To find phone banking stressful because of accents?

[Comeymemo]

I’m British but was born abroad and emigrated as an adult. I struggle to understand some regional accents. I very rarely use phone help lines, and I usually do online banking instead. But whenever I have to call the bank, I find it very stressful because half the time the call centre person speaks a very heavily accented English and I just can’t understand what they are saying. I don’t have this problem in face-to-face convos - only on the phone.

AIBU to think banks should train call centre staff to smoothe out broad accents? I’m not asking for Received Pronunciation, just a bit more enunciation and some consonants here and there. ☺️

Midnight - I was born abroad, not speaking English. I emigrated to the UK as an adult and got British citizenship.

1 in 8 people living in the U.K. was born abroad.

@Comeymemo

The question was aibu & I think you are 🙄

If you find phonebank difficult & cant ask advisor to speak slowly or repeat, then don't use it

Use online banking, webchat or visit a branch

YANBU. I find exactly the same. I always opt to use online or webchat but sometimes you're required to phone. Scottish accents are the worst.

I get what you mean op. DH is partially dead and phones are a challenge anyway, but accents make it much harder. He finds US accents particularly difficult, although Irish bit a problem as he has Irish relatives and grew up hearing it.

Not sure what the solution is though - better online services maybe?

Irish not a problem that should say.

Ny2005, did you read my posts at all, I specifically said I do those things whenever possible. Sometimes there is no choice.
But yes, thanks to your eyeroll I now see the errors of my ways. Thanks for educating me.

DH is partially dead

@ dyac

Scottish accents are the worst.

Works both ways...

I'm surprised that Scottish accents are a problem tbh. I mean, if people are speaking Glaswegian or Aberdonian dialect, fair play, that's quite hard to follow - but I bank with First Direct and I'm always impressed by how clearly their Scottish staff speak. That is Hamilton though, the leafy suburbs

I get what you mean op. DH is partially dead and phones are a challenge anyway, but accents make it much harder.

I take it you mean deaf?

YABU if you can’t understand someone then you can POLITELY ask them to speak slowly and clearly but you can’t ask them to not speak with an accent. It’s your problem not theirs.

I work in a call centre and have a very nondescript accent, but work with people who do have strong regional accents. An accent doesn’t mean they’re bad at their job.

hopefully dh is partially deaf? not dead! I am from London and some accents eg Liverpool I love. some i find really hard to understand and yes ni is one of those i struggle with. i thnk telephone banking needs to take into account the needs of all their customers to understand their staff.

YABU it's not difficult to understand regional accents

My mother is foreign, but her first language is English, and she is an English teacher. After watching a TV advert where two children spoke in a strong regional accent, she commented that she hadn't understood a word they said.

when my sister's father in law answered the phone I couldn't understand what he was saying but could when face to face with him. he was Glaswegian.

Agree. Accents seem to be more pronounced over the phone. I have a hearing aids and can find the phone difficult. People talking with a strong accent at speed are very difficult for me. I ask them to slow down and they do for a few sentences then rev up again. I am not being unreasonable - I am simply unable to catch what they are saying. And I can't take in information at speed either, even if I can understand them. (age has annoyingly slowed my ability to absorb information quickly)

I avoid phone centre calls if I can.

To be fair, many speak clearly, accent or no accent and at a sensible speed which is fine.

I'm raised abroad. Used to regional accents now but it took a while. My parents are comical just constantly going huh??? There's oth3r options to the phone of course. But I recommend plenty to British TV and radio programmes after a while you tune in. And then it's fun.

My uncle has a thick Yorkshire accent. I can't understand a word he says on the phone. I'm British but I think some regional British accents are harder to understand than a lot of accents from overseas - esp when he chucks in regional words that mean nothing outside that one small part of Yorkshire in 1943!

I struggle to understand a lot of regional accents and I was born in the uk. Equally, I hve a very strong cockney accent and people have struggled to understand me when I’m on holiday. It’s not easy as some people suggest

One account I have is telephone banking and I find that one fine. The staff are in this country (UK) and tend to have a regional accent but I find them easy to understand and always polite. It's the ones who are based in Manila or Hyderabad or wherever that cause me frustration.

I hate hate hate the Barclays Indian call centre although admittedly mainly because they are thick as opposed to their accents. This is barely related to this thread but I just like to complain about them

I live in Germany and speak the language fluently but just today I had to call a call centre and ask the CSR to slow down as I was having difficulty following her accent - she spoke so quickly and was clearly not native German either. At least she seemed to understand me well.

Whilst I do sympathise, I do think that it’s often the people who fail to be understood and not necessarily the regional accent.

Regional accents are important and it’s one thing i’m determined never to lose.

That said mines has toned down now because I have loved away for so long.

But a Scot is easily understood, likewise a Cockney if they speak slowly and use words that are used nationally rather than regionally.

Surely Call centres should be checking if staff are understandable before letting them lose on the phone?

That said I have had a few calls which have been challenging to say the least.......

I think it gets worse with age too. I have to concentrate harder now than I used to. And yes it's not such a problem when you're face to face.

I dislike it when someone who is clearly calling from an indian or other overseas call centre has been told to tell me their name is John or peter. Come on, that's just offensive to them - and to your customers to imply that they'd have a problem speaking to someone from another country!

I do think it's more the speed that people speak, rather than the accent.

My point is that instead of saying its a bit more difficult sometimes, its stressfull, no doubt op has anxiety about calling again and depression about the last call being hard.

Stress, anxiety and depression are serious issues for many people and trivialising them with inane nonsense is very unreasonable