Annoyingly annoying non UK call centres!

[Mr Allen]

Grr! Why is it that most of the big name mobile phone companies and UK utility providers have non UK call centres staffed by Indians who don't understand English most of the time?! So damn annoying.

Worst thing is, I hate myself for being overly critical of Foreigners because I voted remain for Brexit mainly because I DON'T take issue with immigrants.

The main problem is I speak in a very strong local accent, and most of the non UK call centre staff don't understand me, like I was on the mobile to 3, my mobile network yesterday, because they sent me a text about an upgrade offer, £20 a month for unlimited everything, texts, minutes and data, so I rang 'em up, tried to explain who I was, they didn't understand, I was on the verge of getting well, a bit annoyed, and hung up.

This happens nearly every time though, I was forced to give 30 days notice to Virgin Media last year because their non UK call centre never understood when I had to speak to them about contract and line issues, sometimes due to poor signal as well as the highly annoying "language barrier".

Does anyone else have this problem? On either side of the Atlantic?

 

[AGXStarseed]

Yeah - my Hull accent causes a few problems when it comes to dealing with call centres and certain businesses, as evidenced brilliantly with this sign.

Sometimes to get around it, I have to 'adopt' a monotone voice for speaking with them in order to 'filter' my accent out in order for them to understand me, although once or twice I've had problems there too as one person thought I was a machine and the other thought I was a prank caller.

 

[Mattymatt]

I have just the reverse problem. Most of the major call center outsourcing in the US goes to Manilla or Cebu in the Phillipines. I have trouble understanding them because they speak English too fast but they do not speak slower when I ask them to. It's frustrating but this is the new reality of saving a buck to please the shareholders. I dread having to call customer service for anything. In fact, I try to use chat or twitter to reach someone in customer service instead.

 

[Autistamatic]

It baffles me how people have difficulty with Yorkshire accents in even our own country! When I worked in a call centre, all the Ooarr Westcountry people there would always complain about Yorkshire, Geordie and Scots accents as being impossible to understand. I may not be good at body language but accents don't bother me.

 

[Danno]

Next time you have to call, perhaps have a friend or family member with you so that if it starts to get too much for you, or if you feel the person who's with you might be able to communicate more effectively with the call handler, then you can always resort to that.

Outside of work, I HATE having to make phone calls to official places, so normally end up writing a bullet point list of what it is I need to discuss before I dial the number, to help keep me focused. And if possible I try and make sure there's no background noises or distractions (electrical items, other people talking, a cat walking through the door...) as well.

 

[Progster]

Worst thing is, I hate myself for being overly critical of Foreigners because I voted remain for Brexit mainly because I DON'T take issue with immigrants.

Given that this is a non-UK call centre, a call centre in India, Brexit or immigration really doesn't come into it here.
I get your frustration. I HATE call centres... I detest being made to wait for hours in a queue - the worst ever was British Airways making me wait for over an hour, just to tell me that I need to speak to another department and they need to connect me elsewhere, where I had a further 40 minute wait... I hate this ping pong thing, where they shuttle you between departments... you rehearse your speech, carefully explain what you want, in detail, and what do you get? Sorry, you need to talk to the X department. I am a foreigner and I often encounter the problem that they don't understand my accent. I must speak slowly and clearly.

But at least it's a person. Some call centres don't even employ people any more, instead you get a machine, a robot voice recorder that asks you questions and then records your answer, only that it doesn't give you enough time to give whatever information you need to give.

Mr Allen, you need to anticipate this when calling and make the effort to speak slowly and clearly. As a person who often talks to speakers of other languages, or who speaks another language with an accent and encounters this same problem, I can tell you that it's the only way.

 

[Shamar]

Grr! Why is it that most of the big name mobile phone companies and UK utility providers have non UK call centres staffed by Indians who don't understand English most of the time?! So damn annoying.

Worst thing is, I hate myself for being overly critical of Foreigners because I voted remain for Brexit mainly because I DON'T take issue with immigrants.

The main problem is I speak in a very strong local accent, and most of the non UK call centre staff don't understand me, like I was on the mobile to 3, my mobile network yesterday, because they sent me a text about an upgrade offer, £20 a month for unlimited everything, texts, minutes and data, so I rang 'em up, tried to explain who I was, they didn't understand, I was on the verge of getting well, a bit annoyed, and hung up.

This happens nearly every time though, I was forced to give 30 days notice to Virgin Media last year because their non UK call centre never understood when I had to speak to them about contract and line issues, sometimes due to poor signal as well as the highly annoying "language barrier".

Does anyone else have this problem? On either side of the Atlantic?

Many of the call centers, and those never-sufficiently-cursed fake Microsoft Tech calls, seem to be in India. I describe them as speaking Hindu with an English accent. Hindglish?

 

[Mr Allen]

Many of the call centers, and those never-sufficiently-cursed fake Microsoft Tech calls, seem to be in India. I describe them as speaking Hindu with an English accent. Hindglish?

Other way round actually, they speak rubbish English in an Indian accent, well most of the ones I've spoke to do anyway.

 

[Judge]

Some nine years ago I had to deal with a tech center out of India. Spent more than a half hour with them on the phone and got nowhere, even after letting them interface with my system. Not something I'd allow again in hindsight.

Anyways they turned out to be of no help at all. I ended up solving my router issues in a not to difficult way.

Ultimately I didn't have an issue with their accents, only their alleged expertise. But then you could say I was used to the accent, having worked with an underwriting assistant for about five years from India. She was a pleasant enough person to work with, as long as she didn't start discussing people from a particular neighboring country! Whether she was a "Hatfield" or a "McCoy" I could never tell.

The sad part is that companies often opt to foreign call centers as a matter of saving money. No matter how potentially bad it may soil their reputation relative to customer service. Leaving us all with about the only alternative to learning "the King's English" whether it really helps or not. Or becoming a "geek" sufficient to rival any customer service center dealing with high tech issues. Easier said than done, of course.

My yankee dialect is ok, forced to work on it to deal with Northerners, let alone foreigners. But I chose the second option...becoming a geek to handle most if not all my tech problems. Though in this day and age there's always going to be something that may well be beyond our ability to fix without help. You just never know...