OK, I realize Americans are expensive, so if you outsource your customer service you will save money. The whole point of having a business is to make money, so saving money seems like a good idea. But if you lose customers because they call your 800 number and get someone who has no idea what you are talking about - it seems to me you might want to rethink your whole strategy.
I have nothing against people from other countries speaking other languages. I wish I was bilingual. A lot of my ancestors did not show up in America speaking perfect English. I work with a lot people that moved here from different countries and still have accents. But at least they understand YOU.
The company I work for has been outsourcing to another country. The country they are in is not relevant to my rant, because it's not about the actual countries they are in - nor about their English speaking abilities. A lot of them have less of an accent than my Grandma did. What gets me is they have no grasp of the job, and really no grasp of UNDERSTANDING English. I will take a thick accent any day if YOU can understand ME. We have customer service reps calling us asking for information, and when you answer them, they do. not. get. it. I almost fall into that trap of raising my voice and repeating. (They aren't DEAF, they just don't UNDERSTAND.)
If I get this irritated, what about our customers? The whole contrived American "how's the weather" has really got to go, too.
Grrrr.
What's the best music documentary or concert film you've seen?
Hahaha, Madonna Truth - or Dare, only because of the weird banter between her and Warren Beatty. And the fact that she stuck her finger down her throat and said "he had to go" after Kevin Costner called her concert "neat." But I guess like 10 years later she said sorry. See, even Madonna grows up.
Show us your favorite local band.
Submitted by Soup.
That is wayyyy too hard. I am from Seattle, there are too many to choose from! Even ones no one but Seattleites have heard of. It really is hard. Jimi Hendrix, Heart, reNirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse (formed here), Band of Horses (formed here.) It's just too hard.
What's your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
I am such a pig. Out of the 7 deadly sins, most definitely I am a perpetrator of Sloth and Gluttony. My favorite by far being Gluttony. Not like I live in filth with food stains all over my big fat belly - but I have to force myself to not eat as much as I would like. I guess I would say crab cakes, shrimp dishes, scallop dishes, I guess pretty much any seafood dishes or cheese dishes. Just anything yummy.
Video: Show us a music video you'd gladly watch over and over again.
I wonder if he wrote it for Britney. He will admit he wrote Cry Me a River about her, but not this one. At any rate, Scarlett Johanssen is one of my "If I were a Lebian" crushes, and I can see why Cameron robbed the cradle. When he was young he just looked so funny to me with his little pipsqueak self wearing a wife-beater with that Brillo pad hair. But he has a lot of talent (wink wink, baby. Inside joke).
Led Zeppelin will finally offer their music online starting next month. Of the music you buy, about how much of it do you download and how much do you buy on physical formats (CDs, vinyl, etc.)?
1st off, I just have to say - Led Zeppelin RAWKS. I have about 30 of their tracks on my I-Pod and I can just listen to that for weeks in the car.
I am really dorky, and not in the good way. As in the Old-Fashioned don't know what's going on way. I am so not computer savvy. I think it's because I sit in front of a computer for about 8 hours a day, so it's not my 1st priority when I get home. I am not online dater, gamer, downloader type of girl. (I am an online shopper, unfortunately - but I just love how they almost always have your size. No matter who you are, tall, short, skinny here, fat there, you can get your size.)
I have people download things for me. (Haha, listen to me - "I have people for that.") I listen to about 95% downloaded music, but I still buy CDs here and there.
Audio: Show us a song or album you've recently downloaded.
How embarrassing. I was thinking about lying - but this is really the last thing that I downloaded. You have to admit this is a good song - even if the hair is pure comedy. Did you ever see that Friends with Chandler's hair? Haha
Nice.
Sometimes I wish that I had a real heart X-ray. I guess more like an emotion X-ray. I got some stupid e-mail (my best friend's Mom is good for sending stuff that you have to open 20 times because people keep forwarding the forwards instead of just forwarding the message of "here's a hug and a kitty cat, have a nice day". We have had more than a few laughs over just saying "forward, forward, forward.......kitty cat!") awhile back saying something about "sing like no one can hear you, dance like no one is watching, and love like you've never been hurt before. The great thing about stupid cliches is that they are true. That is why we have them around. (So I guess it's not so stupid after all.)
All of us have been hurt at one time or another. Friends, lovers, siblings, parents, children, basically anyone close to us. They have that ability because we love them. Some stranger on the street cannot deeply hurt me because I am not emotionally invested in him. Some of the hurt we incur is because we read too much into an action or something that was said - sometimes because somebody really screwed us over - either way it sucks. I believe I am a little more thick skinned than others in some areas - yet in other areas I am like an eggshell, because of the things I have been through. I guess all of us are like that. It depends on the stove we touch - how badly we are burned - that makes us get our radars out when we are reminded of that Jen-air or Kenmore or GE or whatever.
I am so in love with my boyfriend. Like I never have been before. I could have never imagined being this in love - let alone being mushy enough to proclaim it in public. I feel like a chick flick - I would honestly yell it from the rooftop or hire a skywriter telling him how much I love him. I am honestly trying to love like I have never been hurt - and it works about 95% of the time. I appreciate him so much - and I suppose part of the reason I do so much is the hurt that I have experienced.
I wish that I could take an X-ray of my heart to show him how much he is to me. That I cannot imagine not spooning with him on Saturday mornings, laughing anywhere and everywhere we go, making fun of dumb stuff together, but feeling compassion for those who need it, seeing the world in almost the same light but each putting a new twist for the other to see. That I only imagine him in the future.
I used to lump all men in a box - I don't do that anymore. Thanks, baby - I love you.
Show us a politician who gives you hope.
Insert photo of your mom here.

on ***Tell Me Why I Should Like Outsourcing***