Fucking stop sending my cellular directory assistance calls to India!

The BBQ Pit
1

This is not a racist rant. Claims of bigotry will be ignored. The hard working people of India just happen to have gotten in the middle of this. But…

I am Gawd damn sick of having to talk to an Indian every time I use Directory Assistance on my U.S. Cellular cell phone. I use my cell phone alot during my work day, and I make an average of 3 calls to D.A. per day. Now, while they speak better English than a few of the folks who live here, all in all, I can’t understand them, and, just as bad, they can’t understand us. One problem is, they don’t understand our municipal set up. For instance, if I ask for the number of a business that’s on a “Parkway” or “circle”, they get real confused. “What the hell is a Hummingbird Parkway? Is that a business or residence?”
But over and above that, they just don’t understand Americanized English, and I can’t understand Indianized English.
What REALLY pisses me off is, right before the Indian operator comes on, a man or woman is heard asking “what city and state please.”. That is a fucking recording! Made by someone speaking in regular, American style English.
I did some checking, and, sure enough, almost all my Directory Assistance calls are transfered to India.

I’d rather they use American operators, even if it means my [employers:D) bill going up. As it stands I have to remake about 25% of my D.A. calls because they fucked up the number because they couldn’t understand me, and/or I couldn’t understand them! This kind of outsourcing sucks big time!

2

slight hijack.
since UK directory enquiries switched to the 118 services the rate of calls they’ve recieved has halved. kind of serves them right (but not all the poor souls losing their jobs)

3

I expect it’s off the stands now…I think it was last weeks…but there was a very interesting article in the New Yorker about a company in India that does data processing and such (ironically, one of the jobs we’ve shipped over seas is typing up American resumes :stuck_out_tongue: ). They talk about stuggling with American English…like “What’s up?” And a million other subtle things we don’t think about as being culturally specific. And which the people who thought this was a good idea obviously didn’t think about :rolleyes: .

Not that it will neccessarily make it less fustrating the next time you’re on the phone, but it’s interesting to hear it from their end.

4

On the few occasions when I have received a bad Directory Assistance call, I have demanded and been credited for the charge. Usually by the next Operator when I call back, but for sure by the billing office when I call them.

This is on landline phone service, but I’d think it’s reasonable to ask for the same credit from a cellular phone company. Have you asked for credit and been turned down?

Maybe the way to prevent outsourcing to incompetents is by complaining and demanding credit for subpar service! If it costs the company money, they will respond.
P.S. An example: Dell Computers recently switched Help Line service from India back to Call Centers in the US, due to complaints from their business customers. (Home customers’ calls still go to India. And that was one of the reasons given by Consumers Reports in downgrading the ranking of Dell service recently.)

5

OT (again)

I, as an English person working in a company providing a service mainly to Americans, often encounter Americanisms (via the phone, obviously) that at the time I don’t get. It often leads to silences that are one microsecond long enough to be classified as ‘uncomfortable’.
One recent example. I ring an American [professional working in the same field as me] about a problem specific to his part of the system.

Me: “Hello this is [me], I was wondering if you could help me. I am having trouble [semi-specific description of problem]”

American: “sure”
(Silence)

Me: “er… [More specific description worded more definitely as a request for information”

You see, usually, after a dialogue about a specific problem you expect the other person to start, usually with "well…” describing their knowledge of the problem and how to fix it. But all I got was “sure”, with a silence that translated as “carry on”
Now this may have been a peculiarity of that particular person but it is a good example of the type of misunderstanding between I and the Americans I talk to.

6

Perhaps you should be more clearer with your requests.

7

Heh, I get bad DA service at times when I’m dealing with Americans. I haven’t had any problems for getting info in Chicago proper, but one day when I was looking for a shop in one of the suburbs, I tried a few different times to get the address of the shop. The first time was partially my fault - when prompted for “city and state please” and the place, I answered those questions, and then upon finding the listing, I was immediately transferred to that number. (No, I couldn’t ask the shop on the phone, they were closed at the time and didn’t give a street address on their machine.) The other two attempts with different operators, after giving the city and state, I clearly stated that I needed the address for (shop name). Both times I was sent straight to the computer recording giving the phone number. I know they can tell you addresses, I’ve learned that kind of thing numerous times via directory assistance before. I just hit a cluster of bad calls that day.

8

Complain to the company and any governing body that is relevant. It really matters.

How do I know? I manage outsourcing. Some legislators are considering giving their consumers the right of disclosure about where calls are handled and possibly an option to speak to a U.S based agent.

Credit Reporting Agencies are outsourcing and drawing the ire of people who don’t want to discuss their intimate credit histories with some kid from Mumbai, India who doesn’t understand credit and the American economy (refinance, mortgage reselllers, equity, write offs, 01 ratings, etc). Legislators are paying attention.

Some companies won’t outsource the farm like others and they are keeping their customers at better rates, and getting feedback that says: “I’ll pay a bit more for quality and less wasted time.”

9

There isn’t enough credit in the world to make up for the 30 minute hold times for each call to a cell phone’s customer service center. If I called AT&T every time something was screwed up with their service or phone it would be a full time job.

10

I was on the phone for about 6 hours on Sunday with about 4 different Indian Dell representatives. Honestly, they were the most helpful, patient, and clear assistants I’ve ever encountered. With these midwestern ears, I couldn’t imagine getting computer help from the Bronx Division of Dell.

11

So send 'em an email with the info, and what you want done about it. Much more convenient than waiting on hold. And you have a written record
available.

Customers can get the ATT email address from their front page at www.attwireless.com

12

If the company is not teaching their workers their job, that is one thing, but being Indian does not automatically make someone less capable and more dishonest.

13

Originally Posted by Philster
Credit Reporting Agencies are outsourcing and drawing the ire of people who don’t want to discuss their intimate credit histories with some kid from Mumbai, India who doesn’t understand credit and the American economy (refinance, mortgage reselllers, equity, write offs, 01 ratings, etc). Legislators are paying attention.

Maybe not. But it’s uncomfortable enough to discuss personal information with someone who is sitting across a desk. It can be down right creepy doing the same thing over the phone with someone you will never see in person.
It just doesn’t feel right.

14

It’s actually becoming something of a “selling feature” to have customer service located in the States.

AT&T used to do quite a bit of customer service outsourcing with my company. I actually visited one of the AT&T centers a few months back. What’s strange is while customer service in the US is getting rolled back and people are being laid off, we keep all the telemarketing here (a crappier job, but people don’t respond to sales well from a different culture).

I work for a different part of this company where we do customer service for products and they want American customer service due to trying to present a ‘premium service’ image.

Write companies that you do business with and state that you would prefer to have American customer service. Heck, do me a favor! That way your feelings become part of the ‘bottom line’. Customer service is, usually, just a cost to companies – they just see the money leaving and want to minimize it. Tell them that you shop around for companies based on service and they’ll listen.

15

No, perhaps the CSR on the other end of the line should be better trained to ask a probing question. “Sure,” is a nothing response, scarcely better than dead silence. It should not be the customer’s task to determine what information is necessary for resolution. Imagine the following scenarios:

Caller: Help, help! My house is being attacked by aliens. Can you save me?

CSR: Sure.

Caller: . . . Um, should I shoot them?

CSR: Naw. Aliens are always bullet-proof.

Caller: . . . How about dousing them gasoline and setting them on fire?

CSR: If you want to annoy them, go ahead.

Caller: Awk! No! [thud] [dial tone]

Second scenario:

Caller: Help, help! My house is being attacked by aliens. Can you save me?

CSR: Sure. How did they get there? What’s their spaceship look like?

Caller: It’s a flying saucer.

CSR: A saucer; not a Buck Rogers kinda-looking spaceship?

Caller: No, definitely a saucer.

CSR: Okay, what do they look like? What color are they?

Caller: Tan, sort of.

CSR: They have a swollen-looking head mottled in brown?

Caller: Yes, and red eyes.

CSR: Good, good. That’s easy: Just spray them with saltwater. Acts like nitric acid on them.
Even if the customer gives enough information at the top of the call for resolution, you always, always, want to probe, to make sure the problem you’re solving is the problem the customer wants (or needs) to be solved. There’s nothing quite like working on an email problem when what they really were talking about was their domain, or vice versa.

DD