McGee: I'm OK with going global

We might as well get used to customer service centers from the other side of the planet. I have this feeling we’re going to being dealing with them for more and more stuff.

You’re familiar with what I’m talking about, right? Something goes on the fritz with some modern day electronic doomaflatchit, you call customer service and you end up talking with someone with an accent that’s radically different than what you usually hear around here.

When I hear the strange accent I’ll say, “Where are you?”

Many times they’ll say India or the Philippines.

I’ll end up asking which city they’re in and maybe a bunch of questions about everyday life.

It’s stuff like that that sends my mind off to imagine day-to-day living 15,000 or so miles away.

I wasn’t prepared for the call I got the other day.

An acquaintance had applied for a job with a major corporation back east. I had this hunch the lady who was checking the reference wasn’t with the big company.

“You ain’t from around here are you,” I said.

“Pardon me sir?”

“Where are you calling from?”

“I’m in another country.”

“Oh come on, I dig the whole ‘Global Village’ thing,” I said. “What country are you in?”

“India, sir may we focus on the task?”

“In a minute, in a minute. What city are you in?”

“Hyderabad sir. May we…”

“South central India,” I said. “So it’s dark there now, eh? What did you have for dinner?”

“Sir, may we focus on the task?”

“Sure, I just think it’s so neat to talk with someone on the other side of the planet.”

About then I figured I better start acting like a professional or someone might not get that big corporation job…from the big company that outsourced reference checking to some folks in India.

Wow, what’s next?