I find it especially disconcerting to have to pigeon-Indian my way through my customer service request when I’m calling an iconic American institution. But, “Phyllis” at Smithsonian magazine was not a native English-language speaker.
It kinda feels like everything is for sale and we’re even outsourcing our culture.
Oh, dear…not the Smithsonian, too… sigh.
Um, are you sure that they were outsourcing? People immigrate to the US all the time. If the Smithsonian magazine’s customer service is in the Washington, DC area, then the odds of any employee being “second or more” generation American is, I think, fairly low, since DC has lots of people from other countries who move there, either temporarily or permanently.
Nope. You’re right. I am not certain. I didn’t ask where she was.
On the other hand, she had the “the company is always correct, and I can only follow my script and sound sympathetic” attitude I have come to associate with off-shore personnel. My off-the script request was to ask where to find a phone number for one of their departments. It’s something I think that a US-based person would have handled differently whether or not they knew the number I was seeking.
When I call the number for the department that I later found on the Internet, I’ll try to remember to also ask about where their subscriptioncall center is.
blurkerbear speaks
What culture?