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I have not personally tried this yet but will the next time I'm connected to a customer service rep. Let's all try it. We've got nothing to lose.
Customer Service Representatives....
I want to ask each of you to consider doing the following when you are talking on the phone to any U.S. company's customer service representative that is based in a foreign country (like India ). I have done this twice and it works! Any time you call an 800 number (for a credit card, banking, charter communications, health and other insurance, computer help desk, etc) and you find that you're talking to a foreign customer service representative (perhaps in India, Philippines, etc), please consider doing the following:
After you connect and you realize that the customer service representative is not from the USA (you can always ask if you are not sure about the accent), please, very politely (very politely - this is not about trashing other cultures) say, "I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the United States of America ." The rep might suggest talking to his/her manager, but, again, politely say, "Thank you, but I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the USA ." YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED to a rep in the USA.
That's the rule.
It takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to the USA . Tonight when I got redirected to a USA rep, I asked again to make sure - and yes, she was from Fort Lauderdale. If tomorrow every US citizen who has to make such a call, and then requests a U.S. rep, imagine how that would ultimately impact the number of US jobs that would need to be created ASAP. Imagine what would happen if every US citizen insisted on talking to only US phone reps from this day on. If I tell 10 people to consider this and you tell 10 people to consider doing this - see what I mean...it becomes an exercise in viral marketing 101.
Remember - the goal here is to restore jobs back here at home - not to be abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep. You may even get correct answers, good advice, and solutions to your problem - in real English.
I like .25 cent excise tax idea. Too bad the politicians did not go through with their threats... some big money company probably sent him a letter promising to pull any future campaign money or something. Thats how things work.
Shoot, if I could just get past the automated systems to GET to a live person, that would be nice as well. Especially hate those ones that ask you to speak the commands and then get it completely and totally wrong.
The sad truth is that outsourced customer service people can, in some cases, make less than half we do. It's hardly their fault. They're just trying to make a living and who's going to turn down a job? It's our American companies that are doing the hiring, and they're just trying to strengthen their bottom line. Unfortunately, America taught capitalism to its companies, and now they're just using those lessons around the world, even at our detriment. I guess we forgot to teach them American values, too.
Chuck Schumer of New York wants to add a $0.25 fee per call, paid for by businesses, as a clever way to discourage the use of call centers. That quarter helps narrow that pay gap I mentioned above. But in our current political climate, no tax is allowed.
But I'll tell you what really worries me, folks. South Carolina is getting, slowly but surely, a network of fast electric charging stations for electric cars, like the Nissan Leaf. You can charge up most of the battery in less than 30 minutes.
And inside this cars? Batteries. And where are the batteries being made? China, mostly.
Forget call center jobs. This is America and we are exceptional. Yes we want jobs back, but want good jobs where we make things. We should be fighting not for call center jobs, but for high tech manufacturing jobs, like these batteries that sooner or later are going to be everywhere.
We have to get ready. We can't just "get by" anymore. We could end public schools, cancel every arts program, defund public libraries, and repeal healthcare - and we would have only reduced the deficit by about 2% and have dumber, sicker people to show for it. We've got to think bigger and about the future, and make sure that the next big markets are made here in America.
Since we don't have any money to spend, why not a tax credit for battery manufacturing (or whatever)? Let's find younger industries that aren't contributing many tax dollars anyway, and make sure they grow up here in America. It's a start, anyway. Sorry for ranting.
Well, it should be encouraging to know that not all of those batteries are made in China, although I'm sure that far too many of them are.
GM has been investing in Michigan recently and is in the midst of building a brand new plant in Brownstown Twp., MI that will produce all of the batteries for the new Chevy Volt electric car. There is also a plant somewhere in western Michigan, Holland maybe, that produces batteries for GM. Of course, this is just a miniscule amount of jobs as compared to all of the manufacturing jobs that have left the U.S., never to return. The most disturbing trend is that the UAW has been forced into concessions to the point where jobs that once paid around $28/hr. are now paying around $14/hr. The fat cat days of the U.S. auto industry are gone. Do I think that $28/hr. is too much for someone to work on an assembly line? Yeah, probably, but $14/hr? C'mon. That's not a living wage. I'm not a big union supporter, in fact I hate their corruption and shady ethics, but I do feel that someone is being sold down the river here and that the unions are the only reason why that pay hasn't been slashed to $8/hr.
To get back on topic here, has anyone noticed that those foreign call centers are trying something really sneaky? I had to call Hewlett Packard's call center a few months ago about some problems I was having with my computer. Needless to say, I was connected to a call center in India and could barely understand a word that the rep was saying. I had to end up asking for someone else, just to try to get what they were telling me. Ironically, the first person I talked to, a woman, told me when she answered that her name was Allison, and the man that I was connected to after that said that his name was Shane. Seriously. I honestly think that they are now telling these people to give false, American sounding names in an effort to make us believe that we are talking to someone remotely connected to the U.S. Dirty, very dirty.
Thanks for the tip. I will definitely be using it if and when I ever have the distinct displeasure of having to call a customer service line again.
I think for the car industry, the downfall have to be bad management. If it is the workers' wage, then how does German and Japan automakers make money? Their unions are stronger than the US one (German also has minimum living wage law). Don't get to excited about Volt, if we don't improve the quality and reputation of the car itself.
P.S. Guess which socialist society has one of the largest economy in the world and huge trade surplus...
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