Blue Like You

Where have all the english speaking people gone too?

All these call-centers seem to be moving out of Canada. Too expensive.

Good point about the telemarketers. They too can be from anywhere in the world. Very annoying. But those I can ignore with call-display.

It’s when I need service information and there is a huge communication obstacle that I become enraged.

Actually, I get frustrated with call centres. Period. I’ve had just as many annoying experiences with local call centres as I have with the ones located half a world away. You can still have a bad call centre located in the middle of Toronto staffed with people who don’t care and who don’t speak english clearly–you don’t need to go to India for that! Organizations walk a fine balance between offering good customer service and controlling their costs. Unfortunately, many do a terrible job of it, and opt for the cheaper call centres with lower quality people.

I’ve had some on the line who could barely form a sentence, and it took me five minutes to even begin to understand what they wanted!..

Fortunately, we have a young Indian girl who is staying with us.When she takes the call, she tells them in no uncertain terms that we are eating, and that their call is most unwelcome.In Gujrati! heh.heh.. then we all giggle madly and go back to eating..

I had occasion recently to make a warranty call to Apple Computer. The technician had an excellent telephone voice and was absolutely clear so I asked her where she was located. “Peterborough!”

Ruth.. I hated dealing with Bell for the same reason. OMG, I thought I was going to lose my mind. One night the CSR insisted that the reason my signal was down was because there was a snow storm in Toronto. I tried explaining that Toronto was no where geographically close to Calgary and that we had lovely clear weather than night. She kept insisting that Toronto weather was my problem as obviously she didn’t understand the basics of Canadian geography.

Then I went to StarChoice. I braced myself the first time I called technical service. To my delight.. the call centre was here, in Calgary!! And… the CSR spoke english! I was so darn delighted to actually speak to someone in my own country that I didn’t care they couldn’t get me up and running the same night.

Of course, that doesn’t make up for the pure frustration I get if I have to call Telus or Rogers. Ugh. Rogers claims their call centre is in Markham, but I swear it’s really in India.

Maybe the collective *we* need to start telling companies that we won’t use their services unless they are in Canada (or at the very least, North America). More people who make a stand the better of a minisual chance we have at changing things.

…don’t waste your time with the small fish

Good advice, JT.

Maybe the collective *we* need to start telling companies that we won’t use their services unless they are in Canada (or at the very least, North America). More people who make a stand the better of a minisual chance we have at changing things.

That’s a great idea, Annie! I guess the only solution is to deal as locally as possible and make sure that their company actually answers the phone and doesn’t send those jobs elsewhere.

Thanks to everyone commenting here. Misery loves company.

Thanks for clarifying all that, Kevin. Sounds like you’re in the business. Is that right?

It is so annoying to talk to people with accents. Ever had a Scottish person answer the phone. Good freakin luck. Drives me crazy.

I agree that we really need to protect those historial great Canadian service jobs like call centres, but I don’t want to be called anti-globalization.
Maybe a fair compromise is to keep white normal-talking people in those good jobs, but not worry about the manufacturing jobs that can’t compete with the $10,000 car made in China.
I can hold this opinion without any cognitive dissonance because I like cheap imports–good for me. But I hate talking to some Indian moron –inconvenient for me.

Kevin, I really do appreciate that you’ve commented here. It’s always good to get an opinion from the other side of the picture.

So next time I’m reaching the boiling point when dealing with a call center, what do you recommend? Ask to speak to their supervisor? Thanks.

After 20+ years of dealing with Zellers/HBC, I had a horrendous call centre experience with them, over several weeks and numerous phone calls, entering my 16-digit credit card number over and over, in a mostly futile attempt to fix an erroneous charge.

I told them to jam their CC, and haven’t shopped there since. I still have the extra added blood-pressure, though. It’s incredible to me that they spend so much on advertising, and blow off customers through that kind of service.

Note that I believe all of the calls were to Canada-based call-centres.

Thanks for the venting space, Joanne.

A long time back, I spent 6 weeks in a call centre at a pittance (8.75/hr). From that day to this, I am polite and kind to any caller and any service technician. The poor line animals don’t deserve our contempt, only the tall-foreheads hauling in six and seven figure salaries who outsource the jobs and/or treat customer service like the checkout at Tim Horton’s.

I make no claim to sainthood, but there is zero, ZERO, point in being miserable to the poor bastards answering the phone or bugging you at dinner. They’re trying to hold hearth and home together just like anybody else, so a polite, firm “No, thank you” or a “Can I speak to your supervisor” fit the bill.

Those who complain about accents - just TRY to hack out a question in Punjabi - I dare ya. Their English is several orders of magnitude better than your [insert second language here], and they (your fellow human beans) are working just as hard as you to put dinner on the table. If you MUST blame someone, blame the damn tall-foreheads looking for a cheap customer service plan.

Thanks, Valiantmauz. I will try to remember that. You’re right. It’s not the fault of the person at the other end. It’s the fault of the company that’s trying to save a dime at the expense of Canadian jobs.

Mary T., would you happen to have a link? (Not trying to pretend I’m Gayle here. lol!) Thanks.

The folks who sit in those cubicles are more hard done by than you are Joanne. They are stuck in a system that expects very high performance and gives them minimal support.

FWIW .. I’ve had good results from north American manufacturers who operate continental based sites.
I’ve had good results from tech companies with Asian based sites.

The WORST customer service is ROGERS …. period.
And it’s all about the systems they have in place.
Pity the poor people who need to work for a Rogers customer service centre.

Several years ago, when metric come in, I noticed a box of detergent with x number of whatever on it, and the same brand in a much larger box with fewer whatever on it. Out of curiosity I asked the clerk how come the difference, what was in the large box. I was given a lecture on something and she called the manager. I just wanted a question answered, not to make a scene. He took my name and address and I bought what I wanted. Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later I received a large box from said company.
A letter from the CEO, and 10 boxes of my product. They thanked me for my concern and would check into the labelling. I had forgotten this until now.