rant....foreign customer service

[sdkitty]

Just about every company I have occasion to call seems to have overseas CS (or CS with accents). I don't mind if they can communicate effectively and solve my problem. But sometimes it's just not the case. I just called my cable tv provider and I literally could not understand what this guy was saying. I hung up on him. I'll call back later and maybe get an american. I'm not a bigot and I understand companies are doing to this to make their profit better but it sometimes really pisses me off.
Seriously - this guy from the very beginning of the conversation couldn't be understood.

 

[A bottle of Red]

Or they read off scripts but the script doesn't fit your exact needs & they can't go beyond that. Or they say oh call this other department they can help, but when you call no one can help you.
Very frustrating.

 

[sdkitty]

Or they read off scripts but the script doesn't fit your exact needs & they can't go beyond that. Or they say oh call this other department they can help, but when you call no one can help you.
Very frustrating.

I had an issue with WM CS the other day. I ordered something to pick up at store. It never showed as ready. I called and they said it would be ready at store. They sent it to a different store w/o asking me if it was convenient. I called back and said I wanted them to ship it for free. I've bought quite a lot from WM and didn't think that was much to ask. The person said he could not do that unless I spent $35. I told him I wasn't satisified and wanted to talk to a manager. He told me he had taken care of my issue and I could not speak to a mgr. we went back and forth two or three times on that. Can you imagine? I'm going to try my best to not buy anything from WM in the future.

 

[taetaebear]

Go into a store

 

[poopsie]

I had an issue with WM CS the other day. I ordered something to pick up at store. It never showed as ready. I called and they said it would be ready at store. They sent it to a different store w/o asking me if it was convenient. I called back and said I wanted them to ship it for free. I've bought quite a lot from WM and didn't think that was much to ask. The person said he could not do that unless I spent $35. I told him I wasn't satisified and wanted to talk to a manager. He told me he had taken care of my issue and I could not speak to a mgr. we went back and forth two or three times on that. Can you imagine? I'm going to try my best to not buy anything from WM in the future.

Was it something listed as in stock for pickup at that particular store? Or was it something that was going to be shipped in to that store?
I placed an online pick up order that they got completely wrong, but I just had them refund the order

 

[sdkitty]

Was it something listed as in stock for pickup at that particular store? Or was it something that was going to be shipped in to that store?
I placed an online pick up order that they got completely wrong, but I just had them refund the order

it showed as being available at the store I wanted to pick up from but it wasn't. after the second try they refunded me. but the attitude of the "customer service" person made me so angry that I won't order anything from them again. I can get anything they sell from Target for a comparable price and I'll drive a few extra miles to do it.
They sent me an email to rate the transaction but of course they never got back to me after my negative FB.

 

[Sferics]

In my experience, in most cases it does not even matter if they speak your language properly...they can't do anything.

 

[sdkitty]

In my experience, in most cases it does not even matter if they speak your language properly...they can't do anything.

sad to say these days that seems to be true....so many of them seem to be inexperienced people working from home with their kids and dogs in the background

 

[floatinglili]

The Phillipines call centres can be great for straight forward requests. Copies of bills, closing accounts etc. So often the people working there have a really good telephone manner and do their job well. It feels good to know that in a global economy, the people of the Phillipines are getting the opportunities for work and income they deserve.
But in spite of this I do feel uncomfortable knowing that my personal information is outsourced to international contracted companies. For my data security I really would prefer customer advice to remain inhouse within the company and based within the locale or at least country of the company.

 

[sdkitty]

The Phillipines call centres can be great for straight forward requests. Copies of bills, closing accounts etc. So often the people working there have a really good telephone manner and do their job well. It feels good to know that in a global economy, the people of the Phillipines are getting the opportunities for work and income they deserve.
But in spite of this I do feel uncomfortable knowing that my personal information is outsourced to international contracted companies. For my data security I really would prefer customer advice to remain inhouse within the company and based within the locale or at least country of the company.

yes, I've had some decent help from Filipinos. I'm so mad at WM I think I may take my prescriptions elsewhere too. I have never had the experience of a telephone person outright refusing to transfer me to a supervisor. So arrogant.

 

[Echoes]

I have never had the experience of a telephone person outright refusing to transfer me to a supervisor. So arrogant.

I have, but I can't remember which company now. I had time to kill and I was annoyed, so I kept them on the phone for a very long time. May have been over an hour. Within the first few minutes of the call, I knew the guy was an idiot, so I asked for a supervisor. He said no. We went around and around for a while, then I stopped talking. He'd come back and say 'are you still there? Is there anything else I can do for you?' I'd repeat the request for a supervisor or manager and we were off to the races again until I stopped talking. It was like he wasn't allowed to hang up or something.

I don't like the overseas call centers but I don't mind them as much if I can hear them and carry on a conversation. Too often the connection is so weak and broken, I can't tell if I can understand them or not.

Then there are the scripted responses. If you go off script, they get completely lost and don't know what to say next. They end up going back up the script a few lines and repeating things. And that doesn't matter even of they're a domestic operation. I had one in Georgia like that a few days back.

 

[floatinglili]

Had my first opportunity to speak to a US help desk recently (Amazon US). Wow the guy was brutal. Condescending, unapologetic and annoyed by mere query throughout the entire call. He told me my accent made it very difficult to be understood lmao. I had to repeat everything many many times which I did,without complaint I was told to ‘calm down’ (I was being extremely patient but I may have snorted at this one).

I have never experienced being ‘handled’ by customer service like that before. A humiliating and infuriating experience!

 

[Kevinaxx]

I rarely, RARELY call. I do everything in my power to avoid. First is see myself, second is chat/msg, last is call.

doesn’t matter if it’s domestic or foreign, it really depends on who you get and it’s a bag of good/bad/really bad.

what helps:
1, addressing them by name, humanizes the process but also let’s them low key indirectly know you’re paying attention.

2, reconfirm what they say, again with their name. Eg “just so I’m clear because sometimes it’s hard via phone, you’re saying (repeat what they said verbatim), (insert their name)?”

they’ll either confirm or hesitate because 90% of the time I find they tell you the answer they best guess just to get you off the line (they’re rated on matrixes including time on phone I’m guessing).

3, don’t be afraid to call them out as long as you’re polite. If they’re giving attitude, etc, whatever, just say I’m sorry you’re having a bad day or that’s what it appears—not sure you’re aware, etc and give solid examples and they’ll either let you go to a manager as requested or backtrack and check their attitude. I find during the few calls I have that comes to this, most of the time they’ve backtracked. I think ONCE they did pass onto manager for resolution.

as for the ones where you can’t understand, never feel bad for saying I’m so sorry but can I be transferred? I’m having a hard time understanding, it’s not you it’s me (even if it’s really them) type of just to zip through.

 

[Echoes]

what helps:
1, addressing them by name,

Yeah ... no.

By the time I spend an hour fighting an 85 level phone tree and waiting through 'your call is very important to us' 18,000 times, I'm a raging, seething, fire breathing mess and they're gonna get it full on.

 

[Kevinaxx]

Yeah ... no.

By the time I spend an hour fighting an 85 level phone tree and waiting through 'your call is very important to us' 18,000 times, I'm a raging, seething, fire breathing mess and they're gonna get it full on.

Your experience differs from mine. I don’t go through as many tree branches (though to be fair again I don’t call often).

i can get my point across without bringing too much emotion into it. Also helps I’ve been in customer service of some sort for long enough to know how to grease the wheel.