Having worked at Softbank, most (not all…) the level 1 people are right off the street and trained for 2 weeks, if you’re lucky. Most their answers are from a manual/FAQ they are given access to.
And I feel your pain about speaking with someone from India. I deal with individuals from India and a daily basis. And most everytime I end up telling them how to do their job, i.e. write a program properly.
And yes, Time Warner is worse than Adelphia.