Holy crap, that’s what they told me to do to - TWICE. Luckily, I knew that sounded like utter BS and asked a local guy I know. He laughed hysterically.
I work in an Indian Restaurant and once had a conversation about this with a customer. He told me that even he has had trouble understanding some of the individuals working in Indian Call centers. 
I sympathise with you. When I first came to the US, I had tremendous problems understanding people on the phone. It was fine if I was speaking to someone in person, but it seemed everyone spoke Greek when it came to phone conversations. The problem with Indian call centres is not that the people are all stupid (well, not any more than any other place), but that they are very poorly trained. Most are kids in the 20-22 age range who are still in college or just graduated with a degree that’s not going to take them anywhere. The only qualification needed is the ability to speak English.
Also, the turnover rate is very high with a high volume of people being hired all the time. This means companies are probably even less likely to spend money on training them. I know this doesn’t help you in any way, but I foresee that the situation will stabilise after a while, where companies will have long-term, well-trained employees who can actually understand what the customers are saying.
The outsourced tech-support industry has grown too big too quickly, and like the dotcom bubble, companies see only the good things before experiencing all the bad ones.
Oh well, glad I am not in tech support.
Or even better, strip the motherboard. When my piece of shit proprietary Dell power supply went, the person at tech support wanted me to strip the motherboard. Look, if it won’t even boot the BIOS, I don’t think the problem has to do with anything in or on the motherboard. When I finally got the damn thing replaced, it cost me 90 freaking bucks for a goddamn power supply!
When I moved to my new place I switched to AT&T for DSL. After a handful of problems and their crappy India based tech support I now have cable for internet access.
I don’t know if this is a culture thing or just how this one call center operated, but the customer was never right. The only thing that was correct was what was on their computer. I ordered the service on the 14th but for some reason the order ticket didn’t get processed until the end of the month (first complaint). After several claims the service would be running it took an entire month for the DSL to get switched on. When it did it didn’t work right.
I’d call and say “I ordered service on the 14th” and they would always return with “no sir, you ordered the service on the 30th”. No matter how long I’d try to explain I ordered on the 14th but the ticket didn’t get processed until the 30th they would NEVER agree with me.
I got the run around so much, and I was on the phone for so many hours, by the end of it all I’m quite rude and blunt with them.
I’d try and speak with someone in a North American office but they moved ALL their internet call centers to India. I ended up calling one last time and just said “if we can’t handle this issue with someone in North America, then I’d like to cancel the service” They said they couldn’t help me but they would connect me with with the person so I can cancel the service. I was transfered to India.
Before I ordered cable connected I asked where their call center was located.
I like to ask them where they are. Often they avoid the question or give you some US city.
One time I asked where he was located and he said New York. I said “Oh man. Did you have a problem driving to work today because of all the snow?” I just kept bugging him for an answer. Finally he said “Oh yes, there was lots of snow”
It was in the mid 60’s in New York that day.
Another time I got a sales call for some vacation company. The person on the phone said they were in Vancouver Washington (I’m in Portland Oregon… you can walk from one city to another. It’s a long walk but walkable) I asked if they got the huge wind storm that day. They said they did. I asked if it was still raining hard up there. They said it was. I called them on it. They hung up on me.
I forgot to add it was sunny and nice all day that day.
I’m agreeing with everything said so far … but I’m glad that most British companies don’t have the nerve to get their Indian workers to lie to customers about their location. If you ask, you get told Bangalore, 9 times out of 10.
Funniest story I heard was from a friend who was trying to order a Dell laptop. As the Indian call-centre identified the call as coming from an American phone, the system insisted on being provided with a two-letter state code. Insisted - wouldn’t accept the order without it. Trouble is, Bermuda doesn’t have a two-letter code, and nobody in Bangalore could understand why.
I’d like to pit the trend of Indian outsourcing, but from a different point of view…
I’m sick to fuck buggery of customers calling up with the first words out of their mouth being “Are you in India?”. That part in and of itself isn’t too bad. But then I can really do without the fifteen minute spiel on how they hate how everywhere seems to be sending their outsourcing to India and how they’re really really not racist but they’d really like to be speaking to someone not called Prakesh Ranjangoo and blah blah blee blah bitching-cakes, before we even get on to what their technical problem is thank you very much.
Though I’m also sick of our outsourced sales teams blatantly lying to customers to get the sale too, so we’re left to pick up the pieces… But that’s common to all sales crews, not just those in the Subcontinent.
Donald, is that you?
My view on outsourced tech support is similar to my view on foreign graduate students as teachers. Some of them are good, some are bad. Some you have no problems communicating with, and some are like dealing with a brick wall.
I think it’s more of an attempt to be able to communicate. I can’t remember Jagdish, but I recognize and remember Donald.
And I have to agree with the OP. I dread calling. 9 times out of 10 I get someone that I can’t understand. I have had to ask people to repeat themselves 5-6 times. For every sentence.
GOD DAMN IT! When I called Dell up with a 'puter problem a year and a half ago, they told me to do this. I did it. My laptop hasn’t worked right since.
How could I have fallen for that?!? I knew it didn’t sound right! AUGH!
If you think that’s bad, try working from an IT perspective. Not to say your little Dell isn’t that important, but…
I’m supporting a million dollar database server with 5000 peak users. Each of which is an engineer making $20 an hour minimum. That’s minimum $100000 an hour lost productivity. And now I have to talk to a guy with 2 weeks of computer training, who can’t speak English, for at least an hour, by your policy, before I can actually talk to the guy who might be able to fix your dumb ass proprietary file sharing system? And that’s the uber-level service we are paying ass-loads of money for?
I have a story I am busting at the gut to let off some steam about, but I do take non-disclosure agreemenrs seriously.
By the way don’t worry about being racist. Most of the Indian guys I know in IT(and that’s a lot of them) detest and bitch about the Indian call centers. They took their careers seriously, worked and learned their asses of, and came over for a well paying job on a visa. Now they are losing their jobs to their unqualified countrymen, and still have to deal with those idiots who know know nothing.
I work in a call center that services financial products. I’ve been asked a few times if I’m in the USA, or if I’m in India. I speak with a flawless Chicago-area accent. This is because I was born in, grew up in, and still live in the Chicago area. Also, I am not Indian-American; my mom’s French-Canadian, and my dad’s German/Greek. Some people just want to be jackasses about outsourcing.
The first time I called tech support for my computer, it was because the screen didn’t work. It’s a laptop, and the LCD display was dying for some reason. I tried to explain this to the dumb chick who picked up.
“…my screen isn’t working The LCD display is fading, and I can’t see anything.”
“Okay. Click on (insert icon here).”
“…I’d love to, but my screen doesn’t work. I can’t see anything to click on.”
“Okay. Go into the Start Menu, then go to Settings, then click on…”
“My. Screen. Doesn’t. Work. Please tell me how to send my computer back.”
Stupidity knows no national borders.
Ditto. I suspected myself that Dell was purposely trying to give crappy service and employed know-nothing warm bodies in tech support. Long, long, long wait times on hold only to get someone I couldn’t understand and who didn’t understand what I was saying.
Will never buy a Dell again unless they shape up their tech support, because frankly, it sucks the big chorizo. :rolleyes: