>>>I've never been confronted to an indian phone conversation yet.
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>A few years ago I posted here after a protracted experience with outsourced reps from Dell. At the time I proposed that Dell's support line was actually a free-of-charge international phone dating service, because every time I called I got to speak with somebody in Malaysia who was apologetic and sympathetic as she urged me to tell the whole story again so she could agree with me about everything for 20 minutes, then put me through to her supervisor's phone that is never answered, giving me the opportunity to call back and repeat the experience with somebody new. Apparently Dell was incentivizing on the wrong things, causing its reps to sympathize excessively and pay little attention to outcome. All solved now, and Dell offers lots of support from Malaysia.
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>As for the rationalizations: it all boils down to "cost". Corporates must compete for shareholder and customer bucks by shaving costs at every opportunity. Outsourcing is inevitable- especially for industries that cost lots but whose output is easy to ship and does not require expensive depreciating machinery.

My step-son works Met Life in Des Moines. They out-sourced a lot of the work to India. As I remember the story, one of the Met Life VP's came to talk to the (admittedly hostile) group. After the usual comments about the quality of work comming out of India and the old "if you can't afford to do it right, etc." commments he looked at the group and told them "With the amount we're saving, we can afford to redo it over and over and over again."