To expect call lines to be comprehensible?

[DisabledDemon]

My husband bought a Vax recently, which turned out to be faulty and needed to be return it. Vax were fine - they sent a returns label to us quickly to be returned by UPS.

However, when he phoned UPS, he had an awful experience. The person on the other end of the phone barely spoke English. He called my husband 'madam' four times, couldn't understand the address, which had to be repeated to him nine times and kept demanding the return ticket number, which was repeated to him six times.

He then demanded to know the weight of the vacuum, which was in the information provided by the return ticket barcode and got quite ratty when we couldn't tell him. When my husband asked to be put through to a supervisor, he wouldn't do it.

Is it unreasonable to expect to be able to speak to someone who has a reasonable comprehension of English? I appreciate that they're trying to do this on the cheap but this was ridiculous. Our road is called after a country and initially, he was going to arrange for our package to be collected from that country. It took ten minutes for my husband to explain that the address was in the UK!

I work for two nursing agencies and have the same issue. Their call centres must be in India. I feel really rude having to say I can’t understand you. It’s tricky when you have a problem and they clearly don’t get it..

What's the point of this AIBU aside from to slate the "foreigners" on the phone line?

It could have been someone with a heavy Scottish accent and you might have had the same experience.

The only way to make a difference is to complain to Vax, I'm not sure what you want this thread to achieve?

If a call centre does not want complaints it should ensure the staff it recruits have a clear telephone voice and comprehension skills.

I don't care if the person to whom I am speaking has a Scottish accent or an Indian accent. I don't care if the call centre is in cambuslang or Calcutta (well I'd rather my money went to so eone in my own country). I do care that they have understood me and will do as they said.

I struggle badly with phone calls, especially if they have a strong accent. It could be gaelic, brummy or Indian and I rarely understand!

It sucks. I much prefer being able to email.

I am extremely hard of hearing through. I have no hearing in my right ear, and only about 20% in my left.

I have to ask my husband to translate

I had this issue with M&S, they sent me the wrong item (a very large ceiling light) and trying to get the people on the other end of the phone to understand what had happened was a nightmare.

They ended up sending a second light out - the same incorrect light they’d sent in the first place. It took weeks and numerous phone calls to resolve, purely down to the call centre staffs poor English and lack of comprehension.

For god's sake, it's not racist to share an experience of a real difficulty that many people have on a daily basis. I live in the north east and have had to ask one or two people I work with to repeat themselves because their accent is very thick. I despise and try to avoid doing anything financial over the phone because v strong accents, poor quality phone lines and background noise do not make for a successful transaction. I had to change car insurers once years ago because their call centre was in Glasgow and I genuinely could not communicate effectively with the very nice chap on the other end. If you are doing business in country and supplying a service your customers need to be able to communicate effectively with your company.

Customer service in the UK in 2025 mainly consists of finding ways to either ignore customers or fail to follow customer requests. In this context it makes perfect sense to employ people who cannot understand/speak English.

I used to have exactly the same problem with Scottish Power call centres! It was one reason why I switched from them.

Geordie for me. Like Alan Partridge, it just sounds like a noise. I was talking to one about my fridge freezer and I couldn't understand a damn thing. So I said, I'm sorry, I'm finding it quite difficult to hear what you're saying. So she goes, at the speed of forked lightning WEELLADIVVUNARWORRAKINDEEABOOTTHATLIKE

Agree wholeheartedly.

I was on a call to a supplier at work the other day and in the end, had to say, "I'm sorry, I simply cant understand what you're saying." "I'll call back."