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> get turned over to Tech Support in India How do you know they are in India? Accent? Asking because India offshore support peeps used by Dell, Walmart etc are

> get turned over to Tech Support in India How do you know they are in India? Accent? Asking because India offshore support peeps used by Dell, Walmart etc are all give white christian names - like Mary, John, Adam etc - and also undergo 3 months of rigorous 'American Accent' training. I know because 2 of my Indian cousins ( I am American-Indian born and raised here) work at such call centers in Mumboi and Chenna respectively. So it's quite difficult to discern that they are Indian cos the Companies that hire them spend millions of $ trying to disguise their voice and tone to make them sound like they are local / American.

josh64 10y ago
I'm Australian but even I can tell the accents are fake for the most part. Also, the terrible VoIP quality is a dead giveaway. edit: I should mention they use "American" accents for Australian customers too.
krisroadruck 10y ago
be a whole lot cooler if they'd spend those millions just hiring Americans in the first place. 3 months of voice training isn't going to trump having english as your first/primary language your whole life, and those voip connections are the worst.
- t0mas88 10y ago
  Seriously? I would bet that there are more Indians speaking English and willing to work a call center job than Americans. The whole "Hire Americans!!1!" kind of viewpoint smells like Trump and honestly: The world deserves better.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    It's not about nationalism. The job is talking to people, so it's important to be mutually intelligible. Willingness to work saves the company money. It doesn't help the user. What helps the user are things like clear speaking and good phone connections. It's possible to do that in any country, but the relative cost varies, and outsourcing implies cutting corners.
  - icantdrive55 10y ago
    I know a lot of people who would love a desk job. Personally, I just stopped calling tech support years ago. It just wasn't worth the hassle. In the back of my mind, I try to avoid companies that use foreign labor extensively. I don't think I'm alone? I haven't given a penny to Microsoft in the past decade--out of many reasons, but will always remember those awkward tech support marathon calls. So even in high income areas, like the Bay Area; I don't think customer service jobs would go unfilled, even at minimum wage. People need to get their side hussle on? Yea--it's that bad. Americans need jobs. Plus, with an aging population--those desk jobs would be cherished. I don't know why companies don't take advantage of all the technology that would let stay at home Americans answer Customer Service calls remotely. I know the medical industry is letting nurses field calls from their home. Actually, I know why; it's just cheaper to farm out the jobs. I know so many over 40 year olds whom are unemployed. I have read those employment numbers for years, and they don't add up. I do know the number of able bodied people who could work, but became discouraged is at an all time high. In America it's about jobs. So many chit jobs are just gone. People are really hurting for work, and a desk job would not go unfilled.
  - krisroadruck 10y ago
    I'm about as anti-trump as they get my friend. The notion that the world deserves better than having native tech support however is something I disagree with. When you are frustrated to the point of putting up with sitting on hold to get help, the last thing you want to be confronted with is an understanding barrier. Between accents and regional colloquialisms this is a likely reality of foreign tech support. Also, your assumption is wrong. 95%+ of Americans speak English while only 12.5% of Indians speak it. Even with India's much larger population that still amounts to roughly a 3rd as many compared to the U.S. There is also a knock-on effect. When only 12% of the population speak a language they tend to avoid using it as a primary conversational language and thus only get practice in professional settings which lowers their fluency in it. Add to that all of the regional oddities and its quite different from American English. Consider for example phrases like "Kindly do the needful" or "out of station". Phrases they say daily that are completely foreign to American ears. When you next have a chance compare someone in the Philippines (92% english) speaking English vs someone from anywhere in India speaking English and it'll become very apparent to you that the percentage of the population that speaks the language makes a huge difference in the intelligibility of said speaker.
    - hehheh 10y ago
      I think you missed one of the points. How many of those 95% of Americans want to/are willing to work in a call center?
      - imron 10y ago
        Millions? https://www.statista.com/statistics/580586/states-with-the-highest-employment-call-centers-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/580586/states-with-the-h...
      - krisroadruck 10y ago
        Counter: How many of those who are willing in India can do it as well as those who are willing in the US? I expect the population who speak flawless and accentless (to the US ear) English in India who are also willing to do call center work is infinitesimally small.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Many of them probably have been speaking English, if not their whole life, from a very young age. OTOH, that probably doesn't make making them sound American easier, as Indian English is quite different from American English (or even British English, to which it is much more similar.) And it's matter of far more than just tone use and accent, though, IME, plenty of big companies are not succeeding in doing much about those two elements in Indian call-center staff serving US customers, even if they are some song lots of money on it -- and I'm not talking about disguising the fact they are Indian, but even getting them to the point where they accent and tone use isn't an impediment to communication with Americans. But then, plenty of companies with US-based call center staff aren't doing much to select people that are great at clear oral communication with other Americans, either.
- wccrawford 10y ago
  I worked with a woman who was born in India, learned British English, and then learned American English. She had impeccable accents in all 3. While I agree that 3 months of training isn't going to cut it, it isn't necessary to have spoken in that language your whole life if you are serious about your accent.
- robryan 10y ago
  I don't care at all where they are located or their nationality. I just haven't come across many instances where the outsourced phone support did the job as well as the companies that are using local call centres.
senko 10y ago
I am not a native English speaker, and it's pretty easy to notice the accent. American/English sounding names they introduce themselves are all the more jarring because of that. I've got no problem talking to Prakash or Dharmesh (or whoever from wherever), but comically-obviously-not-Steve instantly gets me annoyed (it doesn't help that so far, 100% of these occurences have been spam calls).
- coldtea 10y ago
  That "Steve" must look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLlOkKskBqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLlOkKskBqU
  - photogrammetry 10y ago
    That actor hardly has an accent at all. Seems like you're just trolling at this point.
    - coldtea 10y ago
      Is this a reading comprehension issue? Where did I say anything about an accent? Merely pointed how that "Steve" would have looked.
coldtea 10y ago
>Asking because India offshore support peeps used by Dell, Walmart etc are all give white christian names - like Mary, John, Adam etc - and also undergo 3 months of rigorous 'American Accent' training. Yeah, like that would really help with 20+ years of speaking an accent.
the_duke 10y ago
I've been to India twice, and I don't have anything at all against the people, but their English accent just drives me completely insane. And I'm not even a native speaker. For some reason it just drives me mad. 3 months of training is obviously not close to sufficient to mask that accent...
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  Native English speaker here, and I find the Indian accent literally the hardest to understand out of any accent I've heard. When I get them on a tech support call it just makes me automatically angry because I know how much more work I'll have to do just to communicate.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    I've never found accent to be a huge issue in general with first line technical support. It's more like 95% of the time (OK, I've done something dumb now and then) they're going to take me through scripts that are increasingly non-responsive and orthogonal to my problem before promising to call back--which they never do. If I can get to someone in a US support center, I've just found that they tend to be better enabled to actually address my problem--even if they have a southern accent :-)
    - brokenmachine 10y ago
      I'm not too annoyed to quickly jump through their useless hoops to get to the next step if I have to, but I find it super hard to cope with the accent. I'm in Australia and I've noticed more of them being Filipino which I find just slightly less difficult to understand than Indian, but still difficult and irritating. But I agree, it's such a relief if you win the lottery and get a native English speaker, things always seem to move along so much quicker.
      - dang 10y ago
        You've posted several comments about how you don't like other people's accents. That's unsubstantive and arguably uncivil. Please stop.
sean_patel 10y ago
What's with all the downvotes? I am myself full-blooded East India, so I am within my rights to call out my own folks. Explain yourself. Oh wait, the Politically Correct liberals are crying "Racist!". Never-mind.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
brokenmachine 10y ago
That's ridiculous. Lol, as if 3 months of "rigorous" training could remove that accent. I'm a native English speaker and I find it super difficult to understand English with an Indian accent.
dang 10y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13386349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13386349 and marked it off-topic.
- photogrammetry 10y ago
  Dan, do you have multiple personality disorder, or did multiple people actually review and detach the subthread? Why are you using the royal we? I would appreciate a legitimate answer, and not a claim that you're "just following the rules."
photogrammetry 10y ago
FYI - Indians who have emigrated to the Americas are known as Indian-Americans, while Native Americans (who were here before any of us) assume the title of American Indians.

josh64 10y ago

I'm Australian but even I can tell the accents are fake for the most part. Also, the terrible VoIP quality is a dead giveaway. edit: I should mention they use "American" accents for Australian customers too.

krisroadruck 10y ago

be a whole lot cooler if they'd spend those millions just hiring Americans in the first place. 3 months of voice training isn't going to trump having english as your first/primary language your whole life, and those voip connections are the worst.

t0mas88 10y ago
Seriously? I would bet that there are more Indians speaking English and willing to work a call center job than Americans. The whole "Hire Americans!!1!" kind of viewpoint smells like Trump and honestly: The world deserves better.
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  It's not about nationalism. The job is talking to people, so it's important to be mutually intelligible. Willingness to work saves the company money. It doesn't help the user. What helps the user are things like clear speaking and good phone connections. It's possible to do that in any country, but the relative cost varies, and outsourcing implies cutting corners.
- icantdrive55 10y ago
  I know a lot of people who would love a desk job. Personally, I just stopped calling tech support years ago. It just wasn't worth the hassle. In the back of my mind, I try to avoid companies that use foreign labor extensively. I don't think I'm alone? I haven't given a penny to Microsoft in the past decade--out of many reasons, but will always remember those awkward tech support marathon calls. So even in high income areas, like the Bay Area; I don't think customer service jobs would go unfilled, even at minimum wage. People need to get their side hussle on? Yea--it's that bad. Americans need jobs. Plus, with an aging population--those desk jobs would be cherished. I don't know why companies don't take advantage of all the technology that would let stay at home Americans answer Customer Service calls remotely. I know the medical industry is letting nurses field calls from their home. Actually, I know why; it's just cheaper to farm out the jobs. I know so many over 40 year olds whom are unemployed. I have read those employment numbers for years, and they don't add up. I do know the number of able bodied people who could work, but became discouraged is at an all time high. In America it's about jobs. So many chit jobs are just gone. People are really hurting for work, and a desk job would not go unfilled.
- krisroadruck 10y ago
  I'm about as anti-trump as they get my friend. The notion that the world deserves better than having native tech support however is something I disagree with. When you are frustrated to the point of putting up with sitting on hold to get help, the last thing you want to be confronted with is an understanding barrier. Between accents and regional colloquialisms this is a likely reality of foreign tech support. Also, your assumption is wrong. 95%+ of Americans speak English while only 12.5% of Indians speak it. Even with India's much larger population that still amounts to roughly a 3rd as many compared to the U.S. There is also a knock-on effect. When only 12% of the population speak a language they tend to avoid using it as a primary conversational language and thus only get practice in professional settings which lowers their fluency in it. Add to that all of the regional oddities and its quite different from American English. Consider for example phrases like "Kindly do the needful" or "out of station". Phrases they say daily that are completely foreign to American ears. When you next have a chance compare someone in the Philippines (92% english) speaking English vs someone from anywhere in India speaking English and it'll become very apparent to you that the percentage of the population that speaks the language makes a huge difference in the intelligibility of said speaker.
  - hehheh 10y ago
    I think you missed one of the points. How many of those 95% of Americans want to/are willing to work in a call center?
    - imron 10y ago
      Millions? https://www.statista.com/statistics/580586/states-with-the-highest-employment-call-centers-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/580586/states-with-the-h...
    - krisroadruck 10y ago
      Counter: How many of those who are willing in India can do it as well as those who are willing in the US? I expect the population who speak flawless and accentless (to the US ear) English in India who are also willing to do call center work is infinitesimally small.
dragonwriter 10y ago
Many of them probably have been speaking English, if not their whole life, from a very young age. OTOH, that probably doesn't make making them sound American easier, as Indian English is quite different from American English (or even British English, to which it is much more similar.) And it's matter of far more than just tone use and accent, though, IME, plenty of big companies are not succeeding in doing much about those two elements in Indian call-center staff serving US customers, even if they are some song lots of money on it -- and I'm not talking about disguising the fact they are Indian, but even getting them to the point where they accent and tone use isn't an impediment to communication with Americans. But then, plenty of companies with US-based call center staff aren't doing much to select people that are great at clear oral communication with other Americans, either.
wccrawford 10y ago
I worked with a woman who was born in India, learned British English, and then learned American English. She had impeccable accents in all 3. While I agree that 3 months of training isn't going to cut it, it isn't necessary to have spoken in that language your whole life if you are serious about your accent.
robryan 10y ago
I don't care at all where they are located or their nationality. I just haven't come across many instances where the outsourced phone support did the job as well as the companies that are using local call centres.

senko 10y ago

I am not a native English speaker, and it's pretty easy to notice the accent. American/English sounding names they introduce themselves are all the more jarring because of that. I've got no problem talking to Prakash or Dharmesh (or whoever from wherever), but comically-obviously-not-Steve instantly gets me annoyed (it doesn't help that so far, 100% of these occurences have been spam calls).

coldtea 10y ago
That "Steve" must look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLlOkKskBqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLlOkKskBqU
- photogrammetry 10y ago
  That actor hardly has an accent at all. Seems like you're just trolling at this point.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    Is this a reading comprehension issue? Where did I say anything about an accent? Merely pointed how that "Steve" would have looked.

coldtea 10y ago

>Asking because India offshore support peeps used by Dell, Walmart etc are all give white christian names - like Mary, John, Adam etc - and also undergo 3 months of rigorous 'American Accent' training. Yeah, like that would really help with 20+ years of speaking an accent.

the_duke 10y ago

I've been to India twice, and I don't have anything at all against the people, but their English accent just drives me completely insane. And I'm not even a native speaker. For some reason it just drives me mad. 3 months of training is obviously not close to sufficient to mask that accent...

brokenmachine 10y ago
Native English speaker here, and I find the Indian accent literally the hardest to understand out of any accent I've heard. When I get them on a tech support call it just makes me automatically angry because I know how much more work I'll have to do just to communicate.
- ghaff 10y ago
  I've never found accent to be a huge issue in general with first line technical support. It's more like 95% of the time (OK, I've done something dumb now and then) they're going to take me through scripts that are increasingly non-responsive and orthogonal to my problem before promising to call back--which they never do. If I can get to someone in a US support center, I've just found that they tend to be better enabled to actually address my problem--even if they have a southern accent :-)
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    I'm not too annoyed to quickly jump through their useless hoops to get to the next step if I have to, but I find it super hard to cope with the accent. I'm in Australia and I've noticed more of them being Filipino which I find just slightly less difficult to understand than Indian, but still difficult and irritating. But I agree, it's such a relief if you win the lottery and get a native English speaker, things always seem to move along so much quicker.
    - dang 10y ago
      You've posted several comments about how you don't like other people's accents. That's unsubstantive and arguably uncivil. Please stop.

sean_patel 10y ago

What's with all the downvotes? I am myself full-blooded East India, so I am within my rights to call out my own folks. Explain yourself. Oh wait, the Politically Correct liberals are crying "Racist!". Never-mind.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

brokenmachine 10y ago

That's ridiculous. Lol, as if 3 months of "rigorous" training could remove that accent. I'm a native English speaker and I find it super difficult to understand English with an Indian accent.

dang 10y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13386349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13386349 and marked it off-topic.

photogrammetry 10y ago
Dan, do you have multiple personality disorder, or did multiple people actually review and detach the subthread? Why are you using the royal we? I would appreciate a legitimate answer, and not a claim that you're "just following the rules."

photogrammetry 10y ago

FYI - Indians who have emigrated to the Americas are known as Indian-Americans, while Native Americans (who were here before any of us) assume the title of American Indians.