Do you find it disconcerting when you have to call other nations for Customer Service?

Doesn’t bother me to get support from down the street or the moon, as long as they can understand my issue and I can understand their response.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

I find it infuriating.

I have no problem with anyone who has an accent so thick that I can’t understand what they are saying. . .

. . .unless I need to understand what they are saying.

Not “disconcerting” as much as frustrating when I can’t understand them and/or they can’t understand me due to accents!!!

Yes, I find it very, very upsetting, especially during the current economy when so many people are unemployed, that customer service jobs have been taken away from Americans and gone to other countries where their low pay saves the companies money. But, then, if the company can’t afford to pay workers here, they go out of business & even more jobs are lost so it is a bit of a catch-22.

My personal opinion is that the CEO’s etc who are drawing multi-million dollar salaries should take a pay decrease (after all, what’s a couple mill when you’re making so many) in order to save money and jobs for their company.

FUCK YEAH, CAPITALISM

@BraveWarrior . . . Perhaps we should make those CEOs answer the phones themselves and earn a few of those millions.

@Blondesjon <SMILES>

Blondejoin I wish you knew Lou Dobbs . I really miss his objective show. His radio show is on too early.

I find it very frustrating! Especially when I’m ordering something and they want credit card information. And the accents can be impossible! Sometimes I feel lucky just to get one I can understand!

Count me in as finding it incredibly frustrating. I know, I know, there are those who claim that these call centers keep otherwise destitute people in third world countries employed, but I hate it. Seriously, there is no doubt in my mind that those running this call centers are exploiting the local workers for their own profit. That leaves us with exploited workers and crappy customer service. A lose lose situation if you ask me.

@SuperMouse . . . It’s actually worse than that. They all speak perfect English but thicken their accents on purpose. In reality we are victims on the Indian version of Punk’d.

that asthon kutcher is some fucking piece of work. . .

@Blondesjon you make a good point! I go to school with many folks who grew up in India, their English is as good as mine with a very light accent.

No. While it’s unfortunate.. it is a lucrative practice for businesses… it would be odd to expect businesses to not take advantage of it.

This is why I only call my cable company during normal business hours. Any after-hours calls go to India. Sprint is horrible for this and it’s really hard to understand the CSR’s.

I don’t care that they’re not American or ‘Merican. I just feel uncomfortable bitching about my ten cent extra charge to someone who is living in a country with a lot less. As soon as I open my mouth I wonder if I’m being the quintessential American boor who bitches about shit that isn’t important.

Then I hang up the phone, crack open a Budweiser king can, eat a lunchable and cry in the dark.

My credit card calls go to a call center in the U.S., and they also go straight to a real person. I like this a lot. My frustration with centers abroad boils down to the fact that the jobs are being off-shored to save money at the expense of customer service. I have some concerns about off-shoring in general, but some of it is inevitable. It becomes a problem when you off-shore the people who actually communicate with customers, and they are less able to communicate than their American counterparts would be.

Lately though, I’ve found that some call center employees abroad have better command of English and are more understandable than some call center employees in the U.S. It’s the same thing though, paying so little that no qualified people will take the job or off-shoring, same effect: bad customer service, more money for the company.

What makes me most upset is that people here need jobs too. If they call themselves an American company they should support the American economy.
Our CE O’s are the most over payed in the world.
Dells people are from India and they are difficult to understand.

Having said all that, I also have to say I had a great experience calling Microsoft tech support in India. The person I spoke to was easy to understand (easier than the Americans I’ve been getting at call centers lately), very knowledgeable, and friendly. And he needed the work too. I think it just depends for me on whether or not they are hiring people who can do the job effectively, not on where those people live.