Lovelies, I get SOOO frustrated with non-English speakers... Or poor speakers with terrible accents.
I'm currently on the phone with people from HP - they actually have some English speaking folks, but the other day I was on the phone with the Belkin people. Where was there support office located out of?
Oh that's right, India.Helping me. Where, you might ask, was I?
In America.
Outsourcing is a frustrating bitch. I want some po-dunk-e-dunk English speaking telephone operator who GREW UP in AMERICA with NO ACCENT! I couldn't understand the Belkin guy to save my soul & asked him to transfer me to a non-accented person. The next guy was even worse! Uugh!
I actually told the Belkin guy that I was in theatre and "Look, I can do your Indian accent, See?" (which I did for the next few sentences.) Then I said "Would you mind at least pretending that you're a snotty American and TRYING to speak like us? Or British? Or Irish? Something that I can understand?"
I mean, c'mon - I don't care if the guy has to channel John Wayne to get a cowboy accent out. (As in "Well, Howdy little Lady! Let's see what all the fuss about your printer is.... I reckon it's the innards that have got you in a pinch...")
I would accommodate others if I was a telephone rep. to India & I'd try to talk like them to help out.
But I'm not. And they are.
Am I a racist? Maybe a little, but I just like it when people speak clearly & properly.
Is anyone else with me in hoping that all customer support doesn't sound like this guy?
Ahh I'm with you on this. In fact my colleague and I were having a conversation about this recently.
ReplyDeleteI had to call Sky the other day and they're obviously based in India. I couldn't understand a word they were saying and it really annoyed me. I wasn't rude, but it just gets to me.
However, I work in a call centre myself, and I have to say we experience it the other way round, too. People who speak in broken English are terribly, terribly hard to help with a technical problem. I used to think I was racist but everyone I work with feels the same! I mean, when you have a customer calling and yelling:
'In'net no work! I need fix, yes?' - what can you do?
Me: 'Okay. Do you have a router there, or a modem?'
Customer: 'whaaa? Innet no work!'
Me: 'Yes, but...'
Customer: 'my innet no working since three days. You fix, yes?'
And there is nothing more we CAN do, because snowmen will prance in Hell before I can get this guy to configure a router and set up wireless within ten minutes.
And the WORST bit is when you cannot understand the customer and THEY sigh as though you're an idiot for not understanding them (despite them living in England and not knowing the basics of English. Oh the logic.)