Indian call centres - why?

[AgaPanthers]

Jesus Christ. Just on the phone to Santander to close very old credit card.

Spell my name using phonetic alphabet.

Indian chap: "That's 'D'?" Me: 'No, B as in Bravo'

Give date of birth, Indian chap 'September?' Me: 'No, May'. (how do they sound even similar?)

Indian chap '1992?' Me: 'No, 1982'

Give address, accidentally say 'F for Freddie' instead of 'F for Foxtrot'. Indian chap: 'what is that?' repeat, using 'Foxtrot', and he understands.

Indian: 'I am sorry I have to transferring you to different department'

Me:

New person answers: 'Hello how can I be helping you?'

Me:

Eventually done, but not before he struggled to pronounce my very ordinary street name.

[LessMissAbs]

To be fair, I get British people who cannot understand my close to RP and lack of accent...

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Hmm- the guy from Sky was scottish and i managed to make out every fifth word. It was excruciating tbh. Talk talk on the other hand never and issue understand me (or me them) in 8 years.

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Ffs! Its a miracle they do understand me when i cant even type proper english never mind speak it!

[blahblahblah2014]

Why do you think? Cheap labour!

When will companies learn that i didn't call them to spend my time trying to teach someone english and who takes 10 minutes to take my very basic details!

[DarlingGrace]

I have the same problem with places like Newcastle, I can't plough through the accent. Educated Indian accents are a doddle in comparison. Unless it's Talk Talk.

[AgaPanthers]

According to this:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14073889

they got rid of their Indian call centre.

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

I think i must be really lucky. Lots of people i speak to say talk talk are awful customer service and cant understand english but i genuienly would recommend them
Based on their customer service and ease of understanding.

[Littleen]

How about the indian call centre guys who thinks you "have a nice voice, will you stay and chat?" -.- So strange.

[Saucia]

DH has a very strong scouse accent and I have had to take over a phonecall in the past because it sounds like gobbledegook to me sometimes let alone to some poor chap who’s first language isn’t English. It must be the most frustrating job.

[Kendodd]

I once rented a film (I think it was called 'My Name is Joe') it was set in Scotland somewhere. We had to switch it off after about 15 minutes because we couldn't understand what anyone was saying.

I did hear Trainspotting was subtitled in American.

[chippers1]

"I did hear Trainspotting was subtitled in American."

How can something be subtitled into American, its not even a language is it ????

[Kendodd]

Sorry I meant America

[LessMissAbs]

Me to taxi driver: "I want to go to the city centre please". Taxi driver, totally flummoxed: "Where?" Me: "the city centre". Taxi driver: "the what?" Me: "T H E C E N T R E"

I speak regularly in public - never been told I'm indistinct!

Mind you, delivery driver mistakenly ended up outside my house and when I went out to see him said to me thus: "Uhm goat loast uhm waffle mumble waffle dinna waffle mumble is this it?" I asked him if he had a map. He clearly did not recognise the word "map". I gave him a map. He couldn't read it. I gave him directions. He couldn't understand them. He was British.

[ScarlettMantleplume]

They couldn't get their heads around the fact that when I added DH to my account I wanted to stay first named on the account, and not that the post all started coming addressed to him.

[specialsubject]

'why' is obvious - much, much cheaper. Very difficult though, often they just don't understand. Drives MIL spare as she finds it very difficult due to poor hearing.

my gripe is everything takes ages due to the vast amounts of pleases, thank yous and may Is. I thought we British used too much of this but Bangalore has us beat.

Scotland can be quite fun too, although it is a definite rule that those who ask if I need them to repeat due to a strong Scottish accent are always perfectly understandable! The ones that I can't understand and have to ask to repeat always get upset.

[UriGeller]

Yeah but if you've read Trainspotting,you'll understand it takes 5 times as long to read as its written in dialect.

Personally any call centre that uses staff with thick scouse accents automatically put me on edge. I don't mind Indian voices. I love the extra politeness.

[NigellasDealer]

because indian call centres are cheaper?

Hello how can I be helping you?
sorry but I think you made that up!

[AgaPanthers]

Maybe that wasn't the precise wording, but my heart sank immediately when I heard his voice.

[WorraLiberty]

Yeah I must admit I was totally with the OP until "Hello how can I be helping you".

I'm now remembering Phonejacker and the 'Internet providings'

[PrimalLass]

I love Santander's business banking call centre as it is in Glasgow. Fabulous customer service every time.

[NigellasDealer]

no i thought not somehow....did you think it would be more 'amusing' if you assigned poor language skills to some poor sap in Bangalore?

you have to be patient and appreciate that these are just people doing their best in a stressful job.

Personally while it is a bit annoying having to use the radio alphabet to spell out my surname, I would rather talk to someone in India than in for example, Manchester, with their irritating northern accents and prediliction for the reflexive pronoun!

[Quinteszilla]

Oh my word, this thread has reminded me of my several attempts at travelling by taxi in Egypt, after the bus we had decided to take broke down on the motorway between Cairo and Giza.

Not even drawing the Pyramids on a piece of paper helped.

[NigellasDealer]

oh yes I love the santander call centre!

[AgaPanthers]

The language skills were terrible, I didn't assign them. I don't recall the precise wording they used though.

I don't have to be patient any more, because I was calling to close my account, which I hadn't used for 10 years.

[Quinteszilla]

I was with Hutchinson telecom back in Bangalore. They do have a labyrinthine telephone culture. In the end the call handler said "Mam, if you have a problem with your telephone I can send somebody out to see you next week. Can you spell your address".

Not so unusual. Our TV license guy came around monthly to collect the fee. That was the "direct debit" arrangement! Keeps people in work, I suppose!