I had to make some changes to my travel arrangements with Travelocity and after fighting through the flurry of automated computer voices, I was finally redirected to a real customer service representative. It was immediately obvious, however, that they too outsource their call centers to India like so many U.S. and European businesses do. What was particularly unsettling was when my call was answered, the woman at the other end of the line would answer “this is Stephanie, how may I help you?” or “this is Pamela, how may I help you?” The problem was that I knew her name wasn’t really Stephanie. Or Pamela. But the powers that be wanted to make me, the American, feel at home, and made them Stephanie and Pamela. I can almost see the reps being issued their “American-friendly” names on their first day of training for the sake of the bottom line in the U.S. Imagine that!