I think I just talked to a customer service rep in India

[laura888]

this is for a web hosting company. He had an obvious Indian accent, but I did not have the guts to ask him if he was actually IN India.

But their rates are so cheap, and I had a live body answer on a Sunday night?? - hmmmmm...

[yankeeinlouisiana]

1. Yep, probably in India.

n/t

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. I make a POINT of asking them where they are.

AOL, Macy's and many other American companies are farming out their Customer Service calls to India. I resent the idea that an american company has to send my phone call halfway around the globe in order to make sure there is enough money to pay for the corporate yacht and jet.

I ask them POINT BLANK where they are located. If they hedge, i ask "You are in Bangalor, arent you"? And then i tell the person that i resent the company doing what they did.

[loftycity]

9. When the US Company they work for goes belly up

I ask them "what are you going to do when the US Economy goes belly up?" Lots of silence...

[TXlib]

12. It's not the Cust Serv Rep's fault

It's not his fault that the company decided to outsource to another country.

Take your anger to where it is deserved... corporate HQ! Send 'em a polite letter, telling them why you're boycotting their product/service.

[AmandaRuth]

3. i work as a csr

for an insurance co, and often take calls from mortgage processors. I do believe that GMAC Financing and Countrywide Home Loans have outsourced their loan processing. I could be wrong but i take a high percentage of calls from these two from people with obvious accents and the phone line also sounds "long distance". No that i fault anyone for working but I do believe that people should know when their loan is processed out of the country, if only for the security reasons.

[DS1]

5. the long distance sound comes from

them bouncing the signal off a satellite, India's telephone and power infrastructure is so unreliable it's cheaper to run generators for the complexes and use satellites instead rewiring the whole country.

[Valjean]

4. We need

We need a web resources of 1-800 numbers that route to India. An anti-outsourcing effort would entail calling these numbers just for grins and giggles. I'm sure there are a lot of teenagers out there who would enjoy asking an Indian if their refrigerator is running.

[meti57b]

6. just ask, "what state are you in?"...

If they tell you a state, ask where-abouts their office is, what city. Ask a few more questions. I ask that every time I talk to a customer service department. From what I've read, when they are in another country, they have some ready-answers for it, so watch for that.

Of course, I'm not sure what good any of it does, but I would still like to know where they are. Next time, I'll take my business elsewhere if they are not in the US.

[solinvictus]

7. Providian Bank

They're outsourced to India. They've called ALL LAST WEEK trying to get my wife to take a card. It's bad enough that they're loansharks, but now they use foreign labor. Even phone bank jobs aren't safe anymore.

[Cleita]

8. I talk to so many because of computer and printer problems.

They don't admit that they are in India but give the state the copororate headquarters in.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Did he say his name was Fred?

That was the name of the Dell guy who reinstalled Windows on my 'puter the last couple of days.

He didn't sound much like a "Fred".

[JCMach1]

11. You can be fired for saying where you are located....

I worked part-time for MSN last Summer...