Do you think foreign call centres are a pain in the neck?

Question

There was a Programme on TV last night about the (so called) efficiency of foreign call centres!
Well not in my experiences what say you?

Answer 1

They are crap. It is taking advantage of low pay in Third World countries, and denying work to people in this counrty. It's effectively corporate slave labour.

Answer 2

I have to disagree, It is exaperating when it takes you 20 minutes to get a simple transaction done because they can't understand you and you can't understand them.

I did read an article in "Red Herring" recently where several banks with a foreign call got ripped off a quarter million or more after the the bargain basement workers that they were to cheap to do a background check on sold customer account information like for $60 per credit card number and even with "internal controls" that is suppossed to prevent it, it too them over 2 months before they suspected anything.

Did have to laugh when one a foreign call center worker wanted to put a co-worker or mine on hold and asked "May I hold you please"? Sound like sexual harrassement to me!

Answer 3

I would really prefer to talk to someone who knows that Surrey is a county in England when I am trying to book rail tickets!
But to be fair, Transport for London Call Centres are also pretty useless and they are based here.

Answer 4

Not happy with call centres, especially the non British ones how do not understand the context of the conversation.

Answer 5

I have had no end of problems, being partially deaf I really struggle with strong accents anyway, but the real problem the language. It's not that the level of spoken English isn't good, it's just not understood in the same context. One man understood every word, but still couldn't put them together to understand what I meant.

Answer 6

I had to call HP warranty support the other day, surprisingly I could understand most of what he was saying on this occation. There was one word which he kept mis-pronouncing and I had to ask him to repeat himself 4 times before I realised oron-jin-r meant 'engineer'. I could tell from the tone of his voice he didn't like the fact that I had to ask him to repeat himself 4 times, probably because they have their calls monitored by supervisors who check they are performing 'well'. I told him I didn't want an oron-jin-r on site.
It must be very tough for them and I could never speak their language as well as they speak English, but as a customer I'd rather speak to someone for whom English is their first language.
Also I find it hard to avoid using phrases which only people from my own country would understand... it takes a concious effort on my part.

Answer 7

don't you find that they are what i call text book only in other words if it ain't in the text book they have not got a clue what to do with it. all they do is read from the text book and when you ask a question that they are not sure of they keep repeating themselves like a parrot its all a complete waste of time if you ask me i mean how can a person in India tell you about train time tables if they did not know where the stops in between the main stops were

Answer 8

I'm a business major, so I understand why multinational enterprises like international call centers so much.

However, on a personal level, I cannot stand having to give my social to someone in Mumbai.

Answer 9

Call centers in general are a pain in the bottom. No one knows anything and they say they'll find out then don't call back with the info.

Answer 10

Sometimes even our own American call centers can be a pain due to the varying American accents used (north south east west etc.)