Call center outsourcing has reached a new low

[Marseeya]

Marseeya, you're right. I think I'll delete the info, I don't want to offend anyone. For anyone interested, just send me a pm for the link.

I edited it out of my quote too.

DH was listening to it from the next room (he's a computer guy) and he yelled in, "E-mail me that!" and was laughing.

 

[RitaZ.]

I edited it out of my quote too.

DH was listening to it from the next room (he's a computer guy) and he yelled in, "E-mail me that!" and was laughing.

BTW, there is a Tech Support II toon, did you see that one?

 

[N.Bailey]

I'll never buy another Dell for this very reason. When I've called, the foreign techs have always been 100% pleasant, but it gets very annoying when you have to come right out and say, I just can't understand what you're saying! You try to do it on the nicest manner possible, but how can you answer the question when you can't understand it?

Well, if Dell and others lose enough business, perhaps they'll see it wasn't the wisest choice they've ever made.

Hopefully Alienware doesn't outsource cause that's where I'm headed from now on.

I used to work with a few Mexicans and one was named Tony. One night the guys were really ragging him out because of his name (the other Mexicans, no Americans). I died laughing. It was really funny listening to them bickering back and forth.

 

[PrincessPatty]

Dells the worst. I can live without a pizza but when my laptop broke down 3 times in a MONTH and I had to speak to their outsourced reading by a script everything the OP said help people before they would send someone out to my house I vowed never to buy another Dell again. Funny how when they sell you the dang thing the salesperson doesn't speak to you like that.

This is true for Compaq too!! I actually voided the warranty that Compaq gave me by saying that I opened my laptop. This lady, who I could barely understand and had her repeat everything atleast twice, asked me if I opened my laptop, and after asking again what she said, I said "yes" I assumed she wanted me to open it up and tell me to do something. What she really meant after a few hundred dollar bill, was "did you open the BACK of the laptop up.

You know how they always tell you the calls are recorded.....there NOT! I was so furious with Compaq, when I had to buy new, I went with Toshiba and a FULL warranty from Best Buy.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I read that McDonalds is planning on central sourcing their drive throughs. With so many errors resulting from non-English speaking people on the other end of the speakers, they feel that it will be more productive and lower error rate by having you talk to a central radio location rather than some person who knows no English in the buliding you are getting your burger from.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Dell had such a problem with this that they brought their tech support for BUSINESS customers back to the US. They left the consumer tech support overseas though which shows you how much they care about consumers. Here's an article:


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-24-dell-support-home_x.htm

 

[N.Bailey]

Dell had such a problem with this that they brought their tech support for BUSINESS customers back to the US. They left the consumer tech support overseas though which shows you how much they care about consumers. Here's an article:


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-24-dell-support-home_x.htm

They might not be singing the same tune when they lose 15% of their userbase.

 

[tnhillbilly]

I read that McDonalds is planning on central sourcing their drive throughs. With so many errors resulting from non-English speaking people on the other end of the speakers, they feel that it will be more productive and lower error rate by having you talk to a central radio location rather than some person who knows no English in the buliding you are getting your burger from.

this was in test back in 2003 when I left the co. It is so hard for some of the stores to get workers they will just about hire anyone.

 

[Aidensmom]

It drives me crazy! I do software tech support over the phone for an American company, yes, here in the USA. Believe me, our customers know how lucky that they are. But I really hate when I call, say my internet provider, and they take a few key words from my question and type them into a computer and pull up a standard answer. I try to tell them it is irrelevalnt what they are telling me, and I do it very tactfully, but then they just pull up the next computer generated answer on the screen. I am extremely knowledgable about computers, it is what I do for a living (without the computer generated answers ), and if I am calling tech support it is because it is really complicated and I need someone who knows what they are doing. It is very rare to find that nowadays unfortunately. But as some other people said, it is because of the money. Those people get paid $8 or so an hour. Believe me, I get paid a heck of a lot more to actually know the answers.

And, by the way, the fake name thing is common at a lot of call centers. It is for security, in case a caller gets upset they cannot track you down. Seriously. I used to work for Verizon Wireless. My name was Judy.

 

[christineann]

After 36 hours on the phone in 5 weeks with Dell's out-sourced technical support, I finally spoke to a supervisor and followed up with a letter that they owed me a refund for the technical service I purchased from them that killed my computer. I took the money and put it toward a Compaq. I am not totally computer savvy, and the whole situation was made ten times worse because the technical support reps were not fluent in English. They actually told me that my 4 year old computer (which was very expensive) was not worth fixing!

 

[Nancy]

This is true for Compaq too!! I actually voided the warranty that Compaq gave me by saying that I opened my laptop. This lady, who I could barely understand and had her repeat everything atleast twice, asked me if I opened my laptop, and after asking again what she said, I said "yes" I assumed she wanted me to open it up and tell me to do something. What she really meant after a few hundred dollar bill, was "did you open the BACK of the laptop up.

You know how they always tell you the calls are recorded.....there NOT! I was so furious with Compaq, when I had to buy new, I went with Toshiba and a FULL warranty from Best Buy.

Compaq was the absolute worst I have ever dealt with. I spent more time on the phone talking to what sounded like the same person just changing his name the one night. When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was put on hold. About 10-15 minutes later I get "I'm tranferring you to the supervisor now" and I swear it was the same person, just changing his name. My Dh and I were laughing about how he probably had me on hold and was asking the room full of people "who wants to play supervisor" .
I have 2 Dell's, in the last year I have called tech once and actually got someone who spoke English very well and helped me out immediately. I was surprised after all the complaints I heard. I guess I got lucky.

My Mom says how come when the phone recording says press 1 for English, you never get someone who speaks English?

 

[Stacerita]

My Mom says how come when the phone recording says press 1 for English, you never get someone who speaks English?

It wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so true.

 

[luvthatduke]

These stories are hilarious!
I cannot stand outsourcing - the thing about McD's is incredible.
Our "local" bank even does it, you call the state "call center"
and you get someone in India.
I've spoken to some lovely people there, and like another post said
I let them know I knew where they were (which was amusing to the CSR)
but boy the ones you can't understand - so frustrating!
Especially when you're talking about your personal finances - yikes!

 

[crazee4mickey]

We live in Manitoba, Canada and received a phone call the other day from a man asking if we would be interested in subscribing to the local newspaper...he was quite pushy and knew nothing about our area so I phoned the local paper. Apparently they hired a company out of NEBRASKA to phone customers to get them to subscribe!!
Now why would you have a company from another country phone to get newspaper subscribers?? Made absolutely no sense to me---felt bad for the guy because some of his comments were infuriating but once you realized he wasn't from this area it made sense.
Our province has apparently also hired a company out of New York to think of a new slogan to go on our license plates I guess they figure people who actuallylive here wouldn't know enough about the area to think of a "catchy slogan"!

 

[drakethib]

Actually, all kidding aside, I heard the other day that they are wanting to start outsourcing drive thrus at fast food joints.

When you drive up you may be placing your order with someone else in a different state or country even though you will pick up your food 10 feet from where you place your order.

Man, people who want no mayo will be playing heck trying to get their order right.


Just read the whole thread.

Dan Murphy beat me to this.

 

[Imzadi]

I read that McDonalds is planning on central sourcing their drive throughs. With so many errors resulting from non-English speaking people on the other end of the speakers, they feel that it will be more productive and lower error rate by having you talk to a central radio location rather than some person who knows no English in the buliding you are getting your burger from.

I was at an "all-in one" drive thru restaurants once where it was a combined Kentucky Fried Chicken/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell. I drove up ordered a Personal Pan Supreme pizza.
The girl on the intercom said, "You want a Personal Pan Supreme?"

I said yes.

Again she repeated "You want a Personal Pan Supreme? Pizza?"

"Yes."

Then she said, "You have to go to Pizza Hut for pizza."

I looked around. Was I on "Candid Camera?"
I said, "I AM at Pizza Hut!"

Crackle, static over the intercom mike as she muffled it to talk to someone. Then she comes back, "Okay that's one Personal Pan Supreme pizza. Your total is..."

I had to check the box before I drove away to make sure there wasn't a piece of fried chicken sitting inside.

 

[drakethib]

Dells the worst. I can live without a pizza but when my laptop broke down 3 times in a MONTH and I had to speak to their outsourced reading by a script everything the OP said help people before they would send someone out to my house I vowed never to buy another Dell again. Funny how when they sell you the dang thing the salesperson doesn't speak to you like that.

I had a laptop that broke and called and spoke to someone to send me a replacement. It was obvious that I was speaking to someone in a foreign land. They told me it would be 5 - 7 days.

The very next night (we flew to WDW earlier that morning) I get a phone call on my cell (we forward our phones when out of town) abut 1:00 a.m. from someone wo could barley speak engish wanting to know if I liked my replacement.

After about 3 minutes of very extreme cussing the guy out for waking me up and telling him to check his records I hung up on him.

The next morning I called Dell back demanded to speak to someone who I could understand and explained what happended, they aplogized and assured me it wouldnt happen again.

When I returned home I went to the UPS office to pickup my laptop and found that Dell had upgraded my replacement laptop to the tune of about $1,000 in upgrades (ram, DVD Burner, MS Office Package, etc).

 

[ilovepcot]

It sure surprised me when I called to doublecheck on our AR for dinner at World Showcase on Christmas Eve. The young man I spoke with had an accent I couldn't quite place but wasn't terribly difficult to understand. Fine. Thing that really *got me* was when he saw that I'd reserved a table at Marrakesh and he began reading out loud, *very excitedly*, that there would be a floor show during the meal. His voice actually went up an octive and he asked if I knew there would be a show? I replied that I did and he said he never realized that and looked up the menu and other info while he had me on the phone. He continued to ask me more and more questions about the restaurant and was really "pumped" over the whole deal. I was surprised he wasn't more familiar. I (the patron, customer, whatever) was answering questions for the WDW employee!!! I wonder *where* he was located. Again....

Gee, it's 3 a.m. Reckon I ought to go to bed? Nah!

 

[bicker]

That's not the entire picture. A lot of it has to do with American corporations wanting to maximize their profits while minimizing their expenditures.

For most, this is their stated mission, their solemn promise to their investors, and what most of us investing in those companies want them to do. It is what corporations are for. That's not the direction to pursue to change the trend. Rather, these corporations will listen to the American customer, if the customer is willing to pay more for things to be done differently.

They might not be singing the same tune when they lose 15% of their userbase.

If that ever happens. Customers have a notorious history of flopping from supplier to supplier, each providing worse service than the previous, just to pursue a low price.

 

[Lesleyluvdisney]

I totally understand your frustration. At the beginning of December I ordered a DELL PC fpr my fathers Christmas, when it didnt arrive 10 days later. I called and was put through to a call centre in India, to be told it had been delivered. I then spent the next 10 days on the phone, trying to get somone to understand me. It is so frustrating and you cannot convey your feelings as the person on the other end only has a basic grasp of English. I totally empathise with these people, as they are paid so little money, and they are placed in these positions so that the consumer has no frustratrion outlet for the company's incompetence!!!! PS - Still NO computer!!!