My favourite was when part of the National Rail Enquiry System was outsourced to India.We placed (as the UK end which had 'lost out') a load of test calls. One was seeking timetable information to Kettering. We may have just as well asked for the time of the first spaceflight to Betelgeuse!After getting times to Catterick, Caterham and Charing we offered to spell the destination. We started with (naturally) 'K' and the response will live with me. In an almost impenetrable accent we were asked "How do you spell 'K'?"Loads of companies moved to India thinking that they could do it 'on the cheap' with little training save for forcing operators to watch Eastenders And Coronation Street (to 'immerse' themselves in British 'culture'). This of course led to the adoption of 'British' names, so Rangar becomes Roger and Bimla becomes Brenda.ther are also data security issues with well documented sales of customer data to criminal gangs from overseas call centres.I will now no longer deal with companies who cannot offer competent service. I don't really care too much where the call centre is located but I will not keep repeating the same information over and over again to get an issue resolved nor will I deal with any financial institution where my data is processed outside the UK.
Nigel Brooks ● 4674d