OT: Off shore call center workers mad at American

[Thermodyne]

STAFF AT Indian call centres dealing with Americans are getting more angry at some callers' rude, backward, stupid and bigoted comments.
A collective for Indian workers, formed by Vinod Shetty, a Bombay lawyer, said that most of the Americans seemed to have chip on their shoulder about outsourcing and vented their insecurities on call centre staff.

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Perhaps, if they were able to speak understandable English and had a working knowledge of the product in question, we wouldn�t be so rude.
I recently placed a call for some support on a name brand VPN appliance. I had unlimited free support and timed paid support. I called the free support on what I figured was an easy question. All I wanted to do was add a port to UDP so that I could connect some users that could not use the standard port because of local firewall restrictions. I�ve done it lots of time with another vendor, but they don�t use a webserver interface. You just type in the commands and the write it. With this system you could only make changes by selecting from the menus.
I started by explaining what I needed to do, and ask how to get to a command line and what to enter when I got there. After 40 minutes, mostly translation problems, the girl kicks me to level two. I wait almost half an hour and the go through the whole thing again. After about 15 minutes of discussion, I get kicked to level three. They come right on the line, and I go through the whole thing again. I spend over an hour with this guy, and have to repeat almost everything I say twice. Finally he says that it can�t be done on this model. I hang up and call my sales rep to lay into him about why he sold me this system that did not meet the bid specks. Most of you guys know me; he was about to have a bad day. Of course, I get voice mail. When he calls me back, he assures me that the OS is writable and gives me some free time with paid support. I then call the paid support number, and get the same guy that I had the day before as tier three free support. He doesn�t even remember the call until I give him the service request number! During this conversation he admits that he has never seen the appliance and has not had time to read the material that the manufacture sent out on it. He wants me to call him back in a few days, or because this is paid support, he can kick me up another level. Well heck, I�m well and truly bent over, so I say �kick me�. Now I get to speak to a lady in Europe (Where the product is made) and she says no problem. She gives me an address to type into my browser and that takes me to a command line. Then she tells me what to enter and how to write it. So after spending hours talking to India, I get my problem fixed in 10 minutes by someone who knows the product. Speaks English as a second language, but does it well. And never said �what you say� once during the whole conversation. So, yes I agree with the article above, the Indians are mistreated by American customers. But perhaps if they knew WTF they were supporting and how to answer basic questions, in understandable English we (I) would have a little more respect for them. It has gotten to the point where the location of help support is becoming an important factor as to where I buy equipment from. I don�t know how the rest of the world feels about it, but this American has a very low opinion for unqualified �experts� when seeking technical help. And I also feel that my time is far too scarce and much too valuable to be jerked off for hours at a time by some stupid subcontractor who probably doesn�t even completely understand what I�m saying. Unfortunately, this has become they way things are in this industry. And as long as these people are mistaken for knowledgeable technicians, my frustration will have to continue to be mistaken for rudeness.