VM's Indian callcentre

[Russ]

Originally Posted by xocemp

B) Tore out your hair.

Hmmm, there's something you ought to know about me

[Rik]

I think your routers at fault Sir!!

---------- Post added at 22:00 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------

I actually got an email link from VM to one of their surveys and took the time to fill it out, all was glowing and the only negative comment i left was regarding Indian call centres, they really let VM down.

Perhaps its the training they get?

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Russ B

They could do themselves a world of good by actually talking like we do. Like when you go through the security questions etc they always something like "Thank you for confirming this information".

Nobody in UK callcentres says "Thank you for confirming this information". They say things like "thanks for that". The Indians just try too hard to be natural and it stands out massively. That puts me off immediately.

Steady on Russ, that's a little bit unfair, after all, the tech is only being polite. You say "the Indians try too hard to be natural"; it'd be a lot harder for us if they gave advice in Urdu. They're also dealing with issues in real time, often with irate callers, which makes the task harder.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kursk

Steady on Russ, that's a little bit unfair, after all, the tech is only being polite. You say "the Indians try too hard to be natural"; it'd be a lot harder for us if they gave advice in Urdu. They're also dealing with issues in real time, often with irate callers, which makes the task harder.

I disagree I'm being unfair at all. If I'm paying for a service from someone over the phone I need to feel like I'm connecting with them on some level. I need to feel some kind of rapport otherwise I've got no confidence in their ability to understand my issue. If their choice of wording, or the training they've been given makes it all feel forced and fake then I'm not going to have any confidence in them at all, regardless of country of origin.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Russ B

I disagree I'm being unfair at all. If I'm paying for a service from someone over the phone I need to feel like I'm connecting with them on some level. I need to feel some kind of rapport otherwise I've got no confidence in their ability to understand my issue. If their choice of wording, or the training they've been given makes it all feel forced and fake then I'm not going to have any confidence in them at all, regardless of country of origin.

That's a tough call I reckon. I can understand your expectation for technical ability but I can also see how the more subtle and intuitive CS skills might get lost in translation so to speak.

[frogstamper]

It seems to me that more and more UK companies are bringing back their CS call centres to the UK, in fact companies like Saga are now using "UK call centers" as a selling point in their advertising.
What I'm sure looked good on paper to some bean counter looking at saving a few quid, has on the whole been a failure, VM employee's I have spoken to have told me that complaints about the Indian call center are one of the biggest beefs customers have.
In fact VM are well aware how unpopular these call centers are, so much so that they launched a campaign over Christmas showing employee's in India being retrained, along with the comment that overseas call centers needn't be second rate, unfortunately in my opinion they invariably are.
Most VM customers rarely have to call CS but on occasion when they do its generally with a problem, now even the most tolerant customer starts to despair when for the 20th time you have to repeat, "I'm sorry can you say that again please", especially when its obvious that the person is reading from a pre-scripted list of responses, the fact he/she has been doing this all day and every day becomes apparent when the response becomes faster and faster, ending in the classic, "can you please repeat that please", this nightmare merry-go-round can become soul destroying.
As Russ says the sheer elation at getting someone in the UK who can diagnose and generally fix your problem is palpable, at this point I'd like to add that on a number of occasions on getting through to the UK call center I've received excellent service from British Indians, its not a case about being "anti-Indian" its simply expecting to understand and be understood by the person your talking too, not to much to ask is it.?
Come on VM, make your customers happy and bring back CS to the UK.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

Come on VM, make your customers happy and bring back CS to the UK.

...and you can bet your bottom dollar that all the vitriol about the present customer services will come with it! You really think VM's customers will be happy when they are dealing with UK CS?

[Russ]

Their wording is just so wrong. One of the indians I spoke to kept calling me 'Mr Russ' which annoyed me no end. When I corrected him he replied ''I apologise for the inconvenience''. I know he was just being polite but did he really think his addressing me wrongly was somehow 'inconveniencing' me? They learn how to speak our language but not *how to speak like us*. Until that is corrected I'll always do whatever possible to avoid speaking to their Indian callcentre.

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Their wording is just so wrong. One of the indians I spoke to kept calling me 'Mr Russ' which annoyed me no end. When I corrected him he replied ''I apologise for the inconvenience''. I know he was just being polite but did he really think his addressing me wrongly was somehow 'inconveniencing' me? They learn how to speak our language but not *how to speak like us*. Until that is corrected I'll always do whatever possible to avoid speaking to their Indian callcentre.

You're a hard man Mr Russ; I think that's rather quaint The Queen's English is rarely heard in the UK never mind anywhere else! Are we to take the same attitude to regional accents here?

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kursk

You're a hard man Mr Russ; I think that's rather quaint The Queen's English is rarely heard in the UK never mind anywhere else! Are we to take the same attitude to regional accents here?

I have no idea what you're trying to suggest but my point is clear. For me to have confidence in someone to understand my issue and help resolve my problem I need to have a level of rapport with them. And when they use wording that nobody in the UK uses (other than teachers of English to other nationalities) my confidence in them goes through the floor.

[Kursk]

Ok. In the interests of maintaining a rapport with you (and my board membership ) I'll leave it at that.

Glad your tech probs are all sorted.

[SMG]

Russ is making a valid point there. When you phone for assistance, the least you expect is to be able to communicate with someone who understands, not a robotic type who you have difficulty understanding.

When we make these calls its because we have already tried to put things right, & invariably know what we want. A UK call ctr will cut the patter short & get on with the problem, whereas the Indian ctrs tend to "wind you up" with their robotic type rhetoric.

Virgin cable is for the UK market, so we have a right to expect a certain standard when we need assistance. The Indian call ctrs simply don't measure up.

[Blaze]

I called back in mid january to say about a problem with my internet (It kept cutting out). I got through first time to an indian call centre, they said the system was down at their end so they couldnt investigate. I called the next day (Saturday), and got a british guy who was very helpful, within 5 minutes he'd checked on the system and said the problem was with my STB and booked an engineer for the following monday.

I phoned up VM to find out where the said engineer was, I got through to an indian call centre again, and the woman said she'd canceled the guy as there was an area fault. No notice to us however that it was an area fault. That was mainly the content of the calls for the next few days.

On the thursday, I phoned up again, and got another indian women, it was only then she recommended a cable modem might fix it. So an another guy was booked and he came the next day and it was all sorted within 20 or so minutes.

He said area faults would usually be fixed within 12 hours at most. Took 6 or so days to get an answer from the call centres, it was "an area fault" for most of the time.

[Milambar]

I understand what Mr. Russ is saying (ducks for cover).

We are English people, who speak English, who phone for assistance off an English (well, legally an American) company, to whom we are paying substantial amounts of English currency to, to obtain services in England.

Is it really acceptable that in order to query a problem, that we have to speak to people who can't speak our language very well? I don't think so. I have no issue that they are Indian, I just wish they:
A) Would stop sounding like they were chewing a brick.
B) Speak normal English.
C) Actually fix the damn problems, instead of "fobbing us off" in order to close the call quickly.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Milambar

We are English people, who speak English, who phone for assistance off an English (well, legally an American) company, to whom we are paying substantial amounts of English currency to, to obtain services in England.

Some of us are Welsh and wish to obtain services in Wales.