Hello? Is this Apu?

At work the other day, I had to call the Tech Support Line.  I work for an enormous organization and, unfortunately, our Tech Support is manned by people from India.

Like most people, this distresses me to no end.  By the time I call Tech Support I’m already really frustrated and it annoys me to have to run through the same rigmarole every time before I can even state my problem.

When they answer the phone they always state their name.  It’s no secret that they are in India.  They all have an Indian accent.  Ava can imitate them to perfection.  But here’s the thing…when they state their name, it’s always a Western name related to the caller in the lovely sing song accent. 

“Hello.  My name is Susan.” or “Hello.  My name is Bob.” 

Uh huh.

But today, “Mark” said something that made me crack up while I was still on the phone with him.

He needed my ID number which happens to actually be all letters.  I slowly and clearly stated my ID.  Then “Mark” repeated it back to me in the Phonetic Alphabet.  I expected it to be Alpha Tango Romeo Whiskey – like that. 

I didn’t take into account I was speaking to India.

What I got instead was R as in Ramiel and V as in Vishnu.

And it doesn’t help that these people are unfailingly nice.  They are polite to the point of absurdity.  It makes a surly person feel bad.