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I totally agree with you Brian. I am hard of hearing and dealing with a foreign accent is so difficult. I was on the phone to an Insurance company whose call centre is based in India, it took 25 minutes to get a quote because I had to spell a lot of words out. I then phoned a Liverpool based insurance company who used locals for their call centre and got a quote in 5 minutes. I am so grateful that so many British companies are now realising that accents are important when communicating over the phone.

I( have recently had atrocious experiences dealing with MoreThan call centre in India whose operatives did not speak English. Why do firms do this? When I renew my car insurance , there is one company I most definitely will not use again! The same appliers to any company using an Indian call centre - they can all forget about my business, as they will never get it! The more people who make this clear to large greedy companies the better. If they see that untrained unskilled non-English speaking call centre operators in India are losing them lots of money they may think again. Hit them in the bank balance, the only place it hurts.

Why do firms do this? I presume that was a rhetorical question. Ask yourself how much they pay their Indian employees compared to what a U.K. one would (rightfully) expect.

Why do firms do this? I presume that was a rhetorical question. Ask yourself how much they pay their Indian employees compared to what a U.K. one would (rightfully) expect.

Why do firms do this? I presume that was a rhetorical question. Ask yourself how much they pay their Indian employees compared to what a U.K. one would (rightfully) expect.

I got action from BT when I called their sales department rather than technical. Technical was in India, worked from a Windows based script, and didn't have a clue about anything. Sales was in the UK and understood that they would lose a customer if they didn't sort it out.

They do it because it's cheap. This whole idea of doing everything on the cheap (or "efficiently"), and to hell with standards, is one of the worst aspects of Thacherism (which is still the UK's ruling ideology, Labour government or not).

When choosing a business bank we narrowed the choice down to two - both have the word "Scotland" in their names. I callled the local branch of the first and was transferred to someone in a call centre (admittedly in the UK) who could tell me very little about business banking facilities or even where Jedburgh was. I called the local branch of the other bank and the call was answered by someone at that branch. "Yes, the business relations manager is Mr X and he's in town on Tuesday, would you like me to book you an appointment with him" Guess which one we chose.

I had trouble with my Broadband last week. Phoned BT - got put through to India. Three different Indian employees - I had real problems with trying to understand all three. I’m still reeling at the instruction giving by one of my ‘helpers’. Here it is ..... Get a screwdriver, take out the two screws on the cover of the wall power socket, (power socket which is part of the ring system) look inside to see if there is another small junction box, if so inform the helper. Do BT really know, or care , what‘s going on here?

I've found it extremely frustrating when communicating with BT. I became a customer of theirs last February, or at least I tried to. The installation engineer failed to show and no-one contacted me to warn me or explain why. I had to then take a second day off work. I discovered that BT conditions allow for a compensation payment of £10 (whoopee!) to be paid in these circumstances and BT agreed I was entitled to it. Over a year later they still haven't paid it. I chased this up with a contact in the relevant department, sending three emails in the space of nine months. Her response was to complain that I was harrassing her! BT? Bloody Terrible!

Agree with most of the above. My experience of foreign call centres is of uncertainty, confusion and mis-understanding on their part. Will British firms PLEASE take note that off-shoring DOES NOT WORK!

Agree with most of the above. My experience of foreign call centres is of uncertainty, confusion and mis-understanding on their part. Will British firms PLEASE take note that off-shoring DOES NOT WORK!

The purpose of a Call Centre is to act as a buffer between customer and company, to protect Management from those to whom it should be accountable, to prevent complaints reaching busy executives, to allow no drop in morale within the Company. The best way to avoid the Call Centre morass is to ask for the Cancellation Department as soon as you get through. That way you will get to someone whose job is to make sure they keep you as a customer, usually by giving you what you want. Oh, and be polite at all times, even though your blood pressure is off the charts, as the person you are speaking with is not the one to blame and more importantly from your point of view, has the power and the right to hang up on you! Asking for a Supervisor sometimes helps, too.

We have had Broadband for nearly ten years now and have not had one single problem whatsoever. Oh I forgot to mention, its NTL/Virgin Media, does anyone think thats maybe why ?????????

[quote][bold]Mister Campbell[/bold] wrote: When choosing a business bank we narrowed the choice down to two - both have the word "Scotland" in their names. I callled the local branch of the first and was transferred to someone in a call centre (admittedly in the UK) who could tell me very little about business banking facilities or even where Jedburgh was. I called the local branch of the other bank and the call was answered by someone at that branch. "Yes, the business relations manager is Mr X and he's in town on Tuesday, would you like me to book you an appointment with him" Guess which one we chose. [/quote] Mr C, I had nearly exactly the same experience as you. I actually went into a branch of the bank(the one with Scotland in its name, but not royal) to enquire about business accounts, Greenock branch, we have our persoanl accounts there. On being told the setup I told ythem I wasn't interested in dealing with a call centre, their "business manager" told me he could dial the call centre for me but I would have to talk to them myself. After laughing rather loudly I left and went to the other bank(with scotland and royal in its name)