Is it just me that gets annoyed by call centres being shipped out to India???

I recently moved from HSBC as they shipped customer services to India. I transferred all my accounts to Lloyds TSB and they promised they had no plans to send calls out of the UK, yet I phoned today and found they have.

Does anyone know a bank that has strong intentions to keep their staff employed in the UK?

Rick

Natwest is advertising using their "another way" slogan, to state that they want to keep their call centres in the UK.

Alliance and Leicester haven't made such a big issue of it, but I believe they want to keep things in the UK as well.

However, just searching previous posts you will find that ironically, these 2 are the worse abusers of NGN numbers!!

Lloyds TSB decided over 2 years ago to send their work out to India, and close some of the UK call centres.

Try First Direct.

First Direct is part of HSBC!

The Co-Op (They do use 0870's, but do release the GN's when requested) dont have indian call centres.
I think the current call centres are in Salford, Skelmersdale and Stockport


Quote:

As more and more call centres relocate abroad, we're commited to keeping all our call centres in the UK. After all, its our belief that UK-based Customer Service Advisors have a better understanding of your needs.

Well I like speaking to Indians, they are delightful, but surely there are enough in the UK to avoid moving call centres to India.

wrote on Oct 17^th, 2005 at 5:17pm:

Well I like speaking to Indians, they are delightful, but surely there are enough in the UK to avoid moving call centres to India.

But not enough who are willing to work for the pittance they pay call centre employees in India!

No really that is not correct. In India they are quite well paid relatively at present, as far as current Indian pay rates generally are. Many of the people working in Indian call centres are actually Indian graduates. India has not yet suffered the civilisation economy overhead decline!

What most people in the UK and much of the rest of the West do not any longer understand is this economic delusion cycle of so-called modern civilisation. What happens is that initially as modern countries become civilised they industrialise and capitalise. At the start costs are relatively low, because tax overheads are low, housing costs are low, living costs are low etc. Companies can invest and generate good returns on their investment. Then as the economy becomes more successful unions clamour for more and more pay; they want to live to the same standards as the managers and industrialists, but without investing any capital and without taking any business risks. Then they clamour for a Welfare state, sickness benefits, unemployment benefit, child benefits, tax credits, state pensions etc. So they elect a different government that will give them these, but without explaining the real costs and eventual effects on their National economy.

Gradually the whole of their economy grids to a halt, because it can no longer compete globally. It has become encumbered with enormous tax overheads which have to be paid from somewhere - and these have become a millstone around the neck of that economy.

So global business moves its capital and wealth-generating activity to a country or region which is "emergent". That means that that region does not yet have these debilitating tax overheads, which make it impossible for business to generate an adequate return on investment.

Ultimately the countries and regions which had developed and adopted the wonderful Welfare state systems become the "banana republics" and their economies collapse. It is all a bit like Orwell's "Animal Farm" but in a slightly different way.

So India at present is a relatively low cost area to which many companies are moving various operations like call centres and software development. But watch what happens; gradually their costs will rise and they will go through this same cycle. Then it will become too costly to run these operations there and global businesses will move their operations to other lower cost areas. This is the cycle. Look at what happened in Japan after the last world war. It is now too expensive in Japan to undertake most business activities. Those which were vibrant and profitable there have for the most part now moved elsewhere. This is the pattern of unrealism in the world, and it is this which is exploited by Politicians to fool the people into believing that they can all live like the millionaires, if only the people vote for their party!

I think A&L stated in their Annual Report that they were not intent on moving call centres abroad. As already mentioned NatWest aren't.

Beware though the A&L Credit Card is operated by MBNA who do have Indian call centres.

All HBOS Call centres are in the UK (but arsey about giving out NGNs). I think all RBS Group companies are in the UK. Nationwide's call centre is in Sheffield (may also have one in Swindon). First Direct (despite being owned by HSBC) says it has no plans to move abroad and has call centres in Leeds and Stirling.

Hope this helps
Rich

Hi richyrich,

Now that is interesting about MBNA. I have been with MBNA for years and have several of their credit cards. I have never yet been routed in any calls via India so far. Is this a recent change, or is it just some of their calls which are routed to India?

For at least a year, but some of their calls go to Chester. Not sure what the ratio is.

Rich

How is that I have not been routed via any of these ever then Rich? I have been an MBNA customer for over 10 years.

First Direct may be a part of HSBC but their call centre is definitely in the UK.  I have been with them for 13 years and I have no complaints whatsoever.

mc661 wrote on Oct 11^th, 2005 at 11:40pm:

First Direct is part of HSBC

Yes they arepart of HSBC but both their call centres are in the UK,and they dont mind if you call their geo num for overseas callers ;) unlike some other bankers we know of.

Banks using UK call centres are

The Co-op
Halifax

I do banking with both very happily

dorf wrote on Nov 17^th, 2005 at 4:15pm:

How is that I have not been routed via any of these ever then Rich? I have been an MBNA customer for over 10 years.

As I'm not an employee of MBNA (but did used to work for Abbey, who MBNA run the credit cards for) I'm not able to give you a decisive reason why you personally have never been routed to India (maybe you could ask them?). Maybe you've been lucky - as I have said they do have call staff in the UK and it could be luck taht you haven't been routed there. I also have no idea how many staff are in India in terms of numbers or proportions.

Just because you've never been routed to them doesn't mean tht they don't exist :)

same here i am with NBNA and have been for over 10 years and i also have never had a problem with them or ever been rooted out to india

NOT AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, BUT NOW THAT YOU MENTION INDIAN CALL CENTRES!

Tiscali support for Broad Band is an 0870 number, and the 1st place you get to is a call centre in India.

If one has read the help file, they just seem to go through all what one has already done, one is often in a queue for 5-10 minutes before speaking to someone, 9 out of 10 times one cannot understand the accent or the voice is too quite, so one is forced to say pardon or could you repeat that again.
They often ask one to repeat things that have been logged on their system from the 1st phone call.......

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, I could go on, but the main thing again is 7p per minute, and I have heard rumours that they sometimes charge more than that, time consuming, expensive and still no solution to the problem!!!!

Just to add, that Nationwide Building Society have Call Centres here in the UK as well.

Talking about Indian Call Centres, I would really like to have Onetel and Alpha Telecom back here in the UK, as the majority of the staff do not understand the nuances of the English language.  It would be great, if the respective heads of these companies would take note of what we the UK telephone users would like - would the Chairmen of any company want to speak with these Indian Call Centres ?  I doubt it, in fact when I have the need to speak to BT, the call always goes to a UK Call Centre and they always understand how and what you are talking about, and also they understand as to how you feel.

James Bond

8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

jamesbond wrote on Nov 25^th, 2005 at 7:16pm:

..... BT, the call always goes to a UK Call Centre and they always understand how and what you are talking about, and also they understand as to how you feel.

But, if you e-mail them, you nearly always get a nonsensical reply from someone in India.

I have got to agree with your comment about email replies!

James Bond

wrote on Nov 21^st, 2005 at 3:42pm:

Banks using UK call centres are The Co-op Halifax I do banking with both very happily

I wonder if you bank happily with the Halifax happily now LOL  ;D ;D

I do agree that it's better for banks to have UK call centres, I deal with customers every day and you can tell there is some contempt at the Mumbia etc agents, not because they are not nice people - they are, but there are obvious cultural barriers there.

The last company I worked for, used an Indian call centre for it's IT Helpdesk, and again it was a pain not because they didn't want to be helpful, nor because they were incompetent - quite the opposite they were very skilled (I know this because I went into the local office out of frustation and watched the people in the uk talking to them on instant messenging to solve problems). The issue was the fact you had to ring india to fix a local problem, quite often be put through standard troubleshooting and then once they had decided its a problem wait ages - and somehow thats meant to be more efficent. Not faulting the staff, just the systems.

This seems to also be a problem for other companies, like three for example, you must go to india, but if you have anything meaty (such as you want to change contract, give notice, have a proper payment issue) then you need to speak to glasgow, you know that, they know that, but you have to go through loads of queueing and verificaiton first - i'd rather ring a switchboard and say, yeah can I have retentions in glasgow please.

Some are better than others, and where it is just reading information off then its not so much a problem, but for example when I just called three, they can be really bad and quite often don't understand how to use grammar properly - again not their fault, I wouldn't know where to start with indian.

Natwest have call centres in Plymouth, Southampton (023 80226443) and Bristol I think it is, I bank with them and it is nice to speak to someone that is on a similar wave length.

Barclays Monument is certainly UK - its based in crawley near asda (I worked for them for a day) - I have to stop myself laughing at the crawley accent when I ring up.

Lloyds TSB is Glasgow, Plymouth I think and somewhere else on the south coast, as well as Mumbia.

Nationwide, no idea where, but agreed they are very good and do have uk call centres, and a nice freephone number which is always good.

Have just signed up for membership.  Thanks.  Reading through the posted messages, I was pleased to see the discussion has gone "sideways" to include Indian Call Centres.  I have recently had a real problem with an insurance claim through Norwich Union, following severe flooding to my property on 31st October.  I have only just received settlement, as Norwich Union, far from "quoting me happy" has been obstructive in the extreme, turning a problem into a crisis, mainly due to settlement queries being dealt with by an Indian Call Centre.  I totally agree with your correspondents, that the staff there are helpful, polite, and good communicators.  However, there is a gaping cultural difference in everything else, from sense of humour to simply not getting how things are done in England.  I remember in particular a gentleman in India telling to "get the work done, and send the bill to me."  Yeh, right!  The bill in question was £4,000.  I wonder whether his suggestion would have worked.  Final payment was received yesterday.  This afternoon I intend to switch my insurance to Nationwide.

Not wanting to start a flame war here, but just one thing I'd like to observe. Whilst I accept that there may well be cultural problems in dealing with people from another continent, there is a feeling that, all else being equal, let's say there weren't any cultural barriers, then diverting calls to India would still be a problem because somehow those jobs belong in the UK. Poor and oppressed workers in this country are having their wages driven down by competition overseas and jobs that belong here are being outsourced abroad.

But is that really correct? Think of it from the point of view of poor and oppressed workers in India. We are all citizens of the world. From their end, it looks as if a tremendous opportunity is opening up to create jobs and benefit their economy. These sorts of jobs are highly prized in India where much effort is invested in overcoming just those cultural barriers of which others have rightly spoken. For one thing, they have to learn the language to a basic standard of proficiency.

Now if it turns out, for whatever reason, that all else being equal, the cost of labour in this industry in India is, let's say, 50% less than the cost of labour here, outsourcing is likely to have the effect of reducing the price of these services in this country. This will benefit (thinking of the big picture) the consumers of this country, including the now unemployed call centre workers, who will be available to work in an industry where their labour is more productive, thereby producing further benefit to the consumer in this country.

We cannot always assume that outsourcing overseas is bad for the general welfare either in this country or overseas. In addition, why should we starve those people in other countries of the opportunity to do the same work for less. I know this is controversial, but it is sometimes possible for everybody to win.

I do, however, take the point about cultural barriers. These have already started to restrict how much overseas outsourcing is really practical, which is perhaps why some of these banks have decided against it. In addition, if I recall correctly, political pressures in the US are also starting to have an effect although the Indians reckon there is still enough outsourcing to support the boom in Bangalore.

Just my thoughts on this vexing subject.

rickuk80 wrote on Oct 11^th, 2005 at 2:38pm:

Is it just me that gets annoyed by call centres being shipped out to India??? I recently moved from HSBC as they shipped customer services to India. I transferred all my accounts to Lloyds TSB and they promised they had no plans to send calls out of the UK, yet I phoned today and found they have. Does anyone know a bank that has strong intentions to keep their staff employed in the UK? Rick

The RBS Group says it is commited to keeping it's call centres within the UK.  For those of you who are unsure which companies are part of RBS here's a list of some of them:

The Royal Bank of Scotland (obviously)
NatWest
Direct Line
Lombard
Churchill
UK Insurance
Privilege
The One account/Virgin One account
NatWest One account
Direct Line One account
First Active (England, Scotland & Wales)
Mint

...to name a few

HSBC's call centres are in India with the exception of First Direct which is based in Leeds and has won awards for fantastic customer service so I doubt they'll move it!

longusername wrote on Jan 12^th, 2006 at 8:30pm:

Now if it turns out, for whatever reason, that all else being equal, the cost of labour in this industry in India is, let's say, 50% less than the cost of labour here, outsourcing is likely to have the effect of reducing the price of these services in this country. This will benefit (thinking of the big picture) the consumers of this country, including the now unemployed call centre workers, who will be available to work in an industry where their labour is more productive, thereby producing further benefit to the consumer in this country.

But what jobs will they go to?  Are there any new jobs being created especially for them, or are they just going down the jobcentre to apply for jobs that would have been filled anyway.

If that is the case, then there are no new jobs being created at all, just more competition to go for the jobs already there.  This might have the effect of recruiting higher calibre staff, but it also means that plenty more people are out of work in this country when they shouldn't be!!

And as for saving costs.  It means that big companies can increase their profits, and justify using 0870 to route calls to India, and the little money that is passed back to the public in lower costs (if any) will only be taken back by the government in higher taxes to pay Jobseekers allowance to more people.

I take your point, Shiggaddi. There is that problem, at least in the short term. But perhaps call centre jobs aren't that great anyway, for us especially, and there may be other industries that could make more productive use of our labour. I don't know. You might be right. It just seems to me it could go either way.

One small point, though. Geographic numbers can be routed to India. There's no excuse there for 0870. And they can't say they need the revenue to cover the costs of calls to India, because outsourcing has already been calculated to save costs.

But yeah, I know they might try it.

Regards.  :-/

Quote:

Ditch the scripts says Lloyds TSB Workers at Lloyds TSB call centres have been told they must no longer read from scripts when talking to customers because it makes them angry. Researchers found that 90% of people got annoyed when they were talking to call centre workers who were obviously reading from a script. Most customers said they thought this led to staff failing to listen or answer questions properly. Scripted conversations were impersonal and often went on too long, they said. Call centre staff agreed that reading from scripts slowed down the process and 86% of them backed scrapping them. Source: BBC News

Sometimes I wish that when they are thinking about funding this type of research they would just give me a call. I could save them some money.

:o

longusername wrote on Jan 13^th, 2006 at 9:16pm:

Sometimes I wish that when they are thinking about funding this type of research they would just give me a call. I could save them some money. :o

Me too.

If they'd call me on my 0871 number too, I'd give 'em an interesting couple of hours of my muzak collection.

jamesbond wrote on Nov 25^th, 2005 at 7:16pm:

I doubt it, in fact when I have the need to speak to BT, the call always goes to a UK Call Centre and they always understand how and what you are talking about, and also they understand as to how you feel.

Just spoke to BT this morning to check there was no discount for paying a phone bill on the Light User Scheme bY Direct Debit.  The call was answered in India.

I have spoken to BT call centres in India several times in the last few month and also received a particularly unhlepful and inaccurate response to a query raised on their website from one too.

lancsguy1972 wrote on Jan 12^th, 2006 at 9:09pm:

The RBS Group says it is commited to keeping it's call centres within the UK.

Unfortunately the RBS group are not committed to avoiding the extensive pathological use of 0870 and 0845 numbers for these call very same call centres and even listing an 0870 number as the overseas alternative to a uk 0845 number.

They also aren't committed to not offering one of the most derisory rates of interest in the marketplace on their online Esavings account.

They also continue to perpetuate a fiction that a bank called NatWest still exists in England when they in fact killed it several years ago and the only thing non RBS like about a NatWest branch these days is the name plate over the door.  All other product features and company policies are entirely those of the Royal Bank of Scotland group.

wrote on Jan 14^th, 2006 at 11:05am:

Unfortunately the RBS group are not committed to avoiding the extensive pathological use of 0870 and 0845 numbers for these call very same call centres.......

Excuse me, whilst I appreciate your comments the actual question was asking if any banks still had UK call centres.

Yes, I agree that RBS uses non geographical numbers, this I cannot dispute.

The one thing I like about RBS is the fact that they hold the brands they own with very high respect, for example when HSBC took over Midland Bank they didn't care about the "Midland Bank" brand and the loyality it's customers had, they just scrapped it and rebranded everything HSBC.  The same thing happened on TV too, when most of the ITV stations where taken over by Granada/Carlton the regional names we all knew and loved vanished to be replaced by itv1 from London :'(

RBS don't do this, market research shows that customers are loyal to brand names, when they took over NatWest & Ulster Bank several years ago they could, as you say, have changed all the branches to RBS, however this would have had two knock on effects:

1: Many customers would have been disgruntled at the name change and moved their business elsewhere.

2: Job losses would have occured as a result of branch closures and integration.

I'm not saying that RBS have the best products on the market, for example I also think that Nationwide is very good financial institution as they are spearheading the campaign for keeping non charging cash machines, Egg offer a credit card that pays 4% interst if you have a credit balance...I could go on and on but I'm really going off topic so I'll shut up!

lancsguy1972 wrote on Jan 14^th, 2006 at 1:51pm:

The one thing I like about RBS is the fact that they hold the brands they own with very high respect, for example when HSBC took over Midland Bank they didn't care about the "Midland Bank" brand and the loyality it's customers had, they just scrapped it and rebranded everything HSBC.

I can't agree with you on that as when HSBC took over Midland they in fact retained the name for many years before finally deciding to adopt HSBC (a more scary prospect than fully rolling out RBS because HSBC is seen to be a Hong Kong bank).  I fully expect that eventually when most of their customers have twigged that there is no NatWest and only an RBS that they will abolish the NatWest brand name.

As a NatWest customer of 23 years standing and a Nationwide customer of 2 years standing I have seemingly 101 reasons to be unhappy about RBS/NatWest corporate policy and just one to be unhappy about Nationwide corporate policy (limited use of 0845 for some central call centres but never for branches).

NatWest wipe out online statement history after 6 months.  Their personal account managers have no email addresses.  I could go on.  I only don't shut my account because my mortgage is with them and currently I am not working.  All my credit card and cash card use overseas has moved to Nationwide as have my online cash savings.

richyrich wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2005 at 12:03am:

dorf wrote on Nov 17th, 2005 at 4:15pm: How is that I have not been routed via any of these ever then Rich? I have been an MBNA customer for over 10 years. As I'm not an employee of MBNA (but did used to work for Abbey, who MBNA run the credit cards for) I'm not able to give you a decisive reason why you personally have never been routed to India (maybe you could ask them?). Maybe you've been lucky - as I have said they do have call staff in the UK and it could be luck taht you haven't been routed there. I also have no idea how many staff are in India in terms of numbers or proportions. Just because you've never been routed to them doesn't mean tht they don't exist :)

When I called MBNA Card (HSBC - who inherited me from Which , but which Which no longer endorse), lately  I was handled by a distinctly Indian sounding gentleman.
  I wasn't at all bothered by who he was or where he was sitting, but rather by the fact that he resolutely wouldn't refund in full the extortionate missed payment charge £25.  
  As I so rarely use this card and when I do for such small amounts, it is not entirely unknown  that I may overlook to settle until the next  months bill arrives.
  On this basis I have never had any trouble getting the card provider to offer and even suggest a total refund immediately on raising the issue.
 Well this time he only & most reluctantly finally agreed to refund half of it (representing still some 1000's of % APR on my small, slightly overdue balance).
It's for this reason that I will Never use this MBNA card again.    
  Now could that different attitude be a cultural thing , or was I (or rather HSBC/MBNA) just unlucky ?
   Unfortunatly this rules out my Abbey Card too and some others.
I've just got a Nationwide card for going abroad 'though (that's for me going abroad - not them),  so I think they (NW)may now look forward to a new surge in business.

joe65 wrote on Feb 1^st, 2006 at 8:55pm:

Now could that different attitude be a cultural thing , or was I (or rather HSBC/MBNA) just unlucky ? Unfortunatly this rules out my Abbey Card too and some others. I've just got a Nationwide card for going abroad 'though (that's for me going abroad - not them),  so I think they (NW)may now look forward to a new surge in business.

I think in most Indian call centres the staff are not given any discretion at all and follow orders to the letter - Sky Scotland vs Sky India is like cheese and chalk for instance.  Also I think its a cultural thing that the kind of people who work in a call centre in India expect to follow orders since its a much more orderly and hierarchical society than the UK.  But I don't understand why you don't just set up a direct debit to clear the card balance in full each month so you don't get any of this hassle?  The terms of direct debits are such that I can't possibly see your objection.  You may have got the charge refunded in the past but if it says in their T&Cs that they can levy these exorbitant charges then it is likely that sooner or later they will.  After all you wouldn't expect Ken Livingstone's mob to let you off the congestion charge if you told them it was your first time in London and you simply didn't know where the charge boundaries are would you?  Well you might expect him and his hard hearted staff to let you off the first time but the fact is they won't.  In fact they won't even let you off if you are a foreigner from another EU country or Efta country.

I continue to be bluffed by some Norwegian Trolls about a road toll of 4 Euros that they claim I owe them from 18 months ago at a toll station in Trondheim that had no barriers and no signs in English at 4am when all the locals were simply driving straight through (it now turns out these locals all had electronic tag toll season tickets).  Their threats to pursue this in the uk county court about once every 6 months begin to sound more and more hollow but must scare many of the recipients in to submission.  They have added about 60 Euros in ubiquitious administration charges to the 4 Euro toll I didn't even know I had to pay.  Now as Norway isn't in the EU and nobody expects tolls and parking fines to be enforceable on foreign vehicles unless they clamp you or fine you on the spot (especially outside the EU) you really think they would give up but no and I can now see that the Norwegian reputation for the fearsome trolls that wait at all critical bridges etc is very well deserved.

All I am saying is that if you rely on regulalry sweet talking people who have gone to all the trouble of creating an environment where they can fine you then sooner or later you are going to be unlucky.  And it may of course be that you have now finally exhausted your 9 lives for being let off a late payment charge.  If they refunded half the charge one can only say it could have been worse.  Let that be a lesson to you to set up direct debit rather than continuing to live in the stone age. ;) ;D

Recently I had trouble with MBNA (Abbey)

I use credit cards to take advantage of 0% deals, and pay off before they end.

I cleared my MBNA virgin card by asking them to take the direct debit amount on the payment date for the full amount, and they did so.

When Abbey came to the end of the 0% deal, they said it wouldn't be possible, so I had to make another payment.

Rather than go through the trouble of setting up a bill payment by phone with A&L to make a one off payment, I used the paying in slip, with an A&L cheque, and sent it to A&L.  I have been doing this when I was with Natwest, and it is common practice to pay a bill at your own bank branch, with your own bank's cheque, but another banks paying in slip.

A&L took almost 2 week to cash the cheque, so we agreed it was lost in the system, and they said that they don't process transactions on behalf of 3rd parties, and I set up a bill payment to pay this one off payment.

After the cheque was cancelled, MBNA (Abbey) imposed a £25 charge for bounced cheques.  I phoned them up, and explained what had happened.  I also informed them that this charge, even though it was part of the T&Cs, was against the unfair contract terms, and banks can only legally charge what it costs them, rather than a penalty.

Also, there was an article in the Guardian saying that a standard letter would cost less than £1, and banks hike this up to £25 just to write an automated letter.  None of the banks wished to comment on how much it costs.

So, instead of disputing the £25 charge, I asked MBNA to give me an itemised listing on their out of pocket expenses and how the £25 is justified, and mentioned that they failed to reply to the Guardian's money section on the issue, and also pointed out that I intend to use their reply to send to the Guardian.

She got her supervisor, and after being on hold about 2 minutes, she came back and said that as a gesture of goodwill, they will waive the charges, but said that if it happens next time, then they would impose the charges.  This won't happen as the card is now paid off in full.

If you complain loud enough (like you would with 0870 numbers) then big companies can always back down.

Shiggaddi wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2006 at 4:30pm:

If you complain loud enough (like you would with 0870 numbers) then big companies can always back down.

But not it seems when there is much more money at stake (as there is with the 0870 scam) and the telecoms regulator's Chief Executive and Chairman are more concerned with feathering their own nests with the New Labour establishment rather than with fighting a battle of principle on behalf of the uk citizen consumer.

Article in the Mail on Sunday entitled "We all hate talking to India"
Extract:

Quote:

Big organisations such as HSBC and Norwich Union, with well-publicised overseas operations, inevitably attracted criticism. But so did other firms. Customers of computer company Dell vented rage about all aspects of the service provided by its call centres. Other non-financial firms complained about were BSkyB, internet service provider Tiscali and mobile phone operator-O2. Another big name to come under fire is BT. It says that only two of its 33 call centres are in India and its research shows that 'service levels are the same or better'. Financial Mail readers disagree, with dozens citing problems when calling with billing queries and issues relating to broadband services. In fact, BT was one of the top four companies for complaints. Delays, incomprehensible accents, mispronounced names and lack of familiarity with UK geography were the most common hates. One reader told of a call centre employee who thought Cardiff was in Birmingham. Another Asia-based worker confused our Birmingham with the American town in Alabama. Several people found it especially distressing to talk to overseas workers about the death of a parent or spouse. 'I had to explain again and again that my father had died,' said one reader, 'but the man didn't seem to know what that meant.'

And we all hate talking to India even more when many of the main culprits like Sky and HP charge a premium rate for the privilege.

I have just switched my gas and electricity supply to www.equipower.co.uk   This is a non profit making company dedicated to cutting energy emissions but also with some of the very cheapest gas and electricity prices and no annoying once a year bonuses or special discounts only if you agree to not getting a paper bill.  Also they let you get the cheapest price if you pay in full quarterly by direct debit in arrears and you don't have to have one of those horrid flat rate direct debit payment plans all the big boys like Powergen and Scottish Power insist on.  Of course as they pay no commission Uswitch goes out of its way not to show the company in its results tables and you have to specially tick the box to look at ethical suppliers for them to appear.

Do a comparison at www.energyhelpline.com who do show Equipower and its sister company EquiGas automatically.  I have had enough of Powergen as although their call centre workers are not in India they might as well be from the way in which any promise they make to solve an issue on my account is not fulfilled.

I don't have any problem talking to people in India. They are helpful and courteous, don't spitefully put people on hold for several minutes then hang up, and if they don't have the information requested make a point of calling back with it later, as opposed to some call centres in this country where you can ask the same question four times without answer.


Quote:

Delays, incomprehensible accents, mispronounced names and lack of familiarity with UK geography were the most common hates.

Get real - that happens here too. Portsmouth in Hampshire or Portsmouth in Lancashire I was once asked by BT Directory Enquiries. I didn't know there was a Portsmouth in Lancashire, I said, but this one has the UK headquarters of a multnational insurance company. They put the phone down. Or the Police emergency call centre for a certain county not understanding instructions that I was on the southbound side of the bypass of a certain place, between the only two junctions in the area.

I am with the RBS they have a call center in manchester 0161 930 8666 They also have 0870 and 0845 numbers :) I am happy with the RBS they are VERY polite on the phone and when my wallet was picked out me pocket with all my money in they paid for a taxi home from the city of manchester to were i live (about 3 miles) plus stopped all my credit cards for me with themsleves and OTHER companys :)

I realy hate ringing up Three because there call centers are in India even thou the phone call is FREE i still spend about 30 mins on the phone when if it was a english speaking person it would be 15 mins because they have to keep asking me to spell my name and were i live and i have to ask them to repeat the question, If i had of know this i would have gone with a UK based mobile company. AOL is worse when i call them now i request to be put threw to the call center in ireland i refuse to speak to the call center in India because it takes up too much of my time.

I find call centers in India take too much of my time up

Justin

I have had OK experiences with Indian call centres, but of course it's the bad experieinces one remembers.

When I called FedEx, after repeating my name, address and postcode about three times, and then them looking up the wrong postcode, I lost confidence that they would record my details correctly - fairly important when you're trying to arrange an urgent courier pickup!

Recently, I had cause to 'phone Orange and got someone who tried to tell me that an 07 number was geographic, that an 0800 number would cost me 25p, and then gave me an internal-only number to their internal IT helpdesk - who, of course couldn't help me!

It is the cultural and 'national knowledge' that is missing and that can be very annoying - yes they can be helpful and polite, but it gets tedious when you have to explain things that a UK person would understand or take for granted.  The customer should not have to be educating the organisation's staff in UK knowledge at the customer's own cost.  I'm sure straight-forward queries can often be handled well - but it's always the diffiuclt or unusual that tests an organisation's true competency.

andy9 wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 12:03am:

I don't have any problem talking to people in India. They are helpful and courteous, don't spitefully put people on hold for several minutes then hang up, and if they don't have the information requested make a point of calling back with it later, as opposed to some call centres in this country where you can ask the same question four times without answer.

I don't have a problem speaking to people in India per se but I do have a problem with receiving an inferior quality of service as so regularly happens.

What you call courteousness I call timidity brought on by poor understanding of uk accents and basic lack of knowledge of common uk terms and nuances.  Also contrary to what you say I have regularly been put on hold for long periods by Indian Call Centre staff (especially HP and Sky) and if I have asked to speak to a supervisor at an Indian call centre I have been told on every occasion there is not one available and if I have persisted that this cannot be true and that I demand to be put through to one I have been purposefully cut off.  That does of course happen with some uk call centres (espcially those run by Capita) but not as often.  Also on three or four occasions staff at HP's Indian call centre promised to call me back about a battery replacement and then failed to do so.

My view would be outsource manufacturing and software development work to the third world as that can cut costs without customers having a worse experience.  However you should only outsource call centres to India if you are prepared to employ staff of a sufficient level of education that they watch a lot of uk television and read uk books so understand uk accents.  Unfortunately at this point the cost savings then become much less which is probably why Diners Club is the only Indian call centre I have spoken to where I didn't even realise the person I was speaking to was in India until very late on in the call.  But usually with that annoying metallic twang accent it is all too obvious one is speaking to an Indian call centre worker from the outset.

wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 1:05am:

However you should only outsource call centres to India if you are prepared to employ staff of a sufficient level of education that they watch a lot of uk television and read uk books...

Ah, but surely they might not want to watch much UK tv if they had high(er) intelligence?  :)

wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 1:05am:

I don't have a problem speaking to people in India per se but I do have a problem with receiving an inferior quality of service as so regularly happens.

Which nicely summarises what I was trying to say as well.

OTOH it would be difficult to get an inferior service compared even with some UK call centres!  :'(

trevord wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 2:10pm:

[/i]UK call centres!  :'(

Perhaps because so many uk call centres (most especially all BT customer service persons) are so appalling they wrongly thought nobody would notice the difference. ;)

wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 2:22pm:

especially all BT customer service persons) are so appalling

I've actually had cause to contact BT customer services 3 times in the last week - and all were helpful and efficient!

trevord wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 3:52pm:

I've actually had cause to contact BT customer services 3 times in the last week - and all were helpful and efficient!

Perhaps you get routed to a different call centre in your area.  I won't begin to descrive what BT's Indian call centre is like other than to say that it is one of the worst.

Symantec and Diners Club are the only reasonable Indian Call Centres I have ever encountered.

wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 4:07pm:

Perhaps you get routed to a different call centre in your area.

2 calls were from 01403 Horsham; 1 was from 01597 Llandrindod Wells - none appeared to be Indian.


wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 4:07pm:

I won't begin to descrive what BT's Indian call centre is like other than to say that it is one of the worst.

Obviously I've been lucky!
I'm trying to avoid companies with Indian call centres, but unfortunately cannot avoid them all, e.g. Norwich Union.  Going to close HSBC accounts.

trevord wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 4:50pm:

I'm trying to avoid companies with Indian call centres, but unfortunately cannot avoid them all, e.g. Norwich Union.  Going to close HSBC accounts.

Just don't try ringing HSBC call centres as apparently they can not email or have other departments call - or so they said in my recent call to them. Grrrr.

There is a campaign website which is imaginatively called SayNoToOvereasCallCentres.com and gives this site credit for providing its inspiration.