Customer service, and language barriers...

[Bogie]

When I call a certain company, I almost always get the same guy...

"Mumble, mumble, unintelligible..."

"Yeah, is this Acme Corporation?"

"Mumble, mumble, sure!"
 
"Uh... Okay... Do you guys still do screen printing?"
 
"unintelligible" (but it generally sounds affirmative...)
 
"Okay... I'll e-mail my order in, and I'm going to need to know shipping costs and stuff - you can e-mail me back, okay?"
 
"unintelligible"
 
click...
 
Never had a problem with their quality, timing, or invoices.
 
No, the guy isn't Mexican. Or Indian. He's American. Inner-city American. What's sad is that I lived in an athletic dorm through college, and in the center of St. Louis for 20 years, and I can't understand what he's saying. And he doesn't have a speech impediment, other than the inner-city dialect and vocal laziness.
 
And I'll bet that the consistent conversation at the plant involves "Boy, these customers sure are dumb - they don't even know which phone number they be dialin'..."

[roo_ster]

You need to hire a nun who speaks "Inner City American" to interpret for you.

[BrokenPaw]

"Oh, Stewardess...I speak jive."

-BP

[Mannlicher]

can we talk about computer and other tech Customer Service functions out sourced to India and Bangladesh?  Boy, talk about a language barrier.

[280plus]

SBC DSL support used to get you Manila. I don't mind, First off their English is usually nearly perfect. It's as if they don't WANT you to know where you're calling. Then I usually end up in a 5 or longer minute conversation with them about how things are in the PI these days. I think SBC (now ATT BTW) phone support is India and they ARE tough to understand sometimes. I also recall recently calling a company, financial I think, and I couldn't understand a WORD this woman was saying, heavy ME or Indian accent. So naturally things got fouled up and I had to call back and I told the next one what I just said about the first one and she says, "Yea, we know." I'm like, "OOOO-KKKKK....."

[grislyatoms]

I run into this all the time at work. The folks I am least likely to understand are as follows:

Vietnamese
Arab
Indian
Phillipino
Scot

I played merry hell trying to understand a Scot one time. I could tell he was speaking English, but I would understand maybe one word he said in an entire sentence.

Some folks at work talk so quickly and so sloppily I can't understand them. If they leave me voicemail and I can't understand either their name or telephone number, I don't bother to respond.

I got sick of calling and asking "May I speak with blaobshnad?"
"Sorry, no blaobshnad here."
"Here's the story, I got a voicemail from someone, sounded like his name was 'blaobshnad', he said he was having problems with the compounding robot."

"Oh, that's Tom Hendricks. Hang on, I'll get him for you."


Tom Hendricks.Blaobshnad.

Makes perfect sense.

[grampster]

Unintelligable phone CSR language defined  =  Bootlip.

[lee n. field]

Scot

I read a story once, I kid you not, about a Scotsman and a deep south American, who despite both technically speaking English, were mutually unintelligible.  They had to have a German lady as interpreter.

[...has left the building.]

Clearly, you guys need some Carlos Mencia:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_e7WHusIro

[Bogie]

This guy was just slurring stuff all together... Really sad. They do great work, but sheesh... And again, I'll bet they don't have a clue...
 
"Why all our customers ack stupid? They gotta axe where they callin'?"

[Perd Hapley]

The speech patterns of many lower-stratum Black Americans (and recently a lot of White kids raised in the same milieu), can be really appalling, especially when many of them could speak more clearly if they wanted to.  It's not just a matter of poor grammar, it's a matter of words run together so lazily as to be mostly unintelligible.
What's worse is that so many don't care.  With such people, you'd think it is a great inconvenience for them to pay any attention to you when you're ordering your burger and fries.  And asking them to repeat their slurred speech?  Takes a lot of nerve, you waster of valuable time.  Maybe there's something biased in my perception, but even the laziest white kid doesn't seem so sullen.  

God bless Cosby.

[thebaldguy]

I am convinced that clearly spoken English is fading rapidly in the US, even among Americans. I find myself using more and more of my Spanish on a regular basis as well. Even worse is the outsourced computer help desks in India where they have fake American names.

I predict this is only the beginning. It's going to get worse.

[lupinus]

"India where they have fake American names. "

HAHAHA you don't have to go to India for that my friend

You just have to go to Pocono Lake PA right off the PA turnpike.

I worked at a gas station there for an Indian named Kenny.  Was that his real name?  Nope, I literaly tried for a half an hour one night looking at the time sheet to pronounce his real name....it was immosible.  We are better off with them using fake names.

[Car Knocker]

I just refused to hire people who were unintelligible.

[BobR]

We have a guy here from Kenya, very easy to understand. But I spent the years of my life between 17 and 38 in 37 different countries and can usually make sense of almost any accent, as long as it is an attempt at English.

Anyhow, his name is Babatunde, goes by Bob, makes it easy. Some say they can't understand him, when in reality he speaks more clearly than some of them.

I often have to ask my son, WTF did you just say? Slow down, enunciate, and speak english!!

bob

[roo_ster]

My pharmacist is east african in origin.  I have no problem understanding him.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

Ugh. One of my pet peeves.

I used to joke with customers when they'd call in on problem tickets- they'd be from Alabama, Georgia--deep south...or maybe even the midwest and Northeast. Caucasian, American-born. They'd be 'so glad' to get me on the phone' instead of Kerpal or Mahib 'because you speak English that I can understand'. My stock answer was-

"No, I grew up in East Texas. I don't speak English, but I try to."

Usually 85 % would get it and laugh, but the other 15% thought I was doing a passable job of it.

Since changing jobs last month my coworkers are now 80% Indian (dots, not feathers).  2% of them speak with an exceptional clipped British accent. The rest I have to rely on telepathy and email from the next cube row over.

I have a pretty decent ear for accents and languages. I can pick them up and either mimic the cadence and accent or use the various languages I've learned over the years to convey concepts and ideas in a give-and-take.  Trying to extrapolate information out of Anoop in his attempt at English is a ral problem sometimes, though.

Hell, it took me a year to finally lose the Arkansas accent after I finished college up there and moved back home to Texas.  In business situations, however, I come across on the phone as Kansas/Indiana whitebread.

Ruser's heard me talk. When I slip into drawl I don't even understand myself most of the time. Right Boomhauer?
Regards,
Rabbit.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I am convinced that clearly spoken English is fading rapidly in the US, even among Americans. I find myself using more and more of my Spanish on a regular basis as well. Even worse is the outsourced computer help desks in India where they have fake American names.

I predict this is only the beginning. It's going to get worse.

I like the Indian folks with the fake American names.  They tend to be more articulate than the inner city Americans that might otherwise be on the receiving end of customer service phone calls.  I'll take a fake name and faint British/Indian accent over Ebonics any day of the week.