Call centre outsourced to India

Face the truth! What are call centres there for. They're not there to help you, but to provide a defensive wall around the inadequacies of a bumbling company, to protect the incompetent managers and staff running that company. The further the call centre is from the centre of operations of that firm the better. And why bother to speak the same language anyway.

I've spent a fair amount of time in the last couple of weeks 'phoning call centres of various UK companies for a project I'm running. It's been an interesting experience.

Quite a few are in Eastern Europe, mostly Poland, and the staff there are usually the politest but sometimes a little hard to understand.

The people in India seem to be able to take possesion of a question and deal with it. However they do not react well to being confronted or challenged when they fail to provide the required answer. Most of them are very well spoken and polite and have a good sense of humour.

We came across a handful in South Africa, their staff were generally only trained in basics and although they tried hard and were easy to converse with and understand, not very effective.

Possibly all round the best were the Irish, and with one notable exception, the worst, by far, were those on British soil and staffed by British people. Ignorant and unhelpful to the point of obstructriveness.

This is about a Call Centre in India calling us. For a few days someone has been trying to get hold of my husband - they always call early morning or afternoon though I have told them countless times he works nights, they called on Saturday morning at 10 am, my husband was in bed. The person I spoke to asked me am I his wife, I said yes, he then cheekily replied 'why am I not in bed then?' I heard someone laughing in background and angrily put the phone down. Today my mum has taken call from same company again stating he is not available - she heard someone laughing and just hung up. They work in poor countries and are lucky to have jobs because of yet do not have any customer service skills or manners . Very frustrated.

I tried for two hours to report a fault on my mum's BT phone line. I got through to India and spoke to a woman whose English was appalling. She kept telling me there was no fault on my mum's line 'because the computer said so'. I told her there certainly was - I had even bought a new phone in case the old one was the cause, and the incessant crackling was still happening. She then told me again 'there is not fault' and then proceeded to patronise me by telling me I was 'not understanding - there can be no fault'. I asked if I was speaking to India - she said yes. I asked for a number to call in England, and she said there is no-one in England... Hmm... Anyway, I asked again if there was a number I could call as I was in the UK and wanted to report a fault in the UK, and she said 'you have to speak to me' and then put the phone down! I was furious. I rang BT's 118 number only to get a rude operator who said they are 'not allowed' to give the number in England! What!? Anyway, I remembered reading somewhere that if you just keep pressing the star button you get through to a local call centre - I called 151, then repeatedly pressed * and - hey presto! I got Alex, a very nice British engineer, in Britain, and he helped me in about 2 minutes. WHY are we made to feel racist just because we want to speak to someone in out own country? I am infuriated! But please - all you out there - if you have a fault (or it may work with any 150,152, 155 etc number) just keep pressing that star button!!!

I agree totally. I recently spent nearly three quarters of an hour trying to get someone from British Telecom to tell me exactly how much my BT Click dial up service costs to use at weekends Obviously through to a call centre in India, I found it extremely difficult to understand the lady that first took my call and was finally passed to their 'Dial Up' service. I was asked repeatedly for my telephone number and password despite explaining that I was on BT Option One and just needed to know the cost of my internet use. Finally I gave up -none the wiser- and even then had difficulty terminating the call.

I had a problem with a UK company's IT department. Numerous calls and emails to their UK office got me nowhere, until I found out that their IT functions were outsourced to India. I got the number in India and in one 5 minute call achieved what I had not been able to achieve with the UK office in a month.

The standard of people in some UK based call centres is disgraceful. The other day I was asked by someone (with an English accent) at O2 if the Channel Islands were 'part of' Scotland'.

Staff from a major online travel agency told me that Emirates Airlines do not fly to Dubai (it's their home base). I could go on with many other examples.

In general Indians are better informed and more enthusiastic than Brits.

british!!!!!!! telecom call centre in india they should be done for itr under trade dicription act and made to name it IT and put sh in front of it and that will sum up the service

Outsourcing sucks, I lost my job at a Marriott reservation call center because the company is closing the American centers and sending our jobs to the Canadian centers. Mr. Marriott brags on how he cares about his employees, well then why the hell is he putting thousands of us out of jobs? So far he has closed 6 or 7 with more on the chopping block. Never will I do business with a Marriott Hotel ever again.

Just heard the best excuse from AXA Sun Life. They cannot help me until the next business day becasue the people in India work early morning (UK time) and have now gone home for the weekend!!!! If you are going to move your Call Centre to India, at least work UK HOURS.

As all our jobs slip away to the Far East, in a few years the only kind of remote communications instruments we will be left with and can afford will be a set of African drums. Bang away on them if you need service. It will be supplied from Zimababwe.

Who would've thought it a few years ago, a problem with your phone line or internet and you have to speak with someone in India. Deary, deary me, whatever next - if my refuse is not collected will I be speaking to someone in Russia?

I understand Boooo's comments and accept that it is unfair that he/she should be subjected to rude people on the phone. At the same time it is frustrating when you have a problem that you need resolved but cannot understand the people that you are speaking to. I struggle with scottish accents on the telephone. I'm fine if I am speaking face to face with people but the telephone is different, I've no idea why. Having said that I always try to be polite about it and either say " I'm really sorry but I cannot understand you very well, I'm not good with accents" or "the line is bad at this end, could you repeat that please". I know it is not entirely honest but it is better than hurting peoples feelings for no reason.