Two related experiences:

Called long distance information by dialing area code I wanted and 555-1212.
Got an operator in India.  I could not understand her and she could not
understand me.  Finally, she said she understood whose number I needed and
gave me a number.  When I dialed the number I got a party whose name was
remotely like the one I needed.  I called information back immediately to
ask for a credit for the information call and was told in broken English
that a credit could not be issued.  In my frustration I dialed "0" and got
an American operator.  She explained that I needed to call LD info back and
demand to speak to the supervisor, who could issue a credit.  She told me to
be sure and ask for credit for three info calls because my initial call and
both subsequent calls would result in charges.  She explained that thiswas a
common problem.

On another occassion, I received a sales call trying to get me to join a
National Small Business group that provided representation for US businesses
in Washington.  When I was unable to understand much of what the person on
the phone was saying, I asked if the call was coming from India and the
caller replied "yes".  Of course I did not join the group, nor will I.  It
takes a lot of balls to have a boiler room in India calling US businessmen
asking that they pay dues to have your group represent them.

I had some problems with drop out on my Vonage voice over Internet
phone service so I called tech support. First four times I called I
spoke to some polite but clueless folks from India that tried
unsuccessfully to fix it. The fifth time was a charm because that seems
to be the magic number that refers you to "advanced tech support",
translation: A tech in the USA who actually is a trained support tech.
He took a few minutes checking my cable upload and download speed and
told me he would increase the size of my buffer on my phone line and
call me back. 10 minutes later he calls and I can tell instantly he had
made a major improvement.
   I went through exactly the same drill with Dish network until I got
a real tech who told me they had cut the USA tech staff by 70% and let
the Indians try and solve the easy stuff. The problem is the only stuff
they could fix were so simple I'd already tied them. i.e., they kept
telling me to reset my dish receiver by unplugging it, a trick I'd
learned from a tech two years ago or make sure my TV was on channel 3
even though I was using the monitor inputs.
   I'm sure the companies are saving a bundle by operating like that,
but customer service sure has dropped.