In my experience, in spite of what
Jimbo has stated, I've called DirecTV over various times of both weekdays and weekends, and frankly, have only ever talked with folks who clearly do not speak English as their first language (though what's spoken is otherwise more than clear), and who've consistly had "American-sounding" first names.
Now, for the snowflakes on this forum reading what I've just stated, you might get offended. And if that's the case, then I'm offended that you're offended. Seriously.
My point is that it rings strange to me that DirecTV made this switch over the past few years, and now no matter when I call, everyone has an accent. I wouldn't mind this except that, today, I had to explain my question several times before kindly asking to speak to a supervisor. Quite nicely in return, "Grace" stated that the supervisor would give me the same answer. After some coaxing (apparently DirecTV does everything they can to keep escalations from happening), she relented. The process of transferring the conversation was exceptionally sloppy. Then, I speak to a supervisor named "Megan," who, to her credit, resolved my issue in five minutes. However, in listening to her and comparing these two ladies, it was beyond obvious that "Megan" is simply an offshore person who had a lot more experience than "Grace".
I have no problems with DirecTV offfshoring CSRs; I only have a problem when they don't listen the first five times (literally). I find it funny that it seems quite obvious that DirecTV is "covering" for offshore folks by giving them "American-sounding" names. It's almost patronizing, except I know that some folks who hear a completely "foreign" name would immediately get turned off by them.
Once again, if you can resolve a customer issue quickly, then I don't care where you're from. The problem here for me is that this doesn't consistently happen, and if you're VP of Costumer Service, there are zero reasons not to get this done.
Edit:
cinsu: The above was DirecTV. Last time I called AT&T Wireless, there were fewer accents, but maybe that's now changed, too.