In the wake of Dell moving it's corporate support calls back to the U.S. from India after heavy complaints from customers, a question comes to my mind: Have you ever been pissed of at calling your bank or that technical support line when you are subjected to those thick Indian accents complimented with polite scripted responses and jerky overall quality? Well, I certainly have. Therefore, I must praise Dell's decision to improve the quality of service it provides, atleast to it's big customers, since non-business customer will still have to contend with the crappy service.

Having the red neck soul hidden under my olive skin, I certainly hate to ask someone who mostly has no clue what I'm talking about for help regarding my personal banking. It all must've started when I was a kid, growing up on American programming I never really had an accent problem back home, but with no one to talk to, my Americanized tongue remained dormant. It might just also be my dad, who during his years in England was hard to point out as an immigrant, mainly because he too never had an accent problem over there. I am similarly priveledged, or atleast I try. Even though I live everyday among people with many different accents, a part of the diverse American experience, Although I do know that's it's kind of ingenious to try to mold your accent and speak to people they way they do, I still believe that as a whole we should have a unified voice, where everyone can express themselves and understand others clearly. But that's just not possible when your call gets transferred to India, is it?

For the Indians who have grown up speaking Indianized English, it's really hard to migrate to a new accent, even if they are getting paid to do so. Similarly, people who pay top dollars to get advertised quality services like Ronald Kronk, a Presbyterian minister from Rochester, PA won't be happy about wasting their time in trying to understand what the guy on the phone is saying in a foreign tongue. He tried for four months to get things right, after being billed twice for his Dell PC. Now he gets all cringy everytime he sees a Dell commercial on TV. That I guess is just another side effect of globalization, where greed for the lowest cost drives to corporations where ever they can find it, which in these tech. hungry days means the English-speaking masses of India.

Of course in a developing country like India where still today 80% of the population lives off $2 a day or less, these call center operations really help. But at what cost? Look at the people who have lost their jobs here, what did they do to deserve this, and I'm not even talking about accents anymore. It's time for America to rearrange it's priorities, putting the well being of the working class ahead of larger bottom lines for corporations and investors. And the only people who think that's good for the whole economy are probably filthy rich republicans or my International business teacher, when it's actually not. Any how, Dell's support, it's strong point in being succesful over the years, meanwhile has been on the declining side recently in major magazine ratings (which are now lead by ABS)... is that due to calls being forwarded to India? I guess so. No wonder Dell is expanding it's local call centers.

Now, with 85% (percentage of corporate customers in Dell's total business) of calls being rerouted to U.S. call centers, the Indian call center industry seems a bit worried. But they're also confident, because they know lower costs will keep clients coming in. But I still have hope that one day I would get better support when I call up my bank, Indians or no Indians.