcing--not just money from frustrated customers but also good will. They seem to be taking the word of these people that they speak understandable English.

I'm normally a calm person but when this woman asked me if she could call me by my first name and then used it every 10 words, I was close to a meltdown.

I HATE THIS. I hate it when people use my name in conversation in general, it really irks me for some reason, and this is the ultimate. It is a surefire way to make me freak the f*ck out.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Tangent alert: My husband's brother's name is Pedro. As in "Vote for Pedro", and yet my stepsister-in-law insisted on calling him Peter. WTF? Oh, and then she named her youngest kids Carlos Daniel and Alberto Alejandro. CRAZY. CRAZY.

I'm with you on this one. My nephew's name is Pietro... Italian for Peter. Everyone calls him Pietro... it's what my brother and sister in law prefer since he is named after my father. Her very Irish/Polish family calls him Peter. I can't STAND it. The only one allowed to call him that is his 3 year old girlfriend and she calls him Petie cuz she can't say Pietro and it's cute.