Outsourcing Is Fun
Today I spent two hours and twenty-seven minutes on the phone with Vijay in India. Vijay works on the Help Desk for Microsoft, and worked tirelessly to make my T-Mobile Hotspot account work at Starbucks. I do think that without the slight language barrier we encountered more than once, that bordering-on-three hours might have been cut down a bit, but, nonetheless.
Here's what I learned from Vijay:
- If they have Starbucks in India, Vijay is unaware of it. In fact, Vijay has never heard of Starbucks. So, either the long arm of Starbucks is not quite so long, or Vijay, bless his decaffeinated heart, is out of the loop.
- It's about 80 degrees in India today, at least in Vijay's corner of it. According to Vijay, their weather consists of "hot, hotter, and hottest."
- Microsoft Tech Support apparently does not have levels. When Vijay started retracing ground I'd already covered with both T-Mobile & Sharp tech support, I asked -- nicely -- if I could be fast-tracked to the Level 2 support person. Vijay said, "I'm sorry? I'm not understanding." Later, after my friendship with Vijay was firmly cemented, I felt badly for asking that someone higher up take my case.
- Vijay may not be a big fan of his homeland. When I said I'd like to visit India someday, Vijay paused, then said something like, "Hummumm."
- Typing "Run" and "msconfig" can take you to all kinds of interesting places.
Here's what I learned about myself:
- I'll go to any lengths to get online. I could have simply come home and used my own wireless access, but no, I needed to be at Starbucks, paying $40 a month to be online there and, thus, had to spend two and a half hours with tech support.
- I can help myself. After working side-by-side (or, phone-by-phone) with Vijay, and coming home to find my home wireless no longer worked, I employed my new education from him to fix my own wireless problem.
- I like my nonfat gingerbread latte at 140 degrees. Perfectly ready to drink.
Vijay, if I were wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you. Instead, when I go back out in the unseasonably cold weather, I'll put on the hood of my sweatshirt, then take that off when I get back inside, all in your honor.
Here's what I learned from Vijay:
- If they have Starbucks in India, Vijay is unaware of it. In fact, Vijay has never heard of Starbucks. So, either the long arm of Starbucks is not quite so long, or Vijay, bless his decaffeinated heart, is out of the loop.
- It's about 80 degrees in India today, at least in Vijay's corner of it. According to Vijay, their weather consists of "hot, hotter, and hottest."
- Microsoft Tech Support apparently does not have levels. When Vijay started retracing ground I'd already covered with both T-Mobile & Sharp tech support, I asked -- nicely -- if I could be fast-tracked to the Level 2 support person. Vijay said, "I'm sorry? I'm not understanding." Later, after my friendship with Vijay was firmly cemented, I felt badly for asking that someone higher up take my case.
- Vijay may not be a big fan of his homeland. When I said I'd like to visit India someday, Vijay paused, then said something like, "Hummumm."
- Typing "Run" and "msconfig" can take you to all kinds of interesting places.
Here's what I learned about myself:
- I'll go to any lengths to get online. I could have simply come home and used my own wireless access, but no, I needed to be at Starbucks, paying $40 a month to be online there and, thus, had to spend two and a half hours with tech support.
- I can help myself. After working side-by-side (or, phone-by-phone) with Vijay, and coming home to find my home wireless no longer worked, I employed my new education from him to fix my own wireless problem.
- I like my nonfat gingerbread latte at 140 degrees. Perfectly ready to drink.
Vijay, if I were wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you. Instead, when I go back out in the unseasonably cold weather, I'll put on the hood of my sweatshirt, then take that off when I get back inside, all in your honor.
posted by pamela at 5:55 PM
4 Comments:
pam, i loved this :) vijay, i hope you get to read this someday. i wonder if computer technicians know exactly what they mean to us?
side note on starbucks: they don't have one in egypt either. i'm helping a student with a proposal to starbucks to open a franchise in egypt. some of my student's points:
-Initial costs are low: Cheap raw material (sugar, milk, etc.) & cheap labor force (there's no minimum wage in Egypt)
-While some may be worried that Egyptians might boycott starbucks because a portion of the profits goes to supporting israel, my student thinks this is highly doubtful for two reasons. one, when there was an unofficial middle eastern boycott of american products (last year apparently) egypt did not participate. and two, if lebanon and saudi arabia have accepted starbucks with open arms, then egypt will too.
- finally my student draws a comparison between starbucks and the 2 most popular coffee chains in egypt (beanos and cilantro)showing that starbucks will surpass the success of the competition because it offers better quality and variety.
who knows if this will work, but if it does, i know i'll definitely gain the 7 lbs. back that i lost from lack of frappucinos :)
Sally -- No joke about that seven pounds! I was pretty free from the Starbucks stronghold until the last couple of weeks. They got me. Well, if I have to skip lunch a few days a week to incorporate my frappuccino calories, so be it. ;)
I hope your student succeeds, because I think you'll be needing a peppermint mocha someday soon. How are Beanos and Cilantro? Both names sound odd, the first because of, obviously, the American product by the same name, and the second because I can't find any connection between cilantro and coffee...
Don't like beanos too much, but cilantro has a good lunch menu (don't know what coffee/cilantro relationship is either) and a wicked mint hot chocolate.
This Vijay session should definitely find its way into the customer service book.
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