Call centres and “difficult” accents

[twiddlingthumbs69]

i have just spent two hours on the phone to a call centre trying to sort out my private pension.

id say 40% of that time was trying very hard to understand the Indian (?) accent.

im not hard of hearing, before anyone asks.

im at quite an important juncture in this and wanted some clear guidance on forms i needed to fill in etc but im afraid the accent was so strong I really could not make head nor tail of the advice.

ive since received an email stating that if i need more help to ring them.

AIBU to hope to speak to someone with a basic grasp of the English language?

Your pension provider will probably have outsourced their call centre. You can always call back and explain you are having trouble understanding the accent.

Yes, do try again. I recently had similar. On my second call we switched from an Indian accent to a thick Glaswegian accent! That was a surprise! Hee did slow down when asked (several times) and spelled out key words. We got there in the end.

Thanks. I’m just dreading ringing again. It took me 45 mins to get through last time only to be put on hold for another 10 mins.

I really think that a good standard of spoken English should be required for any role where you're speaking to the public - regardless of whether your accent is regional or foreign.

Its poor service, I'm not sure how they get the job.

@IReallyLoveItHereagreed! Especially on financial matters

A well know company took their ‘call centre off shore’
They are now bring them back after only 2 years
They listen to customer demand 😄

I started uni this year. One of my lecturers has such a strong accent I cannot understand her. Nor can the transcript! It's actually a huge problem as I have to play the recordings over and over and try to make sense of it. Not sure if there's anything that can be done though?

I had this phoning a government department the other day.

A very thick African accent which I really struggled to understand and he decided that shouting louder would help. It didn’t.

its unreasonable to "want to speak to someone with a basic grasp of the English language" if your complaint is that you couldn't understand the accent rather than about whether they gave the right information using the right words.

If you can't understand a customer service staff member then say that and ask to speak to someone else.

I think it depends on the circumstances. I called my insurance company and the lady did had accent (Asian type) and talked quite quickly at first but when I asked she slowed down and repeated a few times without any problems and our conversation went really smoothly. I called mobile company and the guy was just not good in slowing down and adjusting and it was awful.

@AuntieDen no idea if they gave the right answer using the right words as I couldn’t understand them

I have found using the online chat helps with this. I do think often they actually speak reasonable english but it is the accent that makes them hard to understand. As someone said above the Glaswegian, or cockney accent can be very hard as well.

When this happens I usually say, I'm sorry but we don't have a great connection, could you repeat that? Then usually people speak a bit more clearly

I think it would be hard to police accents because not everyone has trouble with the same accents. I find foreign accents easier to understand than a very thick Scottish accent just because I have a lot of international colleagues.

It’s so hard when you’re trying to sort an issue out and you can’t understand what is being said to you. I feel rude to keep asking the person to repeat themselves several times over. I’ve politely hung up before now as it is just too difficult.

A regional accent isn’t a ‘good standard’? Hmm.

Ahahaha I used to work in a call centre where lots of people had really strong Scouse accents and then we regularly had to talk to other call centres in Glasgow and South Africa. None of us understood each over, it was great fun.

We have a chap in our CC with a very strong Nigerian accent. He is very knowledgable and helpful however I sometimes have to quality check his inbound calls and I’d say that over 50% of his customers struggle to understand him.

It’s bloody infuriating and the length of time needed to sort out any kind of issue is beyond ridiculous these days. Martin Lewis is actually collating formation on this and you can contribute if you go to his MSE website. I own a small business and use Sage for my payroll - they are local and it is wonderful to have clear, concise information/help from someone you understand. The wait time for call answering is minimal, too. I highly rate this company and although it’s not the cheapest, their call centre is priceless. I wish other large corporates would follow suit. And also supermarkets get checkout assistants back on tills. For every young 20 year old who doesn’t mind hopping though thr self checkouts with their lunch, there are an equal number of people doing family shops which can be backbreaking.

My work coach is like this. He is a nice polite chap but is from Ghana and his English isn’t very good. I find the accent difficult to decipher too. When he types my commitments in my online journal (I’m disabled but do a bit of volunteering) he struggles to type English

I feel awful but I genuinely don’t think there is anything I can do about it. I don’t want to be seen as racist. He’s also a lot nicer than my last work coach who was awful albeit I understood them.

Drives me absolutely nuts. I have a very good ear for other languages and can generally pick up stronger accents, but feel for my in laws or other people who can't. I realise being fluent is other languages is difficult, but I also worry about the accuracy of information and things being lost in translation.

I've had issues with HSBC. The call centre man advised me that no such branch existed. I pointed out that I could see the branch out my window and had been banking there for 15yrs. 'No, maam, I'm sorry, but you are mistaken, no such branch exists!!!'

This branch eventually shut, so I needed to know where my new branch was and the new BSB etc. This call handler, a woman, said I could just use any BSB numbers I liked, it didn't matter!!! WTF.

When did this turn into GB News?

You took your time.

Probably because it’s a rubbish job with poor pay. Those with excellent language skills and clear speaking voices have found better paid work elsewhere.

I'm an executor currently dealing with the sale of an empty house where the deceased occupant was a customer of British Gas.

I've tried to deal with BG on a number of occasions this year and came to the conclusion they don't employ anyone who has English as their first language, so resorted to written communication via Chat and emails, only to discover comprehension is virtually non-existent and they obviously rely heavily on bots and set responses.

All I can say is I'm glad we're with Octopus.🙄

That's awful.
I was lucky with my Dad's estate, I found most of the bereavement teams were based in the UK and were very kind and very easy to understand.