"Please Hold for Two Additional Minutes, mon"

I own tracfones, so I have to buy minutes to replenish my phones.  This is the second time I've had to call customer service.  My experience both times has been that their cs is farmed out to remote locations.  Last time it was to Trinidad, mon.  This time it's to Russia.  The two people I've talked  to speak very good English (they've only had to memorize a few phrases)  The first was "Ludmilla."  The second one was "José."  Isn't that a crack up?  I've heard that the call center employees adopt names that are familiar to English speakers, but this is too funny. 

Russians: Doing Jobs Mexicans Won't Do.

Comments

[Tom the Redhunter]

I've always found this sort of outsourcing very interesting. Like telemarketers, we're all supposed to be against it, and it's rare in a conversation where someone will speak up in favor of either. Imagine the looks you'd get if you suddenly said "why as a matter of fact I did get my ginsu knife set from someone who called one evening during dinner"

By the same token, we're supposed to be upset at call center jobs that go overseas, and it's become <em>de rigeur</em> to pull out a "I called my credit card company and got a guy from India who couldn't understand a word I said" story.

As you may have guessed I have a somewhat different take.

Call me a greedy capitalist pig, but if it gets me a better cell phone rate I'll deal with someone from India. Let's teach Americans to do higher level jobs, and let India/Russia/whereever jump start their economies with call center jobs.