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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect people in a call centre to speak English...

57 replies

SnowBells · 26/01/2015 20:46

... in an understandable manner????

I have been calling BT today. No one spoke English fluently. One person, couldn't solve my problem and transferred me (apparently) to the wrong department with a woman I could barely understand. Her supervisor also spoke in broken English and - to top it off - lied.

WTF. No. 1 recruitment guideline in a call centre should be "recruit someone who speaks fluent English... because, really, the main requirement is that people working in such environments should be able to speak in the customer's language. No. 2 should be "recruit someone with at least a few brain cells", so that they can actually solve people's problems.

What is going on?!? Has BT outsourced its call centres???

OP posts:
Branleuse · 26/01/2015 21:45

it pisses me off when they outsource to call centres so they can pay pittance wages in third world areas, when there's such high unemployment here now.

ElsaMoFoQueen · 26/01/2015 21:47

I get where you're coming from but ..

For a company to provide low prices they will use call centres abroad. It's less cost to them.

If you want good service then you'll have to pay more.

Salmotrutta · 26/01/2015 21:49

But my relative wasnt working in an "outsourced" centre.

He got abuse from people for being Scottish - without having a strong accent and having perfectly clear speech.

Nice behaviour.

Branleuse · 26/01/2015 21:50

yes because they want to maximise their own profits while not providing jobs in their community. I think they shpuld have to give X amount of local people a job for any company

Namechangeyetagaintohide · 26/01/2015 21:51

I've had the misfortune of working in a call centre I'm the uk.
Some of out departments however were based in the Philippines and these departments were notoriously difficult to deal with. They could speak English but often didn't grasp things we were trying to explain and were almost parrot like in their responses.

They also clearly did not get the same training as we did. One woman told me the customer didn't have an account with us based on her search. I had to explain that indeed he did as I was looking at it...

Namechangeyetagaintohide · 26/01/2015 21:52

In the UK*

peutetre · 26/01/2015 21:55

In my experience BT customer service is so appalling that I have given up calling and am just waiting for my contract to run out. The indian call centres are difficult to understand, work from a script and have to call a supervisor if they need deviate from the script. They are always super polite and sooo apologetic about everything " ..I am sorry from the bottom of my heart.." Unfortunately they never seem able to solve any problems and then resort to blatant lying or promised callbacks which never happen!

ouryve · 26/01/2015 22:00

YANBU. BT call centres have always been impossible to deal with.

Had a crap experience with EE/T-mobile call centres a while back, too - ended up getting that sorted via twitter by a guy with a lovely Scottish accent.

fridayfreedom · 26/01/2015 22:01

When arranging for my car to be repaired after an accident I was asked by a call centre employee if I wanted it mended in cosham or Ryde. I settled for Cosham as I didn't really want to take the ferry to the isle of wight to get my car fixed!

MoanCollins · 26/01/2015 22:02

I think it's partly a cultural thing as well. As a UK employee I think you know that sometimes you need to use your initiative, like not going through an entire script if the customer knows what their problem is. But on the sub continent a good employee is expected to follow orders precisely with no deviation or independent thought so the entire script will be read because that's just the way things are done. And it's fine if you're just dealing with a run of the mill problem, but if it's something more complicated or unusual then it can be a struggle.

Karoleann · 26/01/2015 22:03

YANBU we don't use BT for the same reason.

Like enrique we don't use providers who don't have a UK call centre. I'm too busy (and too impatient) to constantly explain things to people who don't understand me.

DixieNormas · 26/01/2015 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FreudiansSlipper · 26/01/2015 22:12

yanbu

25 minutes speaking to someone at the BT centre in India yesterday and in the end I just got put through to a different department Hmm his English was poor and he did not want to listen to what I had to say as it was not on his script

when I moved the order was completely wrong every fuck up they could make was done it took three months to resolve it and that was after someone in the complaints department here dealt with it and it took ages to be able to talk to them easier to talk to our Prime Minister

TaintedAngel · 26/01/2015 22:30

I work in a call centre and tbh the way even UK based agents get spoken to is nothing short of disgusting. I was told by a customer That I - and the company I work for- was breaking the law (I explained we were not). He then asked me well what the fuck would you know about law, you work in a call centre, so not exactly qualified to be telling me anything. Basically saying I was clearly a thick person because I work in a call centre.

Yup. But we live to serve you beautiful people who call us Envy

And it infuriates me when I answer the phone in clearly a UK accent and get asked Are you in a uk centre, because if your not you can just Transfer me to a UK agent. FYI this isn't possible. It's pot luck even for us agents. And no we don't read off of a script. We just deal with the same issues day in and out we know exactly what to say. We know our jobs. Even the overseas agents (I know shock horror but they all have the same training as us and are just as qualified)Blush

I know it's not always a barrel of laughs speaking to overseas agents but in my experience they are generally really lovely people. Every one I speak to from my work before you pass a customer to them will say you have a lovely day and enjoy the rest of your shift. Not being funny but none of my UK colleagues say that to one another. Give the overseas agent a bit of a break. They are no worse than the UK agents you speak to. And more often than not have better manners too, albeit in slightly poorer English.

MerryMo · 26/01/2015 22:30

Talk Talk is another company with pathetic no actually abysmal customer service standards.

Again - all indian call centres. Most of the TalkTalk staff I have spoken to in the last 6 weeks (and thats hell of a lot of them) have had very very thick accents. I don't normally have that much issue with accents but I have had with most calls with TalkTalk in the past few weeks.

To add to the difficult to decipher accent is the wooden reading from a script, the long pause between speaking to each other which is partly because of time delay distance but also as the poor sod at the other end of the phone frantically searched their screen to find the nearest appropiate response. In my recent experience 9 times out of ten their response does not match what I have said or asked.

I had to explain how Gloucestershire is promounced as the person on the other end of the phone was saying Glawkester!!

I have moved to plusnet where I have the joy of speaking to friendly people who actually talk to me - yes treat me a human being, a real person. They have been a joy to deal with and I dont feel my throat constricting with tense anxiety when I have to call them like I do with TalkTalk.

Incidently I am paying £8 a month less with Plusnet than I was for an identical provision from TalkTalk - but I get to speak to people who talk clear English - yes some with regional accents but they also actually speak and don't read from an unmatched script!

TalkTalk could pay me £50 a month to go back and I would tell them to ram it where the sun does not shine.

peggyundercrackers · 26/01/2015 22:37

A lot of these call centres are in the uk - all these companies do is ship in people from India/wherever for a short period of time, maybe 6 months at a time, and then send them back home once they have done their stint. Whilst they are here they get looked after...

BankWadger · 26/01/2015 22:53

Sometimes I struggle to understand some English accents over the phone (Blush), but I'm not going to start demanding they speak Queens English (especially as I have an antipodean accent that can throw people).

BlueBrightBlue · 26/01/2015 22:59

I really feel for non English speakers in call centres. Some companies are so bloody tight when employing staff that they employ staff in India and other such places.
I have had many a conversation with non English operatives who are just reeling off lines .
It is utterly frustrating .Why are there companies ( BT) so bloody non British?

Original poster
SnowBells · 26/01/2015 23:05

Karoleann

How do you find out which companies outsource and which ones don't? I'd love to know how!

OP posts:
DharmaBums · 26/01/2015 23:07

Yanbu. Also like many others had the same issues with BT. Switched to sky and never looked back. Will never, ever use BT again because of their shitty customer service

pinefruits · 26/01/2015 23:17

Practically everywhere I phone lately has foreign speaking advisers who
1... Don't understand me
2....I don't understand them
The frustration at speaking to someone who doesn't understand what you're saying is unbelievable. You just go round and round in circles, also because they're in a different country there's a time delay so you are both talking over each other. They appear to have a stock of certain phrases which are often repeated parrot fashion throughout the conversation and aren't appropiate to what you've just said. I don't blame the call center workers, they're working for a pittance, it's the greed of the big profiteering company's who put their obscene need for huge profits before the customer.

molyholy · 26/01/2015 23:18

Drives me absolutely mad that people employ 'cheap' labour. I have been frustrated with calls where we cannot understand each other, but not with the people on the other end of the phone, but employers cutting costs to increase their profits. When we are paying an amount of money where employers could pay a decent wage for a good job, but they just do not want to. Infuriates me

sashh · 27/01/2015 06:03

Ask to speak to someone in Welsh, then they transfer you to someone in the UK.

I hate it when they don't speak/understand English but I have also had some brilliant service from call centres in India.

And I've had good and bad service in the UK from call centres too.

KatieKaye · 27/01/2015 06:21

Another one who has had terrible experiences with BT and their call centres. One operator refused to say my name correctly, really mangling it. Yes it has four syllables but I'd told her how it was pronounced at least four times. She told me it was too difficult to say! And she was totally useless in getting the issue solved. Eventually resorted to phoning up and saying I wanted to open a new account which got me switched to a UK operator who sorted things out in one call, after a period of three weeks dealing with Indian call centres. Would never use BT again. Sky have always been great when I've phoned them.

Have also worked in a call centre, UK based, that dealt solely with customers in Ireland and got loads of compliments about how clearly I spoke (am Scottish)

Coconutty · 27/01/2015 07:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.