[Rillington]

To bring this more back on-topc...

BT are also known for outsourcing and it is very rare to get through to a UK call centre, especially for general CS enquiries.

I remember a while back ending up in an Indian call centre. The CS person was actually very good and he ended up asking me why so many people hated the Indian call centres. I said to him that it isn't a racial thing but an udnerstanding thing - people can't understand what is being said, whether it be the Indian unable to udnerstand the Brit or the Brit not understanding the Indian. He admitted that Indians talk a lot faster than British people. He also asked me why this outsourcing goes on and I said it was money and explained to him that a company could employ six Indians for the price of a single British call centre operative based on the wages he told me he earned, which he said were good wages for India.

We all know that VM, BT and many other companies - AOL (which I think is now owned by Carphone Warehouse) is another - outsource. It's done to save money regardless of the fact that customer service falls through the floor and irritates many people when it's Indians or Philipions, or someone else from a country where English is not the first language, who answers. And yes, you do often get companies mentioning UK-based call centres in their advertising quite frequently as a result of this outsourcing.