I have officially spent 163 minutes – five phone calls combined – speaking with various Dell agents. Included in those minutes were 7 different transfers. And more than half of those minutes ate into my allotted monthly cell minutes.
I was treated to every variation of Southwest Asian accent and every model of complete incompetence as no one was able to tell me where in the hell my laptop was. The fact that I had to service it and get it repaired less than a month after purchasing it should have been a huge red flag.
I realize the necessity for major corporations to outsource. They are clearly so destitute for money and so in need of cheap labor that they would rather marginally train people overseas to handle all customer service issues. Right. However, here are some loops holes shared by Daegola :
1) The American culture and mentality is in and of itself unlike anything else on the planet. We have enough problems trying to deal with American consumer rage and impatience. Inflicting that anger on some poor Indian man or woman trying to make meager ends meet is painful.
2) Americans get on the defensive when presented with someone who has an accent. Now, I am pretty good at understanding anybody. I am multilingual and was raised in another country. However, when even I can’t understand what in the hell you are saying then there is a major problem.
3) If your agents can’t speak English…why in the hell have you hired them?
4) The training must be so Pavlovian because I have memorized several of their key responses. They are not actually offering service and solutions, but merely reading from a pre-prepared script. This does not help when troubleshooting technical issues. Either hired people with the proper training or TRAIN them to do more than read from a company bible.
5) American agents are clearly accessible as I was finally transferred to one after running the gauntlet of accents and confusion. Stop being a lazy cheapskate corporation and realize you are losing customers or lowering your public image by forcing people to deal with outsourced employees.
I have zero tolerance for this business practice. ZERO. It’s annoying and aggravating. And while I understand it creates much needed jobs for poverty-stricken countries or career advice, how’s about you focus on your OWN unemployed citizens. Cheap labor is not a foreign concept to American soil.
Now…when can I get my laptop back?