Call centres based abroad - anyone else being driven crazy?

[SecondhandRose]

I have made two calls today, one to BT customer services and one to M & S. Both centres I think (correct me if I'm wrong) are based in Asia. I can barely understand what is being said to me, I have to concentrate so hard on what they are saying and I end up having to repeat things again and again.

BT were trying to sell me something, I just gave up trying to concentrate on what she was saying in the end.

Am I the only one getting stressed by these companies going abroad for cheap labour?

Hate it hate it hate it!!!

I had to talk a technical help support "technician" into believing that windows Xp existed! Three months ago!

Sigh

I also phoned BT today and it was a nightmare. I agree.

Message withdrawn

It's impossible and what I really hate is that often when you do get a native to speak to and mention that you had trouble communicating they will imply that that is a racist attitude .

One way round it is to put the number you rang into say no to 0870 - you will often find a UK landline number.

They are beginning to filter back, at least for customer comms - is it abbey who are bringing 1000 jobs back here? - but keeping back-office out there.

i am going to change bank account when i get a spare 5 minutes, purely because of this. very annoying.

yes, it bugs me too. HSBC's call centre is in india I think

I don't have a problem with it in principle, but ever since they moved it there've been misunderstandings. they used to be brilliant though and are now mediochre (not terrible) so could be worse. I'd change bank if I could.

I'm driven insane too!

Its not a racist issue, it is simply a case of i want peope at the other end of the line who i can understand and who can understand me!

I saw a documentary about the Asian call centres. It portrayed it all very well, and of course the employees who appeared in the show had very easy to understand accents.
It showed classes that they gave to their employees training them to prounounce words the "english" way.

But at the end of the day, ok they can say their scripts and give the standard replies ok, but if you try and discuss anything else, they have not got a clue what you are talking about and vice versa!

HBBC's call centre is def India. Many of the people who were being trained for there lived in our apartments - HSBC rented loads out. Our neighrbours in the last 6 months before moving were from India and over for that reason. Lovely people BTW.

However the accent is very soft and can be hard ti follow on the phone I agree. In saying that RBS is in Scotland and poss somewhere like Glasgow. Accent is so strong it is just as hard!

I've changed car insurance because of this. I had a simple query and could not make myself understood. So frustrating.

I can recommend First Direct bank, call centre is in the UK, bank online and on the phone.

I had a £1500 water bill from United Utilities and I couldn't make the person understand that that was a bill big enough for the whole street not one house!

I am going to close my M&S account, it's too stressful.

A friend went nearly mad trying to find out the times of trains, in an emergency, from Dundee to Nottingham from a man in Bangalore. As for banking The trouble is, it seems to me, is that the personnel may be well trained to deal with run of the mill stuff but they're not able to cope with anything outside the box.

its really annoying. my bank are useless now, cant seem to give me a balance and when they do they give me the balance and then some idiotic number available to spend. for example "balance £500, £100 available to spend" now what is all that about? i have an overdraft too so it beats me. my catalogue were the same, they just could not understand what i was trying to order and sent me all kinds of strange things. its not a racist thing, i am not, have never been and never will be racist. but we should be able to understand each other. i agree, it is so frustrating.

I think it's terrible that we have to say we're not racist. This stupid society where we have to defend ourselves before someone attacks us for 'being racist'. Where M&S is concerned it's my money we're dealing with, why shouldn't I be able to understand what the person is saying and why shouldn't he understand what I'm going on about. Grrrr. Have just sent a stinky email to M&S telling them I am cancelling my &Morecard.