Foreign Accent Telephone Reps

[Jdeere562]

First off, I am an old man that is hard of hearing. Even my family and friends are hard to understand and I make them repeat things.
Probably best anymore to send text messages or an email. I'm retired and have to buy health insurance and all those supplemental plans.
Lord know how many insurance cards are in my wallet. It was so much easier working, one card.

So anyway, I get a payment booklet for my prescription drugs the other day. 12 monthly stubs to tear off and send with my .50 cent per month payment. $6.00 for the entire year! Not going to happen, stamps cost more than the payment. No way am I going to open an online account and have more user names and passwords to remember.

I dial the 1-800 number to just give them my credit card and pay it in full for the year. Go thru the regular BS, press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish stuff. Takes forever to speak with a real person these days! Sure enough, I get a gal that English is not her native language. Knew I was in for trouble from the start!

Nice and patient gal, don't get me wrong. But I had to have her repeat things about 6 times before I got the drift. Even made her spell the word several times that I could not understand. Was on the phone, after getting a human voice over 30 minutes to pay a $6.00 bill! I could have rolled quarters down the street to her faster. Anyone else frustrated with that crap? I can't be the only one.

 

[EA82]

Are you frustrated that.
1. You can't hear.
2. It's hard to get a real person to answer the phone nowadays.
3. She had an accent.
4. All of the above.

I only get frustrated when the pretend to be someone they're not and try to scam me.

 

[Jdeere562]

Are you frustrated that.
1. You can't hear.
2. It's hard to get a real person to answer the phone nowadays.
3. She had an accent.
4. All of the above.

I only get frustrated when the pretend to be someone they're not and try to scam me.

#4, all the above! My problem as well, I understand that as I can see your spelling. Phone might be another thing!

 

[4WD]

First off, I am an old man that is hard of hearing. Even my family and friends are hard to understand and I make them repeat things.
Probably best anymore to send text messages or an email. I'm retired and have to buy health insurance and all those supplemental plans.
Lord know how many insurance cards are in my wallet. It was so much easier working, one card.

So anyway, I get a payment booklet for my prescription drugs the other day. 12 monthly stubs to tear off and send with my .50 cent per month payment. $6.00 for the entire year! Not going to happen, stamps cost more than the payment. No way am I going to open an online account and have more user names and passwords to remember.

I dial the 1-800 number to just give them my credit card and pay it in full for the year. Go thru the regular BS, press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish stuff. Takes forever to speak with a real person these days! Sure enough, I get a gal that English is not her native language. Knew I was in for trouble from the start!

Nice and patient gal, don't get me wrong. But I had to have her repeat things about 6 times before I got the drift. Even made her spell the word several times that I could not understand. Was on the phone, after getting a human voice over 30 minutes to pay a $6.00 bill! I could have rolled quarters down the street to her faster. Anyone else frustrated with that crap? I can't be the only one.

Both our IT and travel services rolls into various places - once in a while I’ll get someone who is hard to understand or can’t use deductive reasoning the way I do - so I’ll just say “I have run out of time and will have to call back later” … Just rolling the dice on who I get next …

 

[Jdeere562]

Both our IT and travel rolls into various places - once in a while I’ll get someone who is hard to understand or can’t use deductive reasoning the way I do - so I’ll say “I have run out of time and will have to call back later” … Just rolling the dice on who I get next …

I used to be technical support as well, before retirement. I can under stand both sides of the phone.
Couple times I had to ask the owner of a business that had an accent, to speak with someone else that spoke better English.
Embarrassing, but what else can you do?

 

[andrew_j]

Why didn’t you just drop the full payment for year into single envelope?

If the drug plan only costs that little they kept costs down with a likely a remote call center team.

 

[4WD]

I used to be technical support as well, before retirement. I can under stand both sides of the phone.
Couple times I had to ask the owner of a business that had an accent, to speak with someone else that spoke better English.
Embarrassing, but what else can you do?

To they have a written “chat” - sometimes that works for me …

 

[Jdeere562]

Why didn’t you just drop the full payment for year into single envelope?

i don't drive or go to the post office anymore. I rely on a gal that comes once per week and does things for me. She is kind of scatter brained at times, so I only trust her if I ride along and see her drop it in the mailbox. Try to make all my payments online or over the phone. Getting more into auto pay these days. Do not care to open accounts and deal with usernames and passwords. Already have more of them than I can remember. I get my mail every Tuesday, need it or not.

 

[Jdeere562]

To they have a written “chat” - sometimes that works for me …

Never used chat before. Well, I did a couple times I guess. My former company got that chat on there website. It want to a couple gals in the front office that I knew and was friends with. I used it to mess with them several times and act like an idiot!

 

[AutoMechanic]

You definitely got to get into texting and emailing more haha. I can give you lessons. Of course I’m going to say that because I’m young and can’t stand talking on the phone. It is going to be 2024 in a day or two I can’t figure out why people still call. Everything these days can be solved on the internet or over a text. You can even text 911 nowadays.

 

[Number_35]

An Iranian coworker (great guy, by the way) with a fairly strong accent told this joke, which seemed a bit ironic under the circumstances:

A man goes for an interview, and the interviewer says "Please use the following three words in a sentence - green, pink, and yellow".

He replies "The phone goes 'green green', so I pink it up and say 'Yellow'!"

The interviewer replies "Excellent! I want to offer you a job in our call centre."

 

[supton]

My hearing isn’t that bad and I can struggle with accents. Starting to watch things with subtitles on, just makes life easier. Wonder if some day there will be an app for that…

I agree with the idea of, just drop all the payments into one envelope and done. Payment book! I miss those days, well I don’t miss being in debt, but I did like the booklet, paying an extra payment every so often, so much easier than dealing with online stuff. Had a loan flipped to Ally (? been too long) and their website was awful; on a recent loan with Wells Fargo I took one look at their terms and decided I wanted nothing to do with them—wrote a check and hoped it’d arrive before accruing too much more interest. Too many one time use websites getting too much of my data.

My wife and I swap gifts each year and the last few have included something to the effect of “this meeting could be done as an email”. There’s a good use for in person meetings, and many good uses for emails, but not I’m not sure about the phone any more.

 

[Number_35]

You definitely got to get into texting and emailing more haha. I can give you lessons. Of course I’m going to say that because I’m young and can’t stand talking on the phone. It is going to be 2024 in a day or two I can’t figure out why people still call. Everything these days can be solved on the internet or over a text. You can even text 911 nowadays.

I think not wanting to talk on the phone is a guy thing. Quite common, even with old guys like me.

 

[4WD]

Never used chat before. Well, I did a couple times I guess. My former company got that chat on there website. It want to a couple gals in the front office that I knew and was friends with. I used it to mess with them several times and act like an idiot!

That sounds like “chatting up” LoL

 

[supton]

I think not wanting to talk on the phone is a guy thing. Quite common, even with old guys like me.

 

[John105]

The pattern I’ve seen is that call center jobs have gone to an English speaking Asian country, including the It Help Desk for my co.

If there’s anything I can accuse the reps from this country of, it’s being too formal and polite!

I see no reason to switch to rude and indifferent reps who work 15 miles from where I live.

This was the case with my health care around 2010. Someone can fact check me. I was asking for a certificate of creditable coverage because I believe back then there was an 18 mo look back on pre existing conditions. They told me we don’t do that (WRONG ANSWER!).

the same call center, when my then 6 yo broke his leg and needed a pediatric wheel chair, referred me to one that makes those custom $10k ones. I’ll take polite, helpful, and overseas any day of the week.

Edit to add to the fun and mystery, the country I am referring to above is known as the text capital of the world. The health care that I’m referring to is owned by the pharmacy containing 3 letters starting with C and ending with S based out of Woonsocket RI.

 

[dnewton3]

OP - you may be a good candidate for that "talk to text" (TTY) tech on phones.
Works on landline and even cell phones now.
Pretty much any service or product that is geared towards the elderly or hard-of-hearing is going to have a TTY option in their phone menu.
Like it or not, that route may be the one you have to take for these type of situations.
It can reduce the frustration on both ends of the phone. Probably even save you some time as well.

What Is TTY Mode? How Does It Work on Cell Phones?

What is TTY mode on a cell phone? We explain the TTY mode meaning and how it works on smartphones as well as other options for communication.

blog.prepscholar.com

 

[PontiacHO]

I can empathize with the original post. Offshore customer service centers for everything from banking to technical support…. I have a hard time with their “English” and likewise they have a hard time with my hillbilly accent. I is what I is.

 

[Jdeere562]

I think not wanting to talk on the phone is a guy thing. Quite common, even with old guys like me.

I was previously tech support, in my last job for 18 years. I kind of liked it, but I had better hearing then and was fast witted.
I could normally turn an angry customer into a friend, before the phone call was finished. Not all the time, but most.

All the new employees were all sent to me for training. Put it on speaker so they could hear both ends of the conversation.
Think I was the only one offered a job, just over the phone with HR. Never set foot in the facility until my first day of work.
This was a place of over 200 folks working there at the time. Never had to do an in person interview. HR said I was the first person that he ever hired over the phone call alone. I started at the bottom and climbed to the top position.

 

[Jdeere562]

OP - you may be a good candidate for that "talk to text" (TTY) tech on phones.
Works on landline and even cell phones now.
Pretty much any service or product that is geared towards the elderly or hard-of-hearing is going to have a TTY option in their phone menu.
Like it or not, that route may be the one you have to take for these type of situations.
It can reduce the frustration on both ends of the phone. Probably even save you some time as well.

What Is TTY Mode? How Does It Work on Cell Phones?

What is TTY mode on a cell phone? We explain the TTY mode meaning and how it works on smartphones as well as other options for communication.

blog.prepscholar.com

Can you do that with a landline? I have a cell phone for if I travel, but hate it and won't use it for a normal conversation.
Old men and cell phones do not get along, at least in my house! Good info though and thanks! Your link says nothing about landlines.