Abuse rattles Indian call centre staff

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I just read this article and was curious:

If you had a product that needed customer support and called a phone number for this and discovered that you constantly where repeating yourself to make the representative understand what you are saying and to also keep asking the rep. to repeat themselves so you could understand them....wouldn't this piss you off?

I had to do this for a problem at work with Norton...f'n hate Norton...but oh well. The call had taken 15 minutes for me to get an customer service Rep. The rep had diffiulty understanding me as I did him! After 20 minutes of dialog, it was a simple procedure that was needed to get the product working correctly. If I had a Rep on the phone that could understand me as I them, this entire procedure would have taken 2 minutes, rather than the 20 minutes.

Others working in India's burgeoning call centres have been verbally abused and accused of taking jobs formerly carried out in Europe or the US.

Many Indian call centre workers are relatively young, having joined straight from college, and they are not used to and often find it hard to cope with the abuse.

True, tantrums by customers in the services industry are not uncommon in any country.

But it is the racial overtones that worry young professionals in India's multi-billion-dollar Business Processing Outsourcing industry.


I do not think it is racial...I think that if you purchase a product and need to use these customer support lines, have the gumption to place operators on these calls that can speak clearly and understand your language!!!

I don't care what race you are when I am on a phone call with you....if I can't understand you I will get F'n pissed too!

[Sir>elim_killer!]

I just read this article and was curious:

If you had a product that needed customer support and called a phone number for this and discovered that you constantly where repeating yourself to make the representative understand what you are saying and to also keep asking the rep. to repeat themselves so you could understand them....wouldn't this piss you off?

I had to do this for a problem at work with Norton...f'n hate Norton...but oh well. The call had taken 15 minutes for me to get an customer service Rep. The rep had diffiulty understanding me as I did him! After 20 minutes of dialog, it was a simple procedure that was needed to get the product working correctly. If I had a Rep on the phone that could understand me as I them, this entire procedure would have taken 2 minutes, rather than the 20 minutes.

Others working in India's burgeoning call centres have been verbally abused and accused of taking jobs formerly carried out in Europe or the US.

Many Indian call centre workers are relatively young, having joined straight from college, and they are not used to and often find it hard to cope with the abuse.

True, tantrums by customers in the services industry are not uncommon in any country.

But it is the racial overtones that worry young professionals in India's multi-billion-dollar Business Processing Outsourcing industry.


I do not think it is racial...I think that if you purchase a product and need to use these customer support lines, have the gumption to place operators on these calls that can speak clearly and understand your language!!!

I don't care what race you are when I am on a phone call with you....if I can't understand you I will get F'n pissed too!

I have experienced this many times in my life, having to call DELL for support, or simple banking questions. When you call to activate your credit card many times you call India. In the beginning I didn't mind that much even though as a college student I have worked in many call centers. The problem is like you said they have a hard time speaking english. It took me close to 30 mins to activate a credit card. The guy made no sence and barely could speak English. I rather pay a little more and speak to someone from Europe/United States that will take much less time, and able for me to understand. Time is a precious thing for a college studtn and wasting it on a phone call due to the fact the company is trying to save money and outsources to a country that can barely speak your language. So I just hope more people do blow up on these reps, and make complaints so we as consumers will not have to deal with this much longer. Well this is just going to get me angry so I am going to edn it here.

Ek

[Mr. Peanuts]

They set call centres up in India purely because of cheap labour. They're just profit-hungry western companies and aren't willing to pay extra for a decent call centre in their home country.

[NaiLed]

it's not just asian people i don't understand over the phone. the last time i had trouble it was with a Canadian. i ended up having a five minute conversation telling him how to spell "pryce".

"no, it's p for panda, r for roger, y for yogurt......"
"so it's p-o-r....."

i think he was deliberately trying to wind me up

srtgery4567y4hets

edit; oh yeah, and if you ever get an automated voice thing and want to get through to a person, just keep hitting star

[WuTang420]

lol i was just harassed yesterday by a microsoft rep while trying to register windows xp. he was trying to ask me the basic questions like " is this the first time youve installed this program?"

sounded like "iz dis firsime you eenstal dis progaram?
ME: nope
"how meeny compeuter you hab eensaled"
ME:just this one
^ i knew these two questions because its the same ones the ask everytime

though i do use a hacked copy, he starts questioning me more intensly at this point

"dou you rememer wher you purshase?"
ME: Ventura Califorina
" what counry?"
ME: USA
"ok bentura caliorna, unite state"
"what kin comeuter?"
ME: huh?
"what kin comeuter!?"
ME: WHAT!

at this point he starts getting annoyed with ME!

"sir i need no what kin comuter you hab insalle on!!"
ME: ok slow down so i can understand you please
"WHAT KIN COMUTER YOU HAB INSALL ON!"

i finally get it through deduction and knowing what they usually ask

ME: ooooh ok an AMD 2600+
"ok an what is resin for actibate agan today?"
ME:.....what?
" what is resin for actibate agan today?"

ok so i get what he said at this point, but ive been on the phone for 40 mins so i decide to fuck with him back

ME SPEAKING AS FAST AS I CAN: why reinstall?? sheetIgotoneofthemdamnvirusthings,soifixeditandrea lizedmehHarddrivewastakinashitsoiwentandgotmeoneno wineedwindowsonthismofotoo

now i know for a fact he didnt understand any of that but to get me off the phone replies:
"ok tank you for chosing microsof ere is yor actibaton cod"

[ConCor]

I do not think it is racial...I think that if you purchase a product and need to use these customer support lines, have the gumption to place operators on these calls that can speak clearly and understand your language!!!

:mellow:

O.K.

[King Baba]

I used to work in a Call Centre in support for AT&T (later Cingular Wireless) covering the whole U.S. We're based in Canada, and believe me, as much as some would like to make fun of Canadian reps, the real fun is with telling the ignorant American that the disputed charges have been creditted and removed from the account so they won't have them again. You have no idea how hilarious it is to be screamed at by a person and be able to maintain a cool composure, knowing that in the end - YOU have access to HIS account in a half-bit job that nobody thinks of as a career.

The result? All the recurring problems that are happening as a direct result of international customer support. This may not sound very amusing to you, but get yelled at by someone from Kentucky for an hour after your shift because they just cannot grasp the concept of voicemail.

But enough of that, I know in my time working at that centre we had a epartment completely based in India, the Warranty Exchange Dept. My God, they actually require their employees to use pseudonyms ("screen names" if you will) and they even sound Indian. Imagine my surprise when an Indian sounding fellow comes on, "Hello, my name is Romeo Jones, how may I help you?" I will never forget that name for the rest of my life.

Romeo Jones is a good man.

[Bioture]

I agree that as long as there is "support" that is being outsourced from another country, no matter what country, the technician/agent who is answering the call needs to be able to do his job.

I mean, when I worked at Genworth, I could tell that we outsourced our helpdesk out to india, because every helpdesk tech that I've talked to had an indian accent. As much as that's the case, the helpdesk people are not hard to understand and has fixed my problems with my computer quite readily.

[404 Not Found]

This is by no means a racial bigotry issue, it is simply a communication breakdown, due to the fact that if you cannot understand one another through language, how can you solve a problem over the phone in an efficient manner.

I do not think that ConCor agrees with me from his reply.

I can speak more than just one language and perhaps the operators that have been outsourced could do the same when they are taking on this responsibility. Too bad Norton does not outsource to Italy or I would have had no problem!

[Mantra-Slider]

wait are you saying that when you call a company for support you have to call india?

[Dabram]

i just ask my dad, and nod when he talks in computer-jumbo.

[Superted]

Britian are being plagued at the moment by indian telemarketers, specifically a phone service. Their usualy pitch is telling us they're cheaper than BT but we're not even on BT, we haven't been on BT for years. We told them this constantly at the start yet they still call every day. I've heard they even call ex-directory numbers. It's gotten to the point now that when I pick up the phone and hear a strong Indian accent, I'll put the phone down.

[Mantra-Slider]

ip-phone?

[Superted]

ip-phone?

[Pressure Drop]

Britian are being plagued at the moment by indian telemarketers, specifically a phone service. Their usualy pitch is telling us they're cheaper than BT but we're not even on BT, we haven't been on BT for years. We told them this constantly at the start yet they still call every day. I've heard they even call ex-directory numbers. It's gotten to the point now that when I pick up the phone and hear a strong Indian accent, I'll put the phone down.

This drives me crazy ... i hate cold calls at the best of times but it is worse when i find it hard to understand what they are saying

and they don't even understand me

On another note my friend worked in a halifax call centre in Belfast and he was telling me that there was some accents from around the UK he found very hard to understand and some couldn't understand him either. Think it was a harsh Glasgow, Welsh and cockney he was telling me about and doing bad impressions off :P