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BS: Consider this
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Gurney Date: 14 Jun 11 - 06:08 PM I once worked with a Scot who came from Arbroath. When he felt strongly, we had to have a Glaswegian translate! This is in an English-speaking country. I have noticed that it is only on the telephone that I have trouble. Face to face I can understand pretty much any accent. There may be a lip-reading element. I have discarded two cell-phones because of deteriorating earpiece speakers. Different brands. Land-lines seem to last better. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Big Al Whittle Date: 14 Jun 11 - 05:14 PM what if you went into the music shop and said, can i have a word with the Chinese bloke who made this guitar? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: katlaughing Date: 14 Jun 11 - 05:02 PM Jeri, well said. Life and blood pressures are a lot better off if one tries to be compassionate and patient with themselves and others. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,999 Date: 14 Jun 11 - 03:07 PM The last shit service I received was from the post office. The young lady spoke perfect English. Unfortunately, she couldn`t read the tracking report of a registered-type letter. Eventually, a person I knew in the destination city tracked the letter down for me. It had been delivered to a store next door to the bank and it sat in the store for EIGHT DAYS. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Dave the Gnome Date: 14 Jun 11 - 03:01 PM It's not whether or not a person is in this country that's an issue. For me, it's whether I can communicate with them and whether they know their job. Jeri - You are absolutely spot on. Unfortunately people of a radical persuasion tend to use these things to incite racial intollerence. If only everyone realised that it is not the background of the operator, but their skill with the customer that counts. But, didn't you know there was one of them coming :-) But, we do get bad service from all call centres - wherever they are. There are the people who just want to get rid of you to build up their stats. There are those who will only follow the script and not deviate. Then there are those who will go th eextra mile to help - But that applies to call centres in Munbia, Manchester or Massachusetts. Unfortunately, because call centres are being taken out of our native lands the impression is that we get poor service from other countries. It is simply a matter of statistics. And while the call centres, and staff, are new we see it even more. To add to the already clouded issue we get (as has already happened here) those who insist that people who complain about foreign call centres must be racist in some way. I complain about foreign call centres. The man in somewhere sunnier that me who insisted I was in "Newcastle upon Thames" was an absolute prick. But then again so was the one in Glasgow who insisted that my son had to pay higher insurance premiums because he had changed his job title. Not his job. Just his title. Anyroads. Rant done. My view, for what it's worth, is that provided I get the service I need it doesn't matter where it comes from. Now, as to medical professionals who cannot understand local dialects! Well, just don't get me started on how my daughter ended up with blood coming out of her ears... DtG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,lively Date: 14 Jun 11 - 02:30 PM "The problem, to get to the truth, is that we as consumers demand that products are priced as competitively as possible, squeezing the margins all the time which is fine when you are buying. The problem comes when you have a problem, it is difficult to reconcile buying at the cheapest prices yet expecting first class service when things go wrong." Quite. We recently dumped British Gas because of incessant and frustrating customer service incompetency which had nada to do with 'accents'. We moved to a company who (or so we learned via word of mouth) have a better reputation for customer service. Problem solved. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: kendall Date: 14 Jun 11 - 02:22 PM My problem is trying to get through to someone who can't really speak my language. Period.He had his own problem. Let's have a bit of clarity of thought here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: VirginiaTam Date: 14 Jun 11 - 01:51 PM I don't blinking care where the rep is or what kind of accent s/he has. Just give me a live person on the other end of the line, instead of the seven circles of hell automated systems with perfectly honed English recorded voice. Talk about blood pressure raising.... Christ I hate Orange! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Silas Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:53 PM No. Your experience is the problem for the poor sod on the other end of the phone who is simply trying to help you. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: kendall Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:51 PM Silas, your experience is not my problem. My experience is my problem. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Silas Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:35 PM Utter Rubbish. What on earth would be the point of employing someone like that? If you had a little patience and tolerance you can get by perfectly well. In my experience these people working in call centres in Bangalore or wherever are invariably extremley polite and very helpful. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:30 PM Kendall, thanks for the info. I have had problems with foreigners who cannot speak English well enough to answer my questions. It's common for people to know a few keys nouns and to mumble rapidly, merely pretending to speak, through the other words which they do not know. This just doesn't do the job when the topic is complicated, as it usually is. In fact, I recently came across a book which advocated doing that. It said, "Speak Spanish fast! Learn a few important words and skate real fast over all the others!" I don't think so. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,999 Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:05 PM Did anyone read the post Jeri made (qm) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Silas Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:01 PM The problem, to get to the truth, is that we as consumers demand that products are priced as competitively as possible, squeezing the margins all the time which is fine when you are buying. The problem comes when you have a problem, it is difficult to reconcile buying at the cheapest prices yet expecting first class service when things go wrong. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Jeri Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:55 AM It's not whether or not a person is in this country that's an issue. For me, it's whether I can communicate with them and whether they know their job. Unfortunately, when people hire individuals because they're cheap labor, you get what they pay for. For customer service people, it's often someone to baby-sit telephones (a 'chair filler') and answer people's stupid questions with obvious answers. No thinking required, other than where on the checklist your question falls, so they know which stock answer to feed you. Luckily, when they get a question that doesn't fit into the checklist, they'll refer you to someone who's expected to 1)listen, and 2)think. What sucks is that you have to go through the seat-filler first, and you KNOW they won't be able to help you, but they try... they HAVE to try. Then, you spend a bunch of time on 'hold' and have to go through the whole explanation with a new person, who first has to recommend the same ineffective things the chair-filler did. Yes, it's frustrating, but the primary reason isn't because the jobs are outsourced or the employees are from other countries. The problem is that the companies doing the hiring them don't want to pay for employees with brains and communication skills, and there's nothing to make it worth their while to do so. For the record, to me, the most offensive part of the message above is about people not from the US. People with accents. Some of the most intelligent, helpful people I've dealt with on line have had accents. But they also had skills. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,lively Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:43 AM I've rarely had difficulty understanding someone speaking English in an accent other than my own. When this has been a problem, the solution has been to ask the speaker to speak slowly. So I take no issue with the quality of customer care provided by centres in other countries. I do however have issues with companies outsourcing their workforce to cheap foreign labour. However as this is a Capitalist system, there's not a lot I can do about that but grumble on forums while waiting for 'the revolution' ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: ranger1 Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:37 AM Recently, I had to call customer support while attempting to install my mom's new Roku box. I spoke to a very nice, polite, helpful gentleman in (I presume, based on the accent) India, who walked me through the problem I was having step-by-step. I had a much better experience with him than I have had with customer reps in the US. I really have no issues with dealing with customer reps in other countries as long as the experience is a postitive one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:36 AM One time I had an especially hard time understanding a service tech, having to ask him to repeat each instruction two or three times, as I could not get through the accent. Finally I apologized for not understanding him, and asked to be transferred to another tech. He did so, but I think reluctantly, as it reflected on his ability to communicate well. Another time at the former Robinson-May department store (now Macy's-aren't they all?) I asked to see a kitchen knife, which was clearly priced. In her best Armenian/Iranian/Russian accent she told me the price...three times. Finally I pantomimed opening the case. I live in an area that has a large Armenian population, and a slightly less Korean population. I think it good business to hire people who speak those languages, but at the same time those sales folks must be able to communicate in English, also. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Donuel Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:26 AM To proclaim that speaking to a US representative over a rep in India or Asia is xenophobic is callous and absurd. I have been mistreated by the best US and foregn customer phone representatives alike. My experience is that US reps tend to be more vengeful ie. calling back a number of times and hanging up if they feel slighted in any way. Foriegn reps tend to operate with a unique sense of extremely polite impunity. I have gotten excellent advice from foregn reps despite some communication problems. The meanest most callous and inconsiderate phone reps have all been American ...However... of all the calls in which a person is more often friendly and willing to go an extra mile for me, they have been fellow Americans. Having the option to speak to a fellow citizen for the benefits of understanding every nuance a common language may provide is a just and reasonable option to have. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: katlaughing Date: 14 Jun 11 - 10:51 AM I would suggest you rent a copy of "Outsourced" and be prepared to have fun watching. You may even have to watch it twice to catch everything. Netflix has it available for online viewing as does IMDB. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Silas Date: 14 Jun 11 - 09:54 AM "Have you ever been frustrated to the point of anger when you were unable to communicate with someone who only thinks they speak English?" Like Americans you mean...............(only joking) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,kendall Date: 14 Jun 11 - 09:53 AM For once I agree with Jack. It drives me batty trying to get through to some of those people. It sounded logical so I posted it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Jeri Date: 14 Jun 11 - 09:52 AM It's bullshit, and it's spam. Check: |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Jack Campin Date: 14 Jun 11 - 09:23 AM If the company is willing to pay people with good English they can get them. In the US or elsewhere. Very good English speakers (able to adapt to people with a variety of regional dialects) are going to cost more than a call centre will typically pay, in India as in the US. It's fairly common problem for Scots speakers that they end up having to deal with somebody in south-east England who can't and won't understand what they're being told. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Bill D Date: 14 Jun 11 - 09:16 AM Last month, I had to call Comcast about something.... I could barely understand him, and asked where he was. In the Philippines! This is a regular problem, and someone needs to work out a solution where people can get help that they can understand. Even within the US it can be tedious....I had to deal once with a very nice woman in Alabama-- whose accent was so pronounced I had to ask her to repeat a lot. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Greg F. Date: 14 Jun 11 - 08:58 AM http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/servicerep.asp Sorry, but its bullshit. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Consider this From: Jack Campin Date: 14 Jun 11 - 08:28 AM Xenophobic crap. What matters is that workers are paid well and do the job properly. Where they are is irrelevant. The only reason you are talking to workers in another country is because the US corporations who employ them won't pay ANY workers a decent wage to do the job. If they could get away with paying sub-Indian wages in the US they'd do it. As somebody said a long time ago, the workers have no country. |
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Subject: BS: Consider this From: GUEST,Kendall Date: 14 Jun 11 - 07:47 AM Have you ever been frustrated to the point of anger when you were unable to communicate with someone who only thinks they speak English? Any time you call an 800 number (for a credit card, banking, charter communications, health and other insurance, computer help desk, etc) and you find that you're talking to a foreign customer service representative (perhaps in India, Philippines, etc), please consider doing the following: After you connect and you realize that the customer service representative is not from the USA (you can always ask if you are not sure about the accent), please, very politely (very politely - this is not about trashing other cultures) say, "I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the United States of America ." The rep might suggest talking to his/her manager, but, again, politely say, "Thank you, but I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the USA ." YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED to a rep in the USA . That's the rule and the LAW. It takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to the USA . Tonight when I got redirected to a USA rep, I asked again to make sure - and yes, she was from Fort Lauderdale . If tomorrow every US citizen who has to make such a call, and then requests a U.S. rep, imagine how that would ultimately impact the number of US jobs that would need to be created ASAP. Imagine what would happen if every US citizen insisted on talking to only US phone reps from this day on. If I tell 10 people to consider this and you tell 10 people to consider doing this - see what I mean...it becomes an exercise in viral marketing 101. Remember - the goal here is to restore jobs back here at home - not to be abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep. You may even get correct answers, good advice, and solutions to your problem - in real English. If you agree, please tell 10 people you know, and ask them to tell 10 people they know....etc...etc... PLEASE DO IT |
