Why do companies hire people who can barely speak English to do customer support?

[murphy55d]

I just called Verizon to ask them about upgrading my wireless plan, and the lady who answered sounded like she just stepped off of a boat from some other country. I don't mean to be ignorant, but I could not understand more than five words she said, I just hung up and called back hoping for a different CSR. It just doesn't make sense to me why companies do this... how are you supposed to understand half these people??

 

[CraigRT]

OMG i hate that... i call Fido to cancel my cellphone and i basically have to talk it out in full to him and hang up cause i cant undertand when he talks i his replies.. so utterly retarded!!!!!

 

[MacBaine]

To keep you in check

 

[Vadatajs]

Because they don't have to pay them as much.

 

[Wduaqnug]

so I have accent too, so we suppose to be unemployed because you don't like our voice

 

[murphy55d]

Originally posted by: Vadatajs
Because they don't have to pay them as much.

Huh? It's not like they have some CSR sweatshop in Mexico City where they pay people 10 pesos a month to answer calls.

 

[gopunk]

they could be *in* a different country...

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

I dunno...I called up EA support one time and got this chinese guy who could speak english okay but you couldn't understand anything he said...i told him my email address started out 'bryce' and had to spell it out, and he said okay now it is 'broeynce'. i was like umm bye.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: murphy55d

Originally posted by: Vadatajs
Because they don't have to pay them as much.

Huh? It's not like they have some CSR sweatshop in Mexico City where they pay people 10 pesos a month to answer calls.

perhaps not mexico city... but they have them in india and china

 

[boyRacer]

My neighbor called Linksys for tech support... believe it or not it was in the Philippines... so my neighbor, being Filipino, had a lovely time talking to them... hahaha... They were quite knowledgeable too...

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: gopunk
they could be *in* a different country...

i think this is correct

 

[murphy55d]

Originally posted by: Wduaqnug
so I have accent too, so we suppose to be unemployed because you don't like our voice

Unemployed? Of course not. But if you, or anyone else, is not very fluent in English and cannot be understood, then I think being a phone CSR is a very stupid job to be employed as. It isn't like this lady had a slight accent, it was extremely difficult to understand her.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: Wduaqnug
so I have accent too, so we suppose to be unemployed because you don't like our voice

Don't be a tool. If no one can understand you, you shouldn't be in phone support. Do you also think that deaf people should be allowed to run the phones if they want to?

 

[BD2003]

Being able to speak proper english is a requirement for the job. It pisses me off when I have to talk to a CSR, or my professor, or even the lady at the deli does not speak english properly. If you cant speak a country's native language you should not be in a job that requires you to do so on a constant basis.

Either learn english, or get a job that doesnt require you to communicate with people. Most jobs dont really, so its not like youll be stuck jobless.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Being able to speak proper english is a requirement for the job. It pisses me off when I have to talk to a CSR, or my professor, or even the lady at the deli does not speak english properly. If you cant speak a country's native language you should not be in a job that requires you to do so on a constant basis.

Either learn english, or get a job that doesnt require you to communicate with people. Most jobs dont really, so its not like youll be stuck jobless.

what the hell... you're being pissed at the wrong people. these people need jobs, and csr jobs are high paying where they live. the people you should be pissed off at, if at all, are the people that are doing the hiring.

 

[boyRacer]

Maybe they do it to piss you off like you are right now... so you'd just hang up on them.

 

[murphy55d]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: BD2003
Being able to speak proper english is a requirement for the job. It pisses me off when I have to talk to a CSR, or my professor, or even the lady at the deli does not speak english properly. If you cant speak a country's native language you should not be in a job that requires you to do so on a constant basis.

Either learn english, or get a job that doesnt require you to communicate with people. Most jobs dont really, so its not like youll be stuck jobless.

what the hell... you're being pissed at the wrong people. these people need jobs, and csr jobs are high paying where they live. the people you should be pissed off at, if at all, are the people that are doing the hiring.

i agree. I am not upset at this lady, but why in christs sake would you hire her for this position?


just baffles me.

 

[Wallydraigle]

I bet there are also people out there who speak perfect English, but do that sometimes just to mess with you, and see what your reaction would be. I'd do it, if I was stuck in a boring phone job and needed a laugh.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: BD2003 Being able to speak proper english is a requirement for the job. It pisses me off when I have to talk to a CSR, or my professor, or even the lady at the deli does not speak english properly. If you cant speak a country's native language you should not be in a job that requires you to do so on a constant basis. Either learn english, or get a job that doesnt require you to communicate with people. Most jobs dont really, so its not like youll be stuck jobless.

what the hell... you're being pissed at the wrong people. these people need jobs, and csr jobs are high paying where they live. the people you should be pissed off at, if at all, are the people that are doing the hiring.

Never said I was pissed at the people, only at the situation. I fully understand its the people who hire them, not the people themselves. They shouldnt be hired.

All I know is that when I go to the deli in the morning, when I get a sandwich guy that speaks perfect english, my sandwich is perfect. When I get people that dont speak english, I end up with jalapeno peppers instead of salt and pepper, missing items, and tomatoes when I specifically say NO tomatoes!

 

[nater]

Unemployed? Of course not. But if you, or anyone else, is not very fluent in English and cannot be understood, then I think being a phone CSR is a very stupid job to be employed as. It isn't like this lady had a slight accent, it was extremely difficult to understand her.

Exactly. I called Dell tech support a week ago, thinking they would easily be able to help me out, being such a large customer-oriented company. I was completely wrong. I got an Indian sounding guy on the phone, who, as if his inability to speak English clearly wasn't bad enough, had no idea how to fix my problem. Speaking of that anyone know why when I try to lower the resolution on my laptop it makes the actual screen size small so it only takes up 60% of the screen and the rest is all black? THanks....

 

[notfred]

Am I the only one who finds this ironic?

hang up cause i cant undertand when he talks i his replies..

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: BD2003 Being able to speak proper english is a requirement for the job. It pisses me off when I have to talk to a CSR, or my professor, or even the lady at the deli does not speak english properly. If you cant speak a country's native language you should not be in a job that requires you to do so on a constant basis. Either learn english, or get a job that doesnt require you to communicate with people. Most jobs dont really, so its not like youll be stuck jobless.

what the hell... you're being pissed at the wrong people. these people need jobs, and csr jobs are high paying where they live. the people you should be pissed off at, if at all, are the people that are doing the hiring.

Never said I was pissed at the people, only at the situation. I fully understand its the people who hire them, not the people themselves. They shouldnt be hired.

All I know is that when I go to the deli in the morning, when I get a sandwich guy that speaks perfect english, my sandwich is perfect. When I get people that dont speak english, I end up with jalapeno peppers instead of salt and pepper, missing items, and tomatoes when I specifically say NO tomatoes!

This is also true at any fast food establishment. For some reason, In & Out Burger has something like a 99% success rate getting the order right, whereas Carls Jr and Jack in the Box, on the other hand..

 

[Anubis]

no offence to these people BUT it is annoying when you have a problim and you cant get it figured out because you cant understand them. I had this problim when i called Olympus about my digi cam. i finally had to ask the guy to piut someone else on the phone that spoke better english cause i couldent understand a single word he was saying

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Yeah Netgear outsourced their stuff to India or something a while back. I was used to folks who could speak good english. I got some guy and couldn't understand anything he said

Tried a different guy and the same thing. I finally got a number that I could talk to a person at the HQ and told them I could no longer do business with Netgear because their support had effectively been made useless to me. Everytime someone asks whether they should go with network company X or Netgear, I almost always say the other because their support is so difficult to use.

I'm sure some asshats will think I'm racist because I can't understand what someone is saying

 

[Freejack2]

Very few companies have their customer/tech support in the US anymore. Most companies say why pay some person in the US $10 an hour when you can pay someone $10 a week in another country...