According to a report by a former Amazon.com customer service worker, the giant e-retailer moved their customer service call centers back from the peacock feather of the Orient.

“I used to work at Amazon.com customer service Back in the Day (1998 – 2001) and I think most of us working there at the time were happy to be able to treat customers pretty well,” Andrew writes. ” I’d accept past-the-return-date books people would say they didn’t read, refund people’s shipping if the thing was even a day late, and hand out gift certificates like candy – and this wasn’t me cheating the corporate teat, I was directed to treat customers this way, in order to build a loyal fan base.

They laid us all off in January 2001, moved our jobs to Bangalore, and that’s when it all went to hell.”

CSR Sweatshop relocations, after the jump…

Andrew continues:

“However, I recently had to call them because something hadn’t arrived on time, and lo and begat the chick I talked to spoke clear American English, refunded my shipping, and told me that they were now again located near Seattle, WA. Even if they’re underpaying kids in Pullman instead of downtown Seattle, at least I could understand her.

Nothing against kids in Bangalore, but – cmon, it just wasn’t working. Amazon has always been an early adopter (& patent-adopter *ahem*) so this probably means more companies are going to realize it’s easier to bring it back too. I wonder if anyone’s heard news about other companies…”

Could this be a new trend? Lordy, we can only hope to find some respite from those manual flipping androids possessing all the logic of a Bollywood musical.

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