Foreign call centres

[HeyWayne]

Do you, like me, get on edge as soon as you hear those words "Hello, my name is Albert/Samantha (said in strongest New Delhi accent), how can I help you?"

Of all the calls I have made to customer "support/service" centres where English is not the first langauge I have only ever had one good experience.

Any company I deal with who has a foreign call centre is not customer focused in my opinion.

Had a particularly strained conversation with a representative from a certain internet provider earlier today, hence the post.

[rainbowbrite]

omg i totally hate it, i'm severly deaf and struggle on phones at the best of times but when they don't even have an accent which is easy to understand then 100 times worse.

i also hate pushy phone sellers, my trick, tell em i'm blacklisted, they leave you alone then!!

by the way ur internet provider wan't sky was it, ours just went down for 2 days!!

[HeyWayne]

i also hate pushy phone sellers, my trick, tell em i'm blacklisted, they leave you alone then!!

by the way ur internet provider wan't sky was it, ours just went down for 2 days!!

Get yourself listed with these people: TPS Registration

You shouldn't get any more telesales calls. We get maybe 2 a year now and I make a point of telling them I'm registered. They don't hang around much after that.

No it wasn't Sky.

[Seahorse]

Sets my teeth on edge immediately too. Like rainbowbrite, I have hearing difficulties and often have at least one child mithering me, so it can even be a struggle speaking to someone with a very clear accent.

I always feel reluctant to complain though, because I think it's all too easy to come over as a rascist 'Little Englander' (which I'm not, of course!).

[areia]

just do what i do if you end up with a person you cannot understand tell them you wish to speak to someone of your language it is within your rights to do so, i just say im sorry i cannot understand you clearly and i need to be able to understand in case of referance later, please refer me to an english speaking adviser ( im a stickler of making sure i get names ) and if they get pooy and say they are english just ( mentally say get elecution lessons) ask for there supervisor if they wont transfer you, at the end of the day all calls are ment to be recorded if you are polite, and they get pooy well they are the ones that get into trouble.

mind you i dont whats worse automated calls who cant even undertand the simplest of words even if i put on a male american accent,

[HeyWayne]

Sets my teeth on edge immediately too. Like rainbowbrite, I have hearing difficulties and often have at least one child mithering me, so it can even be a struggle speaking to someone with a very clear accent.

I always feel reluctant to complain though, because I think it's all too easy to come over as a rascist 'Little Englander' (which I'm not, of course!).

Do it - they're providing a "service" if that service isn't up to your expectations, complain. Call it feedback for marketing people.

I complained once to my bank, the supervisor listened back to the call, agreed with my comments and took the representative off live calls, retrained them and got them back on at a later date.

LadyWayne asked if I fealt bad for getting that person reprimanded and I replied that I didn't - the bank should feel bad for creating that situation.

I've been doing quite a bit of complaining recently, it's interesting to see the ones that are better at responding.

[Lady Jana Muck]

I just tell them to **** off. We all lost our jobs at a call centre for BT and I think if we all put the phone down on them, they will one day have to bring our jobs back to this country. Sorry to rant but this subject makes my blood boil.

[jackie j]

We have registered and only get calls now from companies who alredy have our number,
also ticked the box on electrol form dont get much junk mail either.
Keep getting a call that shows as international on our phone so dont answer and the answer phone is always on and if we dont recognise the number we let it connect.

[quark1]

When a certain 'former' national provider of telecoms - yeah you know the one I mean - British in its former name, but far from it! - started to charge £4.50 per qtr for paying by any other method bar direct debit and when I also discovered they now have call centres offshore in India I terminated my life-long association with them. I have advised friends to do the same wherever practical!

I now have a deal at £20 per month which provides line rental, calls to 01/02 numbers and 10 international locations, some mobiles in those locations and B/Band.

I need have no further contact with 'that' company and will repeat the process wherever it is possible to replace with a company offering either a better, cheaper or UK based service.

I have worked for an international credit card company in the past and when they consolidated their call centre operations in Brighton did so by relocating local-speaking staff to Brighton and thereby making the language 'problem' seamless/non-existant.

Whilst I have the greatest of respect for these foreign nationals speaking English - I find it very difficult sometimes to pick out the words when they are heavily accented with a local brogue - for someone hard of hearing the problem worsens. This should not be inflicted by UK companies if they truly value the custom of their UK patrons.

I am also troubled by the fact that if MY data may be accessed by offshore 'enterprises' that if (when) it might be abused for fraudulent purposes - it may be doubly difficult to track down and prosecute through normal channels. I had a credit card taken out in my name some years ago which ran up debt in the order of 10K+. Thankfully at that time I had NEVER dealt with the issuer in any capacity - but what if I had had a savings or current a/c - would it have been more difficult to prove my position? As it was I had evidence via my 'boring' homage trip to asda to buy the groceries that I was elsewhere when some of the ATM stealing was perpetrated in London. It was an African gang but they never caught them. The trip to the police station to report said fraud was one of the most uncomfotable I've ever made - even though totally innocent.

What I did learn was that credit card fraud is possibly one of the easiest to do and get away with. Off-shoring support for these products can only lead to further easier abuse where a C4 documentary in the last couple of years demonstrated how easy it is to purchase x thousands of credit card details on the sub-continent for comparatively small sums.

[squashysu]

I just have to say - I live in England, so why cant I speak to someone in England/UK?????????????????

I HATE THOSE CALL CENTRES!!!!!!!! - cant say anymore or it will be 5 pages of pure rant!!

SS

[HeyWayne]

Glad to see I'm not alone on this then!

[screwbylil]

my hubby tells them to ring back in 6 monhs when hes served his latest prison sentence i can gaurantee they dont ring back

[smallblueplanet]

...Had a particularly strained conversation with a representative from a certain internet provider earlier today, hence the post.

Then change your ISP, it ain't the fault of the people they employ!

[Alice]

Get yourself listed with these people: TPS Registration

You shouldn't get any more telesales calls. We get maybe 2 a year now and I make a point of telling them I'm registered. They don't hang around much after that.

No it wasn't Sky.

I don't think it applies to calls originating outside the UK; to people who claim they are doing a survey; or to any company (or their subsidiaries) who can show you are their customer ( however many steps removed). I'm registered with them and still get plagued with calls originating in the Indian sub continent. When they call me their names are Alistair and Fiona. I wonder if they have different names for different regions.

[percy charlie]

was it aol they are just difficult hubby wont change cos hes used to the email and search settings. i worked for a bank most jobs in customer services via phone have gone to india my job went to northampton though but i know what you mean as we had to ring through to these departments so i spent a few hours 4 days a week talking to them for over 5 years and i still dont understand them any better, but automated services are worse.