Asian Call Centres
 

One of my pet hates is to call a company or tech support line and get through to some guy (sexist, better add "gal") in India or Pakistan that speaks poor English and has no idea what you are on about unless it is on his script.

Am I alone in cringing when an Asian voice introduces himself as Alan or Colin?
Have you ever come across someone like THIS??

What do you think of the companies that use call centres from abroad?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

As a customer I dislike them.

As a share holder I love 'em.

The result of Thatcher's free market economy in my humble opinion.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

have a real dislike of them cos ive had some real grief trying to understand one recently and it was made worse by the fact that i'm as deaf as a doorpost and they spoke very low as well as not very clear,and they didnt understand me too much it was total chaos.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

I briefly worked for local Accrington firm Airtours before being pastured out.

Their wages department was in India and trying to get them to post my P45 to Ossy was a bloody nightmare.

Yes. OOOOOOOOO-SSSSSSSSS-WWWWWW-AAAAAAA-LLLLLLLLL-DDDDDDDDD, etc., etc.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Would you prefer it to be a complete state monopoly where you have no choice but to be with that one company?

Yeah asian call centers annoy me because I can't understand them half the time. I try to stay away from companies that use foriegn outsourced support.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Did I say I would?

No.

Don't see red everywhere you look.:D

Like I said, ethics and annoyance aside, as a shareholder I'm laughing.;)

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Not really :p I'd be less inclined to join a company that had an outsourced support center.. so less customers = less profit ;)

Swings and roundabouts :p

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Sorry but my complaint is doctors who cant speak fluent english.. if they cant speak it and cant understand me then how are they best going to help me.. I should have at least the ability to converse with the person about to save my life.. far more important than saving my computer....

Yes I know... a doctor who cant speak english is better than no doctor when ya need one ...

Any doctors reading.... only joshing guys... please dont hold a grudge :)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Who did you book your holidays with?
Who do you bank with?
Do you know exactly where each company you ever deal with resource their staff?

I don't.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

My husband's name was Colin and my son is called Alan. Your point is......? :D

No, I know exactly what you mean. The last one I had was "Nigel". I did, however, have the need to speak to a technical guy at T-Mobile recently. His name was Gareth and, I was relieved to find, he was actually Welsh (I had feared the worst). What's more he sorted out my voicemail problem where all others had failed. A family member had to speak to someone about a computer problem and got a bloke in Bombay. After half an hour on the phone, neither of them was any the wiser. It's ridiculous.

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I don't book holidays,
I use Cheshire Building Society,
I know that they're located in England, as I say, if they're not I look to ditch that company because outsourced support is often VERY poor, based on my own experiences.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

The worst call centre I have to deal with is Goldfish in Glasgow.

I lived up there and can't understand some of them.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

:) do you also know that when you ring hyndburn borough council,s housing office re rent rebate or council tax enquires, and you cant get through and you get the operator, that their call centre is based in birmingham(i know its not india but its near enough) :)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Your experience will widen with age.

I hope you don't ever take a well salaried job, only to find you have to turn it down because the Google Page Ranking department's cleaners are paid via an office in Mombai.;)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Well thats somewhat different ;)

If there were major problems with my wage every month and I had to keep ringing, I wouldn't be impressed, and i'd be wondering if the wage is good enough to stay in the job with all the hastle! :D

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Yeah actually I would! Then we could argue for a shop in every town where I could pay my bill and dispute any problems, instead of being ripped off by high charge phone numbers which make you wait for 20 minutes to complain.....

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

but you can just change company and take advantage of competition...

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

...until all the competition has been eaten up and, there are just one or two vast global conglomerates left.;)

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OMG know what you mean , my example and it really really narks me was yesterday.. i have just had the internet installed fer my brother he has never used it before but i got a package from toucan and had to call for help with the installation as i were having problems. Now (a). firstly i had to call an 0901 number which costs a bloody fortune anyway and (b) i was put through to a very poor english speaking asian girl called ALISON i couldnt tell what she were saying to me or vise versa. got very annoyed and hung up will be making formal complaint to toucan. but please why are these companies getting away with this ?

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Yeah.. pure capitalism sucks

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Gasp.:eek:

Don't make me confiscate your blue rosette!;)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

they are bloody awful!! cant get one thing right

i was tryna get sommet sorted and i got connected to india and i just thought straight off - oh god this is gonna take another 2-3 fone calls to get right

and it did - and it was a uk call centre that got it right

i can understand for basic stuff - such as signin up a sim card or registering ur microwave - fair enough

but stuff like banking and financial things shud deffo b in uk

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

that doctor at accy vic has been there for years and still the nurse has to repeat everything he says to the patient lol

i once called a doctor out late at night and after a few prods in my abdomen and quite a lot of words were spoken all the only 2 words in the conversation i understood were appendix & out , i went to hospital thinking my appendix was going to be removed but it turned out it was just a kidney infection

call ceneters are a pain but i find if you ring up during UK work times like between 9 - 5 you can get somone english , other than that i just hang up if i cant tell what they are saying:)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

I phoned virgin trains 1 saturday to book train tickets to glasgow ( the journey normally only takes 2hours 45 mins but they were doing some line work somewhere ) so I get through to the person at virgin after hearing a transfer happening they said their name was annabel and I go through the travel requirements...
me..' I want to go to glasgow from preston '
annabel...' ok, where is preston ..in the uk ?? as I cannot find it on my list countries..?'
me...'yes its in the uk and not a country ????'
annabel...' and which country is glasgow in ?'
me..'what ??'
annabel..' is glasgow in the uk or overseas '
me..'scotland'
annabel...'is that scotland in the uk or somewhere else..??'
me..'is there another scotland somewhere else in the world that you can get a direct train to ?
annabel...' no, so thats scotland uk.'
me..'yes, how long will the journey take due to the rail works..?'
annabel..' 5 hours 35 minutes'
me...' why so long ?'
annabel..' because thats how long the journey takes, the work is finished and the new train takes longer becuase its bigger and slower..'
me..' (now getting slightley annoyed) why does the new train take longer ?'
annabel..' because they put in new stops going to glasgowland..sorry scotland'
me..' thats nonsense, its not carrying cars or livestock..its an express train carrying people..have you ever been on that train journey ??'
annabel ..' yes, I have been to (long pause...) errr..your destination lots of times...(blatant lie) would you like to book the tickets ?'
me..'not really becuase you cannot help me in anyway shape or form..and you clearly do not know what your talking about...!
annabel...' would you like your tickets posted to you...?'
me..' I dont want them..'
annabel..'would you like to pick them up at the station ?'
me...I dont want them..
annabel...'why not..'
me..'because you havent exactley been helpful to me..
annabel...'glad to have been of assistance..

click..I put the phone down !...totally shocking stuff...I havent phoned virgin trains on a weekend since !..midweek only ..uk staff...and I am not a racists in anyway but I hate dealing with overseas call centres...I will never forget that phone call though...

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

That sadly, was hilarious. :)

Although not funny for you, thanks for making me laugh out loud, and thanking my lucky stars my twenty years of travelling up and down the west coast line are now over.:)

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I dont mind the train to be honest as its £30 return first class and very comfy..and you get free grub and free drink !
I got the late train up 1 night as I was going to slovakia to watch a footy match, and I was slightly drunk to say the least by the time I hit glasgow as I was the only person in the carriage going up and the girl just left the drinks trolley by my table and told me to help myself...to save her walking down every 20 mins to serve just me !..so I did...had the lot..cider, beer, spirits..even the nibble were gone..my mates couldnt figure out how I got in such a mess from a train journey...

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

I quite like travelling by train i dont get motion sick on them things either hehehe funny be going on one this week to visit my friend o'er white rose county, travelled most parts of England on trains:D

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United Utilities used to out-source their call centres to India - blaming nightmare to understand them or they understand me altho recently i have spoken to English people so maybe they must of had loads of complaints & mishaps therefore directed to their internal organisation again.

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A Scottish guy rung from my mobile provider, 3, a while back, offering me an upgrade. I told him I wanted to change my tariff to, he agreed at the time that I could and said my tariff change would come into effect from the 12th of July ..... it didn't, but I'll be damned if I'm ringing India again to end up feeling murderous all day! They are effing useless!!

Is it true these people over there actually need to have a degree to do this job?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Personally I also try to avoid using companies who outsourse their call centres. I had some real problems when I was with AOL speaking to India, when my problem wasn't on the list of answers they had. I also find foreign call centre operatives very condesending.

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Maybe, because I know powergen have. They did a complete u turn on it. Says in their leaflet that they had complaints and that they now see it as their customers are more important than saving a few quid by having their call centre abroad. Lets hope the rest see sense and realise that we are now going to go to companies that have uk call centres over companies that don't.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Now I've had experiences like the rest of you but I've also had disgusting service from UK call centres as well. e.g. some of you know I'm swapping ISPs from Pipex (ultra reliable, UK call centres etc) to Orange (because I have my mobile with them its free). My connection that should have just been swapped over became dead so I rang up to query why. Initally i get through to Uk based tech support. During the intro I introduce myself and explain that unlike most people who probably ring I know what I'm talking about. he starts reading from an obvious script and giving me what is complete twaddle for information. he's trying to tell me I should set my routers WAN to a static IP address that is a class C network(192.168.1.1) which if you know about networks is absolute rubbish. I explain to him that I do know how networks work and that actually what should happen is that their DHCP server should assign me a dynamic IP whenever i connect (and renew at predetermined time points) at this point I ask him if he knows about networks and he says "no, never had to" !!!!!!! This is a guy who is meant to help people set up their network!!!. he puts me on hold to "speak to my supervisor" and themnn cuts me off. Rang back, got a guy in india who introduced himself as Mayhur, we went through alsorts of checks, and eventually found out that instead of switching me across, BT had actually disconnected me and that a new request for a new connection had been placed , sla 10 days, so I'm currently offline at home till Wednesday. The indian guy was helpful, polite, and knowledgeable.

At work we have an offshore part of our team(Based in Manilla, phillipines) out of the 6 of them, 2 are OK, the rest struggle to understand basic concepts. We have to understand cultural differences such as where a UK resource tends to get on and do stuff, they spend a LOT of time talking, thinking, having meetings, wrtiting up in triplicate etc before they will start doing anything. In a fast moving environment such as we work in this just winds up business users to the point that they now won't accept their projects being offshored and the onshore team are massively understaffed and overworked.

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The other important issue about foreign call centres is that jobs are being lost in this country. Why should we, as consumers put up with bad service from companies, who are trying to penny pinch by using call cntres in other countries.
I had problems last year with my water bill, I have a meter and United Utilities had estimated it wrongly.Based on my previous bills, I was being charged for the equivalent of 3 years water usage, rather than 6 months. I rang the 0845 number and spoke to a lady in India, who insisted my bill must be correct.as they did not make mistakes. I told her I would pay an amount which was approx what I thought the bill should be, but she said I could not do that. I felt that anyone in UK would have had more understanding of my query, as I had given her details of my water consumption on my previous 3 bils. So I emailed the customer service department, from their website, and put a cheque and accompanying letter (explaining why I was only paying part of the amount) in the post and asking for a number to speak to UK in future. I got a revised bill, and a number in UK to ring for any future queries.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

what do you mean because you have your mobile with them it's free?
you get free landline broadband because you have a phone on orange contract?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

you should use say no to 0870. com whenever you can

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Hey noticed the new churchill advert is advertising the fact they don't outsource their call centres!!! The worm is turning :rolleyes:

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

the thing that gets my goat when I have call in a problem is that here in California 9 times out of 10 the phone answers and the first automated response is .......for English press or say 1 ............ the folks who dont speak english should have to press 1. (dont worry it will come to the UK soon enough)

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

If you have a Orange contract of £30 a month or more you get free up to 8M broadband(there is a cap of IIRC 2gig/month, I'll just download big stuff at work on their unmetered connection.

Likewise SKY have a deal that if you live in an area that was unbundled by easynet(who sky bought out) you can get free broadband if your subscription is over £15 a month.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

How would I connect to the internet using a mobile phone gprs. Any ideas?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

called THREE the other day too cancel a stolen mobile phone :(:(:(

The lady from india informed me that my new SIM card would cost me £16 and 625 pence ?????????? I asked her many times and explained that, that was not an ENGLISH monetary amount.............

After 5 minutes all she said was it would be £16 and 625 pence and would I accept this ???????? With the police waiting for me I agreed ......

It appears the amount was £17.75 ????????????????????

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Get the right phone............

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

what do you mean get the right phone. do you need 3g?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

that was well worth your £30 train fare then lol :D

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

Mad, you can get 'internet' via a phone in a couple of ways, GPRS or 3G, the latter being faster, e.g. I posted to accyweb the other night using my Nokia N80 as a modem connected over 3G at 460Kbps (near broadband) and was sharing it across a wifi network to julie so she too could post. You need to connect to your phone over usually IRDA or via cable, (Unusually bluetooth doesn't seem to work for most phones when it comes to this).

You could use a GPRS connection but as its less than a 56K modem I would question why you would.

Oh, did I mention its sodding expensive! If it wasn't for me gettinga trial data allowance from Orange I wouldn't have done it , its about £1/megabyte.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

ah i'll get to the expense bit in a bit,
right ive got my phone connected to my pc in the barn my new office. I've got the phone connected with manufacturers data cable. what do i set the settings to on the phone to be able to connect to orange gprs, and how do I connect, I must need to set something up on the pc, and how does the phone connect to the net, a modem is permantely connected via a fixed land line but is a phone always connected ?
Explain in basic.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

What phone is it for a start.

Your phone should present itself as a modem to your PC. Try looking in phones and modems in control panel. YOu shouldn't need to do too much, Nokias PC suite has a connect to internet button but all you have to do is set up a dial up networking connection. for teh number to dial its normally *99#

As for username etc, your phone should already have them itself. when your PC asks it to connect its just like it connecting to WAP or any other Internet based service i.e. it will dial out and make teh connection and then just route any requsts from the PC out to the net and back again.

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

No they don't say that. Listen to the advert next time.
They say they have a UK based call centre. They don't say they don't have any over seas call centres as well.

Is it just a carefull play on words?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

thats another problem I've got a nokia 7250i but can I find out which lead I need :( they sold me one in the orange shop but im scared to open it cos I know it's the wrong one.

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I've been told that it's possible to connect a pc to oranges pound a day on payg but as I still can't get my head round it I dunno if that would work. surely that would only be wap, it would be a different connection to get internet?

Re: Asian Call Centres
 

right, you've bugged me enough again about this. Will you PLEASE STOP double posting within minutes of each other. You do it all teh time. What is it? just to get your post count up?????? You are showing over 2K posts when in reality it should be half that!

As for you questions, the cable is a DKU-5 it should connect to your phone at one end and be usb at the other. It will cost a lot more than a pound a day for a connection. As for wap/internet, depending on if the telcoms co put restrictions on the connection it is technically no different to retrieve a wap page from a 'standard' internet page.