I was sitting in on a phone conversation between my assistant and some people in India.
Each step of the conversation, the person in India, had a list of questions that were asked in a very unfriendly TONE:
Who is this person? How do we know your address is what you say it is?
How do we know you are in America?
My assistant’s name is Maria, and the person she called thought she was Filipino due to her name. But, Maria is a name common for Christians worldwide. Mary, Maria, and in Arabic — Miriam, Mariana, all derive from Mary, the mother of Jesus. Filipinos do not have exclusive rights to Christian names, although they dominate the call center business.
It is confusing, because my assistant is from Vienna, Austria, but lives half the year in Los Angeles, California. Then, she does phone calls to India. Her global lifestyle can be confusing to others I guess.
So, my assistant said a few sentences in Hindi to the gentleman which proved herself to not be Filipino, since most Filipinos don’t know Hindi.
In any case, when doing business in India, people assume that every claim you make is false, so you have to have evidence that is easy for them to see that everything you are saying is verifiable!
When doing business with people in the West, don’t behave like this guy behaved or nobody will like you!