But I Liked Talking to India!

[3113]

Actually, I get all my airline tickets online, so I don't think I ever did talk to India. But for those of you who did while trying to get a flight on Delta and hated it....

Delta Air Lines Inc has stopped using India-based call centers to handle sales and reservations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The move makes the airline the latest U.S. company to decide the cost benefits of directing calls offshore are outweighed by backlash from costumers, the newspaper said in a story on its website.

Delta said it stopped routing calls to India-based call centers over the first three months of the year. Customers had complained they had trouble communicating with Indian agents, the newspaper said. "The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low," Richard Anderson, Delta's chief executive, said in a recorded message to employees, according to the newspaper. "Our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback."

Earlier this month, SLM Corp the student loan company commonly known as Sallie Mae, said it plans to move its overseas operations back to the United States, pulling jobs from India, Mexico and the Philippines. Delta isn't pulling back from the use of all foreign call centers. It will keep some Jamaica and South Africa centers, which haven't generated such vociferous complaints, the newspaper said.

 

[caffieri]

I got a little annoyed recently when I tried to phone a hotel with an 800 number and the person on the end of the line wasn't really able to answer my questions. Eventually I called the hotel using long distance and asked them where on Earth I been talking to on the 800 number - they told me Thailand. Now I prefer to pay for a long distance call and get the info I'm looking for.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I say we do this; Put every political office and public job out for bids. The person who pays the most for the job gets it. Open the bidding to everyone on the planet. Then unseal the bids on election day.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Well, so much for India as the new economic super-power, the way so many pundits were predicting.

On the other hand, if you like talking to India, come on down to Artesia! Besides, one of my students' father runs the most outstanding Indian restaurant down thisaway.

 

[R. Richard]

You don't have to go to India to get people that speak 'English' that you can't understand. I used to work in Manhattan. I had to talk to the person who answered the phone at places where I was consulting. It was physically exhausting. A simple 'how do I get there' conversation required 100% concentration and a lot of time to overcome the 'I was born in Turdistan and studied English there' dialect.

I finally got to talk to the CEO of one of the places where I worked. I got him to call his own telephone answering people. He couldn't understand them. He then called in the person who was running, among other things, the phone answering people. The excuse given was, "The girls don't like to answer the phone. I just use the newest girls, until I get another newest girl."

The CEO was shocked. Later, he instituted a policy. A Vice President would listen to each of the girls assigned to the telephone answering detail. No comprehension, no job. "But wait," you ask, "you have to have someone to answer the phone." Remember the person who was running the phone answering people? Well, she quit. However, the person hired to replace her suddenly was able to hire people who spoke American, not Turdistan English. Simple.

 

[Stella_Omega]

"Turdistan."

Good one, you stupid ignorant self-righteous pimple.

Are you going to say "Why can't you take a joke," now?

 

[R. Richard]

"Turdistan."

Good one, you stupid ignorant self-righteous pimple.

Are you going to say "Why can't you take a joke," now?

No, I'm going to ask that you examine yourself and see if some of the characteristics you assign to me might not just be characteristics that a neutral observer would find in you.

 

[Stella_Omega]

No, I'm going to ask that you examine yourself and see if some of the characteristics you assign to me might not just be characteristics that a neutral observer would find in you.

You are the guy who just characterized all immigrants as "Turdistanis." It's stupid, ignorant, self-righteous and not funny.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You dont even have to call Inida. When I worked for the state they hired every Turdistani that washed up on the beach. And they let them answer the phones.

But in fairness, the sweet young thangs who moved here from Pennsylvania couldnt understand Ebonics. It was like Chinese to them.

 

[R. Richard]

You are the guy who just characterized all immigrants as "Turdistanis." It's stupid, ignorant, self-righteous and not funny.

Correction please. I was forced into high school English at the point of a scumbag gun. I was then told, by the faculty, that ANYONE who didn't take high school English in an American high school was a subhuman animal and probably dangerous.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Correction please. I was forced into high school English at the point of a scumbag gun. I was then told, by the faculty, that ANYONE who didn't take high school English in an American high school was a subhuman animal and probably dangerous.

"oh, it isn't my fault, I'm a victim of society!"

Lame excuse. You are an adult human being, and you can, and have, learned much since your highschool days.

 

[R. Richard]

"oh, it isn't my fault, I'm a victim of society!"

Lame excuse. You are an adult human being, and you can, and have, learned much since your highschool days.

Let's see if I have this right. You want me to reject the education that was forced on me at gun point. I'm then to adopt your point of view, because you're right and everyone else, society, is wrong. And you think that I'm stupid, ignorant and self-righteous?

STOP STELLA! You need to go take a look at yourself in a mirror and repeat, "You're stupid, ignorant and self-righteous. Also, you leave out needed commas."

 

[Stella_Omega]

"Turdistan."

What society is right about that? Oh, the right. Right.

Wrong.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

The problem with call centers in India is that the people there who speak English, which would include all educated people, speak with a strong British accent. When you add their own accent to that, it is very hard to follow, especialy when you are calling an 800 number and have a poor connection in the first place. You can probably say the same thing about call centers in other British dominated places, although British citizens probably have no problem.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

A very prominent Indian author once said that India has more people speaking excellent English and more people speaking execrable English than most of the rest of the world combined.

 

[sutherngent985]

I forget what company I was calling into about some software support, but the person on the phone spoke english so badly I finally asked for the supervisor. When they came on the phone, I couldnt understand them, either. I kept calling until I finally got someone on the phone I could understand. Then when I was done, I sent the company an email complaining about this. I never heard back from them. So much for customer service. And, no, it wasnt Microsoft.

 

[Leto Degeneres]

I forget what company I was calling into about some software support, but the person on the phone spoke english so badly I finally asked for the supervisor. When they came on the phone, I couldnt understand them, either. I kept calling until I finally got someone on the phone I could understand. Then when I was done, I sent the company an email complaining about this. I never heard back from them. So much for customer service. And, no, it wasnt Microsoft.

I'm so lucky, and so proud, too. When I call SBC, I actually get smart people with great senses of humor that happen to be right here in Reno. Goes double for Intuit. You can actually make a date with 'em!

 

[TE999]

I once called tech support about a 'puter problem and dealt with four different people in India who spoke overly precise english and didn't know shit...after raising hell with a supervisor I was connected with a guy with a Texas drawl you could cut with a knife that solved my problem in no time.

 

[Leto Degeneres]

I once called tech support about a 'puter problem and dealt with four different people in India who spoke overly precise english and didn't know shit...after raising hell with a supervisor I was connected with a guy with a Texas drawl you could cut with a knife that solved my problem in no time.

...and God Bless Texas!

 

[cantdog]

What prevents people, wherever situate, from understanding the software they are supporting, if they have the job of technical support for that software? Indian, Nigerian, or Michigander-- what boots it? If you hold the job, it's incumbent on you to comprehend the software.

I can read an accent in time, myself. It takes a few minutes, if the accent is bizarre enough, like Mountain, the speech of the Appalachian folk in North Carolina and West Virginia, or the patois they use in Jamaica, but after a few minutes I can get what they are saying.

I like to hear non-native English. I see non-native English as the future of my native tongue, and non-native speakers of English simplify the syntax in ways that, sooner or later, native speakers will also do. For example, look at the uses of the apostrope-s combination. I learned the finicky rules for that in the 1950's and 1960's, but already they have changed, simplified. Even the manuals of styles no longer require the full employment of the rules I learned fifty years ago.

And that's neither good nor bad, but a fact of the language's evolution.

Some of the simplifications non-natives employ are sensible and make English easier to use.

But I still want a tech dude to disentangle the tech.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

A very prominent Indian author once said that India has more people speaking excellent English and more people speaking execrable English than most of the rest of the world combined.

Either one can be just as bad. The queen's veddy, veddy proper English can be just as hard to understand as any other accent. Except they wouldn't call it an accent.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Oh yeah. I speak pure West Coast and it is the flattest, most unaccented, dry way to speak there is . . . and very recognizable as such. Shoot, we even got recognized in Wales!

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've gotten tech support from India that was right on. I've talked with Indian techs that had a sense of humor, and who helped me figure out work-arounds, and such...
I've talked to people whom I could not understand, no matter how hard I tried. And then there are times when I've been too damn pissed off to try to understand an accent-- that's costumer service problem.

 

[JamesSD]

My understanding is a lot of Call Center jobs are moving to places like Oklahoma and other states whose economies weren't great before the recession.

 

[Vermilion]

The problem with call centers in India is that the people there who speak English, which would include all educated people, speak with a strong British accent. When you add their own accent to that, it is very hard to follow, especialy when you are calling an 800 number and have a poor connection in the first place. You can probably say the same thing about call centers in other British dominated places, although British citizens probably have no problem.

Ha ha ha ha


WRONG.
Just as incomprehensible to the English. I can't speak for the Scots, Northern Irish and Welsh people who also live in Britain.