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To: sionnsar
The upshot? In his culture your tech support type might very well be "Bobby" (or "Robert"). I wouldn't mock him.

If I were interacting with a citizen of another country, *in* their own country, I'd be more inclined to look for your scenario playing out.

Except, here I was talking about tech support, where the "English" name is a pseudonym used in an attempt to fool me into thinking that I'm dealing with someone who
a) shares my culture
b) has a clue
c) gives a flying leap.

I have had tech support people tell me directly that I had called the wrong number for my question, but that they would (condescending, mock-gracious tone like John Kerry) would connect me to the right number. And that, after I read the instructions for dialing from the computer's own instruction sheet, fresh out of the packing box.

And the problem is, I didn't have any say in how my customer service was handled -- *all* the companies did this at the same time, lemming-like, so that the C-level execs could have more time and $$ to spend on their own Kristins.

Full Disclosure: Government workers suck, too. But at least there is no pretense in that case.

Cheers!

76 posted on 03/14/2008 5:17:26 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers; LibreOuMort
Except, here I was talking about tech support, where the "English" name is a pseudonym used in an attempt to fool me into thinking that I'm dealing with someone who
a) shares my culture
b) has a clue
c) gives a flying leap.

I have to deal a lot with other cultures. If people want to get mad, call names, insult folks, and otherwise behave like a boor (term from the British slur on Dutch-descended Boers) go ahead. I'll be the one to inform them that not all of us Anglophones are jerk-ass idiots -- and I'll gain lots of extra points for being one who makes the effort to connect.

I don't like dealing with Indian tech-support anymore than anyone else. I find their English surprisingly hard to understand (and frequent, even in-country, exposure has not helped as much as I hoped), but I quite disagree with this presupposition of dishonesty regarding the presented names.

Americans are really casual regarding names; other cultures are not so.

Respond to them however you wish; the more arrogantly you behave the more you float my boat.

83 posted on 03/14/2008 5:41:03 PM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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