Offshore call center?
 

I called the plat desk twice tonight. When did they outsource the call centers to a far away land? First guy could not help. Second woman was equally useless.

Really getting tired of all the small changes lately while airfares have gone way up.

What makes you assume that the call centers were outsourced based on your experience? Just because you didn't get what you wanted when you called?

They have not been.

Yes. I automatically assumed that because I did not get what I wanted that it was not an American on the phone.

How do you know they were not American? Some Americans do have accents, you know.

I'm not 100% sure. That's why I asked the question. I have called many times over the years when needing to buy last minute tickets when Internet access was not an option. Earlier today when trying to book flights while driving (on speakerphone) I got the feeling they were.

I could be wrong. Either way the agents were not as helpful as in the past.

I really don't care where in the world the agent is sitting or what accent they have. My real point was that the agents today were basically useless and it was frustrating.

That isn't what you posted. :-:

With that in mind, the agent I spoke with to change an award earlier this week was absolutely fantastic, professional, and competent. It almost made the :rolleyes: of CO not answering most of their phone lines bearable.

Almost.

That is not too uncommon really, the call centers are not outsourced, and there is nothing wrong with outsourcing if they were, training is key. Training is the key to a successful callcenter in the US, AND in other countries. Training is what is needed for these agents if your requests were realistic. ;)

If CO had an off shore call center, perhaps they would answer the phone, instead of playing the recording that the current call volume is heavy and to call back later...

And here I thought they auto-hung up on me repeatedly last month because of the volcano.

First agent- courteous and helpful, except for the part where he took my credit card number but neglected to book my ticket. Mr. P1's res, which we did next, went through fine.

Next agent (a week later)- not quite as friendly, but he got that ticket booked.

Both had slight accents, but so does a good portion of the US population.

ok so OP titled the thread in a time of frustration. We all have probably had a situation dealing with ill trained out sourced customer service. It's not their accent or anything else that gets me...what gets me is their inability to understand syntax and such when trying to describe what I need out of the call. When they're reading scripts and given flowcharts...that's when things fail. A flow chard can't understand specific situations...
I had this big time with Dell. the reps couldn't do anything but read scripts...Now i'm a proud and happy Apple customer.

For the record I was trying to be sensitive and politically correct with my op and title. Don't know of a better way to phrase it. Anyway still think the premise of my original post is true. Not sure how others can be positive that this change has not been made.

:rolleyes: Because it hasn't!

So you made an assumption based on the accent someone has and because they did not have the same American accent you had, they are automatically not American :confused:

More than half of my family still has very thick Italian accents, but they were mostly born here, in the United States and that makes them AMERICANS. I am sure if you spoke to them, you would have a different opinion and claim they are not Americans.

I have spoken to elite agents at CO that have had British accents, Indian accents, Jamaican accents and French accents. They were all very competent. I am sorry you did not get a competent American agent. I suggest you do what every self respecting FT’er does. Hang up and call back.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

I'm not sure why you think I have an issue with accents. I have an issue with incompetence. Like I said in subsequent posts if this was not clear in my op i apologize.

Your insight is truly amazing. I have printed out a copy to keep with me at all times. Next time I think someone is not American I will remember your life experiences before I post that possibly there is an offshore call center.

I am glad I could help! :-: