Anyone who has ever owned an HP product and had to call customer service about it, has the pain and frustration of slamming head-first into the language barrier.
I'm talking outsourcing.
There's a huge market in India for providing companies English-speaking wage-slaves that can answer phone calls and read prompts from computer screens. The same prompts big business thinks most customers are too lazy to read for themselves off their websites. And the only requirement for these customer service chimps is that they speak English. Passably. Barely.
Big business also knows how much we English-speaking Americans hate having to deal with foreigners when trying to get some frickin' customer support. This is proven by people with names like Mohinder pretending they're "Robert" or "Paul."
Buddy, I don't care what you call yourself, when you start talking like Johnny Quest's sidekick Hadji, I know English is your second language and you ain't in the U.S. of A.
For anyone who has felt the anguish I have when dealing with customer service in a far off land, I have terrible news. It's about to get McWorse.
Oh, sure, you might think the Golden Archenemies wouldn't do this outside major metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles or New York, but you'd be wrong. I hear tell it's already happening, in little places like Sellersburg, IN (population 6,071).
Now, I'm a particular eater. When I get my favorite food- a cheeseburger- I expect it to be just that. A Cheese burger. Not a salad burger, not a beef patty smothered in condiments. No, I want a slab of ground beef, wrapped in cheese, served on bread. Nothing else.
I'm a purist.
And nothing aggravates me more than going through the drive thru and getting some foreigner who can't understand me, who I can't understand, and who somehow interprets "Plain" as "Give me every friggin' vegetable known to man."
But at least those foreigners are there. Physically present at the store, wearing a uniform, and subject to the scrutiny and supervision of other living souls. I can complain quite effectively to live people that my cheeseburger is more suitable for feeding bunny rabbits than quenching my desire for grease and cheese.
But outsourced foreigners? Why, they'll be sitting at home, probably in sweats, with numerous illegitimate children running around, while Spanish TV blares in the background or the afternoon call to prayer comes in through the windows.
What the hell is the problem with getting English-speaking people to take English-speaking customer's orders? Seriously.
Take the order taker out of the restaurant, and they can't learn anything. They won't get told by the manager, "Hey, stupid- plain means 'with nothing'. Verstehen sie das?"
No, the at-home order-taker hides behind a thick accent and computerized anonyminity. No one corrects their misunderstandings. They can't offer a heartfelt apology to someone who nearly vomited from biting into a pickle when they should have tasted only cheese. They were randomly connected to a restaurant hundreds or thousands of miles away.
McDumbies will learn the folly of this. Their corporate penny-pinching will come back to bite them in their McAsses. Right after Hadji puts extra onions on the sandwhich of someone deathly allergic to them.
Sim, Sim, ala, Bim, baby.
Are you speaking of the very same McD's that I have now banished from my taste buds (with the greatest of pains as I love a good Mac and the fries) ?
You should renew your story with the "other" outsourcing facts that they chose = cannot afford American beef . Ya' know, knowing several farm families in my community, they all agree but evidently are looking to make a buck on a foreign dollar exchange with their own beef instead of seeing the continued destruction of American society. They all could still care less and eat at MickyD's whenever they choose.
That's what this nation is coming down to = the Big picture is irrelevent, let me be a selfish bastard and just have what I want. Bred, groomed and raised to be just this way.
MickyD's is right……..Hollywood-like shenanigans people aren't intelligent enough to see the difference between and reality.