#1101 Call of India

I’m concerned about the shrinking global marketplace. We may have reached the point where too many jobs are being outsourced to the Far East.
If you’ve had computer issues at any time in the last 5 years, it’s likely you’ve had occasion to converse with someone in India who has been trained to not only help you with your problem, but also to try to speak American-style English.
It’s sad these jobs have been outsourced. I’m sure there are plenty of Americans who would love to be paid to sit around and answer the phone and tell people to reboot their computers in surly incomprehensible mumbling English. In their day, one of my teenage sons would have filled that position just fine.
Especially the surly incomprehensible mumbling English part.
So it was strange when I actually got a call from India the other day. The phone rang at the telemarketer time of day. Unusual because I pay to have an unpublished number, I’m on various “do not call” lists, and expect my dinner hours to be free of unsolicited solicitations. My caller I.D. showed nothing so I warily picked up the phone prepared to do battle.
What should I encounter but a thickly accented Indian voice. He told me my name and asked if it was correct. I said yes. Then he rushed through some garbled sentence about who he was from, then asked me if my computer was on. “Why?” I asked. He gargled some more English, and I asked him to repeat it, slowly.
“We need to check the status of your computer,” he said. “Is it on?” Suspicious now, I said no. “Could you turn your computer on now so we can check it,” he said. Again, I said no. “When will you have your computer on?” he said.
“Not ‘til tomorrow at 5:00,” I lied.
I make exceptions for the “do not lie” commandment when people don’t honor the “do not call” list. He said he would call back. He didn’t.
So here’s the deal. I always thought telemarketing con-jobbers made a lot of money. Is the economy so bad they’re trying to cut costs too? Have we reached the point where we’re having to go overseas to find cheaper scam artists?
We’re outsourcing our crooks?
America, ya gotta love it.