Aspies and Foreign call centres

[Mr Allen]

Topic.

Do you have a problem understanding them? Particularly Indian ones? I definitely do, but that's probably more down to my deafness than being Aspie, although I'm sure it's part of it.

Anyway, as a result I refuse on principle to deal with companies who do not have UK call centres, but that's rather limiting, especially for mobile phone providers as the majority of the big names have International call centres.

It does get annoying though when I'm on with Virgin or whoever and trying to explain a problem with my account and they don't understand my strong accent.

Does anyone else have the same issue or is it just me being awkward? Don't get me wrong I'm not racist by any means, it's just the annoying language barrier that kind of does my head in.

 

[Progster]

Call centres really bug me, but for other reasons:

1. I get not a person but a machine, a pre-recorded message which reads a list out, but what I need is not on the list.
2. I get a person, and I give them my carefully rehearsed request, or I explain my problem in great detail, only for them to tell me that I actually need to speak to someone else, and then I have to explain all over again for that person.
3. The person wants to put me through to someone else, and I then have to wait anything up to an hour in a queue to get connected.
4. I have to wait an hour or more in the queue before someone answers my call.
5. They play awful music while I'm waiting to be connected.
6. They interrupt the awful music with messages that repeat themselves over and over again.
7. They play adverts while you are waiting.
8. AAGGGHHHH!!!

 

[Streetwise]

Topic.

Do you have a problem understanding them? Particularly Indian ones? I definitely do, but that's probably more down to my deafness than being Aspie, although I'm sure it's part of it.

Anyway, as a result I refuse on principle to deal with companies who do not have UK call centres, but that's rather limiting, especially for mobile phone providers as the majority of the big names have International call centres.

It does get annoying though when I'm on with Virgin or whoever and trying to explain a problem with my account and they don't understand my strong accent.

Does anyone else have the same issue or is it just me being awkward? Don't get me wrong I'm not racist by any means, it's just the annoying language barrier that kind of does my head in.

my accent is different from a Sunderland accent but it's still thick ! what I do is listen to them to see if they've understood what I've said! I think in a way being panicky helps! because I just keep blindly asking them until I understand.
and I tell them I'm autistic and have panic disorder I think that helps .

 

[Bolletje]

I generally don’t have problems with understanding accents, but that’s probably because as a Dutch person I’m used to having to understand and/or speak different languages.
And I’m used to people in call centers generally not understanding what I mean, whether they speak my language or not, because they usually have very little knowledge of their own product and minimal training before starting their job.

 

[xudo]

I don't usually have a problem but I just hate having to speak to people on the phone, no matter where they're from.

I need to call my mobile network to cancel but I've been putting it off. They are based in India, but the reason is because of how long the call will be as they have to try to tempt you to stay. On the note of mobile providers though, the Tesco mobile call centre is based in the UK.

 

[clg114]

Call centres really bug me, but for other reasons:

1. I get not a person but a machine, a pre-recorded message which reads a list out, but what I need is not on the list.
2. I get a person, and I give them my carefully rehearsed request, or I explain my problem in great detail, only for them to tell me that I actually need to speak to someone else, and then I have to explain all over again for that person.
3. The person wants to put me through to someone else, and I then have to wait anything up to an hour in a queue to get connected.
4. I have to wait an hour or more in the queue before someone answers my call.
5. They play awful music while I'm waiting to be connected.
6. They interrupt the awful music with messages that repeat themselves over and over again.
7. They play adverts while you are waiting.
8. AAGGGHHHH!!!

I agree, particularly with #8.

 

[Chance]

Unless it's IMPORTANT and pertains directly to my personal life... this conversation isn't going to happen.
If it's a sales call... its over the second I figure that out.
If I can't understand the often very foreign accent on the other end, I will tell them "I cannot understand you so please hand this call off to someone else."

I do not like talking on the stupid telephone to ANYONE... I very seldom make a call unless it is important.
I also don't play chit chat even on texts.... Every now and then people put me in a group text, I ungroup me from that stupidity very quickly...

I'm a telephone jerk... I only have it for important stuff, mostly business and that's it...
Otherwise it's a GREAT music box!!!!

Sadly this was my phone last Tuesday. I was jumping off the tractor and I forgot it was in my lap... It fell face first onto the gravel below... Grrr. Its already fixed and like new again... : )

 

[Mr Allen]

I don't usually have a problem but I just hate having to speak to people on the phone, no matter where they're from.

I need to call my mobile network to cancel but I've been putting it off. They are based in India, but the reason is because of how long the call will be as they have to try to tempt you to stay. On the note of mobile providers though, the Tesco mobile call centre is based in the UK.

NOW she tells me! I binned Tesco Mobile off last year and went with Virgin who were about 3 quid a month cheaper and offered about 3 Gig more data, 9 Gig for less than I was paying for 6.

Also, Tesco Mobile runs on the O2 Network, so I decided I may as well go direct to O2, but Virgin turned out to be cheaper.

This morning, because it's snowing like mad here in Sheffield, England, my landline went dead, so I had to ring Talk Talk on the mobile and spend a highly annoying half an hour explaining my problem to 2 Indian call centre workers who didn't understand me! I speak English in a Sheffield accent FFS!

Fortunately my carer managed to fix the problem with the phone by unplugging it and plugging it back in, otherwise I was to have an Engineer visit next Friday (so I'd have no phone line all week, WTF?!) this saved me the £65 call out fee from BT Openreach Engineers.