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Opening Arguments

On call

Some new fodder for the state's economic-development campaign: Ya'll come to Indiana! We can be had cheap, 'n we don tawk funny:

Why is Indiana becoming a center for call centers? With IBM's announcement, Indiana has unveiled five new call centers in the past six months.

[. . .]

"We have a very well educated population and our cost of living is low and therefore our wages are lower than the average of the country," Will said.

"I think the fact that we don't have a distinct accent here in this area has a lot to do with it. Far south or New York, you know, you have those accents that people contend with," said former call center employee Linda Overholt.

I dread anything ever happening to my Sony laptop again. The customer-service calls go to India, and the last time, I gave up in frustration after half an hour of me not understanding the guy and him not understanding me. What a stupid was to treat customers who have spent a lot of money on your product.

On the other hand, I had to call Comcast recently when my high-speed Internet was on the fritz. The guy had one of those accentless voices of the kind referenced above, and at one point I was speculating that the weather might be a problem. "I as out of town over the weekend. Was there a storm here that might have zapped my Internet?" There was a slight pause, and the man said, "How would I know? I'm in Canada." Doh!

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Comments

Larry Morris
Wed, 05/02/2007 - 7:29am

Yes, I have to deal with out-sourcing on a closer-to-home level (pun intended, ...). The company I work for has moved our help desk support to India. Not the support center that deals with our customer's calls - we are a software company - those calls are handled out of Houston as they have always been, I'm talking about OUR internal help desk. So if I have a problem with our companies network or need to talk to OUR desktop support people because I have a problem, I get some joker in India. And, with the same result, now no-one calls in with problems because we can't get anywhere - we just figure it our on our own - what a way to treat employees, ...

roach
Wed, 05/02/2007 - 11:42am

hoosiers dont have accents. they're just stupid! most dont know a mouse from a mouse trap.
If you ever used the word Interface like this:"my momma dint like my new girlfriend,cause her house had a trailer hitch so she got "interface" and tol her so." you might be a hoosier..

If you watch the "blue collar comedy tour" , and they make jokes that fit you , and your family: you might be a hoosier.

I could go on , but you get the point.

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