The virtual phone operator at United Airlines said he’d be happy to help.
He asked for a reservation number, but not before explaining the complicated way to say it:
“For letters, say them with any common first name, like this, ‘M as in Mary.’ For numbers, say them like this, ‘The number 5.’ ”
I looked at my reservation number, which started with X and panicked. A name starting with X?
I blurted “X as in xylophone” along with the rest of the numbers.
The automated voice seemed excited: “Got it!” Then he backtracked, saying, “Sorry, I’m having some trouble.”
So much for speech-recognition technology.
I repeated the reservation, this time with “X as in Xavier,” but it didn’t work. We went back and forth, my voice rising, until I was shouting, “No! No! That’s not it!”
I realized I was caught in a miscommunication whirlpool with an automated operator and had to get out.
I screamed, “Operator!” The robotic voice informed me, in a pleasant tone, that he’d transfer the call to an agent.
A few seconds later, an agent got on the call and identified himself as Alan Jones, but his name made me curious.
Turns out Alan was in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, a place where scores of U.S. companies have shifted white-collar jobs that once paid decent wages in America.
Alan Jones wouldn’t tell me his real name, but he said his employer asks the call-takers to use American-sounding names “to make people feel better.”
Sounds like lying to me.
It didn’t make me feel better because despite “Alan’s” attempt to enunciate clearly, his accent was so thick I couldn’t understand him and he had to repeat himself – although not in the same mind-numbing way that the automated operator had.
For this, United Airlines wants to charge a $5 call-center fee?
Last year, the airline announced it would begin outsourcing 650 telephone reservation jobs to India. The company has saved some money, but it’s still operating under bankruptcy-law protection as it continues to “restructure” – which includes exporting even more jobs overseas while implementing a plan that cuts salaries and pension benefits.
It will wind up losing customers like me, who don’t like being put on hold, or being transferred to agents who are either robotic or difficult to understand.
Other airlines are getting into the act. Delta’s doing it. For that matter, so are such other businesses as American Express, IBM, Sprint and Dell, to name a few, with new call centers popping up each month.
I’m not one of those buy-American types. I own a Honda because it’s the best car I could get for my money. I’ll continue to buy Japanese until Ford or GM start producing comparable cars.
I understand we live in a global economy, but I’m not happy about white-collar jobs going overseas when the end result may be cheaper goods for Americans who need them because they lost their well-paying jobs to overseas workers.
When it comes to customer service, U.S. companies need to understand that many American consumers don’t want to talk to someone halfway around the globe. We don’t want a robotic voice either.
Give us real people. If I’m buying from an American company, I want to talk to an American operator.
It’s not xenophobic to tell U.S. corporations to keep these jobs here. When it was manufacturing jobs being lost, most people working in offices shrugged it off. The way things are going, any job could wind up being outsourced.
Maybe yours. Perhaps even mine.
Cindy Rodriguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene. Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
