I am a Caucasian, born in Chicago. I happen to have a very strong, very positive feeling toward Hindus. Unfortunately my experience with most Indian service center employees is that even though they may be very intelligent and very polite, and have strong desire to be helpful and do a good job, the cultural gap is just too great.
The lack of direct experience with the American credit card system, the American telecommunications industry, and the American computer industry usually ends up causing quite a negative experience as far as receiving the help that I called in about.
This has happened to me so many times, that when an Indian answers, unless I have reached the rare exception who truly can help me, I will politely end the call and try again later. I will repeat this until I get an American or Canadian.
Europeans, and Turks also seem to be able to relate to the cultural and societal subtexts better than the Indians.
Hindu-Americans are savvy to the subtler issues, so it is not a matter of racial profiling, but rather a matter of a lack of hands on experience with the technologies and procedures involved.
I believe that the short term advantage that the American companies may be enjoying with Indian call centers could result in a net long term negative, if my experience is typical.
My customer service experience has already convinced me to never to business with certain companies no matter how enticing their product or service may be.
The absolute worst company by far is Dell Computers. This is true no matter who answers the phone!
Can you give examples of what you are talking about? What cultural knowledge is needed on the part of the call center worker regarding credit card issues?
...but rather a matter of a lack of hands on experience with the technologies and procedures involved.