An open letter to companies with overseas phone support.

Every time I fly. The least change is screwed up by someone safely sitting a few thousand miles away.

I deal with it this way ''thank you for your call goodbye then i put the phone down and cut the caller off'' if i want to change my phone or internet plan i do it face to face at my home town where they speak english and i can understand them.

Blue.

There for a while it was every time I had to call and deal with something for my wireless provider, but that improved in that the last few times I've had to call it's been an American, now whether they're rude or not is another story. Everytime I have to call for my computer, it's someone who is foreign, but what flabbergasted me probably about two years ago was the gentleman who point blank said 'I know I have a different accent and my English may not be as clear to you, so if I get to talking to fast, or say something you can't understand PLEASE stop me and ask me to repeat it or rephrase it.' None of them had ever done that! It wasn't said in a snotty tone or anything either, this guy genuinely understood and wanted to be sure to bridge the communication gap however he could.

Hey d6fer, We're all victims of today's world. You and us both:) I am an Indian and I can imagine how annoying and frustrating it must be for you to have to deal with people who cannot and do not speak English as you do. From our point of view, outsourcing has come as a blessing for a huge number of educated youngsters who would otherwise have been left either unemployed or working for meagre amounts. They are now able to earn a fairly decent amount. I personally know a young man who has to support his invalid father and young sister doing exactly what annoyed you.Please bear with these kids, most of them are very young and they work very hard..awake all night long, assuming fake names and out of touch with their own culture.

Uni.....it's kind of important to get plane tickets right!

blue....I really wanted to resolve this 8 year old problem so I felt like I had to.

hege....I think there are some companies that recognize our frustration over these issues and are returning to doing things domestically to try to gain business from it.

sadsack....oh please tell anyone you know doing this to slow down when they speak to people.....it is the pace of speech that makes it so hard to understand people from your country. On a side note, did you know that we have people here that would say that people in your country are being taken advantage of and being treated unfairly by giving them those jobs?

There are a bunch of yellowpages scams so be careful.

I happen to be on the other side of this issue in a different way from sadsack. while i appreciate the fact that it is bringing employment to countries like india and pakistan, (and it always interests me that those people have no problem understanding our way of speaking english), it is frustrating to a majority of americans who are the consumer of those provided jobs. i happen to be in a support position, cleaning viruses off people's computers in their home by connecting to them remotely from my computer here at my home. i can't tell you the number of people that tell me how much they appreciate the fact that when they call for a technical service such as the one i provide, they get someone they can understand when i speak. i've sold many subscription services just because of that fact, the fact that i tell them when they call for servicing, they will always get an american, never anyone from another country. in fact, the companies i do the support for advertise the fact that their customers will always get an american when they call for service. my point is, it has become such an issue to so many people in this country that it is a promotable sales point to major corporations such as office depot, staples and comcast. they know they make direct sales of their services over competitors, in many cases, only because the consumer learns they will always talk to an american who they can understand.

so no, you're not alone.

D6, in Australia we have something called do not phone, you sign up for it and it means the following:

No overseas call company can call you

You can call any company like electricity / telephone / mobile company and you MUST be put through to your own countries call centre providing english speaking reps.

You also have the right to say to them,

Please transfer my call to an american call centre I cannot understand you.

They actually by law (international) have to transfer you, if not hang up and make a complaint.

Freaking pakistani call centres where "BOB" (yeh right) can't pronounce telephone properly drives me nuts, hope you weren't scammed.

D6, I know a lot of people abroad consider that our people are being exploited by these companies which are paying them a fraction of what they would have to pay to people in their own countries. But the point is, these kids...most call centre workers are barely out of their teens....are still earning a great deal more than they would have otherwise earned in any job available over here.

I forgot to add, Indians do speak a lot faster than Americans do. My brother has married an American and I nearly fell asleep on the phone talking to his mom-in-law...she was so s...l...o...w...!

as much as i despise the average neuro-typical human being, i can sort of see things from the call centre person's perspective. They are just trying to make money to put food on the table etc etc etc.

I do, have to admit though that I also get annoyed at having to try exceptionally hard to try to understand what is being said, when i'm most likely already annoyed at having to phone the stupid damn company to begin with. And the language barrier tends to make it a tad worse. But that being said, it's not their fault that the companies themselves have made the choice to go off-shore :)