Shop Talk
Outsourcing
No, it's not India anymore.
It's Argentina.
I too work as a rep for some kind of extended warranty from a U.S. electronics/appliances retailer.
We don't have restricted internet, but we are not meant to access any website that is not one from the list. The good thing is that one of these sites is phonescoop so I spend my available time reading these amusing forums. I don't think I will be posting from work because of all the hastle from Q.A. even recording our every action on the screen as well, but it doesn't mean that i can't post from home so here we are.
What I don't seem to understand is that quite a lot I read comments that intend to be offensive about offshore outsourcing. Good thing is that I've also found comments from p...
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It's Argentina.
I too work as a rep for some kind of extended warranty from a U.S. electronics/appliances retailer.
We don't have restricted internet, but we are not meant to access any website that is not one from the list. The good thing is that one of these sites is phonescoop so I spend my available time reading these amusing forums. I don't think I will be posting from work because of all the hastle from Q.A. even recording our every action on the screen as well, but it doesn't mean that i can't post from home so here we are.
What I don't seem to understand is that quite a lot I read comments that intend to be offensive about offshore outsourcing. Good thing is that I've also found comments from p...
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Ya. I saw our India call center and i was like "WOW how do i get in there". It made us look like a sweat shop. I feel sorry for alot of those reps but i have to admit sometimes it's really hard to talk to them if they have super thick acents. Now I work as a client care so i deal with alot of people with alot of different acents so i have gotten pretty proficent at them.
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Outsourcing sucks. When I walk into a store or purchase a service from a company in BFE, America (the country not the continent) I expect to get help from a person who can understand and FLUENTLY speak English without a hars accent. Sure, world culture and global economy are importat things to recognize in any venture, but it would be a little un-fair to the Indians (or Argentinians) if every product they purchased was only served over the phone by the French. There is an issue called linguistics and unfortunately a lot of companies (world-wide) have chosen to pay less for (in my opinion) lower quality customer service by outsourcing. When a customer is required to ask the service rep ten or twelve times to repeat what was said, it becomes i...
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Outsourcing is painfully frustrating, even for me. As I've said before I have a lot of respect for people who learn to speak a second language, it's hard (!) however, it's shouldn't be a requirement for me to have somebody help me with a billing question. If you're going to work for a company who's primary customer base speaks English you need to speak it clearly enough that your callers understand you. I have no qualms whatsoever with Outsourcing as long as the rep I speak with is understandable without multiple repeats.
I had to call my Credit Card company to ask about changing my address and spend twenty minutes trying to even understand the young man I spoke with. It's a waste of my time and yours.
I had to call my Credit Card company to ask about changing my address and spend twenty minutes trying to even understand the young man I spoke with. It's a waste of my time and yours.
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I know it's not worksafe, but have you ever visited illwillpress.com? Foamy the squirrel has a little skit, etc about outsourcing.
It's listed in the toons section under Tech support I and Tech Support II.
It's HILARIOUS.
And to warn you again, it's NOT worksafe.
It's listed in the toons section under Tech support I and Tech Support II.
It's HILARIOUS.
And to warn you again, it's NOT worksafe.
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I saw that, my brother directed me to the site, but yeah, can't get to that site from work.
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Again, that's childish. You're just seeing one part of the picture. In our Call Center we are hired because of our english and we are rarely asked to repeat ourselves.
We even help the customers translating themselves to english:
"the flip thing" / "the screw" = "the hinge"
"the charge" = "battery port" / "battery" / "charger"
"the thing where you see" = "lcd display"
We even help them with the right spelling of their own shipping information.
Believe me, I am aware of something called "linguistics". And as far as I can tell you, your problem is not with foreign english speakers, as much as it is with any english speaker that does not speak "your" english. I find states like Alabama, Illinois, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, quite love...
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We even help the customers translating themselves to english:
"the flip thing" / "the screw" = "the hinge"
"the charge" = "battery port" / "battery" / "charger"
"the thing where you see" = "lcd display"
We even help them with the right spelling of their own shipping information.
Believe me, I am aware of something called "linguistics". And as far as I can tell you, your problem is not with foreign english speakers, as much as it is with any english speaker that does not speak "your" english. I find states like Alabama, Illinois, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, quite love...
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There are two issues here. Outsourcing in general, and outsourcing outside the US. Plenty of companies hire outsource agencies within the US as well.
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It's an offshore oil rig/call center.
2 great tastes that go great together.
🤣
2 great tastes that go great together.
🤣
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Just saying that you hate Outsourcing in general is childish, it's close minded (and I hate people who can't open their minds, even myself when I catch myself at it.) but heavy accents are frustrating. I love accents if they aren't too thick to understand, it makes things more interesting just in general.
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Yeah, I think it's frustrating too. But people get better. Half of our Customer Care department is in the U.S., half of it in Manila (that's Philippines, right?). Their accents are really "thick" (as you may call it). Latino accents are very common nowadays, so there is no real shock when customers talk to an average hispanic ccr, but in Philippines they are used to take everything to the back part of the throat up the nose, making some kind of weird strong french-asian accent. I need to call our Customer Care a bunch of times each day so I practically know them and I always cheer them up, months go by and eventually you realize that they have improved A LOT, so it's not that bad.
Anyway, I do think people overreact. I never heard those lan...
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Anyway, I do think people overreact. I never heard those lan...
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Accents can be frustrating when you don't understand the person you are talking too, just like you have agreed on already... thank God people can understand ME fine... it's good for my self-esteem when a customer tells me "It's a good thing I can understand YOU because the previous agent I was speaking with was like.. jeez!" LOL; anyway, I still seem to have an issue with the word ANTENNA; every time I ask them if it's still there, I have to repeat myself; well, not every time, let's say 50/50. If they don't get it the second time, I say in sort of rude way "on the top of your phone, sticking out, it helps you get a reception!" and they go "ooooooooooooooooooohh, the ANTENNA!" 🤠LOL
Anyway, I can be sooooooooooooo rude to a customer,...
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Anyway, I can be sooooooooooooo rude to a customer,...
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I've got serious issues with the word "Atlanta", I can never make myself clear, it's like even though I've heard it thousands of times, my mouth knows there are strong "T"s there.
_So you live in ATlanTa, Georgia
_The what now?...
_I was verifying... you live in... /adlehnna/, Georgia
_oh, yeah, right
About that -caring- part of Customer Care, it was pretty sinister that people from the project actually told us when we were hired that in the U.S. being a rep is not particularly a good job. They actually referred to those reps as uneducated white trash (not exactly in those terms). But anyway, you could picture trailer park men getting back from work, getting drunk and hitting their wives. That was unnecessarily "hyperbolic". We are ...
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_So you live in ATlanTa, Georgia
_The what now?...
_I was verifying... you live in... /adlehnna/, Georgia
_oh, yeah, right
About that -caring- part of Customer Care, it was pretty sinister that people from the project actually told us when we were hired that in the U.S. being a rep is not particularly a good job. They actually referred to those reps as uneducated white trash (not exactly in those terms). But anyway, you could picture trailer park men getting back from work, getting drunk and hitting their wives. That was unnecessarily "hyperbolic". We are ...
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In my training I heard 2 calls only from agents in the states, they were pretty bad, sure, but I'm not going to judge a whole project bc of 2 calls I heard, and I believed they showed us the bad ones just to let us know what not to do, they weren't random calls they picked for us to hear;
On the other hand, non-offshore Cust Care sucks, I know it bc I worked in a call center in my own city... bad training, unpresentable co workers, bad pay = bad attitude from me; 🙄
On the other hand, non-offshore Cust Care sucks, I know it bc I worked in a call center in my own city... bad training, unpresentable co workers, bad pay = bad attitude from me; 🙄
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Well they have a terrible time getting educated people to work for a call center here because they pay at what is barely a livable wage (I only do ok on call center wage because I regularly work overtime and absolutely NEVER call in sick...and because it's not my only job.) Well and management is generally incompetent, clueless, and in some cases sadistic (I have two managers/supervisors who are actually decent, one of them I genuinely like but they are the exception.) And call center politics are just stupid. If the wages were better it wouldn't be so bad but I count the days until I can say goodbye to the place forever, gonna be a while though, college degrees are so darn slow to earn.
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LOL, I hear you! How am I suppossed to fell being supervised by a 19 year old dude when I'm 24??!! Not to mention we began in the same project the same day!! 👿 ....... call centers are a mess, even in the most serious one, the one where I am working right now, you see mess... and unfairness...
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And then they have the schedule stuff (you all have heard my tantrum about THAT) and they have their "service level" pocky where they want to have us in que so they send the whiners home and those of us who can't afford to go home and not get paid are stuck dealing with all the crap and crabby people because the hold times are going up... And then they put a freeze on hiring so we're badly understaffed and just tell us we all have to do overtime to cover the gap (and those of us who were clever enough to build an hour lunch into our schedules so we have some unwind time...they take that away too and make us work MORE overtime.) because they're incompetent.
I used to read Dilbert comics and giggle and think it was far to ridiculous to actu...
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I used to read Dilbert comics and giggle and think it was far to ridiculous to actu...
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"...I wish I could laugh
but that joke isn't funny anymore
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
more than you'll ever know
i've seen this happen
in other people's lives
and now it's happening in mine"
(That joke isn't funny anymore - the smiths)
but that joke isn't funny anymore
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
more than you'll ever know
i've seen this happen
in other people's lives
and now it's happening in mine"
(That joke isn't funny anymore - the smiths)
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About understaffed or overstaffed, it depends on the day... some days I can just see half of us fired bc we're not getting enough calls, and even if they don't fire you, we're not growing anyway, and if the company doesn't grow, I'm stuck in the ph listening to whinny customers forever... 😢
On the other hand, there're days when I go home on a fried brain bc of so many calls in a row... 😕
On the other hand, there're days when I go home on a fried brain bc of so many calls in a row... 😕
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yes, too many Americans can't even speak English properly, which is why i love it when people say "speak English or get out of America" because usually they say it improperly, that is when i correct them and tell them to speak English or get out of America.
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with that logic you would need a call center in china or korea, because that is where your product is made.
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😳 did you read the same port I did? because your comment doesn't make sense at all... 😕
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no, axess was trying to say that because he purchased a product in america he should get his customer support in america. But with a logic like that, the more accurate scenario would be "you purchased a product in america, but made in china, so you would get your product support from the people who made it, in china" i was just saying that he did not have an argument with that statement.
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ooooooh you have a point there, good one. it's just that the way u posted it, it seemed as a reply directed to Buffo, sorry! 😎
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All I have to say about this is...
Buffo is smarter than me. ðŸ¤
The only gripe I have about Outsourcing is the heavy accents, it's simply frustrating. An accent is very cool, and girls with accents just get bonus sexy points. But for doing business where I'm already having a problem with something and I don't understand how to fix it, that's going to make me frustrated. Then when I don't understand what I'm doing, or understand what to do to fix it... It adds more frustration. I wish we could solve all problems with pictures.. that's a pretty universal language right? Keep doing the great job that you're trained at, and I'm sorry ahead of time when I call you and get frustrated, It's not you. this is why I don't listen to rap....
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Buffo is smarter than me. ðŸ¤
The only gripe I have about Outsourcing is the heavy accents, it's simply frustrating. An accent is very cool, and girls with accents just get bonus sexy points. But for doing business where I'm already having a problem with something and I don't understand how to fix it, that's going to make me frustrated. Then when I don't understand what I'm doing, or understand what to do to fix it... It adds more frustration. I wish we could solve all problems with pictures.. that's a pretty universal language right? Keep doing the great job that you're trained at, and I'm sorry ahead of time when I call you and get frustrated, It's not you. this is why I don't listen to rap....
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Buffo is smarter than all of you and you can be proud to know that you lost your job to someone more qualified than you, he just has an accent. Isn't it affirmative action to hire americans who can't do the job as well as foreigners? 🙂
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Sarcasm or not. I did not mean to say that I, being argentinian, am more educated and qualified for the job. I made it clear: I, because of being argentinian, have a juicy paycheck in comparison and therefore I'm forced to work as if I really cared. If the U.S. were willing to pay these type of salaries for a 6 hour job, and the job market was as tight as it is down here, I bet they would do the job exactly as we do. Remember: 1 peso equals 3 dollars. It IS degrading, it IS humilliating, yes.
And when it comes to the accents, we don't even have heavy or strong accents, we just have accents like each and every speaker in the History of the world. I am rarely asked to repeat myself.
And yes, I even get marriage proposals (mostly men... stran...
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And when it comes to the accents, we don't even have heavy or strong accents, we just have accents like each and every speaker in the History of the world. I am rarely asked to repeat myself.
And yes, I even get marriage proposals (mostly men... stran...
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Around here the job market IS tight, that's why they have such an easy time finding people to do this job because despite the fact that the job is lousy, the pay is pathetic (for the work and stress level of the job) the benefits are lacking, management are idiots...it's better than alot of things that we could get... I work my butt off, pull overtime whenever I can, I make good sales (because, not to brag but...I am very good at my job) to get good commission checks so I can afford to live alone in my own apartment, have some nice things, and make payments on a brand spanking new car (my pride and joy at the moment, even if it is a Hyundai, it's a glorious thing for me.) If you are mature and keep your priorities straight you can make it o...
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I had a 'sugar daddy' (that's what my friends called him, he was my husband just older and did happen to be wealthy) but he was abusive and trust me, no amount of money is worth putting up with that.
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and yet we put up with abusive customers each and every single day, just for the money.
we -are- sick
we -are- sick
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Who do we think we are CHARGING to take care of Customers!!! such pleasant people, we should do it for free...
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