Well, was due to fly Delta the weekend of the big storm in the NE, and ended up routing to an Indian call center...it was rather painful and ended up being diverted back to a US agent.

Think that was an issue with Independence Air before they went belly up - knew someone who was trying to work out how to route a flight on them with an agent who had even less knowledge of American geography than a native (which is difficult, I know).

Banks, well, OK, with scripting and straightforward parameters it can work. Tech stuff - again can make it work...but airlines ? No.

The AOL helpline has 'outsourced'

Dell was awful last time I called them and AMEX... got put through to about 4 diff people before they even attempted to resolve problems.

I'm pretty lucky with my bank, it's in the same town as me, I don't have to dial any other numbers and I get a real person every time, which is a bloody novelty

i'm pretty foolish probably, but that's how i chose my pension plan... i called ten companies before i got a human on the line; i went for that one out of sheer desperation

At least you won't get a machine telling you your pension hasn't performed well and there's nothing left

lol!
it's doing quite well so far, you'll be pleased to know! (crosses fingers, toes, etc )

i had the misfortune with dealing with HP recently via their indian call centre - that was hard work getting them to understand what i was saying!!.

But i cant blame the comapnies for out sourcing the work, phenominal savings i bet!!

the savings are huge - i outsourced some back office stuff to india from mexico and it half the price - and mexico was half the US price to start with. wouldnt do anything customer facing though.....its a false economy if you lose all your punters though eh!

I got put through to one when I called Abbey National a few times, and they used to drive me friggin' nuts! I tried to explain clearly and concisely what the problem was and they'd just read the scripted crap back at me. I wanted an explanation and an answer not a cue card! They didn't even know what a direct debit was for christ's sake! I could not get a straight answer and lost my cool I'm afraid, and demanded to speak to a supervisor who spoke even less English. I ended up samming the phone down in desperation. I finally figured out a time of day that when you called you were more likely to be put through to Glasgow!

Don't start me on Delta Airlines and their Indian nationals based in India call centers...


NC Penguin

I wonder where you get put through to if you phone Air India?

Leicester

Anybody who has AOL as an ISP ... should be terminated for stupidity...
I used the messenger to contact Dell in India with a problem ..and Mr Mahatmacoat was terrific ...

lol! nice clarification!!

it seems we may have had some similar experiences! Didn't mean to stir up any repressed memories!