Lisa, I so agree with you! I am in the middle of one of those frustrating customer service places right now. I can't understand the people and have to call them back today, but have requested that someone that speaks fluent English take the call. I was polite and told them I didn't mean any disrespect, but the problem wasn't getting resolved because I couldn't understand them. It seems like everyone is from overseas any more. Frustrating to say the least!

I feel your pain!! Few years ago, my friends DH bought a computer from DELL! He had a problem with it and called Tech Support and could not understand the guy. He asked to speak with an American that could speak English..and was was told that was pretty much impossible! He finally told the guy that he was paying for the computer with AMERICAN DOLLARS..and they'd better let him speak with someone he could understand...or they could come get the d@mn computer! LOL..they transferred him to an English speaking..NO accent person!

When we have called customer service for our online company we got a person in India DH spent 2 hours with Victor from India and never got the problem fixed:( The person for our cable company was in Costa Rica! He had to make an appt for a man to come out to check our cable with some one from Costa Rica imagine that~~we were shocked!!

I think this is the way the USA is going and it is not good:(

I am running into the same problem up here in Canada. When I call the Customer Service it's because there is some sort of problem and I want to explain and, hopefully, get the problem resolved. How can I do this with any hope in heck of making myself understood?

Last time I just kept repeating "Get me somebody/anybody who speaks English." They were probably mad at being tied up on the phone, but they eventually did get me someone who had a passing knowledge of English.

I don't understand why we put up with it. We seem to have become a Nation of people that are too willing to just "bend over and take it in the end". To quote the movie "Im mad as hell and Im not going to take it anymore"!

I hear ya. I just spent seven phone calls and hours trying to get a series of techs to fix the problems with my ISP. None of them spoke English so that you could understand them. One call sounded like the guy was driving while he was talking. I could hear wind in the background just like in a moving car. Another one sounded like the guy was in an outdoor marketplace. I am not kidding. I am canceling as soon as I get the broadband that I ordered hooked up on Friday.

A trick I use to share, to get someone with proper English is to Press #2 for Spanish, and then when the person answers just start talking English. They are all bilingual with English/Spanish. I think you get a real American, and English with a Spanish accent is easier for most Americans to understand than English with a Hindi accent.

I think the places that hire these foreign techs are wise to this trick as everybody uses it, and now sometimes they won't switch over from Spanish to English anymore and just keep speaking Spanish.

There has been a huge uproar at the university in my area regarding the hiring of professors whom the students claim they cannot understand because of their heavy foreign accents, and poor command of grammar along with their limited vocabulary of English words. The students have to pass and English proficiency exam in order to attend the university, but the professors are not tested to see if they can handle the job speaking and writing English.

I've always had good luck with Discover. When I've had to call there the people are in SW US. I think it was Arizona. Always easy to understand and midwest "lack of accent".

I've gotten to the point that I simply laugh at people with Dells and all the problems. If they'd buy locally from a reputable shop, they'd help their own community, the small businesses and make companies like Dell shape up or ship out.

Companies do it to save money. They save money because people here don't want to SPEND any money! People accept substandard, defective, planned obsolesence as being the norm and it only hurts us, not them.

I'm very glad to see that you're standing up and closing those accounts. Kudos! Very few people will actually do that. If more did, the trouble would end.

It's like when people complain about telemarketers and spammers. If people would just refuse to buy from them, it'd stop!

I think the thing to do is to email or write your congress or Senate rep.

I can't figure out how it will change

tyson has so many Somalians working for them now that they changed Labor Day to a Muslim holiday (and that is in the USA ARK)

I don't care if a customer service has an accent, or where they live...what I do care is if they know what they're doing and can solve my problem.

I would rather have someone pleasant and knowledgeable who is sitting in a foreign country, speaking with an accent unlike mine... than an english speaking US citizen who doesn't know squat and has an attitude.

I ususally ask them where they are speaking from. I dont really mind listening to them,as I find their language differences interesting. If I have a hard time understanding them,I simply tell the I am not used to their accent and would they please speak very slowly. I love people and dont like to be rude,,,and Im assuming at some point it was hard for THEM to understand US!!!

I have an embarassing problem. Maybe my hearing is bad. I had my hearing tested about 5 years ago. I found out I had lost some hearing, for high frequency pitches, but that is normal as we age. At the time, I was told don't worry, you don't need a hearing aid (yet). I cannot understand anyone who has an accent. When I call and get a person with an accent, I hang up and try again.

I am careful to not be rude. They are just doing their job. I am not angry with them but the American company that has outsourced jobs to other countries. You can not get good customer service if you can not understand the person you are talking to no matter how hard they are trying

These companies should be ashamed

I'm sorry but with the exception of Spanish, neither DH nor I are able to understand people with foreign accents; I have to listen intently to comprehend folks from England and Australia.

Like country bumpkin I spent a very long time with Dell rep from India- a great deal of it crawling under computer desk to peer at something or another then and hauling my rear back back up to keyboard. (It ain't easy at my age, either!)I finally demanded to speak to someone whose native language was English & got a guy Nashville TN, USA. So grateful I wanted to reach thru the phone & hug his neck- he fixed the problems in 3 minutes flat!

We have been soooo frustrated with the number of foreign doctors the VA now hires- not that we have anything against them personally, but understanding a doctor (and having them understand you) about medical issues/info is way too critical for guesswork.

Suzi

This happens everytime I call anyone for repairs, or account questions. I get so frustrated....I so agree with you. I also hate to "dial 1 for english". I have more gripes about all of this but I hate to get started, makes me crazy!

tech it's india...most of your medical insurance accounts go now to ireland for processing...

what i don't understand is billing...paid a bill on time (if it had been sent to local office) got a notice the bill was late...it had gone to florida (mind you i'm in mi)then get my latest bill and it was fine...go figure!

"Cheap" doesn't quite qualify as a four-letter-word ...

...but it sort of acts like one.

A fridge that dies after 10 years or so ain't "cheap" ...

... when the early ones, built 50 years ago, lasted for 40 years.

Takes a bunch of precious energy ... plus more pollution ... plus increment to global warming ...

... to dig ore/haul/smelt/haul/fabricate/haul/assemble/haul to store those 3 others uselessly.

Stupid.

ole joyful

ole joyful

ole joyful

ole joyful

P.S. Just imagine - 4 names ... when one would have done the job adequately!

o j

Boy oh boy can I relate to this post! I got so frustrated trying to get help with a simple problem I was having with my Mac. I went through two tech people before I asked to speak to someone who speaks English. One of them was rude and informed me "Sir, I do speak English" and refused to transfer me. Second tech guy immediately transferred me. I'm not a rude person and was polite the entire time and being treated that way really raised my BP.

Bingo, the moment I got the English speak person (in TN) it took only a couple of seconds to solve the problem. I reported the incident and how rude the first tech guy treated me. He took my report and told me that whenever a tech is asked to speak to someone who speaks English, they are suppose to immediately transfer you to a stateside representative.

I've learned that most of these "tech" people in other countries are usually reading from a script and if you have a problem that's not listed they'll have a devil of time trying to understand what you are talking about.

It is the way of our society, and it is our fault. We demand the cheap prices so the company has to do something to save money. Outsourcing the customer service is one way they can do so. We need to make a decision, do we truly value US made and US supported? Then we need to speak with your wallet and support those companies that support our values even if they are more expensive. IF you can find one.

Have you called an airline lately? They have been outsourcing for years. And just because the person speaks flawless English really doesn't mean much. After 9/11 I took a second job in a call center training people who were representatives for a phone company, a government health insurance service center, made hotel reservations for casino hotels in the southeast and took the sales calls for television infomercials! Most of the reps jumped from company to company depending on which line was ringing.

Interesting how certain accents are harder to understand. For me, many from the south are hard to understand. Especially when they start yammering with the "y'all"s. And throw in the Bwastun/New Joisey spiels it's difficult. Often it's easier for me to understand the India/Pakistani accents. Some Brit accents are easy and some are difficult to understand. We have the Britcoms on Public Television and many are very easy to understand, but then the cockney (sp?) accent comes aboard and even they occasionally make fun of how hard it is to understand, even for them!

What really irritates me is that the foreign csr's REPEAT everything I say - I nearly go into a rage!