Call centers hear the good, the bad, and the ugly American

NY Newsday ^ | 1/11/06 | MIKE McPHATE

[DogBarkTree]

NOIDA, India -- Debalina Das, a computer help-line agent in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, punched the button last winter for a call from America.

"You Indian slut," came the man's voice, the 22-year-old recounted, "in some -- Third World country, roaming about naked without food and clothes, what do you know about computers? Have you ever seen one ... ? This company is just saving money by outsourcing to Third World countries like yours."

Das, who quit after four months, said she learned to dislike Americans. "Rarely there are people who are good," she said by e-mail, "but then others remind me that all they believe in is cursing and they don't have respect for others."

Such is the sentiment among many workers in India's burgeoning call center industry. While irate calls are a mainstay of customer service work in any country, many here say they regularly face special abuse from Americans, whose tantrums are often spurred by anti-outsourcing opinion and are sometimes racially tinged.

Of the millions of calls patched daily between Indian agents and American customers, roughly 5 percent -- or more than 200,000 -- involve bigotry, say workers and industry analysts. The vitriol feeds a "searing anger" among employees, said Vinod Shetty, a Bombay-based lawyer who has formed a collective for call center workers. "A lot of trauma is caused."

[DogBarkTree]

How does one say "Boo Freakin Hoo" in Urdu?

[Theresawithanh]

Hear about the call center candidate who was asked to use the words "green" "pink" and "yellow" in a sentence, and if he could, they would give him the job? He says, "Sure, I can pass this test. The phone goes 'green green green' and I 'pink' it up and say 'yellow' this is Mujibar, how may I help you".

[sageb1]

I will make one comment as one who has seen the performance of many Americans on international forums. "Go back to DU and stay there!"

[Chickensoup]

One doesn't. Outsourcing of call centers is the least of the United States economic problems.

[pollyannaish]

I am disgusted with Americans who do not treat others well. In fact, I am disgusted with all human beings who do not treat others well.

[one more state]

If they could only speak English this might work. I bought a new computer in October. I herd good things about Dell so I call the sales number on a mailing I received. I could barely understand the Indian woman i spoke with. I even asked for another sale person , she said they were all busy. To make this long story short I went to Bestbuy and bought an E-machine.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Well, you've identified yourself as one of the @$$holes.

I don't doubt what this young woman says. I lived through a fair bit of abuse when I had to work as a telemarketer to find a way to support my family. I finally quit, as honesty and sincere desire to help the customer wasn't an asset in the particular arena I was in.

I've talked to a LOT of Indian, Filipino and even the odd Latin American customer service rep or two. Yes, they have accents (especially the Indians), but the ones I've talked to have all been nice and as helpful as they knew how to be. I guess they were relieved to speak to an American who treated them nice and wasn't a jerk.

If you have a problem, address it to the management of the company -- not to the person who's trying to help you.

[LaineyDee]

I went to Bestbuy and bought an E-machine

Man...that shows REAL desperation! lol

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Saurabh Jha, a blue-jeaned 22-year-old, said a Texas woman phoned recently and told him that thanks to outsourcing, "you are getting money, food, shelter. You should be starving."

She berated him for 12 minutes before she allowed him to offer advice that fixed her problem: to unplug her computer and plug it back in. "I was speechless," he said. "She didn't even give me a chance."

[Brilliant]

"You Indian slut," came the man's voice, the 22-year-old recounted, "in some -- Third World country, roaming about naked without food and clothes, what do you know about computers? Have you ever seen one ... ? This company is just saving money by outsourcing to Third World countries like yours."

I'm guessing a Democrat. May I suggest the obvious? If you don't like a computer company's technical service, then buy a competitor's product.

[Billthedrill]

No excuse for abuse. That said, when you have a critical system down the last thing you need is a tech who (1) speaks with an incomprehensible accent, and (2) insists on a flowchart approach that has you returning over and over again to ground you've already covered, and (3) won't escalate the problem to someone who actually knows as much about the system as the caller does.

I speak from ongoing experience. A certain very large software company has presented me with a subtle, transient, difficult, and recurring problem and I'm having to convince a pimple-faced kid from Bangalore that I actually have eliminated hardware malfunction, and no, I can't take a main production system offline during the middle of the workday so he can deliberately induce a similar problem in the hopes that something will turn up in the logs. Infuriating. I've been cordial and professional to him but I'd like to choke the miserable SOB who saved a dime by outsourcing this critical function.

[DogBarkTree]

I worked in a call center in the US and heard worse than this. Americans get hammered just as much.

[Brilliant]

Well, I agree that the Indians try to be helpful. On the other hand, they aren't as knowledgeable as American technicians. They are getting there, though, and American technicians weren't very helpful either.

[DogBarkTree]

"If you have a problem, address it to the management of the company -- not to the person who's trying to help you."
No problem here, I just have no sympathy.

[Brilliant]

That's exactly what you should do. Go for the competition.

[Libertarian444]

That said, when you have a critical system down the last thing you need is a tech who (1) speaks with an incomprehensible accent, and (2) insists on a flowchart approach that has you returning over and over again to ground you've already covered, and (3) won't escalate the problem to someone who actually knows as much about the system as the caller does.

The only problem with this is that (2) and (3) are also frequent problems with American call-centers as well. Actually, sometimes (1) ain't so great either, even with Americans manning the phones.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

PR?

I am not for being mean BUT I am tired of seeing these "ugly" American columns. They are beginning to look like PR plants to me hoping to shame us into acceptance. I have it on good authority -- plus my own personal experience -- that foreigners can be pretty cruel also. I think it has something to do with that being human thingy.

Well, I remember the book "Ugly American" from the 1950s.

"The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing exposé of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia."

For the next four decades it was always our fault, our fault, our fault, our fault, our fault, our fault. . . .

Never again! Thank you.

[ClaireSolt]

I have done cold calling and I was surprised that people were as nice about it as they were.

[shempy]

I have worked in and managed call centers for the last fifteen years. Angry callers are a part of the business no matter what country you are in. An accent or strange name just makes the insult selection more obvious.

In many respects, these "ugly American" callers are accomplishing something. The stress caused by negative calls causes high turnover, which in turn takes a toll on the center's ability to deliver consistent quality. Quality is one of the major factors in many companies decision not to take there call centers off-shore. This helps guarantee that Americans will be able to find crappy jobs as telemarketers for years to come.