DEAR AMERICAN CORPORATIONS:

Hi.

I understand you're moving your "call centers" to developing countries. While you are making this move simply to save money, I applaud the fact that jobs are being given to people who need them desperately (and have no unemployment, social security, or welfare benefits). So props to you for that.

But today I called MCI, and was routed to a call center in The Philippines--seriously, why am I calling The Philippines just to ask a question about my bill?--and I spent 20 minutes on the phone with a very nice, very apologetic man who kept referring to me as "Mister Daniel." He knew what he was talking about; but we couldn't understand each other. And now I have a headache from grinding my teeth throughout the whole conversation.

Please understand I'm a pretty well-traveled fellow, so language barriers don't scare me. But when I'm trying to verify my mailing address, and I have to repeat the spelling 4 times because the guy on the phone can't tell the difference between the "B" sounds and the "V" sounds in my street name (and sadly, there are both letters in there), I become verrrrrrry frustrated. Even when I gave the example of "V, as in Victor," he was still perplexed, as apparently "Bictor" is just a reasonable name as "Victor" in the Philippines. Or perhaps it's not. I don't know. ("I'm sorry, Mister Daniel! Could you please repeat yourself Mister Daniel? Thank you Mister Daniel!")

About a month ago, I called American Airlines to ask a question about my seat, and my call was routed to India, I believe. I was connected to a man who scolded me for my audacity to claim I had a first-class seat; I did, through upgrades, but he didn't believe me. So he yelled at me, saying "You're gonna have to PAY! It's gonna cost you!" until I hung up on him. (Surprise surprise, I called later and spoke to someone else, and my first-class seat was confirmed.) And before you cast judgement on me, American Airlines, I admit my temperment can be a bit volatile; but my whole family has worked in customer service jobs our whole lives, so I am careful to ALWAYS be polite to people helping me. I also realize some people may credit this as a misunderstanding due to our "cultural differences," but after years of getting yelled at in foreign countries because I'm an American, I believe I can separate a "cultural difference" from a "person from another culture yelling at me and calling me stupid." (I haven't flown American Airlines since. JetBlue and AirTran forever!!)

I had to suffer through such language barriers in my Intro to Econ course in college, where the professor spoke what sounded like some African Click Language mixed in with his English. He was a very smart man. But you know what? I stopped going to class. I re-took the class from a lowly graduate student I could understand. I learned lots more from her.

Take the hint, you fucking cheapskates. You're making the world a grumpier place.

Ever so sincerely,
Dan Renzi

Comments

[Colleen]

I totally agree with you. I dont even remember what company it was, but I called them and the guy on the phone was from like India or something. I have nothing against people from India, but I have no idea what he was saying. It was a very frustrating converstion. I gave up eventually.

[Michele]

I work in telephone customer service - inbound e-commerce/retail to be specific - and I thank my lucky stars everyday that I work for what (at least on the surface) seems to be a progressive, forward-thinking company that actually wants to provide decent service. In fact, everyone in my company works for nearly twice minimum wage. We all have excellent health and other benefits (including domestic partner!) and a laid back, casual (hawaiian shirts and flip-flops) work atmosphere. With all of the added stress of website errors & server issues, warehouse & delivery mishaps, and the need for strong communication link with land-based stores, I can't imagine anything positive happening with an added language barrier. I know my job was "outsourced" from the original service provider at some point, and at some level I feel sort of like those guys & girls over in India (MTV had a very interesting spot on this subject on Choose Or Lose with Gideon Yago about 2 weeks ago), with an added hint of guilt - my job used to belong to someone else, but I am a cheaper source of labor.

[G-Man]

Been there, done that. I had a Palm Pilot that went tits up. I called a help center, and was forwared to India. Again, the people were very nice, but you could tell the only real knowledge they had was in front of them in the form of a flip book. I may as well have talked with a computer and:

Pressed 1 (one) if this product is a piece of shit
Pressed 2 (two) if this product is a piece of shit that's three months out of warrantee.
Pressed 3 (three) if I wanted to get put back in the waiting que for another 20 minutes once you found out that my computer operating system (which had nothing to do with the problem on the Palm) was on a Mac instead of a PC.

For God's sake people!!!!

I am, G-Man

[Mark]

The Renzis are working class

[Robert]

Hey Dan,

You should send a copy of your letter (reworded a little bit more professionally of course) to the companies you have dealt with this in manner and your state senator/representative/whatever-they-are-called.

This is outrageous!

FOrtunately for me, I have been able to speak to people who are on this soil for any customer service assistance.

But it's sad how our people are losing their jobs to others overseas. We should take care of AMERICA first. Damn corporate America!

[Miss K]

Half of American Express has been outsourced as well... AMERICAN Express, people. It's nearly as fun for those who call in as those of us in the US who work there.

[Stephen]

Outsourcing is the new wave. And I hear that some companies over in India are now outsourcing some work over here!

[BoBo]

You catch more flies with honey, I always say. Regardless - one of my favorite outsourcing scams: State government resource and information lines. My NW state outsourced it's help lines to Minnesota or some such Midwest state, who in turn outsourced it's help lines to Korea. Cracks me up.

[Brett]

Americans have tremendous opportunities for education. So if they're stuck in a call center job in the first place, they should be happy that their job was pulled from under their feet, so now they can go back to school and learn how to rule the world, instead of being a customer service peon. Or they can join the military, and blow things up because, well, they can.

[Victor Villegas]

OMG I totally understand what you mean!

I had to deal with HP's call center in India, and had to call three times to get my issue resolved -- finally, frustrated, I called the spanish queue, and spoke to an agent and was able to get my problem resolved.

I think what you state here is frustrating for everyone -- and it's not something that is going to go away. More and more companies are moving their call centers to India since the labor is cheaper over there. What they are experiencing, however, is that the employee loyalty is slim to none. Representatives will leave HP to go work for Dell, for a difference of 50 cents to a dollar in pay. So hopefully, if we all complain enough maybe we can get them to move the jobs back to America? Who knows.

Anyway, I was going to close this with a link to a Dilbert comic strip that shows a call center in Elbonia, with an agent answering the phone saying "My name is Kwakrkasoewerwospfaoasdfea...I mean Carl", but alas, the archive has been lost -- I cut it out, maybe I'll scan and post it somewhere.

[Miss K]

HOLY CRAP YOU MUST FIND THAT STRIP FOR ME! Sorry, caps lock abounds. They totally Americanize the names of all our call center reps. That must suck.

[Steve Klein]

Here's a link to a copy of the Dilbert cartoon:
http://www.m5computersecurity.com/pipermail/mattjok/attachments/20040506/4de4a27f/attachment.gif