I hate overseas call centres
By pilbara
@pilbara (1436)
Australia
August 14, 2007 2:56am CST
It has become common for large companies to move their call centres overseas because of wages.
This annoys me for several reasons, not just job loss.
Often the people you talk to have strong accents and I can't understand what they are saying. They don't understand me too well either.
I think it is more of a company directive than a personal thing but if they promise to do something they don't do it. Then you have to call back and speak to someone else about it. My husband spoke to 6 different people about getting some services on his phone cancelled and they kept billing him, each time he got a bill he would ring again and they kept on saying there was no record of his previous request. He was so furious last night he actually thumped the table. They will not listen to anything you say, effectively call you a liar and you argue round and round in circles.
I wonder if companies actually consider the amount of business they lose because of these?
6 people like this
12 responses
@MisterPlus (1915)
• Philippines
15 Aug 07
English is widely spoken by various countries and there may be some language barrier with your husband and the call center agent. Companies investing their money to other countries for services like call centers must improve their agents by more education by the language they are going to use.
2 people like this
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
Thanks for your reply. But as I have said the accent is only 1 issue. The other is that they say they will do certain things and they don't. Then when you chase it up again they say there is no record of the original request or the next or the next and that is when it really gets infuriating.
1 person likes this
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
15 Aug 07
There does seem to be a double standard here in Australia, there is one big push for the little peopl to buy Australian, that looking after your own is what we are supposed to be doing then the big fish get rid of staff bit by bit as Telstra did and then take their business off shore, I don't think they should be called an Austealian company when they do that.
@angelface23 (2494)
• United States
14 Aug 07
yes I hate calling somewhere and getting a foreigner!! Nothing against foreign people but it's really hard to understand and I also don't like the fact that they are taking OUR jobs. Capital One was always really bad about their CSR's. I always got some person who I couldnt understand at all!! Eventually though I think they will all be like that so in the end you will have no choice but to stay with that company lest their crappy customer service reps!!
@epsilonhawk (18)
• India
14 Aug 07
yes,call centres do sometimes spell out problems for their overseas clients.but at the end of the day we all have to cope up with with the harsh reality that they must be offering something to their client companies whether it be their low cost,work efficiency or job dedication,that makes them a such a rage.globalisation has two faces-good n bad.
i must confess that my country is booming with call centres catering to foreign companies.these have provided a lot of jobs to the skilled population.i would also like to add that in 60 years its the first time that POPULATION GROWTH IS LESS THAN GROWTH IN JOBS.thanx to booming IT industry largely driven by call centres.
ACCENT is an area they really need to improve,given the upbringing in completely "non-english" environs.
1 person likes this
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
Thanks for your reply. The accent is only part of it, the poor service is the main issue I have.
I used to have a customer service job and it was drilled into us that if we promised a customer something then we did it. If for some reason we couldn't then we would call back and let them know. People don't get mad generally if they know their issue is being attended to. It is very annoying to have to keep calling back and then for them to say there is no record of the previous call so therefore it is obvious that you are lying.
@microzeta (245)
• United States
14 Aug 07
I couldn't agree with you more. Not only can't you communicate effectively because you're constantly trying to figure out what the other person said, but it creates such distance between the customer and business. If they won't speak to you themselves, instead routing your call to some random person who doesn't know anything about the company, what does that say about how much the company cares about the customers?
I'm not familiar at all with Australian law, but when I have to deal with outsourced CSRs, and they end up not being able to help, I just throw around some quasi-legalese mumbo jumbo, talk about agency and contractual obligations, and typically that gets me what I want :D
2 people like this
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
Thanks for your reply. The communication problem is preety bad but the poor service is even worse.
I think the reason they can't find information about previous calls on their system is that they never logged it in the first place.
Over several calls we wrote down names and what was said and they even contradicted themselves.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
15 Aug 07
So much for that message you always get, "This conversation may be monitored for quality purposes" Well if all our calls are "monitored" a nice way of saying recorded then they should have had it on record that your husband had called so many times--or at least have SOME kind of record. Yes, almost all big major companies used the overseas call centres--from banks, credit card companies, etc--and rarely do you even get a chance to even talk to a real person but deal with those stupid automated things-- then when you do finally get to talk to a real live person, as you said, you can't even understand what the he!! they are saying...I have to keep saying, "What?" Now my hearing is very acute but I just wish these people would at least talk right...They always say, press 1 for English, press 2 for..(whatever...Spanish)..well if you press 1 for English, shouldn't we get someone that really speaks English??
1 person likes this
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
16 Aug 07
Thanks for your reply. As far as I can tell the vocabulary these people have is good enough it is just the accent.
They also don't understand common colloquialisms. For example after going around and around in circles for about 20 minutes my husband said "I'm getting really pissed off" and their reply was "have you been drinking?"
@jaisundar (215)
•
15 Aug 07
I think training period for call centre jobs should be extended so that they dont lose their business for the next future. Training really benefits a business to a greater extent. Especially there should be a common accent training by a specialized tutor.
2 people like this
@rogue13xmen13 (14403)
• United States
15 Aug 07
I agree, most all jobs are going overseas. Jobs that used to belong to hardworking Americans are now going to India, China, and the Philippines. People in the US have to look for other jobs now.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
18 Aug 07
I doubt it. They just consider the bottom line, and here in Canada, where the official line is multiculturalism, the government thinks it is wonderful that Canadian companies are encouraging people in India and other Asian countries to make money, at the expense of Canadians here mind you. I do not think the companies care, because that means you have to buy a new product, but why could not the businesses give telemarketing jobs to people in their own country instead of patting themselves on the back with a false pride because they let people whose
English is not perfect and whose accents we cannot understand take work that many here in Canada, the States, and the Western countries would be glad to have.
@okedoke (67)
•
15 Aug 07
I hate call centre, expecally people with strong accents as its very hard to understand them, my wife had the same thing with bt (phone company in the uk) we was having problems with our broadband connection and all the chap kept saying was 'connect all the leads', 'make sure they all connected'...i worked in electrial retail for 5 yrs which i told him as him tellim me this made me mad 2 hours we was on the phone in the end i hung up on him and called again the following day and demanded am engineer to come out
1 person likes this
@misheleen73 (6037)
• United States
16 Aug 07
I know what you mean. I get so frustrated when I call up the local cable company and get some girl in India. It is not that I have a problem with the girl, but what exactly can she do for me in India? My cable problem is in Illinois in the USA. I have been told before that there is no record of previous conversations. I started writing down names and dates of when I spoke to people, but it doesn't matter either because they all use fake names like Jerry or Bob. It doesn't seem to bother the companies in the least as it seems more and more of them are outsourcing now.
1 person likes this
@sunnywaters (189)
• United States
15 Aug 07
I, too, have had many difficult discussions with people overseas. They are friendly and polite but when I have a decision to make I need to thoroughly understand what they are saying and the majority of the time, I do not. It is infuriating to me that it has come down to "greed and money". Service is practically non-existent any more.
linda allmaras
1 person likes this
@beauty_ph (2749)
• Philippines
14 Aug 07
I also hate call centers in our city. They are selling like hot cakes here. The agents in those offices are acting as if someone else. They think they can talk with accent, and they think they can be superior. Grrrrr. I am sorry, but I know these call centers here are giving income to my countrymen. I think it is helping my country financially. But it is doing something else with the agent's attitude.
