Thread: India Call Center for Food Stamps

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/services/ne ... 2475.story

Legislators question India call center for food stamps
By Tamara Lush | The Associated Press
April 17, 2009
MIAMI - Florida legislators on Thursday questioned why customer call centers in India are handling questions from food stamp recipients who use a debit-like card to buy groceries.

State Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, requested an investigation into why the calls were being outsourced.

Department of Children & Families spokeswoman Judi Spann said the state paid JPMorgan Chase & Co. to handle a range of services for the Electronic Benefit Transfer program, including customer service and administration of the so-called EBT card.

Calls about food stamp applications are handled in Florida, but questions after a person receives the card are handled at four call centers, two in the United States and two in India. Legislators said the call center jobs should be handled by people in Florida, or at least by centers in the United States.

"I'm concerned that at the end of the day we're using taxpayer money to use a call center outside of Florida, outside of the United States," said State Rep. Julio Robaina, R- Miami. "Our money needs to stay within our state and within our country."

Florida isn't the only state to use JPMorgan to handle its food stamp benefits administration; Spann said JPMorgan uses a Tampa-based center to run food stamp programs for a total of 28 states.

JPMorgan didn't return an e-mail seeking comment about the call centers.

In 2004, legislators called for scrutiny of contracts with food stamp services that hire foreign firms after it was revealed that the Department of Children & Families hired Citicorp Electronic Financial Services at a cost of $14 million a year to replace paper food stamps with the electronic benefit cards.

As part of the contract, Citicorp outsourced some calls to India.

In 2004, JPMorgan bought Citicorp Electronic Financial Services and took over the contract.

Calls about food stamp applications are handled in Florida, but questions after a person receives the card are handled at four call centers, two in the United States and two in India. Legislators said the call center jobs should be handled by people in Florida, or at least by centers in the United States.

DUH! I always kidded my Mom about getting help from AOL, and getting someone in India... now this? What do they know about food stamps???

They know nothing, they're just reading a script. But, the bloom is off the rose so far as Indian call centers are concerned: http://www.dnaindia%20.com/report.%2...sid=%201248756

Poor food stamps recipients! If their case gets snarled up and they are talking to someone who only sort of knows English, and their problem is not covered by one of the canned scripts, kids could go hungry. They should complain, complain, complain to their elected reps, just like the Delta customers complained to Delta management above.

Once I saw an article in the Indian press about a welfare call help center being brought back to the US, and a local posted a comment asking if there were people here in America who knew how to do that sort of work!

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-153353-.html
ATT has a policy that when you end up in India trying to get help, you can ask to be transferred back to the US. With Microsoft, there is no alternative; you talk to India or there is no help.

The sublime to the ridiculous!

Originally Posted by vortex

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-153353-.html
ATT has a policy that when you end up in India trying to get help, you can ask to be transferred back to the US. With Microsoft, there is no alternative; you talk to India or there is no help.

Actually, you can do that with any call that ends up outside the U.S. I do it all the time and have been doing it for years. If they refuse to transfer me, I ask for their ID and I tell them I am going to call the corporate office (which is always in the U.S.) and file a complaint against them. Most of the time they try to tell me they "can't" transfer me until I hit them with this. Then, usually, they will get me to the U.S. but sometimes will transfer me to a supervisor, who will then try to convince me to let them "help" me. I just keep refusing and asking to be transferred to an American.

Every once in a while that fails. So then, I take 10 minutes, google the company and call the company HQ and let them know in no uncertain terms that if my American money can't support my American brothers and sisters and keep them working, then that company will no longer be getting my American dollars. And it's a simple as that. Americans have more money than citizens of these third world outhouses and these companies know it. They want our money and if we take it from them or even threaten to, it does some good. I have talked to a couple of companies over the past few years where the jobs have actually been pulled back to the U.S. because too many Americans complained.

You don't ever have to deal with a foreigner...you just have to stick to your guns.

PatrioticMe, Good for you!! I too have done this and said nicely, that although they have been polite in their attempts to help me, that I was having a hard time getting that help because of the accent they have and their lack of knowledge of my language which was a barrier to the resolution of my issue.

I did this with AOL, and thanked them, but said I knew too many people put out of work, who could have used that job. I ended my account with AOL for this reason. However, I have an account with Verizon right now, and am pretty sure they are hiring outside of the U.S too.

BTW, my mother used to do this at drive-thru's with the non-English speakers (quite potentially illegal aliens), who always got the orders wrong. Now I have noticed there are almost all English speakers at the counters and drive-thru's. Yes, it does work.

Originally Posted by AE

PatrioticMe, Good for you!! I too have done this and said nicely, that although they have been polite in their attempts to help me, that I was having a hard time getting that help because of the accent they have and their lack of knowledge of my language which was a barrier to the resolution of my issue.

I did this with AOL, and thanked them, but said I knew too many people put out of work, who could have used that job. I ended my account with AOL for this reason. However, I have an account with Verizon right now, and am pretty sure they are hiring outside of the U.S too.

BTW, my mother used to do this at drive-thru's with the non-English speakers (quite potentially illegal aliens), who always got the orders wrong. Now I have noticed there are almost all English speakers at the counters and drive-thru's. Yes, it does work.

I called for help one time early in the morning and got someone in India who tried to tell me that it was the middle of the night in the U.S. and no one was awake!! At that point, I'm pretty sure the top of my skull popped off. I informed him that I was in the U.S. and it was 8 a.m. and if I was awake, then certainly other Americans were as well. He got me to the U.S. pretty quickly after I dressed him down for his lies. Persistance pays off and I will not support another nation before my own!

It's not enough to know how to demand to be transferred to a call center in the US. We all are paying the salaries for the employees at call centers in India. Please make some calls. I've been on the phone this afternoon talking to at least five, including the AG committee and my own representatives, along with a few others.

We are not only paying for the Food Stamp Program, but we are now paying for the salaries for employees in a call center in INDIA. These jobs belong in AMERICA. We're paying for a foreign group to be trained by JPMorgan on how to handle these calls, in addition to their ongoing salaries, while American citizens are being crushed by unemployment.

The Food Stamp program is handled by the Agricultural Committee. The chairman is Tom Harkin D-IA.

Call your senators and reps, and tell them that you are not willing to pay the salaries for a call center in INDIA.
ANQ

LIST OF TOLL FREE CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD PHONE NUMBERS
1-800-828-0498
1-800-459-1887
1-800-614-2803
1-866-340-9281
1-866-338-1015
1-866-220-0044
1-877-851-6437

I have sometimes wondered if monitors watching the CCTV border might not be outsourced abroad. They are using American volunteers but they might hire paid video monitors in another Third World country.