Does this mean that I can call tech support and get someone who speaks English?

Most Indians speak English fluently so your premise is a bit flawed.

I’ve never had any problems with tech support in India, they all spoke English well enough for easy communication.

@janbb I wish we would have had those people you speak of. My husband talked to two different people when we were trying to work with our mortgage company. He couldn’t understand a word either one of them had to say. :(

Since i wear hearing aids, attempting to understand broken English from an East Indian is double the trouble. hearing aids were not meant for cellphones.

@janbb Most of the Indian people I deal with speak “British” English, which can lead to issues. Still, you are correct. Mea culpa.

@papayalily I don’t have much more issues with Indian tech support than I do speaking with Texans or Southerners. Of course, that still leads to a lot of, “Say again?”. I would likely have the same issues with Mr Pennington, a good ol’ boy from Tennessee.

Regardless, the original point of the question had to do with outsourcing jobs.

The point of the question was about outsourcing jobs? Sorry…I missed that. I thought it was about understanding someone with an accent different than yours.

@Pied_Pfeffer Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t be such a wise-cracker and start being more concise in the future… but where is the fun in that?

@jerv My husband speaks “British English” which can lead to issues, too. :-)

@janbb – As someone who has dealt with Indian customer service reps far more frequently than I’d care to, I can accept that many Indians may fully understand and speak the language. The problem for me is that they tend to speak it the way they would speak their own local languages or dialects, which makes it nearly impossible for me to follow. When that happens, I’m forced to ask for another rep, any rep, who might possibly speak English more fluently.

I think there are pockets of the US where call center operations based on the models that made the India attractive are becoming rather lucrative. The positions are staffed with temp workers. I’ve known a few people who acquired call service jobs and ended up answering the phone lines for Apple, GE, National City, etc.

@Rufus_T_Firefly @jonsblond I don’t deny that there can be problems understanding people’s accents or inlfections, but that’s not the same as not speaking English.

I never understand anything they say either. But that doesn’t really matter since whenever I have to deal with customer service, it’s usually because they want me to pay ridiculous amounts of money in next to no time at all, so I usually get the point and tell em to fuck off.

I do the same with representatives who speak perfect French/English, as well. I’m not biased.