Indian Call Centres....

hehehe, check this out:

http://ollyk.zftp.com/qqtelstra1.mp3

"I'm sorry sir we don't have a Great Britain/ United Kingdom but we do have a GB is that the same??"... **sigh** "Yes" I reply...

Click to expand...

*** - and the truth is, when we know we are speaking to India, we come to expect comments like this - shouldn't be allowed I know, but if we hang up, we back to square one and cant get our ****** problem sorted

Olly_K said:

hehehe, check this out:

http://ollyk.zftp.com/qqtelstra1.mp3

Click to expand...

Ha Ha Ha - PMFSL - Thats fantastic Olly.... Great P!ss take.

As for the call centres, you call them and they welcome you and tell you "you are speaking to Sharon today"... YEEEAAAHHH Right - Sharon My @rse - With an accent like that, whats your real name lady !!!!! I cant believe they try to pretend to be from this country.

Great read....


I had a similar situation trying to get my Dell Laptop repaired...

ahahahahaha... man.. they give me the sh!ts aye. i prefer to do all correspondance through email that way they can sit and with their goddamn danm english dictionary and sort their sh!t out. haha.

The all time winner for the sh*t indian call centre award has to be '3' - or Hutchison 3G as they like to be known ..

4 weeks of daily phone calls and they still fail to enable international roaming.. 28v6's chat could have been an actual recording of one of their conversations, they really have no idea who or where their customers are.. fundamental incompetence on even the smallest of issues.. a total inability to process payments accurately, yet after three months of continual calls and persistent f*ckups (THEIR fault) they have the gall to flag your credit account with an alert.. which takes NINE months of further calls and letters (including experian, the lot) to get them to actually accept that yes they HAVE been paid, (dont forget that 'cos they are in india, when you insist on paying over the phone because of their persistent incompetence, they will take your card ok but they will NOT issue or send you a receipt, cos they no ability to do so..) and there is actually nothing left owing.. and what do they do? set the balance to zero, fine, but leave the ****** 'default' marker on your credit history, using the excuse that 'at the time, that information was accurate' even though it was THEIR fault.. 6 ****** years that will stay on, have never ever had a bad mark on my credit file, but I'm stuck with that.. absolute useless ********.. custards, even, using Clarksons theory of blending the word ******* with the always delightful 'c' word.. yep, complete custards.

so when you email them, jbone664, make sure you include this little link with the email..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6161691.stm

all time winner? all time wiener...

its actually a question I ask suppliers now, 'where is your customer support based..?'

rant over. grrrrr.

My company's IT desk is in India.

Useless (unts.

I logged a priority request the other day, business critical, that basically required system admin to perform a password reset. Nothing more taxing than that.

9 hours later it was still broken until some guy in the Netherlands got into the office, hammered a few buttons on a keyboard and all was well.

For the first 6 hours I had to make repeat phone calls informing them I wasn't in the States; I can see they're work log.

Still, I take heart from the fact that at least some of them will die in the next monsoon. Harsh I know.

The conclusion of all this scientific endeavor is that about 60% of indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture

Click to expand...

A snippet from my complaint letter to Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd..

"So I think you can understand why I insist paying my 3 bills via online banking now, its easier than having to wait ages in a queue in my spare time, its easier than trying to spell out my address in mono tone and phonetically to an Indian call centre that does not understand a damn word you tell them or appreciate any concerns you may have. I have wondered sometimes after a 10 minute conversation if they actually understood a word I told them"

the rest is pretty much that close

ah **** it you can have the whole letter!

Dear sir/madam,

As you can see I have enclosed a Nokia 6680 phone with SIM card with number 07833523665. The phone is now in a formatted and locked state (PUK code required). This has been sent back to you because of the lack of service from Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd. Also note that a copy of this letter has been also sent to Ofcom, Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9HA.

Both the service for the phone and customer services that Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd has provided to me has been outrageous. Below I will start to clarify the failures and shortcomings of Hutchinson 3G and to why this has come about.

My contract was taken out with Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd on the 25th September 2005 for 18 months. Since I decided not to pay via direct debit Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd has requested or taken my payments early every month since month three into the contract. The date that most bills specify has been for the 15th of every month. Naturally this is odd because clearly my bill date should be on or very close to the 25th of every month which would coincide with the initial contract date. Because of this I have paid Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd by either debit or credit card on or shortly after my pay date being the 25th. As a company you should not even request a “pay by date” or deadline before the monies are due. Now due to Hutchinson’s inability to resolve this after numerous phone calls to 3 customer services my services have been suspended at least 3 times. I use my phone for business proposes during working office hours so having use of my phone is critical in order to get my work done. So when I get suspended because of Hutchinson’s shortcomings I incur severe problems.

More recently I made a payment slightly later than I should have done, I made a payment immediately of £30.00 on the 6th November 2006 by online Natwest banking once I realised I had not paid. By all accounts this payment was never received by Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd even though my Natwest bank accounts and statements say otherwise. After contacting customer services on the 11th November 2006 to get this resolved I immediately paid another £30.00 on the 13th November 2006 by the same method to Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd to quickly get re-connected, this was only possible though after complaining and almost shouting to get my handset re-connected to the network, the time I spent negotiating with 3 customer services was a complete farce.

Again in the same month of November I paid another £60.00 on the Tuesday 28th at 12.08pm to bring my account up to date for the pre bill date 15 December 2006. However on the 29th November I get cut off again by Hutchinson for apparent failure to pay my bill, even though it had been paid. All the customer service people I have spoken to at 3 have clearly stated it takes up to 3 workings days for online transactions to be processed and paid into Hutchinson’s account. On the Friday 30th I assumed I would be re-connected but this was not the case. Again I could not make any calls for business causing great interruption, aggravation and stress. Still nothing has been resolved with regards to the missing £30.00.

I use to pay my bills regularly via contacting the automated payment via my handset; it was a quick, hassle free, convenient method. That was up until the time I moved house. I contacted 3 Customer services and verbally notified them of my address change. This was the correct way that was advised to me by 3 customer services as I did reiterate if they needed written advice, since all other companies that I dealt with during this time had.

My First Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd bill turns up with the incorrect address of “** Deport gardens” with the incorrect post code of “RG24 8FY” (July 2006). I duly noted to myself to yet again notify 3 customer services and correct the error on the billing address. Later that month I went to pay my bill in the usual manner but my debit card was declined. I can only presume this was to do with the fact that the incorrect billing address didn’t match my bank address details. So I had to wait for 15 minutes in a queue to talk to a customer service representative and pay manually; I told the gentleman my correct address details and the payment was processed and paid with the same card that was previously declined.

The following month my 3G bill arrived (August 2006), but again with the same address as the bill sent before. For the following month (September 2006) the bill address had still not been altered in vain of my attempts to get this resolved. Then the October 2006 bill arrives but this time with the address of “** De M Port Gardens” and the correct postcode of “RG***EW”. Again my card was declined using the automated procedure and again I had to wait an annoyingly long wait to process the payment. Again I corrected the address error with 3 Customer services.

It was only last month, finally after 6 months of having moved house my bill turned up with the correct billing address. In all honesty I have given up with trying the automated payment via my handset because I don’t want my card locked out by my bank and don’t want to use my other card for security reasons.

So I think you can understand why I insist paying my 3 bills via online banking now, its easier than having to wait ages in a queue in my spare time, its easier than trying to spell out my address in mono tone and phonetically to an Indian call centre that does not understand a damn word you tell them or appreciate any concerns you may have. I have wondered sometimes after a 10 minute conversation if they actually understood a word I told them. Its’ also a safer way to pay as Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd would take payment via direct debit on the wrong calendar day of the month.

If Hutchinson acted on my numerous requests to look into why I was billed early on the 15th of every month then this problem would not have arisen. All bills to my records would have been paid on time. I also noted that from one of your customer service representatives that Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd gives 15 days for payments to arrive, if this is the case then all my payments if Hutchinson had amended the payment date would have been well in advance of your payment terms.

If Hutchinson acted upon my several requests to look into why my debit card was always declined again this problem would not have arisen.

I think the fact that you have placed your primary access to 3 customer services for your customers in another country is outrageous; the 3 customer service call centres I have spoken to in the past lack training and fundamental understanding of anything customer service related. The sole purpose of Customer service is to resolve issues not to cause them. When I ask to speak to a manager, I want to speak to a manager not to be told there “isn’t one available”, or “they are busy” or “you can’t to speak to one”. What kind of service are you offering here?
The service that Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd have provided is below any standards imaginable and because of this I will not be paying any more monies to Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd left on the 18 month term, of which I believe there are 3 months outstanding which you can write off. In fact I don’t want to receive another bill or any other correspondence from 3 again.

I have a new contract with Orange. It appears they actually value there customers, keep them in the loop, can converse with you without the need of spelling words out and can process requests efficiently on time.

I have enclosed copies of my online bank statements and your 3 account details.


Yours disappointedly

James O’Brien

Good luck with that one NSD.. but I would bet money on the following:
- They will not accept that you are unwilling to pay more money, They WILL insist on the terms of the contract (18 months)and if you dont pay the last three months, they will place a default notice on your credit file, visible to all our other financial institutions.. my issue with them was after the contract had expired, so I was ok, (sort of, other than issues noted above) but I have two colleagues in similar battles with them, who are getting nowhere..

One really important tip with 3: (having sent similar letters to them myself): you MUST send it recorded delivery, and also write in the letter that it was sent recorded dellivery - those are the only ones they even admit to recieving, all others 'were never received'

If you do end up fighting the details they lodge, this is the address you want (again, recorded delivery only):
The Appeals Officer
Credit Referrals
THREE
123 St. Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5EA

hth

Thanks, I am probably just gonna pay the early termination fee but I want a fight with them first!

I'm like that you see - just ask anybody on this forum how I work.

That's a nice letter.

Good luck with Orange. My (limited) experience with them has been pretty bad.
My 13 year old son blocked his sim on his contract Orange phone. I decided I would get this fixed for him as it is really easy (WRONG ). Called the number on his statement, went through the electronic bit option 2 etc. etc. then the nice computer told me they would put me through to a customer service agent. 20 minutes later I was still on hold so I foolishly decided I would see how bad there service was bad would remain on hold until I got a resolution. Bad bad move, 90 minutes later I was still on hold but it was ok because every 40 seconds or so the recorded message told me someone would get to me shortly!?!?!?!
After those 90 minutes I borrowed another phone which was an Orange pay as you and dialled the pay as you go helpline number (450?) Followed the same option 1 etc process. At that point I had 2 phones on speaker phone with the same music, the only difference was the recorded message was now out of sync so I got it every 20 seconds or so.
15 minutes later the PAYG phone was answered by an operator! I explained the situation and that I slightly banghead: ) displeased about being on hold for 105 minutes on another phone, I even kindly let them listen to some of the music as the other phone was still on speaker phone. I took the risk and went down to only 1 phone only and suppose I was fortunate that I chose the one which actually had a operator on the other end.
Finally I sam an end in sight, after almost two hours on a Sunday Evening I was going to get my sons phone fixed :thumbsup: How stupid an assumption was that???? Explained the situation to the operator and was told that I had to phone customer services (for which she would kindly let me have the number) This upset me a little and I became a trifle insistent that they would fix my problem and that I would not phone another number
Having no luck with the operator I then spoke to the supervisor who also told me they could not unblock the sim. I informed him that my view was that they WILL fix the problem. After more discussion he agreed to put me thorugh to a technical team, they were very apologetic about my long wait and how hard it was to resolve this issue and then told me they could not fix it either!! But no need to despair they were sure they knew somebody who could sort this. Another transfer of the call was required which was good as I had not heard thier hold music for a while and was starting to get withdrawal symptoms After connecting to the next department I once again went through the issue and expressed my desire for a resolution. Only to be informed that they could not fix it either
Then this new team seemed to have a brainwave, they told me that they knew somebody who could definitely unlock the sim! Now we come to the point of this very long posting. All of the above happened within the Indian call centre. The final call transfer was to a bloke :thumbsup: in the UK (dont want to name him as I dont want him to get in trouble - see below) who managed to unblock the sim in about 30 seconds flat by giving me an unlock code. What a top bloke and what we should all expect of customer service. So it was fixed and I was happy but as now it was past 11pm on a Sunday evening I could not even go out for a pint to celebrate.
What really annoyed me though was that I continued talking to ***** and found out that his job had been outsourced to India (WTF!!). We had a good chat about our opinions of how well this would work and both agreed that lots more people would probably end up with experiences similar to mine.
So as I said at the begining, good lucj with Orange. I hope your experiences are better than mine. And no this is not a dig at them, I currently have 2 phones with Hutchinson 3g and dont even get me started on them, I only used the above example because it was fresh in my mind.

p.s. Sorry for the very long posting

p.p.s Forgot to mention that I made the first call on my 3 mobile so that was costing me money!?!

Are orange not actually Hutchinson Telecom anyway? (3 being their 3G branch)

I think so!!!!

ermm no.

sorry I will elaborate further because that was rather lame of me, I have an Orange network with 3G signalling. Nothing to do with Hutchinson 3 UK Ltd.

Actually, it is (Hutchinson Telecom Homepage)

Although, as you say, Orange now offer 3G on their own network!

Although, researching it more, I have found that Orange UK was sold to France Telecom in August 2000. Hutchinson Telecom still own the Orange brand elsewhere internationally along with the 3 brand in the UK.

I would have been right 6 years ago!!!

I can empathise, having spent a looong time on the phone to Tiscali Broadband last night - talked to somebody called "Nigel", though the standard of his Indglish leads me to believe that might have been a pseudonym.
Still bereft of internet at home...