Why is it when I try to call MCI to order them to stop calling me 3 times a day trying to sell me phone service I get somebody whose engrish is so bad that it takes 30 minutes to file a 2 minute report.

The operator couldn't spell anything, got all my information wrong, just couldn't understand english well enough to do the job.  I had to repeat everything 5 times     Then spell everything 5 times       And of course, I am still getting my 3 calls a day.

So I said "so this is an Indian call center huh?" and the operator said "no this is Canada."  Yea right  I hear operators in the background speaking in the same broken engrish

How long before management wakes up and realizes this is not working.  People are getting pissed.  Now I understand why so many people hang up when they hear an Indian accent when calling a help center/call center.  Just so frustrating.  Corporate greed has lots to do with it for sure.

i know how you feel man....i called my cell phone company and got a french person to talk to me, then i asked "oh, i mush have pressed the button to talk to a french person, not english" and he said "no no, i speek english"       ...i was surprised because i could understand more than 2 words he said in a sentence....then i talked to another person (thinking someone else speeks english) but once again i got to talk with someone who probobly just started learning englsih....
i don't get it, why can't they just hire people who speek english

 

Actually i think fed legislation was passed requiring phone operators to identify their location if asked.....of course they can still not be honest!

I use cavtel for my phone - not much better when you need something, and getting away from MCI was hell. But hey monopolies are good, right?

India has no real work history documentation system, In most countries there is atleast a brief history you can pull up on any person... India does not. people fake resumes, they fake certificates and they dont have serious consequences. Even then funny thing... call center work is considered dead end... they are doing it only so they can get out of it for a better job. Turn overs are so high... their managers are always under staffed and scrambling to fill the seats with bodies... Corporate greed... you absolutely bet. Worse than greed... its counterproductive, the call center jobs here pay ~minimum wage... I dont see how they can be any cheaper there, and middle men make 90% markup and still leave the population working at dead end jobs... 3 ways to screw the american public, 2 ways to screw the indian people and take the difference and run. Corporate Greed in america and corporate greed in India is lining their own pockets and making lives miserable for both. OK fine the Indian entry level crowd is what is working these and they are getting what they want. But the expectation is the better work force would work the call centers... and that's not happening. How the hell do they say they are in Canada... ask them what is the motto of quebec next time. or what a ountie is, or what a Innuit is, or why they call the native americans "first nations" or ask them why Quebec is for separation... just fry them and watch them squirm. Call for their supervosor and do the same thing.... kepp them on the phone... 30 mins for a 2 min call makes for a 1500% hike in costs of phone lines. Soon its going to start biting them in the ass. Pathetic.
In the old days Jobs in India were given to people for life. No one got fired, no one got laid off, just work there till you retire or die. Hence people gladly exchanged low pay for that huge blanket of security. My grand pa was able to buy a square of land and built his house and so did all our neighbors. Now that he's 92 the spot he's buit a house in ~50 years ago ... is worth a lot of money. There was a guarantee that he'd never have to move, ever, never get laid off, and never ever lose that steady income... adjusted for inflation. These days lay off's are rampant in India as well... and soon the population is going to realize and they have in many cases that money compensates for lack of security... and the structure is going to change. Till then the corporations are using old world mentality to their advantage.
Cool.
Srinath.

Sounds like India is ready for a big Union movement  

I can imagine it sucks there too.  Like I said, I blame corporate greed.  I doubt they are willing to pay any more than bare minimum for bodies over there.  Pathetic.  They could make those people's lives better, but instead they keep the extra .25 cents an hour to boost profits

Quote from: johnSounds like India is ready for a big Union movement  

I can imagine it sucks there too.  Like I said, I blame corporate greed.  I doubt they are willing to pay any more than bare minimum for bodies over there.  Pathetic.  They could make those people's lives better, but instead they keep the extra .25 cents an hour to boost profits

Thats the nature of outsourcing business to the lowest bidder.  Its cheap cheap cheap.  My wife is a middle-manager for a call center for computers here in Alabama.  They pay nothing, can't afford to drug test employees, have no benifits, and make them work terrible hours.  The people she has working for her are just terrible.  I think McDonalds has a better work staff.

OK India doesn't have an SEC or anything like that... not boost profits... they pocket the damn thing. No corporate governance there... no one cares... and the flip side is the dudes that are doing call center work... dont care, they are doing it while looking for something better. They'd walk as soon as someone gave them anything better. So the 1/2 decent ones leave.
Cool.
Srinath.

You wanna try reporting a fault to British Telecom, my deputy lives in a remote village and trying to describe the location of a fallen pole to someone in jaipour or somewhere did have its hilarious moments.

On another similar thread I mentioned that a UK bank had just bought it's call centre back from India to UK allegedly because of security concerns but there is a lot of speculation it may really be about customer reaction. It won't happen in France, that's for sure.

I was recently involved with a cctv project by a UK company that put plasma "windows" in an Indian call centre for a Texan bank so that the workers could discuss the weather etc and what was happening out of the window in downtown Dallas as though they were there. They also had daily local (Texan) sports reviews and accent coaching. Most "directory enquiries" in UK now go through the Philipines, good luck to them if they can improve their lives but it makes you wonder where the "developed" countries are heading, most of us have already exported all the manufacturing jobs to China, what next? bigger armies? more invasions? lets not go there.

Yea we exported everything... and the plasma windows... yes that works only if you actually ask about the weather... ask them if in texas people do eat rattle snake and what do they do with the venom sac, I hear its a delicacy, and how they cook rattle snake. In a room with plasma windows... that cannot be good for you at all ... bad. Anyway the reason everything got exported is atleast partly due to sky rocketing costs in US. A house in Pleasanton CA - not big, ~2200 sqft on .2 ac or less is ~ 700,000. When you figure your employer actually indirectly does pay for it ... the lower costs in a village in India does look attractive. Soon enough employers are going to not pay for $700,000 houses, and its all going to even out where houses go back to where they should be, and employers pay people about what is right to make a living and raise a family and live in a house in the US to work for them in the US. Till that happens we all get to suffer with job insecurity, lay off's, cost cutting and out sourcing. Customer back lash is a powerful thing, and the backlash they should show is not buying overpriced crap to keep their lifestyle under control and hence the costs passed back to your employer would be lower.
Cool.
Srinath.

Srinath, yup! with you 100%. The most surprising thing I found about the Plasma windows was that they got about the most expensive "remote monitoring" company in the UK to do it but corporations move in mysterious ways. Hmmmm never tried Rattler, I'll give that a go.........

Get used to it.  The company I work for and many others in the tech industry are investing heavily in hiring personnel from India.

Just like manufacturing jobs to mexico.....


Chris

Quote from: seshadri_srinathAnyway the reason everything got exported is atleast partly due to sky rocketing costs in US.

The biggest change in cost-of-business I've seen is health insurance.  In a nonprofit I help manage, all costs across the board were down in 2003 from 2002, except for healthcare.  But the increase in insurance premiums more than made up for all the other reductions in the cost of business.

It's not engrish unless its Japanese people are speaking it!     :nana:

Sorry...that just jumped out at me.

I called microsoft to activate my winxp pro and the guy on the other end had to repeat each of like the 30 numbers at least 3 times cause I couldn't understand a damn thing he said.


Matt

Phorest... word of advice....

Never call BS on "Benevolent Site Admin"

Hahaha

Quote from: Rema1000

Quote from: seshadri_srinathAnyway the reason everything got exported is atleast partly due to sky rocketing costs in US.

The biggest change in cost-of-business I've seen is health insurance.  In a nonprofit I help manage, all costs across the board were down in 2003 from 2002, except for healthcare.  But the increase in insurance premiums more than made up for all the other reductions in the cost of business.

Not really... Instead of expanding into the east bay CA, some companies have expanded into India. The last 2-3 years have not had housing and office space and land get cheaper really, OK OK short term rents and lease prices have taken a dive, but house and office space costs have gone up if you tried to buy them. Yes I know companies lease office space mainly, but they usually prefer to buy/build then when they own it, they like to on paper sell it to a dummy corporation and 100 year lease it back from them or some crap like that. They aren't paying people less either, few companies have told their long term employees, to take a cut, but most have gotten rid of their newest and most expensive employees. Companies are spending more on labor, not including healthcare, add that in and its really exploded. Now the dot com boom era was in a whole other league for salaries, now we are in a bust, but employees are still making close to the .com money (those that still have jobs) and land etc has gone higher. The basic idea is after a boom and one loooooong 10 year boom it was, we need a bust, and unless a real bust happens growth is going to be difficult. If the costs stay up and the economy doesn't have overall strength, expansion will be difficult and weak.
Cool.
Srinath.

Quote from: nisus1Phorest... word of advice....

Never call BS on "Benevolent Site Admin"

Hahaha

Damn kids have no respect these days for admins

My apologies.  

Language problems aren't only found in calling centers.  I'm currently a telesales rep for an IT reseller in the Boston area and our first manager hired a bunch of ESL folks to be phone sales reps.  One guy's english is OK, but he has a heavy Chilean accent and another's accent is terrible b/c he 1) just started speaking english a few years ago and 2) never used a computer before getting this job.  So if you called up my office there is a good chance you would get a person sitting in Woburn, MA who would be 1) hard to understand and 2) have no idea what you were talking about even if you were speaking in a tongue they could understand.

Corporate greed is one thing, but bad hiring is another.