Asshats of the Day: Arctern Incorporated
April 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pm by Mark
Tags: asshats, business, customer service, india, outsourcing, phones, responsibility
This morning, at 6AM, my telephone rang.
“Hello?”
I was greeted by a recorded message telling me about the wonders of Globalization, and how Offshoring can help my business. I hung up. The phone rang again, and when I answered, the recording continued.
I called back the number of my caller ID — 703-738-6669. It took two tries to get to a human being, who explained that she was with Arctern Incorporated, and was based in — no big surprise — India.
I asked her why their company was calling people in the United States at 6AM.
She began reading a broken-English essay about offshoring.
I told her that at 6AM, no one was open to that kind of drivel. I also informed her that since I’m on US/Eastern, it was later here than anywhere else in the US, and that her and company have NO BUSINESS calling ANYONE in the United States at that time.
“Sir, perhaps you should speak to our marketing department.”
“I will not speak to your marketing company Thrive Themes. You are officially informed that you are not to call this number ever again, and right now, you’ll be extremely lucky if I don’t file a nuisance complaint and have your Fairfax, Virginia telephone number disconnected.”
At that point, I hung up.
Arctern’s website lists all sorts of buzzwords. “Outsourcing.” “Offshoring.” “Technology.” “Research.”
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I only consider that their “Outsouced,” “Offshore” corporation was unable to leverage “Technology” and “Research” Time Zones before they started mass-dialing the United States at 6AM.
Arctern Incorporated get the Asshat-of-the-Day award.
April 20th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I had a similar experience. I called them asshats too. My callers said they were Experian though. HERE … my #1 blog post, FWIW
April 21st, 2007 at 2:34 am
But hey, atleast grammatically weak Indians calling in the morning are still better than incomprehensible rednecks calling you at night. Just imagine if the BPO’s shift to China…..
“Yello, Me sell you good stuff. Me tell you to globalise you businez. Confucius said: “Globalise now.”
seeds
allothercrap.blogspot.com
April 21st, 2007 at 8:21 am
You sure do good work at 6AM…I couldn’t manage “Asshole” at that hour!
April 21st, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Yeah those bastards… I don’t appreciate that kind of garbage that early either. Especially when it happens early in the morning after I’ve been drinking, thats the worst… I salute you Mr. Asshat of the Day Award Giver Man this Bud is for you.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:45 am
But you should understand..it was the gentlemen who called Arctern at 6.00 AM in the morning, not the Arctern, he is referring to a recorded message, so better to see the facts first….Zacque..Please hold ur tongue as you should know…what Globalisation means..if not..better to be silent.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Mr. Parashar, you are indeed full of excrement, if that is your position. Arctern called me at 6AM, and whether it was a human being or a recording DOES NOT MATTER. The fact that when trying to complain I am telemarketed to EVEN MORE just goes to blow your theory even more out of the water.
Using your idiotic logic, in fact, I called Arctern at 3PM (their local time!), therefore my Globalization skills are better than yours!
June 4th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Well, Than Mr. Mark, Still I will hold the same words for you and other here that they should know to respect people from other countries, we respect everybody so why don’t you.
If you really know about Globalization, then you must be knowing about it’s benefits also and all people are not the same.
And Infact, my skills are not idiotic, and I too called this no. there is no recorded message on it, so I think you are hurt by something else and your personal rivalry with them is there, though I am not related to Arctern anyhow…I feel good about them.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Please show me where I disrespected anyone from another country. FYI, I have worked all over the world for some of the largest corporations around and always gotten along. I am respectful of foreigners, especially Indians, actually, given that I work around many even today.
And, no, you pedantic twit. I’m mad that an asshat company repeatedly, repeatedly called me in the middle of the night to telemarket me and when faced with a complaint, attempted to telemarket to me some more.
I’m also mad that you can only sit here and tell me about the benefits of globalization and respecting people from other countries — the same bullshit schpiel that Arctern gave me when I complained, so it’s obvious who you work for. And it certainly serves your purpose well A YEAR AFTER THE FACT to find no recorded message on that number, doesn’t it? DUH!
You’re just pissed that my SEO is higher than yours.
I will further my insult: You, Mr. Parashar, are one Supreme Asshat and a filthy race baiter.
The fact that you’re Indian has nothing to do with that.
September 24th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Hi Mark
I understand your frustration. I am from India and work in outsourcing industry. And let me tell you – this generally doesn’t happen. People in India generally, and those in the “Outsourcing” industry in particular are more aware than anyone else of the time zones across the world, not just the US as we provide services from New Zealand in the East to US is the West. What you experienced was, well, I can say is one of the isolated incident which could have happened even if someone called from Virginia to California at 9 AM eastern, in’nit? It isn’t the Country of call but the company which didn’t train it’s staff good enough. Even we suffer from persistent call from certain companies, mostly US or European Banks who are trying to get a foothold in India trying to sell me credit cards despite me telling them many a times that I already have more than can fit into my wallet.
My sympathies to you but your incident was amusing. And I agree, there was no disrespect towards any country.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
http://www.arctern.com/
Their home site is currently infected with viruses!!! Wow…. I am still shocked CTO’s in the USA think outsourcing was a good idea. MORONS! Way to sell out the nation, short sighted fools.