Can I Please Talk with Someone who Speaks American English?

Has anyone out there had this experience?

You put in a call to customer service of a company whose stated goals are to correct problems, field complaints, offer instructions or make reservations for airlines or hotels or whatever. This service is advertised heavily and assures the customer that all inquiries will be prompt, efficient and helpful.

An automated voice will prompt you to make decisions that will hasten your inquiry and either attempt to correct your problem by pushing buttons or, if a live agent is busy, politely ask you to wait. Many of these automated services will give you a heads up on how long it will be before you are connected with a live operator.

Most of us have accepted this impersonal process and have put up with it despite the frustrations and one-sided inability to react to a human voice connected to a human intelligence.

I guess one might justify this hardship on the basis of our tolerance of paying the price in inconvenience that comes along with the astounding gadgetry that has revolutionized our lives. Those of us who grew up in another era where such matters were handled via live people exercising human intelligence might curse this increasingly automated world, but the fact is that it is here to stay and I suppose we will have to accept its frustrations and live with it.

My beef, which is the subject of this essay, is what occurs when you do, at long last, reach a live person. What we usually get on the other end of the line is someone that speaks in a tongue that is allegedly English but is, for the most part, incomprehensible, deeply accented and missing the subtle nuances and pronunciation that makes all the difference in clear and comprehensive voice communication.

I am all for the global marketplace, but in this area of the spoken word, my experience has been so frustrating that I must lodge a fervent protest, even to the wind, that this practice by some of our most beloved and successful companies is painfully counterproductive and, in a number of ways, irritating and regressive

The most obvious negative concerns employment. In this time of high unemployment why can't these jobs be filled by our own countrymen and women who speak American English?  Think of the thousands of unemployed who would use their native born assets to earn their keep and help us all crawl out of the terrible burdens imposed by unemployment.

Yes, I can understand that there are Americans who will resist taking back breaking seasonal agricultural jobs now being filled by cheap and desperate labor from Mexico, but customer service is the kind of job that Americans can welcome and, in the process, improve the public relations of those companies who employ thousands of workers in third world countries.

Am I the only complaining party? Where is the outrage? I have resisted mentioning the companies I deal with by name, although it is a common practice of all American based companies these days.

Whenever I get a heavily accented voice on a customer service line my blood pressure goes up ten points as I try my best to communicate with the person on the other end of the call. I try to be polite but it wastes precious time and energy to make the connection, if ever. Sometimes I will simply hang up in frustration and seriously try to avoid the company that employs these foreign voices. Such practices seem to negate the whole idea of customer service.

Okay, it is not true of everybody, and I suppose the companies calculate that if they get fair results fifty percent of the time it is worth the candle, especially since they are employing labor at what is undoubtedly cheaper wages than they would have to pay Americans.

Having spilled some bile over this, I'll bet you have me down as an ingrate for not mentioning the problems of Spanish speakers and those immigrants who arrive in America with no knowledge of English. I do not know of the difficulties encountered when callers choose Spanish language customer service.

Having grown up in a world of immigrants speaking another language, I can sympathize with their plight. On the other hand it is inescapable that the English language will continue to predominate in America for the foreseeable future and those who do not use and understand it as a necessity to live and flourish in our culture will be marginalized and their futures seriously obstructed.

I understand the realities of the global marketplace and disparity in the cost of labor that makes American companies salivate when they can shrink their labor cost by hiring foreign workers. While I do admit a jingoistic urge when it comes to sending jobs overseas, I understand also the realities of cost reduction and the profit motive.

In this case, however, I have no reservations in calling for these jobs to be brought back to our shores.  It is a foolish and counterproductive practice in an era of high unemployment at home. I suppose an argument can be made that these global companies are helping third world citizens to become consumers of American products, but that offers no solace to those here at home who are having a tough time finding jobs.

It is not often when a personal predilection and complaint fits into such dual categories meaning that it would be both good for people like me who use customer services frequently and good for providing jobs for unemployed Americans.