foreign call centres

bigoggy2007

i've just had a call from an indian call centre worker from b.t.

he said his name was ian, very indian name that!

when i started talking to him he said i was puting on a strong accent and he wasn't able to understand me, i derbyshire born and bread, with no strong accent, he asked to talk to my wife "who's a scouser" he also accused her of puting on a fake accent!

at this point i snaped and took over the call and told him he is the person with the accent, we are british, with british accents, if he can't understand people he is in the wrong job.

he then accused me of been racist, and slammed down the phone.

i never implied anything about his race, just his ability to do his job

mrcol1000

bigoggy2007 wrote: »

i've just had a call from an indian call centre worker from b.t.

he said his name was ian, very indian name that!

when i started talking to him he said i was puting on a strong accent and he wasn't able to understand me, i derbyshire born and bread, with no strong accent, he asked to talk to my wife "who's a scouser" he also accused her of puting on a fake accent!

at this point i snaped and took over the call and told him he is the person with the accent, we are british, with british accents, if he can't understand people he is in the wrong job.

he then accused me of been racist, and slammed down the phone.

i never implied anything about his race, just his ability to do his job

To be fair I am British and stuggle sometimes to understand people if they have a strong accent. I am sure if you phoned someone in India your struggle to have a convesation with them in their own language.

angle

I struggle to understand any call centre worker over the phone. They work in such noisy environments that it can be difficult.

MothballsWallet

Call centres aren't really designed to make the staffs' lives easier - there aren't any features to reduce noise, and they're often all packed together into small areas with open plan offices that really carry noise.

vyle

Argh, I hate foreign call centres. Last time I had to call one I was calling Orange and the person kept sounding like they were saying "Gimblish gimblish" whenever I said my address and I was getting quite confused.

I then realised he was saying "Cambridge cambridge?" because he was excited to be speaking to somebody from "The" Cambridge.

But really, if you work in a call centre dealing with english people, it's probably best not to insult their accent, because that's like me selling somebody a TV while telling them they're couch potatoes. It's not a great customer service technique.

OnceUponADream

mrcol1000 wrote: »

To be fair I am British and stuggle sometimes to understand people if they have a strong accent. I am sure if you phoned someone in India your struggle to have a convesation with them in their own language.

I agree to the extent were I can sometimes struggle with certain regional accents, however with my lack of Indian language I would be unlikely to accept a job which involved me trying to make conversation. I don't blame this on any call centre staff just the greedy companies who employ them.

I dislike getting calls from these centres as well as one not only do I find they won't take no for an answer but two they keep calling regardless of the fact that I have asked them not to:mad: and three they read of a bl00dy sheet and can't answer any questions:mad:.

PinkLipgloss

When my sister was a student she used to work at a well known insurance companies call centre. Some of their claims calls were diverted to India.

One evening she got a call from an extremely agitated woman who had a frustrating experience after her dishwasher broke down (resulting in water damage). She called to claim for repairs, got through to India. The staff member was unable to process her claim, stating that she was "not covered".

She was angry as she knew that her policy did cover such an incident. Finally, after a lengthy argument, she discovered that the staff member stated she was "not covered" as her insurance policy did not "cover staff":rotfl:

Amistoso_2

bigoggy2007 wrote: »

i've just had a call from an indian call centre worker from b.t.

he said his name was ian, very indian name that!

when i started talking to him he said i was puting on a strong accent and he wasn't able to understand me, i derbyshire born and bread, with no strong accent, he asked to talk to my wife "who's a scouser" he also accused her of puting on a fake accent!

at this point i snaped and took over the call and told him he is the person with the accent, we are british, with british accents, if he can't understand people he is in the wrong job.

he then accused me of been racist, and slammed down the phone.

i never implied anything about his race, just his ability to do his job

Flippin cheek!!!
Have to say this is one of my major bug bears. They are always called Jim or Ian and never understand a flippin word, then get all arsey and it's them that call you. Well do us a flamin favour and don't bl00dy bother in the first place.

AsknAnswer

I get really frustrated when I have to phone many customer service places and I get through to someone who can't understand me, and I can't understand them. They try to repeat what you have said to them, so they ensure they understand. Problem is what they repeat has no bearing to what you've said! Their English is practically non existent. It's like having a conversation with Manuel of Fawlty Towers. I have the same mobile and broadband provider and even when I press the option for "mobile", I always get an answer to do with broadband:

me: "Hi, I am having problems with the network signal on my mobile, there hasn't been a network for almost two days. Can you tell me if there is a known problem with the mobile network?"

them: "cai?"

Me: "The network signal on my telephone. I can't use my phone as there's no network, and there hasn't been for a while"

them: "whiiiilllleeeeeee?"

me: "Yes, a while"

them: "whiiilllleeee"

me: "eh?"

them: Cai?"

me: "eh?"

them: "Ezzz pag ee note schwing, pag note dees plack eed?"

me: "Eh?!"

them: "pag. Do wee en. eenternet?"

Me: "No, not internet.....phone...."

them: "foane?"

me: "Yes, phone, phone!"

Them: "ahhh - eentirnet, dowen!"

Me: "Arrrghhh!

I can have a more productive conversation with my toddler. I have on several occasions asked to be transferred to someone else, but of course they can't understand what I am saying so I have to hang up and ring back time and again until I can get someone who can speak either English fluently or who is british. I got put through to a supervisor one day because the call handler could not make head or tail of what I was saying and I said to her how utterley hopeless it was trying to have a conversation with someone whose english was broken to such a degree there were unitelligible. The supervisor actually told me in no uncertain terms that the volume of complaints about this is astronomical but nothing is ever done about it because it's viewed as "racist".

costapkt

I n my opinion if the product was any good , firms would not need these call centres. They are admitting that there is a fault with whatever they are selling and should get their house in order instead of getting cheap foreign labour to try and solve the problem.

kitekat

Its not our fault that these cheapskate companies employ foreign workers who cannot understand English.Its their job to understand us not visa versa and if they dont they should not get employment in call centres till they can understand every word of the English language.Its nothing to do with racisism its common sense.We should boycott companies whos employees cannot understand our language.