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Ok not sure if this is the correct thread to post this
With my current job, I have to call customer service on a daily basis (Fed Ex, UPS, DHL). Every now and then, I get someone who I cannot understand due to their heavy accents. (Just guessing they are overseas). It seems rude to me to say “hey I cant understand you transfer me to someone else”
Has anyone ever dealt with a situation like this? Should I just say “Transfer me to someone else?”
I recently had a situation when I needed to call Kohls last Friday about an error on an order and I called about 5x and could not understand ANY of them.
I finally called someone today who told me she was based out of Dallas. I understood her and she helped me and I was able to get the situation taken care of.
I usually just thank them for their time and hang up and then I call back later and hope someone else will be easier to understand.
Last year my daughter had a teacher who we just couldn't understand on the phone. She goes to online school and was supposed to talk to this teacher every two weeks. We pretended we were having trouble with our phone service and mostly communicated with him by email, for the entire school year.
I will usually say "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you."
We have a representative in our office with a very thick accent, and people have asked to speak to others before. Usually one of my co workers will take over the call for him.
Ive been dealing with this with Fed Ex all day today. As soon as they answer, I know I wont be able to understand them. It's driving me crazy!!!! I just tell them, I'll call you right back I need to get the tracking number. (lies I have it right in front of me)
I have this problem at work, because a big office in our organization is in India, and we have to work with some of the people there on the regular. In person (they have flown to visit) I have no problem, and we can email back and forth, but on the phone...I just can't understand them. And I hate that. I feel terrible. Honestly I give them big kudos for knowing multiple languages, and I think that their accents are musical and lovely when in person and I can understand them. But it is driving me mad that we're trying to solve serious programming issues and logistical problems and there is a serious barrier to understanding one another. I don't know what to do. I've finally become brave enough to talk to coworkers about my frustration and everyone agrees and says they've got the same issue. *sigh* There is no "transfer me to someone else"...these are the specific people I HAVE to deal with. I just ask that after every conference call, we recap with an email so that we can all refer to the information later. Doesn't help with the fact that every call is torturously awkward, but at least we can communicate in writing afterwards....
I am a foreigner with heavy accent and will never understand why they had me answer the phones at Bank of America (it wasn't my main task though). I felt so bad about it but needed the job.
It's tough enough when you enter a nail salon and they bark "Pick ya calla" at you. I usually pretend to read a magazine when I get my pedicure done to avoid conversation. They don't understand me and I don't understand them and it is just too exhausting.
Americans are so polite - if you are a foreigner in Germany, they would probably tell you to either speak clearly or shut up.
I have this problem at work, because a big office in our organization is in India, and we have to work with some of the people there on the regular. In person (they have flown to visit) I have no problem, and we can email back and forth, but on the phone...I just can't understand them. And I hate that. I feel terrible. Honestly I give them big kudos for knowing multiple languages, and I think that their accents are musical and lovely when in person and I can understand them. But it is driving me mad that we're trying to solve serious programming issues and logistical problems and there is a serious barrier to understanding one another. I don't know what to do. I've finally become brave enough to talk to coworkers about my frustration and everyone agrees and says they've got the same issue. *sigh* There is no "transfer me to someone else"...these are the specific people I HAVE to deal with. I just ask that after every conference call, we recap with an email so that we can all refer to the information later. Doesn't help with the fact that every call is torturously awkward, but at least we can communicate in writing afterwards....
We have reps that I email so I can avoid calling but A LOT of times theyll tell me "I dont have access to my computer, call customer service"
I don't see any justification for outsourcing call centres to foreign countries
In the UK everything is outsourced to India, they always have a checklist and if you ask them anything outside that they suggest otherstuff which is wrong. They never understand us either..
I just tell them I'm sorry but I can't understand please transfer me to someone else. I figure if it happens enough somebody will figure out their 'customer service' rep isn't terribly suited for call center work. I mean there are accents, and then there are barely intelligible accents that shouldn't even be considered for such work. Most of the ones I deal with ARE reading from a script or a computer screen so it's not like they have specialized knowledge, they're just cheap labor, sigh.
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