General Chat

racist, I have lived and worked abroad and some of my best friends are not British
But I have a serious gripe
twice this week I've been put onto an international call centre and twice I've ended up wondering whether what I was sorting was actually going to be done!!
If companies use international call centres they really must check that the people they are employing have a good command of the language to the country they are deaing with.
Now I speak without a regional accent of sorts (RAF child) and I got the distinct impresion the person(s) I was talking to couldn't understand what I was saing and I certainly had difficulty with their heavy accented English (bless them). There are so many of our own out of work at the moment and, in these difficult times, I think it would be more prudent to use our call centres
What do you all think?
Carol

I agree Carol and i believe a few of the call centres have been brought back here. Being hard of hearing, one of my problems is understanding strong accents, British as well as foreign so I have a real problem with it.

Ann
glos

I have a slight speech impediment, a hangover from a childhood stutter, and often find that Asian call centre workers have as much difficulty understanding me as I do them. Lol.

And, even if you can manage to understand their accent and they yours, there is no guarantee that they have the slightest grasp of your problem.

I had a credit card with a blocked pin a while ago and try as I might, the Call Centre couldn't understand what the problem was. First time they sent me a new card - still no good. Second time they re-issued my PIN - complete waste of time as I hadn't actually forgotton it - third time they offered to do both and on pointing out they had already done that talked about getting me a new card with a new number, which I refused.

In desperation I emailed the UK Head Office who replied within a couple of hours advising that the card had been reactivated, and could I please try it at my earliest convenience.

Sorted.....!

My husband rang the local branch of his bank today and ended up speaking to someone in India. He was asked where his local branch was, and when he said Tunbridge Wells, the person didn't understand. He slammed the phone down, and went to the branch, about 8 miles. They said they had received a lot of complaints.
Remember the days when you rang your local branch and they knew you by name??????
Liz