calling outsourced centers is a pain

[miamore]

Now i know why people are so mad by the time I get them in my company, i got a taste of my own medicine today trying to make a simple car payment. I live in the USA and I get someone from overseas./ The lady keeps putting me on mute and does not ask my permission and was getting mad when I kept asking if she were there, so I immediately ask for a sup when the call is done, there was also a 10$ payment processing fee i wasnt happy about, and refused to get me a sup. i told her i wanted to make a complaint about her and she refused to give me an id, to make matters worse when I got the sup he was such a smartass I hung up. He was mad because I had her go and get him. Im just used to someone appreciating my business, not some smartbutt just wasting their 8 hours so they can go home. They may not have understood where i was coming from but still, at my company we are supposed to ask for permission for either using mute or putting someone on hold.

[Rapscallion]

This post baffled me. I've moved it from Sucky Customers because it involves no customers phoning in and put it in Sightings, where you experience Sucky Behaviour or see it when not in your workplace.

However, I'd not like to tar all the workers of a particular area or all outsourced workers as bad because of one bad experience. Sure, it will taint your experience with them, but if customers in the stores in our own countries acted like this then we'd need websites like this.

Oh, hang on...

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

I'm also somewhat puzzled, because I am not sure what your experience has to do with where the call centre is located.

I have received fantastic service from call centres located abroad (and some bad experiences as well). I have also received both good and bad service from call centres located in North America.

Suckiness knows no borders.

[tollbaby]

Agreed. My ISP's helpdesk call centres are outsourced to Mumbai. I've had one SUPREMELY sucky call where the woman just kept telling me I was full of it and didn't know what I was talking about, and three or four calls with perfectly competent, polite technicians who were able to help me with no problem.

[CrazedClerk]

I get a lot of that, usually customers that are like "oh thank GOD you speak/understand english!".

The funny thing is, the guy that usually sits in the workstation behind me here at my Canadian call centre is a Middle eastern guy named Rahib. There are also quite a few other foreign workers there too so just because you get an accent, don't assume you are overseas.

If you check out my recent post in the SC forum, you can see a call where I had a guy who DEMANDED to be transferred to America (it could have been Rahib in houston, but an AMERIACN) and was pretty disrespectful of pretty much all other countries.

I haven't had too many issues with outsourced support being bad, but I'm not the type who spends much time on the phone with call centre folks.

[Mark Healey]

I get a lot of that, usually customers that are like "oh thank GOD you speak/understand english!".

The funny thing is, the guy that usually sits in the workstation behind me here at my Canadian call centre is a Middle eastern guy named Rahib. There are also quite a few other foreign workers there too so just because you get an accent, don't assume you are overseas.

I've had a few problems with foreign call centers. It is always with the thick accents. You know that when they answer with a thick Indian (I don't know which actual language) accent and an American sounding name you know you are calling India. If they have an Indian accent, or no accent, and give you Indian name you are probably calling within the U.S.

I just wish these call center people would figure out that even if you can understand the person when he is in the same room you might not be able to over the phone. The phone doesn't carry the full spectrum of sound that people can hear and we don't have any of the redundencies that exist with face to face conversation. This means that you have to test their english over the phone. It also means that the tester has to be someone who hasn't heard the accent for a long time. Someone who has will be used to the accent and won't notice difficulties that most people will have with it.

And please stop insulting me with clumsy attempts to hide that it is a foreign call center.

[TNT]

My experience with offshored call centers is that the agents speak English too well.

Any agent anywhere can deal with, "My modem is malfunctioning. None of the lights are on." It takes a native speaker to translate, "My blinky-box ain't blinkin' right."

[Geek King]

I've had a few problems with foreign call centers. It is always with the thick accents. You know that when they answer with a thick Indian (I don't know which actual language) accent and an American sounding name you know you are calling India. If they have an Indian accent, or no accent, and give you Indian name you are probably calling within the U.S.

Hee hee...I had a support call a couple of weeks ago where the tech answered, in almost the perfect Apu-sounding (Simpsons) accent, "Hello, thank you for calling [company] Support Line. My name is...(3 second pause)...Bruce?!" Yes, there was a questioning surprise when he said his name. I can only imagine this poor guy going through a list of approved fake names to give. He was a decent tech otherwise, but I still laugh about it.

[Broomjockey]

I called my new cell company today, as my cell phone wasn't making calls, even though I was told yesterday that it would be able to after a couple hours, when the system updated to include my number.

Well, I don't know if it was outsourced or not, but I gotta say, the lady I got was one of the best techs I ever have gotten on the phone. I gave her my basic problem, she put me on hold for about 3 minutes to get information related to my problem, got me back on the line, got me to do a couple things on my phone, and I was making calls about 3 minutes later (half of which was my phone rebooting). She had a slight accent, and an East Indian sounding name, but I really didn't care. Like I said. Best tech I've ever gotten. Didn't ask me three billion questions or anything, just wanted my phone number, verify my account, then wanted me to read the numbers in two fields she had me pull up. That's all she needed from me

[blas]

After my issue with the cable company and their foreign phone reps, I just call really early in the morning, when I'm more apt to get a person from the actual building in town.

The day before I moved to my new apartment, I called and got a guy named Steve* and he said that I didn't need a tech from the company to come over and install my internet if I already had the equipment. He said I could just plug in my modem and ethernet cable and when I was ready, call them up, have them bring up my account, and they'd activate it. He said it would be cheaper and save a lot of time.

So the next day I moved, and when everything had been successfully moved, I picked a spot for my computer and I plugged everything in and called the cable company. I got a woman from....somewhere. I explained that I'd spoken to a man named Steve yesterday and that he said I could just call and have my account activated. She kept arguing with me and REFUSING to activate it, first claiming that she didn't have the authority to activate my account, then a few minutes later claimed that "No No No, you MUST have someone come over do it for you! No No No!" I was kind of an SC but I stuck to my story and I said Steve from A Building (the one in my city) said that I didn't need a tech. I told her I was NOT going to waste any more money and I would NOT need a tech to come over and charge me $50some to install something I already have installed myself. She tried the "I can't" card again, then she put me on hold. Then a few minutes later she sighed and said she'd activate it.

Maybe Steve forgot to put a note in my account that I installed it myself and just needed activation. Maybe she WAS being a bitch and was trying to just get money off of me.

Who knows?

I hate calling the cable company.