Why do so many phone numbers for customer service go to India?

Question

The next time I pull into a drive through at McDonalds will someone answer from India?

Answer 1

Agree with those above. Don't you just love how they change their names to Bob and Sarah however? ;-) Give me a break.

Answer 2

The calls to India are more cost- efficient for the Company, but not for you. There are a couple of problems with this:

1. You ccant understand their language and/or accent
2. Its costs a small fortune for a call around the world
3. In the end, you only get a phone bill that will give you a heart attack and a wasted portion of life.

For example, i bought a computer many, many years ago from a company whose name i cant remember ( i was a teen at the time). I was having trouble, as this was when DOS was the only OS. Anywho, i called costumer service (in India) and we talked for about 3 hours. All i got was no help, a huge phone bill, and a 3 hour long conversation with some lady in India thanking the Dalai Llama and Gandhi.

Answer 3

Outsourcing! Labor in India is a lot cheaper than in the US. I guess so much so that it's cheaper to pay for an international call to India with someone to answer it there than it is to pay someone in the US to answer a call. But no, the people at the McDonalds drive through have to be sitting there behind the window to hand you your food. Until they find a way to instantly send food from India that is.

Answer 4

Obvious reasons: (i) cheaper labor (good agent in India costs 20K or so per year); (ii) no unions, can be laid off without any problems; (iii) speak good English; and (iv) if you think about it, it is a good location to support all parts of the world.

It would be quite something if they can take orders at McDonald's from India, but even if possible, outsourcing those jobs won't save the company much.

Answer 5

As others have said - cheap labor. Most of the people working in the call centers in India are students or just out of education and they tend to speak good English. Indians also hold western companies in high regard and consider it a big achievement to be working in a call center for a western bank or other company.

Indians also tend to work hard, are reliable, punctual etc and show great respect and loyalty to their employers. So not only are they cheap to employ but also excellent employees.

Answer 6

Because the United States is outsourceing those call center jobs to India. I've been unemployed because my job went over there. It's cheaper and the threat of someone crossing the ocean to punch the operator in the face is a lot slimmer, than to drive to Ohio and knock them out. (At least people in Ohio speak English!)

Answer 7

The cost of living in India is cheaper and hence the labour is cheap. So raither than pay huge salary wages to Americians who have a high cost of living they give the jobs to Indians for a much lower cost and hence rip off Americians who then pay the Americian rate for such help lines.

Answer 8

Cheap Labor

Answer 9

If you pull up to McDonald's and there is someone on the mic from India...I'll eat a lizard!

Answer 10

What everybody said: it's cheaper. But, one of these days a business owner or management is going to realize that their customers are better served by domestic assistance. That company will reap the rewards.

USAirways just had that epiphany.

Answer 11

The jobs are outsourced to India because it's cheaper