When the help center is no help

When United Airlines announced earlier this month that it was dropping its call center, there was probably some grumbling from customers and consumer advocacy groups.

I thought it was a great idea.

United Airlines is doing its customers a favor, especially older customers like me, because we don't have to talk to anyone in India anymore.

If we have a complaint or even a compliment we have to send a letter or an email. But I'll take that any day over trying to decipher an accented English conversation over the telephone.

Having a customer care center in a country like India is an example of outsourcing, and it's epidemic among American businesses. Companies looking to shed expense transfer the work to a lesser paid contract worker in a foreign country.

It happened at the newspaper where I worked. All calls related to delivery of the newspaper were routed to a call center in the Philippines. And it's been a tough sled for some customers, trying to understand the people in Manila whom we were told would speak unaccented English. It didn't happen.

For me, listening to someone with an accent in person is difficult enough. And like lots of Baby Boomer types I've lost some of my hearing. Face to face conversations are sometimes tough enough. Phone conversations raise the degree of difficulty. Cell phone conversations can raise the difficult exponentially. Now combine a cell phone call with someone speaking with a customer service rep who has an accent and the conversation becomes all but impossible.

Not too long ago, I was on the phone to FedEx to arrange for some shipment. I'm not even sure where it was my toll free call was received ... Klingon, maybe. I couldn't continue the conversation much beyond hello. I hung up and called back, thinking I'd have better luck ... no such luck. I gave up on using FedEx for my shipping needs.

In announcing its decision to get rid of the India call center, a United Airlines spokesperson told the Associated Press, "We did a lot of research, we looked into it, and people who email or write us are more satisfied with our responses."

What she didn't say is that customers are more satisified because those written responses don't have a incomprehensible accent.