Call centres in India.

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/6a53fpg

What a cheek, BT suggesting that a customer's 'Brummie' accent may have been difficult to understand, for their operatives in Indian call centres.

How many times have persons in the UK had difficulty understanding the Indian accent? I know that I have.

I would have thought that the first criterion in obtaining a job in a call centre was for the other person being able to understand you?

[boxtops]

You find people here in the UK called mustafa whatsit, who prefer to be called Jim - I have a friend like that, he says it makes his life much easier.

I can't say I have ever had a problem with overseas call centres - the BT call centre is overseas, and yes they have accents, but they know what they are talking about and they are extraordinarily helpful. IMO.

[vivandorron]

craft....I know what you mean. In fact welsh folk sometimes can't understand each other. Complications arise with accents and different parts of Wales speak a different form of Welsh....:-)

boxtops....Goodness gracious me, I am begging your pardon please but I do wish to say that what you say is very very true.........BT staff in India are extraordinarily helpful.

Ron.

[birdie1971]

This whole business of outsourcing to foreign countries makes me angry. I have no problem whatsoever with the nationality or accent of the person at the other end of the phone. What really makes me cross is the fact that rather than employ British workers (by which I mean anyone who has the legal right to live and work in the UK) they chose to set up operations in a foreign nation and employ foreign workers.

This is not done because of some altruistic notion of helping other countries develop. It is done because of pure greed. It is far cheaper to set up and run a call centre in Mumbai than it is to do so in say, Birmingham. Rather than run with slightly lower profits or add a few pence on to their customer's bills, they deny UK workers the opportunity to gain employment and aid in this country's economic recovery.

I think that in this regard, a company that prides itself on being called 'British Telecom' is a national disgrace. But they are not alone in this. I think that what Kraft did to Cadbury is actually quite evil... but that's a different subject.

[Jan1957]

I worked as a BT Operator for 5 years and, if we were asked, we had to give our real name unless we had previously arranged with our Team Manager to give an alternative, which they had to know. The Managers listened in to calls regularly and if we did not we could be dismissed.

[Answerprancer]

...another Daily Mail warped news headline perchance ? Let's see ..ah yes, what a surprise !

GIT ..there are other DEVELOPING countries in the world, countries WE invaded a relatively short while ago. Our massively rich phone companies have outsourced to them for a number of years now.
Virgin Media (my service provider) also outsource to India ..big fooking deal !!! It's a developing country that *WE* invaded not so long ago and I am more than happy to say "Namaste" and chat to our Indian COMPATRIOTS as I have my Virgin Media service re-connectedwhen it goes tits up.
Chat to them GIT - learn some Hindi, expand your international vocabulary, it won't hurt, they are very nice (and harmless) people

[trt]

'' A person needs an excellent education and pedigree to get a job there''.

Their education and pedigree in India is a whole lot less different to the UK standards!

[Mick-Talbot]

Craft1948
Sorry Ron, I understand Indians more than the Welsh........

I'm with Craft

it is easier to understand Apache or Arapaho than it is Welsh.

[birdie1971]

Answerprancer -

“[India's] a developing country...”

Oh please! Britain's GDP measured in millions of US dollars is 2,258,565. India's is 1,430,020. We're placed 5th, India is placed 11th. There are approximately 180 countries in that list. India's economy is growing much faster than ours and they are one of the few countries that has a space programme and is a nuclear power.

Describing India as a 'developing country' is bending the truth to quite some degree.

http://en.wikipedia.o..._by_GDP_%28nominal%29

[Answerprancer]

...Birdie. Have you been there ?

[Answerprancer]

...and got your hands dirty there?

[Answerprancer]

...and helped to dig holes there?

[Answerprancer]

...and scraped street kids off the street there?

[Answerprancer]

...and personally scraped nits out of their hair and bought ointments to cure their scabies?

[Mick-Talbot]

Birdy seems to have gone, so in her absence....




I'm going to hazard a guess ...................... No she hasn't.

[Answerprancer]

...benefit of the doubt, maybe she has.
It's nasty and It's really nasty to find out about the reality and actually see it for real (as I have) - watching glue-high 8-12 year olds grappling over 50p flip flops you bought for them because you saw them running barefoot in dust and broken glass with bleeding feet.
No complacent well to do westerner should be allowed to strut smugly to their grave without visiting a developing country (properly) IMO.

[Kromovaracun]

AP: 'Developing Country' is an economic distinction. Describing immense poverty in the way you have is interesting (and shocking), but it doesn't change the facts of the Indian economy which birdie has pointed out. Countries aren't classified as 'developing' based on what you've seen when you visited them.

[jno]

it may be "pure greed" but it isn't necessarily BT's pure greed. If it costs them more to have UK call centres, their customers will pay more - or they will switch. Brits are always looking for the cheapest option to do anything. BT is among many companies helping them to do so in the hope of retaining their custom. Viv Tomkins may be irate that Indians couldn't understand her - but will she respond by switching to a more expensive provider? I'm guessing not.

[ludwig]

// Viv Tomkins may be irate that Indians couldn't understand her - but will she respond by switching to a more expensive provider. I'm guessing not. //

Actually she may well do. Companies now make a point of stating they have U.K call centres, so they've obviously identified it as a selling point.

I've never had a problem understanding someone with an indian accent, but like Birdie I do find it hard to accept what looks like UK jobs being exported abroad.
I suppose it's like anything that's subcontracted though - an engineering firm wouldn't buy UK components just to support UK industry if it could get the same things half the price and the same quality from China.

[jno]

she may do, she may not, ludwig, but that's my guess. I know companies advertise UK-based call centres; I don't know how many people regard this as being a bigger draw than low prices. Either way, my comment stands: BT do it to save money and keep costs down because they think that's what people want. As far as exporting jobs goes - well, that's globalisation; it started properly under Thatcher (as far as this country is concerned), has been endorsed by subsequent governments (and all those people who shop at Primark rather than M&S), and is too far gone for us to do much about it. One protest from the (presumably) gazillions of callers is unlikely to make BT close its Indian centres down; they'll want an awful lot more evdence that it isn't working.