Are TARP Funds Being Used To Fund Cheap Overseas Call Centers?

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

Yesterday afternoon a client of mine and I had to call JP Morgan Chase about the whereabouts of his file MFI-Miami requested 2 months ago. After being told quite adamantly that my client would have to pay $10 per document we were requesting (that’s a subject for another article I’m working on) and after I threatened this customer service agent with everything short of telling him he was one phone call away from getting a human booster shot from a guy named Jamie, we realized we were calling a call center in the Philippines and the guy was unaware of who Jamie was.

As soon as I got back to the office to brief my assistant about the client’s file and she hands me the phone to help her talk to a customer service person at Citimortgage.  After talking to this heavily accented woman for about 10 minutes, I asked her where she was located and she tells me the Philippines.  I talked to other members of my staff and they tell me they get the same thing except Wells Fargo and American Home Servicing routes the calls to India.  American Home Servicing Agents in India get angry pretty fast when you demand to speak to someone at an American call center in Texas or California.  I had one guy lose it and scream at me in Bengali or Hindi, I couldn’t tell which.  The women in my office say the only major bank that doesn’t route their calls to Asia is Bank of America.

The experiences my office has had with dealing with these call-centers mirrors the complaints that I have heard from my clients on a daily basis for the past 18 months.  Complaints that have become more and more frequent since congress passed TARP in September of 2008.

So at the risk of sounding like I come from the nether regions of Glennbeckistan, I have to ask, are TARP funds that were given to these banks by you and I, the American taxpayer, being used to employ cheap labor in developing nations and are these call-centers using child labor? Why aren’t Americans being employed to fill these positions?

I contacted both Citigroup and J.P. Morgan – Chase’s press office and surprisingly enough my calls did not get forwarded to the Philippines.  I had to leave messages and have not heard back.  I would say the chances of me getting a return phone call are about as likely as a customer service manager calling me back from a mortgage servicer.

I find it odd that no one in Washington has asked these questions especially someone like John Dingell or Tom Harkin.  You would think members of congress especially pro-union members would be fighting and clamoring to get these call-centers in their districts in this economy just for bragging rights. Is it just another sign that congress is out of touch with what is going on outside the beltway?