Offshore Outsourcing

Something interesting about my call to PalmOne's customer service (for repairing my Zire 72)
Now we all know a lot of companies have outsourced customer service call center to India but I just realized how much effort these companies have put it to disguise this fact!
For example, the reps would made up American-sounding names for themselves. (Though it's common practice in HK. All of my Indian friends use their Indian names.)
Also, my wife said she talked to some customer service rep. When they are asked where they are physically located, they said they're not allowed to disclose.

We Californian or most urban people are used to deal with foreigners. But not so for the more convervative populations in other areas. Maybe that's why those companies are doing this but I don't think these efforts would be effective unless the reps could disguise their accent as well.