Rufus Leakin

You may have seen a recent email or Facebook post claiming there’s a new United States law for consumer protection. The claims state that when you call an American company with a foreign-based call center, on demand they must transfer you to a U.S.-based sales representative. This is an old Internet myth dating back a few years, and simply not true.

Although the practice of U.S.-based companies’ operating call centers in other countries (where labor costs are cheaper) to handle customer service issues has been the focus of some legislative interest, there is not yet any federal law requiring companies which utilize foreign call centers to disclose that information to their customers, or to transfer such calls to United States-based operators upon customer request.
Legislation aimed at restricting the use of foreign call centers has primarily been intended to eliminate the transfer of jobs from the U.S. to overseas locations and to better protect the privacy of American customers’ personal information.

In September 2009, Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania took a stab at the issue by introducing the Call Center Consumer’s Right to Know Act (HR 3621) to Congress, a bill which sought to “require employees at a call center who either initiate or receive telephone calls to disclose the physical location of such employees.” That bill was referred to a House subcommittee with no further action taken. 

In May 2010, Senator Charles Schumer of New York addressed a similar issue when he announced he would be introducing legislation which would require U.S. callers be informed when their calls were being transferred to a foreign country and would impose a $0.25 per call excise tax on any customer service calls placed inside the United States that were transferred to agents in foreign locations. Despite the announcement, Schumer has not yet introduced any such legislation to Congress. 

However, although the practice is not yet legislatively mandated, some U.S. companies have established policies and procedures of their own that instruct foreign call center operators to transfer calls back to United States-based reps upon customer request.