The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

It's been a while since we've had these kinds of threads, but I've found a common trait with a specific cultural group: Indians (from India, not Native Americans).

I work in law firm and have calls escalated to me.  We have several Indian clients and they are almost universally hard to deal with.  I've spoken to friends and family in other industries and they've noticed the same thing.  In law, you'd expect that you hire an attorney and then take their advice about things.  However, our Indian clients are always wheeling and dealing with us...trying to argue about the minutia of billing or flat out refusing to make good decisions in their best financial interest.  It's like they hire you just so that they can argue with you about what you do.  They basically want to tell you what you should be doing instead of letting you explain your expertise in regard to the law.  For example, we might advise to lay low on an account to see if the statute of limitations will expire.  But they'll say that they want you to call opposing once a week -- which just makes no sense.  They're very distrusting of what we're doing and they hired us to do it.  Odd.

Anyway, I think it's because of their culture.  They come from a haggle/barter culture and it appears to carry over into other types of business. 

Has anyone noticed this or do I just sound like a racist creating an unfair stereotype?

Most people are hard to deal with these days. Whites,blacks,Indians,Asians,and all others. Most are hard to deal with in their own ways.

I know exactly what you are saying. As well ... I do find difficult people in different races but I have a few Indian customers that make it really difficult. There is a huge difference in dealing with a Caucasian Redneck who has authority issues and an Indian that feels they can build the Taj Mahal and not spend any money.

I think you are spot on Dave. I actually am a contractor for an Indian based company and they do things a lot differently then their American counterparts.

I recently bought a house and had a hard time getting them to give all of my employment information to the bank. I get paid 4 different amounts that I don't even know what they all are, but the bank wanted to ensure they were all part of my salary and not just for a limited time. They had to fill out a form and state that it was part of my salary. Took like 4 different attempts from the bank before they finally got what they wanted.

Prior to working with them, I had a contract through another American firm, but when SWA contracted out to the Indian company, I had to switch firms. Typically when this happens the new firm will pay the old firm some kind of fee for giving up the contract (since they make money off me). The Indian firm didn't want to do it. There was a long process of trying to convince them that this is normal since they were taking business away from my old firm.

I'm with you, I think it's just they are leery of anything and everything and don't want to get taken advantage of. Just because you are a lawyer, they still don't trust you.

I'm in sales. We get qualified leads, meaning the people we call already know something about my company before I sell them. If I see the last name Patel, I can assume I'm not getting the sale.  I can't haggle a price on what I sell, so it's usually just a wasted phone call