Delta Airlines and the "India Service Center".

[DWDreams]

I recently opened an account with Bank of America and received a survey call shortly thereafter that was painful as it was obviously a function outsourced to India. The person was reading from a script but the responses weren't always those of a Yes/No variety and any time I tried to elaborate it was useless. I just wish the last question had been whether I felt the survey was useful and easy to participate in - NO!

Also, other than the communication issues from a language standpoint, the connection itself is usually terrible and the person sounds like they're speaking through a hollow tube.

 

[lucas]

Usually I fly SW from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans, but since SW has cut back on so many New Orleans flights I decided to go with Delta for my trip to New Orleans last month. UGH! I've never had problems booking flights with SW but was quite shocked by the hassle I had in booking the Delta flight. Wish I had known some of these tips and had asked for the Spanish desk!!

 

[Free4Life11]

You know I remember AA had a nice feature. If you neglected to put your frequent flier number on your reservation, all you have to do was fill out a form after your flight. Put in your ticket number and your frequent flier information and they would credit your account in a few days/weeks. Everything needs to be online these days. I'm tired of having to make phone calls.

 

[lucas]

The only reason I called Delta in the first place was because their web site was so confusing - especially compared to SW's.

 

[MAH4546]

I think you nailed it. They do seem to be on auto-pilot and as soon as you deviate from their script they get all on you.


In my complaint--while it is proper English--it is by no means fluent as they don't really have enough command of the English language to handle the call properly.

It is indeed fluent. English is one of the official language of India, and because there are so many different languages used throughout the country's major centers (Hindi in Delhi, Marathi in Mumbai, Tamil in Chennai, Kanadian in Bangalore, etc.), it is also the defacto language of communication for the governement, as well as the primary language used in all university courses and most high school courses.

By the time the average middle or upper class Indian is a teenager, he or she can speak fluent English. The problem that Americans have is the accent. In India they speak a very proper English - simply called Indian English - with a heavy accent that can be difficult for an American English speaker to understand. Indian English main differences are the lack of "w" and "z" sounds, replaced by "v" and "j", respectively, although most educated Indians are able to prouounces the w and z sounds. Also, some consonant clusters are often shortened.

India has the largest fluent English speaking population in the world. At 330,000,000+, it is larger than the US' population of English speakers. There is also a hybrid of English and Hindi - Bambaiya Hindi - that is commonly spoken in Mumbai and Delhi, mixing Hindi grammar with English vocabulary. Having lived and worked in India, I have always been amazed at how well people in the country speak English. I speak Hindi, but rarely ever used it, because everywhere you go, everyone speaks perfect English, better than most people in the US, once you get past the accent.

 

[Snoozan]

For all you that don't want to deal with the foreign call-centers - do what alot of customers did with my company(insurance co) - ask to speak to their supervisior and express your opinion. Just keep asking for "their" supervisor until you get someone who is in the U.S. Believe me, there are people who monitor these customer-service complaints - at least if the company cares about keeping it's customers. Alot of our customers ended up just asking to speak to someone in the U.S. and the foreign reps hate confrontation-so usually obliged. Be insistent about talking to someone else. We have since closed our India customer service center and moved the call center back to where it originally was. Our customers are MUCH more pleased with our customer service, which results in better sales as this is a main selling point for our reps.

 

[ducklite]

It is indeed fluent. English is one of the official language of India, and because there are so many different languages used throughout the country's major centers (Hindi in Delhi, Marathi in Mumbai, Tamil in Chennai, Kanadian in Bangalore, etc.), it is also the defacto language of communication for the governement, as well as the primary language used in all university courses and most high school courses.

By the time the average middle or upper class Indian is a teenager, he or she can speak fluent English. The problem that Americans have is the accent. In India they speak a very proper English - simply called Indian English - with a heavy accent that can be difficult for an American English speaker to understand. Indian English main differences are the lack of "w" and "z" sounds, replaced by "v" and "j", respectively, although most educated Indians are able to prouounces the w and z sounds. Also, some consonant clusters are often shortened.

India has the largest fluent English speaking population in the world. At 330,000,000+, it is larger than the US' population of English speakers. There is also a hybrid of English and Hindi - Bambaiya Hindi - that is commonly spoken in Mumbai and Delhi, mixing Hindi grammar with English vocabulary. Having lived and worked in India, I have always been amazed at how well people in the country speak English. I speak Hindi, but rarely ever used it, because everywhere you go, everyone speaks perfect English, better than most people in the US, once you get past the accent.

Well put. In my last job I worked in the I/T department of a major international corporation. There were a LOT of Chinese and Asian Indians who worked there. Some had unintelligible accents, to the point that I'm not sure how these people got their jobs, but most had a slight accent but were entirely understandable. One of my coworkers was Asian Indian but had immigrated to the US when she was two and grew up in NYC. She had a Queens accent. She used to get disgusted with coworkers when they would speak in various Indian languages, mostly Hindi and Marathi, and tell them "You're in America now, speak English!"

Anyhow, as someone else said, I think often it has nothing to do with an accent or language barrier, but rather they read off a script and only a script, and are not given the latitude to offer additional information. This is particularly true in I/T applications, and you'll find it at every helpdesk. Let me tell you, if you ever have a chance to speak to anyone from an ACS helpdesk in Texas, you're in just as much trouble.

And as far as Dawn's first post--considering that Delta is an international carrier which operates in 24 differnt time zones, it was rather presumptious of you to use the term "tomorrow" and expect them to know what "tomorrow" is to you. You should have used the date, not expected them to read your mind.

I would like to see these jobs come back to the United States, but not due to any language barrier--you'll find that here just as easily. I'd just rather see the jobs helping our economy.

Anne

 

[Chicago Girl]

Here’s my story with dealing with an Indian call center. I can laugh about it now, but at the time, I was really annoyed.

I had initially booked my flight to Norway online through AOL Travel, but I needed to make a change so I called their 800 number. I was promptly put through to the Indian call center. After a long struggle of getting them to understand what I was saying, or so I thought, my change was made.

When I checked in at the SAS desk for my flight, I noticed that the CSR was staring at me really long. The CSR finally asked, “ I hate to ask you this, but are you blind”. I informed her that I wasn’t blind and asked why had she asked me this. She informed me that I was listed as blind and would require special accommodations. The CSR and I figured out that the Indian call center had mistakenly taken my request for a window seat as me being blind. The CSR stated that she would fix the problem, but I later found out the correction was only made for the outbound flight.

On the return flight, I was singled out on the plane for special one-on-one safety instructions. I informed the flight attendant that I wasn’t blind and the booking agent had made a mistake.

In the future, if I ever have to deal with a foreign call center again and I feel they’re struggling to understand, I going to request to be transferred to someone who has a better understanding of the English language.

 

[eclectics]

If I'm doing business with an American company I prefer to use one that doesn't take jobs away from US employess and outsources them to another country to save a few bucks. Not all companies do this and the ones that do can be looked up and avoided.

 

[Fannie_Marie]

I work in a call center for a major hotel chain and I know we have a loose script where we are required to cover specific points, which sometimes includes things that don't apply to all reservations. I think that may be where the car and hotel question come up - they know you don't need it for this trip, but they may be required to ask on every call.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

It is indeed fluent. English is one of the official language of India, and because there are so many different languages used throughout the country's major centers (Hindi in Delhi, Marathi in Mumbai, Tamil in Chennai, Kanadian in Bangalore, etc.), it is also the defacto language of communication for the governement, as well as the primary language used in all university courses and most high school courses.

By the time the average middle or upper class Indian is a teenager, he or she can speak fluent English. The problem that Americans have is the accent. In India they speak a very proper English - simply called Indian English - with a heavy accent that can be difficult for an American English speaker to understand. Indian English main differences are the lack of "w" and "z" sounds, replaced by "v" and "j", respectively, although most educated Indians are able to prouounces the w and z sounds. Also, some consonant clusters are often shortened.

India has the largest fluent English speaking population in the world. At 330,000,000+, it is larger than the US' population of English speakers. There is also a hybrid of English and Hindi - Bambaiya Hindi - that is commonly spoken in Mumbai and Delhi, mixing Hindi grammar with English vocabulary. Having lived and worked in India, I have always been amazed at how well people in the country speak English. I speak Hindi, but rarely ever used it, because everywhere you go, everyone speaks perfect English, better than most people in the US, once you get past the accent.

Thank you for that--then I should have been able to be understood on my inquiry call 100%. I was not. In fact as soon as I mentioned computer--i was referred to the help desk for internet trouble. I didn't have internet trouble.

If they are FLUENT...Then they can understand the words coming out of my mouth.

They did speak very well. They did not comprehend very well.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

And as far as Dawn's first post--considering that Delta is an international carrier which operates in 24 differnt time zones, it was rather presumptious of you to use the term "tomorrow" and expect them to know what "tomorrow" is to you. You should have used the date, not expected them to read your mind.

I would like to see these jobs come back to the United States, but not due to any language barrier--you'll find that here just as easily. I'd just rather see the jobs helping our economy.

Anne

I get calls for only 3 times zones. It isn't very hard to know what a person is referring to once you know where they are calling from.

One of the companies I used to take calls for--the times would actually come up local time to the custy so that we would be on the "same page" as the custy and not have to worry about calculating the time ourselves.