I am so sick of customer service representatives from India! If I buy a product in the United States, and use the product here, why must I be transferred to India to speak to someone about the product? I know, labor is cheaper there, but so what!

I recently made the decision to purchase my twelve-year-old son a cell phone. Now, I could have (and probably should have) just added him to my current cell phone plan with Verizon wireless. They likely outsource their customer service as well. Rather than do that and incur the cost of a new phone, activation fees, and additional monthly charges, I opted to purchase him a prepaid phone from Tracfone Wireless. My thought process behind this decision is simple. If he has a prepaid cell phone, he will need to learn to be responsible enough to use his minutes wisely. He will also be required to earn additional airtime by doing chores. In my opinion, this was the best route for our family to take with this new cell phone purchase.

I visited the Tracfone website and purchased a refurbished cell phone that came with twenty starter minutes. Approximately two hours after I completed my online purchase, I received a confirmation email that stated when the phone would ship and that someone must be present to sign for the package. Knowing no one would be at home when the package arrived, I dialed the customer service number to attempt to change the shipping address.

I was greeted by some heavily accented voice, no doubt from India. I do not even remember the representative's name, but I'm sure it was not the American sounding name she gave me. I spent twenty minutes trying to make her understand what I wanted to do. It was useless. I said it in every way I could think of. After what seemed to be an eternity, she put me on hold for her supervisor. The supervisor finally picked up the phone line and while she understood more than the first representative did, I still could not get her to comprehend that all I needed was to change the address. I begged for an English-speaking representative who was located in the United States. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that there was no such person.

I finally told the representative just to cancel my entire order. It would have been a simple change, if I could have gotten someone to understand what I wanted. She informed me that my order could not be canceled, as it was in "pending" status. I told her that she could and would cancel my order. I did not care what status it was in, I was tired of trying to make these people understand my request. I finally requested the supervisor's supervisor. She could not transfer me for some unknown reason, but she did give me the telephone number to the corporate office.

This office is located in Miami Florida, I told the English-speaking operator what my request was and in less than one minute she had satisfied my request. If American's would take a stance against terrible customer service because of language or just plain bad service, these companies might take notice and make changes.

My son has his phone, which was delivered to my work address. He is satisfied with it and so am I, at least until I have a problem that requires the assistance of a customer service representative.

Tracfone is not the only company whose customer service representatives are in a far-off land. This is just an example of my most recent experience.

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