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View Full Version : Powergen to recall call centre......



landmarker
16-Jun-06, 22:21
...yes they are closing down their fairly recently opened call centre in India, and relocating back in blighty. Apparently customers were unhappy about dealing with our Indian cousins when it comes to their electric bills.
The company has decided that user satisfaction is more important than saving money.

One can only this sets a trend.
How do you react when cold called by people with foreign accents, English included I suppose for the more insular amongst you.
I would never consider a Scottiosh accent to be 'foreign' because they are associated with authority and competence. I can never see the day when Gupta from Mumbai can be regarded in the same bracket.

I ALWAYS establish where a caller is located and then act on the information.I resent 'ordinary' jobs - for call centre jobs are the quivalent of nineteenth century farm labourers - being exported abroad to save a few quid.

They might need the work over there but we need, and deserve it more, primarily because WE generate it.

pultneytooner
16-Jun-06, 22:30
Totally agree, why spend 1 hr on the phone to someone who you can barely understand and can't understand you when you could be talking with someone who would solve your query in five mins.

The Angel Of Death
16-Jun-06, 22:39
I work for bt and we have to deal with them over in india and its shocking how little training they get or how much info they have on a product simply to save a few quid its really unbelievable how they get away with it !!!

The amount of people that call us and we fix in min's compared to the up to 4 hours on the blower to india

Lets hope this is the start of them all coming back what i cant understand is they have to pay to train them (if thats what you call it) build them there fancy offices and then pay them in the long run surly that cant be as cost effective as in the uk ???

MadPict
16-Jun-06, 22:39
Apple recently announced it was shelving it's plans at establishing an 'off-shore' support centre in India - http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/06/04/apple.pulls.out.of.india/

I have to say I hate having to talk to someone who is obviously based in India, who speaks with a heavy Indian accent and is called "Dave". The UK companies outsourcing their call centres to these places should be boycotted.

I am only too happy when I hear a Scottish accent at the end of the phone when I call my bank or credit card company. I never have any trouble understanding them and they always come across in a professional manner. Not that the guys in India are not professional, but they are 1000's of miles away, and invariably are working from a script so if you throw a problem at them which is not covered they go round in circles causing the caller frustration.

When my bank moves it's call centre abroad, I'll be moving my acount....

landmarker
16-Jun-06, 22:49
Ahh yes, the old 'I'm Dave' routine. I always say 'you don't sound like a Dave to me' and they get rather flummoxed. Really! if the conversation is based on an initial LIE then I do not want to be involved. If it's Anwar, or Ashok, Mumjab or Brahamputra, why can they not just say so?
India is a fine and noble country, with a strong democratic tradition.It's probably full, (and then some) of people just wanting to earn a living and scrape by. I have nothing against Indians, however They are usurping too many of our jobs by producing stuff for next to nowt - there is no reason whatsoever to help them by relocating call centres merely to line the pockets of gaffers and shareholders. There should be a law against it.

pultneytooner
16-Jun-06, 22:53
Ahh yes, the old 'I'm Dave' routine. I always say 'you don't sound like a Dave to me' and they get rather flummoxed. Really! if the conversation is based on an initial LIE then I do not want to be involved. If it's Anwar, or Ashok, Mumjab or Brahamputra, why can they not just say so?
India is a fine and noble country, with a strong democratic tradition.It's probably full, (and then some) of people just wanting to earn a living and scrape by. I have nothing against Indians, however They are usurping too many of our jobs by producing stuff for next to nowt - there is no reason whatsoever to help them by relocating call centres merely to line the pockets of gaffers and shareholders. There should be a law against it.
Brings to mind the sweatshops.[evil]

young_fishin_neep
16-Jun-06, 22:58
last week i answerd the phone and was repeatdly saying hello and all of a sudden i hear a hello are you there? obvously indian, i straight away put he phone down, i can never understand what they are trying to say, my mum davey cant stand talking to them on the phone either!!

Rheghead
17-Jun-06, 00:56
I had a phone call from a guy last week with a very strong foreign accent and I immediately thought 'Indian call centre', I must have been on the phone for at least 2 minutes and I couldn't understand a word! I was just about to hang up on him after asking him to repeat himself about 10 times when I realised the call was from an Orkney chap and it was about an Orkney chair that I was purchasing over the internet!!:lol:

Ricco
17-Jun-06, 06:38
At last the companies may be seeing sense. I have nothing against our Indian friends (and they certainly need the money!) but when they get virually no money and are given a help-desk manual (the sort you work through logically.. you know, "if the answer is 'Yes' then go to A23"), AND you natural tounge is not the same as your clients then you have a recipe for trouble. I also find it very frustrating to repeatedly go over my problem and have the 'help' reading through the steps in a manual because they don't understand and it is what they have been told to do.

On a positive note, Indians do make excellent programmers and much of our software is written by them.

Mind you... I do also have trouble understanding some of the heavier British accents (Brum, Glasgow, Newcastle to name a few).

dragonfly
17-Jun-06, 10:25
I don't have a problem phoning/taking calls from the callcentres based in India but know my Dad hates it. He's in his 60's is going slightly deaf but won't admit it :roll: and he can't tell a word they are saying. I've had to rearrange his home & car insurance to companies located in UK so as he can communicate with them.

glad to see the tide is changing and that customer relations are more important than saving ££££'s

Carlo Gambino
17-Jun-06, 19:08
Thats the best news Ive heard this week, Give U.K jobs to U.k people, its not racist , its common sense. At least brittish people can speak the same language, or nearly, which myself finds a bit more like common sense

Woolie
17-Jun-06, 21:33
i agree with all that has been said my husband recently spent nearly an hour on the phone trying to sort out his mobile phone bill and ended up more confused than when he started:mad:

Fluff
18-Jun-06, 13:18
sometimes at work when a certain application dosnt work or we have problems, we have to log the call with the uk call centre, then a few days etc then indian one will call us back about it.
i can NEVER understand what they are saying, they speak so quickly and i feel so bad for having to keep asking them to repeat themselves.
i do wonder sometimes though if they feel the same about us?

woo-hoo! 100 posts

landmarker
18-Jun-06, 19:32
i agree with all that has been said my husband recently spent nearly an hour on the phone trying to sort out his mobile phone bill and ended up more confused than when he started:mad:

I do that when I ring the speaking clock!