I have decided that any manufacturer, or service I call support for, if I get some fucker who I can't understand, I am shit canning the product or service and moving on to another provider or doing without.

I'm completely sick and tired of giving out my hard earned money to companies that see fit to subsidize their customer support and my time to a third party that does not fluently speak my language.

I don't give a fuck about their bottom line, political correctness, equal opportunity, economical climate, or the world at large in this regard.. It may not be much but they are not getting my money any longer. That means, Dell, Sony, Comcast, Rhapsody, and pretty much most of the other large corporations out there can go fuck themselves. I'll be giving my dollars to the local small companies for now on even if it costs a little more. At least I'll come away from the damn transaction knowing what the fuck actually happened.

Fuckers!

I'm with ya man. One of the worst companies to deal with is Dish Network. Their customer service sucks donkey dick. Always get some fucker in India. I'm tired of it too!! Dish Network

I hear ya...

But why the hell are you bothering with Rhapsody in the first place?

Real sucks. They have for a LONG time.

I know! We had Urge via WMP11 (my wife liked it) and they partnered with Real and moved everything to Rhapsody... I've since cancelled the service and that exchange could solely be responsible for rants such as these, though in this case it is not.

Just try and be on the other side of it. My project management team gets at least four calls a day from people wanting our product, but you can't understand them...

Mostly people from India or others that don't have a great command of the English language. they OWN a convient store, but cannot articulate what they want. A number of these calls have been passed to me (since I have a higher patience level) and I simply ask the person on the other end of the line to SPELL EVERYTHING THEY ARE SAYING.

I have found this technique to be very useful. Although, I still have a problem with those that say, "E, as in apple". Throws me off a bit.

Somebody, someday will learn that if you live here (and gain citizenship) you WILL need to be able to speak the English language so that it CAN be understood.

PS - Any customer that gets refered to me and cannot speak plainly gets a 12% increase on their purchase price. See - it actually DOES pay to speak plain and clear ENGLISH!!!!!!!!

Spanky!

I think everyone at one time or another has been aggravated by foreign customer service operators. But then again, that is private industry and if enough customers complain, they will do something about it.

Didn't Dell move all business related customer service to homegrown operations because of massive complaints?

At least with private industry you have a choice of dealing with someone else.

You know what is an even bigger source of aggravation and waste of American's hard earned money? Your employer... the US Federal Government.

Our taxes go to pay for forms and all types of services to be available in dozens of languages.

I think it is a bigger problem for our tax money to pay for services that encourage people from other countries who move to this country to make it easy and encourage them to NEVER learn our language.

That is a far worse problem and we are all paying for it and have no choice in the matter. We can't say they aren't getting our money any longer either.

No shit! If you've never worked for the Fed, you have no idea how horribly inefficient it is. The waste is astronomical. I'm all for a smaller government even at the expense of my own employment. I can get a job anywhere.

X2

Well...
There are two sides to this..

1) Some companies go to the cheapest solution and that means that the work is off-shored to a cheap provider. That means that the person on the other end of the line doesn't have a great command of the english language.

2) Some companies (like mine) off shore work to companies that have proven that they can provide well spoken people who are able to provide good support. In fact, I've heard some of them flip from their Indian accent to the American version and it's creepy because, if I close my eyes, they sound like they're from somewhere in the mid-west.

We need to speak with our dollars, but need to understand that many Americans feel that they are just too important to do something as menial as customer service, unless they are paid enough to be able to buy all the crap they feel like they deserve. On the other hand, there are some great people out there that do want to do this work, are good at it and are able to be successful in their countries, even at wages that are less than we're paying here.

So, this is a two-fold argument. We can bitch all we want about the people that we can't understand. Or, we can try to see the person at the other end of the line as someone who's likely trying hard to do a good job and speaking a language that's not their primary language, trying to work with us.

How many of us can speak another language, much less have ever tried to learn one? How much of a 'tard would we sound to a person from japan if we were trying to speak to them in Japanese?

So, while I agree with the theme of telling companies to stop seeking the bottom line and pay attention to the customers, I'm not sure I agree to us taking it out on people who are only doing what we're asking them to do.

The county I live in is starting to restrict what it publishes in multiple languages .

Another article.

BTW - Stewart got re-elected as chairman to board of supervisors.

Some communities are getting fed up and doing something about it - 2008 should be an interesting year.

I'm fascinated that this hasn't been an issue in the presidential races - neither party wants to touch it and that's sad

I keep seeing this argument - usually in regards to illegal aliens doing jobs that Americans won't do - and I think it's bullschitte. There aren't any jobs that Americans won't do - they're just less likely to work illegally (i.e. in unsafe/illegal conditions for less than minimum wage etc). Vet clinics typically hire high school kids to clean out kennels and do other menial dirty work around the clinic and they typically pay them minimum wage to do it... yet there always seem to be people willing to do the job.

The reason you can get things done more cheaply in India (or wherever) is because their standard of living and the value of their money is below ours. When their standard of living and currency catches up with ours that cheap labor will disappear in a hurry.

I like it, how about providing a list of companies you find for us.

In a few year's time.......you'll have nothing if you take the "doing without" attitude. Go get yourself a cardboard box, some warm clothes, and a "will work for food" sign....your job is next.

I'm lucky to work for a US company with almost 2000 customer support staff that refuses to outsource overseas. In fact - our CEO is quite passionate about keeping it that way. Judging by some of the prizes the support guys n girls win - I'd say they were quite profitable doing it that way too.

How about an example how customer service should be done, and by a company that people here can regularly do business with? It's Crutchfield, and I highly recommend them.

Again on the flip side of this, at my job we take 911 calls from people who not only don't speak English, they're freaking out because a neighbor just took a lightning strike and is in full arrest. Never is the foolhardiness of society's accommodation of non-English speakers more evident.

I volunteered for a while as a tutor teaching immigrants English, and to give them credit, communicating with police and emergency services was one of their priorities. I also respected the fact that these guys were working construction from 7am to 7pm then hauling ass to make their class.

Still, to the point of the thread, I've had it too with outsourced customer service. It's especially ridiculous when some guy whose accent makes it clear he's sitting in Mumbai says, "Hello, this is Dave, how can I help you?" Dave? Riiiiiight.

Here are some it works for, note word SOME:

Anheuser-Busch
AOL Travel/Travelocity
Avon
AETNA
ALCOA
Bluelight
Capital One
Carlson Companies
Caterpillar
Charles Schwab
CIGNA
Citizen Communications
Compuer Sciences Corporation
Dana Corporation
Delta Air Lines
Dish Network
Dupont
Eaton Corporation
Electronic Arts
First American Title
Focus Infomatics
Glaxo Smith Kline
Google
H.E.B. Grocery Company
Home Depot
Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l. Inc.
Intel
Intuit
Johnson and Johnson
Juno
LaSalle Bank - formerly ABN AMRO
Lexmark
Level 3 Communications
MBNA credit cards
Network Solutions
Netzero
Nestle Purina PetCare
Nike
Northwest Surgical Specialists
Norton Symantec
Option One Mortgage (HR Block)
Providian Card Services
Renac Computer Corp - Medical Billing
Sage Software (ACT)
Sallie Mae SBC
Shell
Sun Microsystems
St. Paul Travelers
Sunterra - Timeshare company
Target
Tenet Healthcare
United Health Group
US Bank
US Government
United Airlines Reservations Call Center
Veritas Software
Wachovia
Walmart Connect Internet
Washington Mutual
Western Digital Corp
White & Case, LLP

I'm with you on this one. I'm also sick of the poor customer service in person at restaurants and grocery stores.

One of the support areas for my company (minimal phone support) had a success rate of 88%, with relatively high turnover because the people in that area literally told people that they worked with that they couldn't be bothered to do a better job for the amount they were paid. Within 2 months of those 40 jobs being outsourced, the success rate went to 99% - at a lower cost to the company. Even the customers noticed the improvement and commented on it. So, I'd have to disagree that it's BS that people here won't do the job. There are too many people in the US that feel like they are entitled to a lot, without having to actually work for it.

Yeah, I would really prefer that local resources are used first and foremost. The problem is that we are a global economy and the days are numbered when 'Made in ....' will mean a whole lot less since goods from the gloves that I just bought to the Xterra that I love are made in a few places and are only assembled in a specific location.

As for the argument that we're only at an advantage now, while there is a disparity in the cost of living, I wholly agree. Hell, that happens here in the US all the time and you can read in the WSJ almost weekly how a company closed one location and moved the operation to another part of the country to take advantage of the lower operating costs.

Overall, I'm in total favor of boycotting any company that provides bad customer service, for any reason, not just because they off-shored the work. I just won't agree with boycotting a company only because they outsourced a portion of their operation because that change could make the products that I buy from them cheaper and the support that I need better.

That door swings both ways. The company that offshored my job in 2003, recently called me to offer my job back as their offshoring didn't go so well. I told them to go fuck themselves too.

I could give a shit about "made in" I'm talking about TALKING in... Chances are where I live, I'll recieve much better customer service from the small guy over the big retail chains anyway, no matter the product they sell.

Agree.

If I call you for support and I cannot UNDERSTAND you and I have to take time to UNDERSTAND you then that will be the last transaction you recieve from me. I don't care where you are located or who you employ. It has nothing to do with a boycott etc. with me. I simply just don't want the hassle and have been screwed over for it too many times now. I'm through with it.

While I do agree with you, some people (not you necessarily) need to realize that it's a two-way street.

Just because someone pays money, doesn't give them the right to be a complete dick when it's not warranted.

Spoken from somebody who works in a restaurant.

I know it's a two way street. I started out working as a busboy when I was 14. I worked 12 years retail as well as fast food.

I just have a problem with people being rude while I'm patronizing their business.

The 18 or 19 year checkout girl who is yakking up a storm about her date last night while shes ringing my order. Completely ignoring me, not even say hello, or thank you.

There just seems to be a complete lack of respect for anyone these days.

I'm with you guys on this one.

It seems that once a month or so I have to go through this experience with Dell. So far, Dell are the worst I have had experience with.

Operator had a distinct heavy hindu accent, too. Last convo went something like this:

Operator: Thank you for calling Dell, this is Mushajskjhdjfhsdasd jdhfkjsdahfkjsdh, how can I help you?

Me: Yes, hi. May I speak with someone who speaks proper English, please, I am not understanding you clearly.

Operator: (pause) ...well I speak English..

Me: No. No offence, can you please transfer me?
Operator: Please hold. Click...

He hung up on me, asshole!!!!

amen brother!

ive actually asked for someone who can speak english cause i cant understand what the hell they're sayin. they get pissed sometimes. but at my part time job, i get it every single day i work. i sell sunglasses in one of the largest outlet malls in the area. so these people come in asking for somethin and i cant understand what the hell they're asking for. ive actually had people go get someone else to talk for them to get what they want because they cant speak well enough. and what really gets to me is when they come in my store speakin some other language and i acknowledge them and they just keep on talkin their stuff and dont even look at me. so ive stoped helping them out as much as the people i can actually understand. ive thought many times now about hanging up a sign like that guy in philly did about the speaking english in the establishment. im tired of it.

Do you own the store?

He owns it part time.