Why are so many customer service phone reps hard to understand in English?

[Anonymous]

I just made 2 phones calls and one was answered by a guy from Mexico and the second was some girl with a foreign accent who hung up on me before I even said one word! I called back and got a different girl with a very strong accent of some kind that couldn't understand the account number I gave her THREE TIMES!!!
I said 3805, she said, 3854, I said 3805, she said 3754, I said 3805 and she asked for other confirmation!!
EVERY FUCKING TIME I make a business call to some company I get a girl that can't speak English!!!

[WindAtMyBack]

Because it's cheaper. There is no other reason. The companies know everyone hates it. But they don't care. It just tells me that the company doesn't give a shit about me. If they don't give a shit about me, I don't give a shit about them either. If at all possible I will take my business elsewhere, even if it's a little more expensive.

The other side of the coin is that a company that still has native speakers is a big plus. My natural gas company still has local native speakers.

This is a relatively new phenomenon. When I was young, ALL phone reps were native speakers.

I suppose there is another reason it goes to these overseas call centers. That's because we no longer have to pay huge costs for long distance calls. An overseas call like that could cost $20 or more - adjusted for inflation that could be over a hundred.

[BonzoInBitburg]

My wife worked in a call center in her home country in SE Asia making $700 a month which is considered a good salary there because she speaks good English and consistently scored high on her reviews. It's not hard to get a call center job but it's hard to keep one and the turnover rate is astronomical. These are disposable employees who are treated like crap in horrible working conditions and are a product of their environment. My wife said that if you hang up on a customer you're terminated immediately. If you hang up on a CSR before a resolution, it often leads to them being terminated. There's thousands of resumes of unemployed people ready to work and they don't even pay you during your training.

[Anonymous]

I’ve talked to some AI representatives that are way better to talk to than the overseas people.

[Asker]

Why don't they ever have British phone answerers?

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

People like you are the reason I can never work in a call center ever again

[Asker]

Because I want someone the speaks English? What's that got to do with you not answering phones? Unless you DON'T speak English

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

No, it’s the attitude, the irrational anger, the abuse you’d happily unleash if you could

[Asker]

I don't! I just do my best to try to get through the call without upsetting them.

[exitseven]

Because a lot of companies contract their help desks to some company in India or Africa. It is a lot cheaper. They pay a lot less and they feel that customers don't know the difference.

I worked for a major tech company 20 years ago. The help desk was a very important function of their support organization. They decided to follow the trend and got a company in India to manage the help desk. It was a disaster becuse customers would get frustrated. It turns out that one of the reasons people bought their product was the support they would get after the sale. Business took a severe downturn so they went back to Americans managing the phones.

[Cyfris]

Welcome to a world where the best man for the job is the cheaspest one that will do it. There used to be 7 call centers where I come from in Canada and they all moved overseas because they operate there at 1/3 the cost of here...

[DonaldDarko]

Because greedy companies can make money by exploiting some third world idiot who can't speak English.

[slatyb]

Because they can pay less than they would have to pay for Americans. Some companies don't do this. Alaska Airlines is one.

[DryGermanGuy]

Because you live in that great capitalistic consumer paradise.

[Ariesman81]

Canada's socialist healthcare program does the same. It's estimated that 65% of Medical coding will be exported to the Philippines by 2030.

[darkcloud1945]

Because the customer service rep is in India. It costs about 2/3 to use them instead of Americans; we get what they pay for!

[Asker]

These weren't Induah's. I know their accents, I nearly married one.

[darkcloud1945]

All he said was that his name was Bapoo, where that name is from in India, I dont know.

[Asker]

I've had Induah's, Mexicans and Orientals but, so far, I've never had Brits, Jamaicans, Russians, Africans, Germans, Aussies, S. Americans, French, Italians or Canadians!!

[darkcloud1945]

They work cheaper than the others mentioned.

[msc545]

Because lots of people from other countries, besides the US, work in customer service.

[Mariogirl09]

I think because the companies pay them less!

[In_Trance]

Because they're Indian

[Asker]

Not these people. If anything, they were Mexican or Oriental.

[Anonymous]

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