What seems to be lost on firms using India and other offshore call centers is that by the time I pick up the phone, I've already exhausted online (and maybe other) outlets, and I have a problem I need solved. I find the India call centers to have friendly screen-readers with no ability to address any situation that doesn't pop-up on their screens.

A (non-Indian) UA agent cancelled a seat reservation on my a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't reach anyone other than the Indian folks in my attempt to get the error reversed. I asked one guy where he was and he said "The West Coast" and I asked which state and he said "Los Angeles". Nice.

Companies can save money using offshore workers but those workers need to be trained, and only after they can perform well, turned loose on customers. Otherwise, the firms are just asking me to underwrite lower costs by suffering with inept service.

I have 2 trips in the next three weeks and after dinking around with UA's impotent overseas CSRs, I looked over at Frontier. Better schedules, better prices. Oh, and one of my seat requests didn't come thru online so I had to call in-got a live person who got me my seat of choice.