Don't get me wrong -- I have Indian friends, and I've even been known to unconsciously adopt an Indian accent while talking with them. And I'm not at all opposed to outsourcing. Nor would I be opposed to hiring in India for email support reps. But U.S. companies simply should not be outsourcing telephone support to India.

Today my wife got a call from a company that we do business with. The man she spoke to was obviously trying to be understood, but between his accent, a crying baby, and a two year old, she simply couldn't understand much of what he said.

I've experienced the same thing with a credit card company that I no longer do business with (because they kept bugging me with telemarketing calls, and their phone reps wouldn't take no for an answer). Even without any extra noise or distractions, there were times when even after multiple repetitions, I simply could not understand things the callers were trying to say.

Guys, it may be cheap, but it ain't "customer service". Perhaps we need to vote with our dollars by leaving companies that won't let us talk to people we can communicate with. But there's a problem -- if we leave one company behind, how do we know where to go? It almost makes me want to create a registry of companies who've pledged not to outsource their phone support to India.

Again, no offense to my Indian friends -- I just want to be able to communicate effectively and with a minimum of frustration.