I would think that it depends on the model of the Call Center. In my past exeprience, working as a manager for a Call Center, we were paid on a per case basis.
So, if it became necessary to transfer a call to a different contact center, because it was requested, even if a technician had spent X time on the call, than, too bad so sad, we were not getting paid for that call. And we are located in Canada. We all speak english. And, yet, we would get the occasional irrate, yelling at us that we were in [name country here] and that they wanted support from the very least their own continent... *sigh*
But that's the world today. Outsourcing. Globalization. Time is money...
Not saying this is the case with this particular contact center. But the reality is, you can staff a lot more people in Mumbai for example- I use it as an example of my own past and personal experience and in no way meant to insult anyone; than you could in Toronto.
For the same amont of money being spent (hourly), including, staff, infrastructure, etc. At the time, we could have a 4 to 1 ratio. Thus, it seemed to people that they were always going somewhere else. Nothing you can do about things like that when Global Queues are in place. It's all round robin. But, there does exist transfer buttons and internal extensions on both hardphone and softphone. If not the whole process of a Global Queue would not work. The systems would not know who the "next available agent is" and/or how to get the call to him/her.
Just my 2 pennies.