Okay, I know this is gonna come off racist or prejudiced and that's really not my intention...?

Question

...but I can't help but wonder if I'm the only one who gets frustrated with this...

When I call the finance company for my SUV (HSBC), I'm on hold for what feels like years before someone with a horribly thick accent and very clipped English answers my call. More often than not, the person I get sounds as though they are of middle-eastern decent but I get a lot of asian sounding customer service reps, too.

I really don't have a problem with race or someone's nationality and I know they're entitled to a job, too...but isn't it horribly frustrating to anyone else to have to repeat yourself numerous times to these individuals or have to ask them to repeat themselves time and again because they're not making sense...especially after you've been on hold forever and a day?

I've tried asking for a supervisor at these points and the supervisors are usually sound the same as the rep I'm trying to not have to deal with. Anyone have any thoughts for how to handle this?

Answer 1

I have had this happen many times. I heard it said that someone with an accent like that maybe difficult to understand, but they can speak more than one language. I can't do that. I wish I could though. I just try to find a quiet place (not easy with 3 small kids at home) to speak with them and listen intently. Usually I can understand OK if I try, but I have to pay attention.

Answer 2

Most likely the person you are talking to isn't even in the United States - a very large number of these companies hire people in India and other third-world countries to handle their calls so that they can save money on labor costs. Needless to say, people not living in English speaking countries often don't speak English very well - nothing to do with race per se.

Best way to handle it? Ask your finance company up front where its customer service representatives are located. Refuse to do business with anyone who answers with anything other than "The United States of America." That way, not only do you save yourself a lot of frustration, but you also help to penalize those companies that take jobs away from American citizens.

Answer 3

Feel the same way,it's normal.Most of your calls do go to a foreign country(yours may as well)and are obviously answered by foreigners in a foreign country.The reason why this is happening so much in this country is because the employers in this country dont want to hire american workers because they can get cheap labor in another country,and when you do have a problem,they try to discourage you by dealing with a foreign person you cant understand,hoping you get frustrated and hang up.

Answer 4

Use another means of communication. Maybe resolve problem through e-mail? As far as changing the fact that many customer service phone reps cannot speak english well, you're out of luck.

Answer 5

When they are hard to understand ask them if they are in the USA.

Ask them if there is anybody that can help you located in the USA.

Complain to the corporate offices in the USA. Let them know that you can't understand the accent of their service providers.

Global Market, Free trade, NAFTA, are just bumper sticker answers for exporting American Jobs.

When we start illegally immigrating for jobs how will THEIR government treat us?

Answer 6

I say have everybody speak English. I'm not a racist either, but I'm not going to learn another language. My advice to you is buy a spell checker with a translator on it. That's the only thing I can come up with.

Answer 7

If I can't understand a waitress or salesperson and can't get someone to help who speaks English, I move along. Its your money, spending it shouldn't be an ordeal with a language barrier.

Answer 8

Take back America.
Corporations are sending all of our jobs overseas (those reps you spoke to are probably in India), and the illegal immigrants are grabbing the rest.

Capitalism at its' finest.

Answer 9

You have to accept it as is. Call centers in the U.S. have been farmed out to India, and Asia because of substantially lower labor costs. Welcome to the global economy.