Little India (Norwalk, Connecticut), May 5, 2009
Citing a backlash from customers who complained that they were finding Indian accents hard to understand, Delta Air Lines has dropped the use of Indian call centers to handle sales and reservations.
Delta is retaining its call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, which generate far fewer complaints.
Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers. {snip}
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on July 6, 2009)
Comments
It IS nice to be able to speak with a skilled, competent natural-born citizen whose mother tongue is English and who can not only understand your problem, but actually help solve it. I wonder whether corporate America will figure that out one day?
“Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers.”
I had no idea they were doing that in the first place! What a hoot! Too bad it has to stop!
But I guess those lawmakers know where their votes are coming from. I wish they’d give some heed to the folks who actually earn the money that they and the welfare bums squander.
Not only are East Indian call center employees nearly impossible to understand due to their thick Indian accents, but they are grossly incompetent as well. They have a script book that they go by and if your symptoms aren’t in it you are out of luck.
And on the domestic front, when I am in a Wal-Mart, for example, I find the sight of an East Indian male, his pregnant wife and his withered mother infuriating. I see them as job stealing foreign parasites responsible for Americans being laid off…
A few years ago, I called some large corporation (I forget which) and was transfered to a call center that was answered by a woman with an obviously Indian accent. I was really teed-off about outsourcing, so I asked her where she was located, as if I didn’t already know. She answered “Canada”. Was she flat-out lying because she knew of American’s anger about outsourcing to India, of was she really in Canada? It’s outsourcing just the same, but somehow I felt slightly less hostile to a Canadian-Indian than to an Indian-Indian, which is probably irrational, I know.
It is not just that they are hard to understand, but they are also unqualified. A few years ago I had a huge scare because Indian after Indian with my credit card company kept telling me my card wasn’t working because of some late bills. I was thinking I suddenly had bad credit just because of a few bills when I am normally a very good customer.
When I finally called during the day and talked to a white American, I was comforted and told that the problem was something else and then she went ahead and fixed it for me. This is just one of many examples.
It’s not just the accent, you can barely understand what they’re saying and they’re practically useless if your problem is particularly complex. I had a problem with Capital One a few months back where they charged me a fee for something I didn’t want. I call them up and get this guy with this thick muddled kwiki mart accent who identified himself as John. Apparently they’ve been told to give out English sounding names so as not to put the customer off. Anyhow I couldn’t understand anything he was saying. I hang up and call back and this time get a female who identified herself as Diane. Not only was her English marginal but her voice sounded as if she was whispering in the phone. Seeing where this was going, I asked to be transfered to someone in the United States. I finally got a White midwestern sounding woman who was able to handle my problem. I promptly cancelled my account after that and told them why.
Not long ago, I had some good (online computer problem) service from an Indian call center, but that’s the exception rather than the rule.
Mostly, when I call up a business and get an Indian call center, I just hang-up and move on to another business.
“Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers”
I can understand how paying customers of a business have a right to demand better service. But as far as the food stamp recipients go, why should anybody care if welfare freeloaders complain? Beggars can’t be choosers.
It would probably be quite entertaining to eavesdrop on a conversation between someone who speaks ebonics and another with a thick Punjabi accent.
I am so glad to see this, and I hope more companies follow suit. Allowing me to speak with a native speaker of English for help with my problems is a basic courtesy, and for those who are wanting to sell me a product, a smart investment. Countless times, I have literally hung up the phone after having to ask the person on the other line to repeat himself 3 or 4 times, and still not understanding what he is trying to say. If you can’t bother to hire a native speaker, don’t count on my money.
“Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers.”
As usual, I am disgusted by the provincial racism of this country!
Just look at how sophisticated and technologically advanced Indians are at ridding themselves of natural pests. God knows why we cannot grasp that these people would be equally capable of ridding us of computer bugs or food stamp delivery conundrums?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Ofgy5btNY
As always, God help us all!
Good work! When I call tech support for help with my computer I have to talk to many people before I find one who can actually speak English. I wish there were enough people sensitive to this issue to form a block willing to state publicly that they will not buy any computer, stero, whatever that intends to locate tech support centers anywhere but in America. Boycotts aren’t the exclusive domain of Jesse and Al!
Welfare recipients in Florida were complaining about Indian call centers? Talk about nerve.
Anonymous: A few years ago, I called some large corporation (I forget which) and was transfered to a call center that was answered by a woman with an obviously Indian accent. I was really teed-off about outsourcing, so I asked her where she was located, as if I didn’t already know. She answered “Canada”. Was she flat-out lying because she knew of American’s anger about outsourcing to India, of was she really in Canada?
She was lying, as she was instructed to do by her boss. The foreign call center people are encouraged to pretend to come from some North American city and are told a bit about the local sports team, etc., as if anybody was going to be fooled when presented with an incomprehensible Indian accent.
As a linguist by training, I really don’t understand this phenomenon. I’ve even suffered Indian linguistics professors who have lived in this country for years and still speak barely comprehensible English! Slow down your speech and pay a little attention to articulatory phonetics. You don’t HAVE to sound like a KwikiMart employee… particularly if you’re a linguist by training, though it goes for the general population of these arrogant job snatchers as well.
There are a LOT of schools in India where they teach American accents to call center personnel. When they complete their training they are given an American-sounding first name and earn a few more bits per hour working in a call center. Just because some of them SAY they are unplugging India may only indicate a shift to a different center with American sounding Indians working the phones. It’s all part of the show folks, call center jobs are not returning to the US.
WR the elder: “She was lying, as she was instructed to do by her boss.”
No she wasn’t. In Australia at least, even our domestic call centres are comprised of Indians.
So long as Indians _stay_over_there I wouldn’t mind if they answered in tongues.
Please do NOT IMMIGRATE to US/UK/Australia/Canada/Europe. We’re full.
I could tell many stories of the hassles of dealing with overseas call centers. Now, many are located in the Phillipines as well.
Now, when I purchase a product,and it turns out the call center is overseas, I contact the home office, and let them know I have returned the product or will never purchase another one from their company and the reason why. If we all did this, it will begin to make a difference.
I had to chuckle a bit at this article. About 3 years ago I got caught in that Kafka-esque maze known as the Dell Computer Customer (alleged) “Service” system due to a goofed-up order.
I got Indian after Indian. Generally I have no problem understanding their accents, but the problem was that they were all reading off of screen scripts based on key words. Each and every one of them was John, Jenny, Jason, MaryAnne, Lisa, George.
My method was to just keep calling until I got someone competent. Finally, I got an Indian woman who was the height of politeness, COMPETENT, and who had my problem resolved within two minutes. She even called back several days later to confirm that my credit card account had been credited with the proper refund. The strange part: she used her real name, not an “American” one.
Swatee: wherever you may be, thanks for your kind, prompt, competent help.
Whenever you call someplace and get an Indian on the line simply hang up and call back. After one or two tries you will automatically be switched to an American. Corporations take note of this and are also aware of the loss of business and goodwill it costs them to employ Indians. The day of the Indians being forced down our throats is drawing to a close…
Before I ditched the pathetic excuse for an internet provider known as Earthlink, I was on the phone with them regularly with constant problems. At the beginning I was speaking with Rajneesh and Sujita. A year later, I was speaking with Jake and Crystal. Same accents as Rajneesh and Sujita. When he told me his name was “Jake”, I just rolled, and said, “Jake, huh? Ok, Jake, I’ll tell you what, why don’t I just call you Rajneesh like I did last month?”
So, even trying to give the “Accented Ones” American names didn’t convince American callers of anything. I love dealing with Apple, and several others who announce (in unaccented English) that you’re calling their Kansas (or other state) Call Center.
“JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers.”
JP Morgan? The investment bank? They handle food-stamps?
As to call centers, I try to have some fun with them. When someone comes on the line with an Indian accent and tells you that their name is “Kevin”, I reply in an Indian accent “My name is Patel. Rajiv? Is that you?”
Or alternatively, you can seed your conversation with casual insults. “Hey, do you fellas over there still incinerate widows?”. “Tell me, Gunga-din, are there cattle wandering around your call center.” Imply that they are low-caste, a Dalit (untouchable) perhaps. Try to get them to blow up at you on the phone (remember these calls are recorded and monitored by their bosses).
I do the same sort of thing when I get calls from that sleezy car-warranty outfit (actually I’m a lot meaner to them).
i concurr with anon 847,
The other thing to do is just call the sales line - sales lines are almost NEVER staffed by oversees staff, only customer service - the corporate attitude seems to be once you buy from us and we make a quick buck we don’t care anymore..
WR (#13) and Grob (#15) are right; I saw an episode of “60 Minutes” a few years back where they showed the Indian training centers. And they do, indeed, give them American sounding names, teach them idioms, things about our culture, things about sports teams, etc., so that they are “more effective in communicating.” (yeah, right.)
My sister used to work in a call center here in Texas. After a certain time, the call center would switch over to one in India. She’d have customers beg her not to send them to India.
As far as the food stamp recipients go, there are some Americans who fall on hard times and need the food stamps. I have no problem with genuine American citizens in need through no fault of their own getting food stamps. It’s all these foreigners, illegals and their offspring that come here to leach of us that I have a problem with. Get rid of them and leave the social welfare to deserving Americans who can’t fend for themselves. Having said that, helping food stamp recipients by phone is a paying job and one that should be done by Americans, not Indians. Our jobs shouldn’t be going overseas.
I got a call from a credit card company about some security
Keep America White wrote at 6:09 PM on July 6:
I had no idea they were doing that in the first place! What a hoot! Too bad it has to stop!
But I guess those lawmakers know where their votes are coming from. I wish they’d give some heed to the folks who actually earn the money that they and the welfare bums squander.
> You really ought to be careful about who you call a welfare bum. When you loose your job to an illegal or have your job outsourced, you will find yourself a welfare bum yourself. Or perhaps you will be too proud and just go out onto the streets to die slowly? That is what is happening to more and more White people - especially males. And that is because Whites refuse to help Whites in need. No, the “American Way” dictates that you sink or swim, based on your own assets - assets that remain as long as you are young, unencumbered, healthy and have advantage. As the system and time changes those things, Whites, especially White males will increasingly find themselves as sudden bums. I wonder if any of you will learn any compassion, even for your own people?
Call centers are bad enough but avoidable if you are persistent enough. What about domestically? The two closet post office branches here are staffed almost entirely by Indians and Chinese. They all have heavy accents, work as slowly as possible, and spend lot of time talking in their native tongues to all the Indian and Chinese immigrants who now live here. They are also in charge of issuing passports - how wonderful! Before I yanked my younger son from the public school, his American-born speech therapist was transferred and replaced by a Chinese-born woman with a heavy accent. It’s gotten to the point that I try to avoid going anywhere and only by staying home can I pretend I still live in the United States. As I read on some other website, we’re reduced to angry typing - there’s no one taking any action or really doing anything about it.
I must admit that it’s dangerous to assume food stamp recipients aren’t worth adequate service. Two things come to mind about that:
One, Appalachia is one of the poorest regions in the country. It’s almost completely white, and many families there rely on some form of assistance to survive. Gainful employment has deserted them - they didn’t walk away from it. (Interesting to note that despite the economic hardships, crime isn’t rampant. Strange how liberals claim crime-ridden ghettos are what they are because of poverty and joblessness. Hmmmm….)
Two, prior to my last deployment to Iraq (I’m a reservist), I had the heartbreaking misfortune of watching a much-younger active duty Marine and his wife making careful calculations as to what items they could purchase at the grocery store…with food stamps. To this day that image remains fresh in my mind.
As such, I cannot join the chorus of those who are quick to cast aside the way in which someone is treated simply because they receive some form of government assistance.
This is what caused me to ditch my Dell. Not only didn’t I understand them well but I’ve never seen such institutionalized incompetence. The answer to every problem was wipe your hard drive and reinstall the OS. They told me that once and I then asked the IT guy from a company I was dealing with and he had me replace two simple files and my problem was solved. By all means, let’s put them in charge of a nuclear reactor while we’re at it.
My husband does a very good “Indian” accent—once, when a guy named “Stewart” called to sell credit card services, my husband and he had a long chat about the all India cricket team…or something. When my husband does that voice, I can hardly understand him, but apparently “Stewart” was okay with it!
I work for an online travel company who has also outsourced most of its work to India at the expense of American jobs. However, we do still retain some call centers in the United States. I have spent years listening to our customers both American and non-American complain about India and how incompetent they are. Our executives only look at the bottom line numbers and see a “cost savings” since not only do they pay the Indians less, but any loss of revenue by the Indians is paid to us by the Indian company. When I questioned two executive vice-presidents about the Indians their response was “We’re a global company” to which my response was “But your customers hate them.” They realize there are “problems” such as the accent but nothing much has changed over the years. Futhermore, the American employees know how incompetent the Indians are since we’re the ones that have to fix all of their mistakes usually with a very angry customer on the line. As far as Delta, dealing with Delta is a nightmare in general since the calls were routed to either India or their center in Atlanta where the employees were black which wasn’t much better than India. However, in speaking to Delta’s reps in Cape Town they are absolutely wonderful - white, English-speaking, and will go out of their way to help. No company - mine included - should outsource.
My experiences are very similar to others on here. Can’t any of these corporations keep these jobs in the US? (Hiring illegal Mexicans doesn’t count either)
Jewamongyou and Mike - AHHGGHH, Dell! Same thing happened to me, Indian IT ‘expert’ advised me to reload Windows XP when he couldn’t solve my problem.
I ended up solving it myself, by trial and error - took me two days but at least I didn’t have the hassle of reloading my whole system and I learned some new things in the process..
BTW, a friend who is fairly high-up in one of our most important banks said the same thing - she thinks many call centres will be re-established in their home countries because India is so incompetent and there have been thousands of complaints from customers. It may be cheaper for them in the short term, but it just isn’t working out too well in the long term.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8woC9B30zE
This is from FoneJacker, a British comedy show. On the same show is the character of a Nigerian fraudster who tries to get peoples bank account details. Most amusing…
Can you imagine the conversations between Indian call center workers and black/hispanic FL food stamp recipients? The Indians can barely comprehend standard English, let alone ebonics.
I work for a major US insurance company and I have to chat with Indian call center workers several times a week. I must agree that it is the planet’s most grating accent. Especially the upward inflexion at the end of each line!
My employer has now opened a call center in Manila, and the Filipinos (mostly Filipinas) are much more tolerable when it comes to accented English. They also have a sense of humor, so if I end my call with a ‘Salamat!’ they giggle at my attempt at Tagalog. They also call me ‘sir’ alot, which makes it hard to get mad at someone so respectful.
The Indians also seem pushy and unfriendly, but maybe I’m biased since I travelled in the Philippines.
I have worked a number of retail and customer service jobs. If you want to make a change, you MUST complain in WRITING to the corporate office, and say very clearly that you are taking your business elsewhere due to this. Believe me, 6 letters is considered an avalanche of mail, at least at the retail level. To a corporate office, it would take more letters than that. The thing is to complain firmly but politely, leave out name calling and such. Let them know why you are taking your business elsewhere. Direct a copy of the letter to the big wigs, not only to customer service. I will never purchase a Dell again, after the awful service from an Indian call center when I had a problem. I let them know it, too. Complaining to them and letting them know you are hitting them where it hurts-in the profit margin, that is-will get through to them eventually.Remember, the customer really is still king, because you have what they want-money. Remind them of this, and boycott their products and let them know why.
And while we are at it, let’s demand they put call centers in rural areas of Appalachia and other rural white poor areas.
Anonymous wrote at 5:29 PM on July 8:
“This is from FoneJacker, a British comedy show. On the same show is the character of a Nigerian fraudster who tries to get peoples bank account details. Most amusing…”
Actually, many of the “Nigerian” scammers are not Nigerian. See the link below.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097901.html
I always wondered how a country with a median IQ of 70 could pull off all of these scams, and, well, they aren’t.
