Ok, I called Emerge today to verify that my paid and closed account will not show up on my cr's. (sad thing is im sure it will and I will have to take legal action im sure ) anywhoo... the guy who answered sounded indian... i went on with the conversation... after he didnt make me feel sure, i asked for his manager. his manager sounded indian so i asked where this 3rd party service center was located. HE SAID INDIA!!!!!!!! THIS means that our personal information is now in a country that does not have the same laws as we do. I am seriously pissed off now. Sad thing is that he wouldnt tell me who was behind emerge. I live in Atlanta and would surely take a ride over to their offices if I knew where they were. What do you think of this? Thanks, Allen
I'm not sure that this is legal to provide information accross borders, but I'm not sure. interesting to say the least...
This is not at all uncommon for customer call centers to be located overseas. A lot of companies, including Emerge and the discount long distance provider Isterra have call centers located overseas. Some have chose to have them operate during non-business hours in the United States so they can offer 24/7 customer support. Others have found it more cost effective to sub-contract these call centers in India. Regardless of the case, Emerge is a U.S. company doing business in the U.S. and is bound to U.S. federal laws and regulations. As such, I don't see anything wrong with a customer service call center being located in India. Get used to it; it's a sign of the times. Hawg Hanner
i guess my worry is that india laws im sure are not as strict and they have all our info... they could easily do some bad things it would be harder to get away with it here
How many credit card offers have you received in the past couple of months? Do you have a feel for how cut-throat the credit card business is right now? What do you think would happen if it was learned that there was a security leak at a customer call center in India? For starters, if it is a Visa card, Emerge would be liable for those charges over $50. Do you think they want to pay for that? Also, I'm not so sure that the customer call center in India would have your complete credit file. They likely have your account information for Emerge and that's it. Also, I have no reason to believe that people in India are any less reliable and honest than those living in the United States. In fact, given the higher penetration of religion in India, I would assume people are less moral in this country as a whole. Hawg Hanner
INDIA does AMEX & MCCBG also... The weird thing about INDIA is cows are sacred and can roam anywhere they want...but with all the cows...PEOPLE STILL DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FOOD...
My $.02... In a "past" life, I worked for a call center. Most centers only have BASIC account information. i.e. name, phone, account number. Providian was outsourcing a call center in India when they were going through sending out cancellation notices to customers' without prior notice. So, when a person called to find out why the account was closed, the caller nor the csr knew what the heck the other person was saying. This "coincidence" still leads me to believe that Emerge is Compucredit using Providian resources. Again, only my $.02, so not worth much!
azur.. this guy had my full info.. even my FULL 9 digit ss# i guess if we outsource everything to other countries what will happen to the usa in 10-15 yrs? will we be the 3rd world?
Did the rep have an "American" sounding name? Often, these overseas reps are required to take on an American (or "safe") sounding first name (Joe, Mary, etc.), and some even go as far ask making up where they are from. Ireland is also a popular place for call centers to be staffed. Dell routes all their AP area support calls to Malaysia. Don't worry about where the rep is. The company is bound by US laws, and your state laws where you live.
hey - i don't mind having any of my cc calls routed to Zambia - as long as they up my credit line another 25K and lower my apr to 0.9%
If you think that's strange, I was on the phone with AOL one day, a few months ago, and they said they were moving to India! I didn't take it seriously, because I've talked to other AOL reps and found that incompetence abounds in that company. However, after hearing this story about Emerge, now I wonder.
Well that really sucks if they had your SS#!!! What time of day was it that you called them, also, what number did you call?
i told him i would not verify my full ss only the last 4 im glad i did! it was the number on the form they sent me if a physical credit card shows up or this acct shows up on my credit reports, im going to find this compucredit in atlanta and go directly to their offices... anyone have an address? thanks!
Isn't Pakistan about 5 seconds away from pushing the button to send nukes onto India? Also, there's a car bomb about every 10 minutes in Ireland. They may be cheap but they could disappear overnight. Not very stable and risky!
the company may be bound by us law. but what happens if the rep steals youre account info like your ssn and mothers maiden name. they could wreak havoc on youre credit. however i have heard that the law in india for theft is much harsher than hear in the us. would the rep be bound by us law or indian law? since he is working for a us company but is also residing in india.
There seems to be an awful lot of xenophobia on this thread. Why are Indians any more likely to steal our credit information than an American? If anything, I think they are less likely. Why? 1.) There are fewer opportunities and channels to turn that information into credit overseas. America is choked with computers, telephones, direct marketing, etc. compared to India. 2.) Compared to America, India is a far more relgious nation. That does not mean to say that religion = instant morality, but it's better nonetheless. They also tend to have stiffer penalties for theft in more conservative countries. 3.) America is bombarded with the constant drone of marketing images preaching instant gratification. That's not quite the case in a country like India. We have more temptation. 4.) Many Indians are probably just glad to have a good paying job. Why would they risk it by stealing your credit information? Wouldn't it be much easier to track it to the source if they did so, too? I think the company that employs their services would probably can them in an instant if credit theft was more prevelant there than in America...after all, they get stuck paying for it any how. Unless you can find any evidence of a higher degree of theft and/or dishonesty in a place like India here on the Internet in the form of a news article or otherwise, I suspect you are giving way to unreasonable fear. Hawg Hanner