Letters to the Editor

Re: Are Indian Telereps the Victims of Racism? (The CRM Loop, June 30)

Someone with an Indian accent answers the phone, and says, “Thank you for calling SBC DSL service my name is JOE how can I help you.” Now I have not ever been to India but have many friends and associates in this country of Indian descent and I have NEVER met one named Joe, Tom, Bill or Ted.

I always ask in situations like this “Is your real name JOE?” I have been told a few times that “We are not allowed to answer that question.” When you ask where they are located, they say, “A globally located call center.” What??

The real tragedy here is that American businesses are going to these countries and forcing these people to lie about who they are and where they live all to make a living.

The Indian culture is one of peace and understanding. Upset Americans do not fit that profile.

I honestly feel bad for every person that has to use a fake name to make an honest living.

Michael C. Lamb
Opt It, Inc.
Chicago, IL

I used to run an IT department in an internet programming company with 1000 people. I had to deal with Dell customer support constantly. As a large consumer of Dell products, we got very good support from the team in Texas.

Now I run a small software programming company with nine people, and I still have to deal with Dell customer support. We buy the full 3-year, everything covered, on-site support for all of our high-end laptop computers, which are used daily by our programmers, graphics designers, and executives. When we pay for the highest level of support that Dell sells, we expect the highest level of support that Dell offers. Naturally.

We have a very difficult time with getting hardware problems fixed, and we have plenty of hardware problems. We call support, and we get a thick New Deli or Bangalore accent on the other end of the phone from someone who calls himself “John” or “Bob.” These guys don’t know much about anything and insist on walking us through a convoluted script when we, as software and computer experts, are telling them EXACTLY what is wrong with our computers. It is very frustrating to spend more than an hour or two on the phone with these folks, who are often difficult to understand, just to get them to admit that you were right from the start and to schedule a service visit at our site.

What bothers us is definitely not racism. One of the principals at our company is Indian. We have all worked closely with Indian programmers, many “right off the boat”. What bothers us is incompetence in customer support, and being forced to deal with Dell cheeping-out on support costs, when we pay a premium for premium service.

Howard A Nunes
President & CEO
PepperDash Technology Corp.
Boston, MA

You’ve hit the nail right on the head. Last year my Dell laptop quit working while it was still within the extended warranty period—an extra I paid for. It took more than 11.5 hours and more than 30 phone calls (I logged them!) to resolve. Every single time I talked to the call center in India, they’d start from square one. (Was I talking to a used car dealer?) I had to explain the same issue 30 freakin’ times to someone that knew:

1.How to read a canned script that I knew better than they did before the problem with resolved.

2. How to apologize profusely but not help at all. You can bet I was somewhat irate and after initially being very nice for the first 10 calls it degraded into me telling them they were f**kin’ idiots and that I needed to speak to a manager that could help me. I didn’t care if they threatened to hang up because they weren’t doing me a bit of good. It eventually got to the point where (after a month!!) they transferred me to a woman from Alabama who said she knew what I was going through and as soon as she looked me up asked me what the problem was – I was still covered by their on-site warranty (go figure!!) and she’d have someone at my house within several days—which she did. As a free lance software developer I’ve been a Dell customer for many years (three laptops). I work with many developers from India on a daily basis (I’m sitting within 10 feet of five Indian developers as I write this) and count them as my friends—so much for the racism bit. But I’ll tell you—because of this experience I will never purchase anything from Dell again.

Tom Auger
President
Eastern Technology Group Inc.
Portland, ME

I’ve disconnected from at least a dozen Indian reps in the past couple of years even before we got to the meat of the matter, just because of unintelligibility. A number of friends and people in our company have said exactly the same.

My confidence in their ability to quickly and accurately convey the information I need drops to zero in a hurry when they can’t even pronounce my name correctly. “Dick” is a fairly basic sound.

I was very tolerant in my first few experiences and tried to humanize the misunderstandings that required some to repeat a single sentence 2-3-4 times before I was sure I understood. But after a couple instances when the reps seemed to lose some patience with my requests to repeat or restate, I gave up. Now I give them one shot at two attempts to clarify, then ask for their boss or say good-bye.

Often a scripted response will get the job done, so that’s not always an issue. I’ve talked with a number of reps from Chicago or Kansas or California who also worked from scripts. I prefer talking with a thinker but as long as I quickly get exactly what I need, who cares.

I sympathize with the individuals. They’re trying hard to improve themselves and probably believe they have adequate language skills. In fact, all economies are now interdependent so the more the third world can support itself, the better for each of us. At least in the long haul, my taxes shouldn’t increase to support more foreign aid.

And I couldn’t care less about color or ethnicity; I’ve had similar problems in phonecons to France, Italy, and even Scotland. And, in fact, some calls to certain offices in Washington, DC, are nearly as difficult.

I handle them all the same. I ask for their supervisor or an interpreter, or give up and try calling during another shift.

But I have absolutely no empathy for those companies that decide to save a dollar at my expense. My estimate of those companies’ value moves down at least a few notches per disappointing call.

Has it ever entered my thoughts that I’m talking to someone who has replaced an American worker? Definitely. The eldest son of one of my best friends lost his job to an offshore call center. He’s a very bright 23 year-old lifelong geek who was doing an exceptional troubleshooting job for Microsoft. But I’m also very selfish. I only call when the info is absolutely necessary and I’ve exhausted other resources, so I’m ready to accept help from ANY company rep.

Bottom line? I’m a marketer in the true sense and I have absolute disdain for any company that decides to discard or ignore opportunities to connect with the people who fund their payroll. Especially those with a problem.

They’re idiots.

R. H. Myers
XN Technologies, Inc.
Cheney, WA

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Re: The CRM Cynic; Anarchy in the Air (The CRM Loop, June 30)

While I understand what you are saying, you may want to consider switching airlines. I usually fly the cheapest of the cheap America West, Frontier and Southwest ( I have a lifetime of pent of rage towards Northwest, since I lived in MN and had no other choice). I find that the flights are mostly on-time, fares are cheap, planes are clean, the help actually pretends that they are glad to see you in a convincing way. To be sure they the flights are full, but being a high mile frequent flyer I can usually book a good seat on-line ( except SWA). Food is not available except for purchase, but who liked it when it was? Of course things can and do go wrong, but I find that 95% of my flying is no problem at all. It seems to be fashionable to complain, but I just don’t have the same experience.

Kevin Mahoney
President
Royal Enfield USA
A Division of Classic Motorworks

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