Fooking India and BT!!!

[slinger]

Get off your high horse mate, calling someone an idiot doesnt make him racist just because the group of people he is referring to happen to live in India. I've experienced first hand having to deal with these "idiots", and yes I'm saying idiot too. Anybody who when asked a simple question about their company's product, has to refer to a script to give an answer, which in turn has no relevance to the question in hand is in my book, an idiot. Call me racist if you like, I'll go make myself a BNP sig just to cement your thoughts on that [rolleyes] This has no relevance to that oerson being located in another country, simply that I expect that person to:

a) know what they are talking about, they are a representitive of the company of which I am a customer after all!
b) be able to communicate with me in a clear understandable tongue. Thats not too much to ask is it? If I wasn't bothered about being able to understand people I would buy everything from Germany and get the best quality & service money could buy

You've obviously never experienced the crap customer service us UK'ers are now having to get used to. Try phoning your banks telephone service to say, get your balance etc. and see if you get a straight answer or worst still, be able to understand what is said back to you.

I am all for people, whatever country or religion, doing well for themselves, that has never been brought into question here. What I do have a problem with is me paying for a product from a UK company, and not be provided with something as simple as adequate support, or even worse, a coherent English speaking voice at the other end of the phone!!!

Now if that makes me or whoever else a racist in your book then so be it. If your that narrow minded I couldn't care less anyway

[chrisinthesun20]

The only problem I've ever had with an overseas call-center was when I was trying to access my Abbey National Internet banking. I rarely use the account, so I was not able to answer many of the security questions they were asking me. (whats my overdraft amount? - I don't know, I never asked for an overdraft, and I've never used it, so I have no idea what it is).

In all fairness though, these problems were down to a number of reasons, none of them to do with the fact that the call-center was overseas:

1. Call center people can be thick, no matter what country they are in. There are plenty of cabbage-level IQ British people working in call-centers too. God knows I've had the misfortune of speaking to many of them.

2. Call center people, no matter where they are based, are not trained to think outside of the box. If you ask them something they don't have a script or procedure for, then they either don't know, or they say they can't help you.

3. Outsourcing of call-centers removes the customer loyalty part of dealing with a company. Often, when dealing with an inhouse call center, they will be more flexible and understanding if you are a long-standing curstomer, or one that has spent a lot of money with them etc. When dealing with an outsourced call center these facts are rarely taken into account.

[QuadDamage]

Okay, so there's a language barrier. He grew up speaking English and they grew up speaking whatever dialect they grew up with (probably several based on the region.) Because they do not speak English as their native tongue and there is a language barrier, does this make them any less intelligent

Which finally brings us to the point GG was trying to make : Why outsource the calls to someone who can barely speak or/and understand what you're talking about. How can those poor basrards help you fix whatever problem you have.

[Streifenkarl]

2. Call center people, no matter where they are based, are not trained to think outside of the box. If you ask them something they don't have a script or procedure for, then they either don't know, or they say they can't help you.

This is bullshit. It depends on the company that owns the call center. Some train their agents in a way to think outside of that box. I mean all call centers have their compendium, but some give their agents alot more to say and improvise. Talked to a FRITZ call center agent yesterday (DSL modems/routers), and the guy really tried everything to help us. We even went deep into Windows to places probably no man has gone before and finally he found the problem. The call center was placed in Berlin so he could speak my language, heh.

[IgLoCSka]

This is bullshit. It depends on the company that owns the call center. Some train their agents in a way to think outside of that box. I mean all call centers have their compendium, but some give their agents alot more to say and improvise. Talked to a FRITZ call center agent yesterday (DSL modems/routers), and the guy really tried everything to help us. We even went deep into Windows to places probably no man has gone before and finally he found the problem. The call center was placed in Berlin so he could speak my language, heh.

Same, had someone at my ISP try everything basically to help me out once (nextgentel) [thumbup]

[chrisinthesun20]

This is bullshit. It depends on the company that owns the call center. Some train their agents in a way to think outside of that box. I mean all call centers have their compendium, but some give their agents alot more to say and improvise. Talked to a FRITZ call center agent yesterday (DSL modems/routers), and the guy really tried everything to help us. We even went deep into Windows to places probably no man has gone before and finally he found the problem. The call center was placed in Berlin so he could speak my language, heh.

Granted it depends on the company - however to date all the customer service lines etc I have ever contacted, the people have just been script reading. I am talking more customer service though (banks etc) - as opposed to ISP/PC tech support, which I know can be different depending on the company.

[Streifenkarl]

Well thats true. Simple customer service agents do have a script they (must) follow most of the time.

But I mean, what are these top managers thinking? Most of them should be shot. They ARE already going to India, so why not invest a little more (which would be still alot less than the company would have to spend here) and make sure the hired people there speak perfect understandable English and train them to the hardware or service they are providing service for? Really, all this living and dieing for share values is bringing the whole system down.

[Chazam]

I've not had any problems with outsourced call centers.
For example

We moved into a new block of flats and wanted a BT land line.
We called BT and was connected to an Indian call center.
The computers in the Indian call center couldn't find our address as the flats were too new so they immediately transferred us back to England and the problem was sorted. The indian side of the call center was no hastle and we understood each other perfectly.

Also, when i was with T-Mobile most of the calls i made to them were Scottish and they were a great help. Its a pity that T-Mobile is shuch a sh** company, but thaty's a whole different story.

[OHP]

I've not had any problems with outsourced call centers.
For example

We moved into a new block of flats and wanted a BT land line.
We called BT and was connected to an Indian call center.
The computers in the Indian call center couldn't find our address as the flats were too new so they immediately transferred us back to England and the problem was sorted. The indian side of the call center was no hastle and we understood each other perfectly.

Also, when i was with T-Mobile most of the calls i made to them were Scottish and they were a great help. Its a pity that T-Mobile is shuch a sh** company, but thaty's a whole different story.

i just have problems with understanding the very broad glaswegen-esque accents up here im not anywere near glasgow so the accent up here is like that but worse they seem to over do it up here honest

[Chazam]

i just have problems with understanding the very broad glaswegen-esque accents up here im not anywere near glasgow so the accent up here is like that but worse they seem to over do it up here honest

None of their languages were that strong and most of them were female anyway. They were good tho.

I kinda found their scottish accents sexy........

OMG MY FONE DONT WORK..... LETS CALL THE SEXY SCOTISH GIRLS AT THE CALLCENTER!