Sorry, I am not required to speak every language of the world...

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

*sigh*

I took a call from a woman with a very thick Japanese accent and little more than a basic grasp the english language. She did manage to communicate her reason for calling: the balance on an account.

However, she could NOT understand the process of verifying the security information on the account. She was the acct holder's wife or mother I believe. The balance was only 2.25, which I told her we could waive since it's such a tiny amount, but only if she could verify. I told her if she could not verify she'd have to go one of our corporate stores with ID.

She just could not comprehend this, simply because of her limited use of the English language.

I explained things to her 10 times, she got frustrated me and wanted a supervisor. The Supervisor proceeded to explain it to her about 10 times again before directing me to just credit the acct to get this woman off the phone. Evidently a 28 minute phone call is worth a bit more than 2.25.

My gripe is this: She MUST have known her english wasn't very good and I find it hard to believe she didn't have a friend, family member or SOMEONE who could either translate for her or at least help her understand what I and the Supervisor was saying.

I was explaining things in as simple language as I could. Short of speaking to her in Japanese, I don't know how better I could've gotten the point across.

After taking the call, my sup related a story of another call he'd been on where some guy yelled at him in Russian for 20 minutes and they got nowhere.

To the Russian and Japanese customers: I understand English is NOT your first language, that's fine, but I hope you understand that as an American company we only communicate in English or Spanish, I apologize for your frustrations, but I just don't speak many languages.

[RetailWorkhorse]

In this order:
English, Quebec-French, German, Polish, Japanese, and the ability to curse you out in Russian if you so much as look at me funny~!

Oh! And YITTISH! (thank you, Mel Brooks)

The ability to get people to understand that I have an accent that's a mix of Deep South and Queen's English? Not so easy.

[Imogene]

And YITTISH! (thank you, Mel Brooks)

*blink* Is that Mel Brooks' version of Yiddish?
*/Couldn't help herself*

[RetailWorkhorse]

*blink* Is that Mel Brooks' version of Yiddish?
*/Couldn't help herself*

Yup-yup!

Okay, I lied. I can't spell that word EVER for the life of me.

[Chanlin]

Not to say that every person out there does this, but I wonder how much of it was genuine inability and how much of it was them using the fact that they speak a language you don't understand to your advantage.

Granted I realize this is a generalization and probably happens less often than I would like to believe, but a part of me can't help but wonder every times someone falls back on not being able to understand what I say

I'm waiting for someone to try it with me who speaks german since I speak enough passable German to make myself understood

[powerboy]

I need to learn Spanish, Sign, Japanese and Vietnamese.

[PepperElf]

i'm currently living in japan so... in her defense i'll say this.... if she is new to the country she may expect that companies would be like the ones here in japan, where most places do have at least a couple of english speaking employees.

i'm trying to remember the word for "ID" ... eh ... naw just going to cheat now and grab the book we have here.

no, i don't see "ID" really... it's a good book though, has pictures, english, kanji, and "japanglish" i guess - japanese words written in english so us gaijin can pronounce them properly...

o wait it's here in the back - Driver's Licence: "unten-menkyo"

also, cos it's used sooooo much, mostly as "excuse me" or "sorry!" - sumimasen.
and everyone knows "domo arigato" (thank you styx!) but if you really wanna make them feel at home try "arigatoo gozaimas" - closer to 'thank you very much'


and the book: The Original "Point-And-Speak" Phrasebook.

[Bright_Star]

Trust me-she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. People from other countries who's native langauge is other than english will try to frustrate a customer service person by pretending to speak very little english with the intent on making the poor slob give in & do what the idiot customer wants.
I used to see that all the time when I was a cashier at Wal-Mart.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

also, cos it's used sooooo much, mostly as "excuse me" or "sorry!" - sumimasen.
and everyone knows "domo arigato" (thank you styx!) but if you really wanna make them feel at home try "arigatoo gozaimas" - closer to 'thank you very much'

Arigatoo-a gozaimas-a!

Mario's Japanese.

[tollbaby]

Oh! And YITTISH! (thank you, Mel Brooks)

You can't claim you speak Yiddish if you can't even spell it (I'm just teasing....)

[IHateStupidCustomers]

Those are the worst calls ever...I think I'd even take a screaming SC over the non-english speakers. Because there just isn't anything else you can go and most of the time the customers don't let up and you either have to stay on the line saying the same thing for two hours or release the call!

[PaRaGaS]

In this order:
English, Quebec-French, German, Polish, Japanese, and the ability to curse you out in Russian if you so much as look at me funny~!

So you can speak Polish?

[wanderingjoe72]

Trust me-she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. People from other countries who's native langauge is other than english will try to frustrate a customer service person by pretending to speak very little english with the intent on making the poor slob give in & do what the idiot customer wants.
I used to see that all the time when I was a cashier at Wal-Mart.

Bright Star is totally right. I see this happen a lot. They don't get away with it much here in AZ though. They try the broken english thing with the cashier and talk amongst themselves in spanish, but around here, most people have a basic understanding of spanish. A lot of people even speak it fluently. So You see a lot of people busted when trying to scam a store.

There is another group that seems to happen only in border states. The unpackage everything in the parking lot group. These are Mexican families that come buy hundreds of dollars of stuff in the US. Usually at Target, and remove everything from the packaging and stuff it into suitcases to get it past the Mexican version of customs without too many additional taxes. Not so bad in it's self, except for the fact that they leave the packaging all over the parking lot for employees to clean up. Extra sucky on rainy or windy days.

[retaildrone]

i'm trying to remember the word for "ID"

I would be very careful trying to speak any asian language that you do not know. Inflection is vital and your attemp to say something nice could go very, very wrong.

I learned this when a chinese friend was trying to teach me the word for 'shell' i got the inflection wrong, she doubled over laughing and entered it into her word translator.... I was saying 'son of a B****.' OOPS!

[Tria]

"japanglish" i guess - japanese words written in english so us gaijin can pronounce them properly...

My best friend would know for sure but I -think- the word you are looking for is "Romanji"? And yes, Gai-jin is one of the words for "foreigner" but I think it's comparable to calling a black person a you-know-what. At least that's what I got from reading the book "Gai-Jin". In otherwords, it has a very crude connotation.

I learned this when a chinese friend was trying to teach me the word for 'shell' i got the inflection wrong, she doubled over laughing and entered it into her word translator.... I was saying 'son of a B****.' OOPS!

So you picked up a jerk on the beach? :P