Outsourced TracFone idiots

[Bright_Star]

Today I called 4 times to TracFone customer service to get a friend's TracFone working again after she had done something stupid to it that required her getting a new SIM card from TracFone. Each time I called it was like pulling teeth. All I wanted was for the NEW SIM card to be able to be re-initiated so that the phone could recieve & answer calls.
So after the 4th time I got pissed & said.."You know what? Forget the damn thing!" Then I hung up. Not only were they difficult to get across the notion of exactly what I wanted done but it was hard understanding them. It seemed like they sounded like "Apu" from the Simpsons.
So after I hung up I had the notion that maybe I could do it online. So I went on the TracFone website & in 10 minutes I had my friend's phone working again!
I never had so much trouble with any kind of customer service like I did today. Had I called again, I would have insisted on an American customer service rep.

[Chanlin]

To be fair some, and by some I mean very few, of tracfones outsourced reps speak very good English.

I otherwise feel for you. Imagine trying to get them to understand the concept of Wireless Number Portability and you will know my pain.

[BlaqueKatt]

sorry I don't feel for anyone that beleives demanding an "american" service rep is the way to go-how exactly do you know the rep was not "american"-you know people do emmigrate to the US from other countries. My center has a South African, several Russians, several from India, and one from Brazil-and we're located in Wisconsin-demanding an "american rep" from one of them will get you transferred to a sup who will laugh at you for your ignorance-they're all legal US citizens

Sorry but this just really gets to me as the woman that trained me at my current job is from India(and holds 3 degrees in engineering-but actually enjoys customer service)-she speaks 5 languages-fluently-but the second people hear her accent they immediately think-ZOMG she's taking a 'muricans job-I'll show her, damn furiners! And she's been a citizen for almost 15 years, her English is better than 90% of my coworkers.

I have more problems trying to understand someone from texas than I do someone from India-because at least people from India know what annunciation means.

[marasbaras]

When I used to run a software business, we finally just banned purchase orders from India. Each time, we'd have to issue five or six different POs to satisfy some other requirement their particular company had. Each time, they didn't tell us the whole story up front, just one little piece at a time.

This happened in 100% of the cases from India where they wanted to pay via purchase order. We finally gave up and decided that POs from India were just too much of a hassle for the money we made and that we'd require either International Money/Postal Order or a credit card.

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Personally, I like it when I get girls from the Philippines on the phone doing service. Oh, their accent is like MUSIC to me ... intoxicating music.

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Often the problem with foreign call centers is that the company hiring the call center fails MISERABLY to provide proper training and script materials. I've dealt with a lot of tech support issues over the years. Bad support is universal ... not just a foreign thing.

[Qaeria]

sorry I don't feel for anyone that beleives demanding an "american" service rep is the way to go-how exactly do you know the rep was not "american"-you know people do emmigrate to the US from other countries. My center has a South African, several Russians, several from India, and one from Brazil-and we're located in Wisconsin-demanding an "american rep" from one of them will get you transferred to a sup who will laugh at you for your ignorance-they're all legal US citizens

Sorry but this just really gets to me as the woman that trained me at my current job is from India(and holds 3 degrees in engineering-but actually enjoys customer service)-she speaks 5 languages-fluently-but the second people hear her accent they immediately think-ZOMG she's taking a 'muricans job-I'll show her, damn furiners! And she's been a citizen for almost 15 years, her English is better than 90% of my coworkers.

I have more problems trying to understand someone from texas than I do someone from India-because at least people from India know what annunciation means.

I agree with you for some of it. bigotry on the customer's part is never a nice thing, but there ARE a lot of bad ones out there. I think all customer service reps dealing with english speaking customers should be very clear in how they speak. No different with any other language, I suppose. I have called several places, and I apologize and state, I am not trying to be rude, but I have a rather complicated issue, and I request that I speak to someone who can do so clearly. Simpler issues, I don't mind asking them to repeat themselves over, and over.

It is tough though. I work customer service, and I hate it when SC's pidgeon hole me like that, so I always feel bad when I have to ask for a clear communicator as well. I try to laugh at it thinking what it must be like for an Indian customer calling for support and getting a french speaking Quebecois. (now that is difficult to understand!)

[Broomjockey]

Sorry folks, just want to request we focus more on the "not trained well" aspect, and less on the "can't understand their accents" aspect? Those threads rarely go well, and we've already got shades of that here. Thanks

On-topic: Any problem that can be fixed online by the customer in 10 minutes should be fixed in less time than that (not counting time spent in queue) by a rep. If not, they need more training. And the issue shouldn't have to be heard by more than one rep either, especially for such a simple sounding problem.

[earl colby pottinger]

Sorry folks, just want to request we focus more on the "not trained well" aspect, and less on the "can't understand their accents" aspect? Those threads rarely go well, and we've already got shades of that here.

The problem here is the problem with accents can too often be traced back to the company's (1)pay scale, (2)expansion plans or (3)voice training.

1) The company is too cheap in pay, that means the better reps leave for companies that will pay them better. What you end up left with are the people who's skillsets/learning abilities prevent them from moving out. The service center over the years just gets worse and worse.

2) The company just can't say 'NO' to a phone support contract, pretty soon the need for phone reps are greater than the available supply of good ones. The company starts hiring anyone who claims to have English skills no matter what their skill level really is.

3) Is a major problem in countries that did *NOT* have a lot of early contact with the British Empire (yes, I am talking mostly Asian countries here). Too often the people teaching English in these countries themselves were taught by a non-native-English speaker, with that teacher in turn having the same to them.

In the case of Japanese speakers (Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony etc..) I may be talking to a person with University degrees, who has been taught English for the last ten years, but they are still hard to understand because THE PERSON WHO TAUGHT THEM DID IT WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE!